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Case study · Real estate
Real estate bookkeeping case study: separate books for every property, and 4 more properties bought
A real estate agent in Tennessee with more than $2 million a year in revenue and a growing rental portfolio was keeping her own books in QuickBooks, with every property mixed together. Steingard cleaned up a full year in two months, split the books by property, and has kept them current for more than three years. In that time she has bought at least four properties and sold about three, deciding from her own numbers.
At a glance
| Client | Real estate agent and rental property owner, $2M+ annual revenue, no payroll |
| Location | Nashville and other cities in Tennessee (served remotely) |
| Services | Full-year cleanup · monthly bookkeeping and reconciliation · 1099s · monthly, quarterly and year-end reporting |
| Software | QuickBooks |
| Accounts managed | 10 bank accounts, 10 credit cards, several property companies plus the agent business and personal expenses |
| Working together | More than 3 years |
| Before Steingard | After |
|---|---|
| Owner doing the books herself | Books kept by Steingard, reviewed weekly with the owner |
| Property expenses mixed together | Income and expenses tracked separately for each property company |
| No clear view of monthly spending | Monthly, quarterly and year-end reports by property |
| Penalties for late filings | No penalties since; quarterlies filed on time |
| Errors in the books | Errors found and corrected in the cleanup |
The problem
She runs a real estate sales business and owns several rental properties, usually adding one or two a year, each held in its own company. She was doing the bookkeeping herself in QuickBooks, and the properties were not kept separate: expenses for one building landed next to expenses for another, and next to the agent business.
She did not know what she was spending each month, or what each property cost to run. That mattered more than usual, because buying, selling or leasing a property depends on what that property is actually earning. She had also been paying penalties when filings ran late. Mutual contacts who knew she could no longer keep up referred her to Steingard.
What we did
- Full-year cleanup in two months. We rebuilt the year, corrected the errors we found, and separated every transaction by property and by company.
- Reconciliation by property, not just by account. With 10 bank accounts and 10 credit cards, it is not enough for money in and money out to match. Each property has its own income and expenses, and each set of books is reconciled on that basis.
- Weekly review calls. Once a week we go through any transaction we are unsure of with the owner, so a repair or a supply run gets charged to the right property while she still remembers it.
- Contractor tracking and 1099s. We track what she pays her contractors across the properties and issue the 1099s at year end.
- A steady reporting rhythm. Monthly close, quarterly reporting and year-end books handed to her CPA.
Results
| Measure | Result |
|---|---|
| Cleanup | A full year of books current in 2 months |
| Properties bought since | At least 4 |
| Properties sold since | About 3 |
| Penalties since | None |
| Quarterly deadlines | Met every quarter |
| Relationship | More than 3 years and counting |
The main change is that she makes property decisions from numbers she trusts. When a property is underperforming, the books show it; when there is room to buy, she knows how much. Her CPA gets clean books every month and at year end, and the late-filing penalties have stopped.
Common questions
Can a bookkeeper keep separate books for each rental property?
Yes. When each property is held in its own company, each gets its own books, and income and expenses are reconciled per property, not only per bank account. That is how this client sees what each building costs and earns.
Does Steingard work with clients outside California?
Yes. This client is in Tennessee. The books live in QuickBooks Online, so we work remotely, with a weekly call to review transactions.
How long does a bookkeeping cleanup take?
For this client, a full year of books took two months. Every file is different, so we quote cleanup after a diagnostic review.
Books in the same shape?
Cleanup is quoted after a diagnostic review of your file. Monthly bookkeeping is $199 to $999 a month. See pricing · More case studies