I read a recommendation for the book Landlording by Leigh Robinson somewhere, ordered it and just finished reading it cover to cover.
WOW it covers a lot of areas I would not have thought of. I didn’t agree with some of it but it sure made me think about issues I have not addressed as I prepare to become a “re-newed” landlord. (Sold my last rental some 20 yrs ago. Regretted it ever since, it would have been PIF by now.)
My question is: Do anyone use the “Push Button” Landlording software?
If not what do you use to do your bookkeeping etc? Paper? Excel? Some other program?
Mr Robin - I am a new investor (just bought my first property and I am going through the rehab). I am using MS Accounting which is similar to QuickBooks.
If I were to buy a software today, I would probably go with QuickBooks because more people use it. I decided for MS Accounting basically because I was able to use a demo version that I downloaded from Microsoft for few days before buying the software. QuickBooks also offers a demo version, but you can’t download it from their website. You need to run it online. I ended up trying and buying the MS software.
For those of you interested in purchasing Quickbooks Pro 2009, I found it online today for $79.95. It normally retails for $179.95 on the Intuit website.
Here’s the link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001ECGT8A/?m=ATVPDKIKX0DER
Thanks, I just ordered it. I’ve been using Quickbooks 2005 and needed to update since my accountant updated and can no longer provide me files in the QB 2005 format
I use 2008 Rental Property Manager. Is the 2009 version enhanced enough to be worth the price of upgrading? The biggest irritaion with Rental Property Manager software is that it doesn’t have a way to make a property you’ve sold inactive without totally deleting the property and losing its data.
HoldAndBuy,
We have been using MS Excel files for the past couple years. That was fine when we just had our small apartment building. As we started adding more properties, I realized it was going to be a lot of work to maintain separate files on each property. That’s why we’re going with Quickbooks Pro starting now. It’s early on in the year so I can go back and put in all our transactions so far this year. On Excel, I had one simple file for income, one expense file modeled after IRS form 1065 for Partnerships, and I also journalized our checkbook in another file (like a check register). It was sufficient and did the job, but Quickbooks will be better for us moving forward from here with more properties. I was thrilled to find it as cheap as I did. If you need examples of those Excel files, PM me and I can send them to you.
We now use QuickBooks Online Plus. It costs about $45/month. Everything is backed up off-site and there is a help line. We have been happy with their service. Off-site backup is a reassurance.
Previously we used Peachtree and RentRight. Peachtree was difficult and departed with our previous bookkeeper. RentRight got sold, had a lot of glitches, and the new purchaser of the company didn’t give us customer support. They wanted us just to buy the newer supposedly glitch-free version. We said “No, thanks.” We had to switch over mid-year at June 30. We should have used QuickBooks all along.
We use Quickbooks as well as our account seems to speak it fluently. The part I hate is that it seems we have to keep spending the money on the new versions.
If you are a “student” you can get a cheaper copy that has full functionality on eBay.