Posted by jasonrei on August 26, 2004 at 16:14:17:
Either my girlfriend or my partner’s wife (who was just his girlfriend until last month).
He hasn’t gotten around to a girlfriend yet. 
How Do You Keep It Straight? - Posted by Brian
Posted by Brian on August 26, 2004 at 03:26:14:
Hello. I’m new to real estate investing and I’m wondering if anyone has a good system to keep your outgoings for your properties organized (paying 1st and 2nd motgages,paying notes to brokers who finance comissions,utilities, etc.)? I’m not having too much trouble right now, but I can see that it would become a lot of paperwork as I accumulate more properties. Thanks!
Brian Rakowski
Las Vegas,NV
http://fastinfo.imarketincome.com
Re: How Do You Keep It Straight? - Posted by Carrington
Posted by Carrington on August 26, 2004 at 22:25:55:
I use bill pay. Most of the companies that i deal with will accept ACH payments directly from my company checking account. Bank of America offers this tool for free, and I think that many other banks either have or are in the process of offering this service for free (since I imagine it saves them a lot of money). I also collect all of my rents via the same way for really cheap. I literally spend about 10-15 hours a month managing nearly 50 properties that I rent. Most of them are single-family properties. If you want more info, feel free to email me.
Quicken or QuickBooks… - Posted by Randy (SD)
Posted by Randy (SD) on August 26, 2004 at 09:36:57:
Either of these programs available from Intuit are excellent for managing cash flow. You can memorize recurring payments such as utility bills, mortgage payments etc. the program will prompt you 3-5 days prior to the due date (this is any time interval you choose) payments can be done electronically through your bank or Quicken bill play, or you can print checks complete with account numbers addressed and ready to mail.
Re: How Do You Keep It Straight? - Posted by jasonrei
Posted by jasonrei on August 26, 2004 at 08:14:20:
On the 25th day of each month I go thru each property file and cut checks.
In recent months I have (sporadically) put bills on my assistant’s desk and told him to write out the checks. He then paperclips the check to the stamped envelope. I go over the payments and put them back on his desk to stuff, seal, and mail.
Re: How Do You Keep It Straight? - Posted by Bob
Posted by Bob on August 26, 2004 at 10:30:27:
jasonrei,
I always enjoy reading your posts and it’s very obvious you are successful. Would it be too much trouble for you to describe your business structure? I’m curious how a successful rehabber operates. Such as, how many employees?, do you have an actual office? how much time do you spend in/out of the office? do you have a regular payroll?
If you’d rather not share this info, I understand. I’m just curious how a large scale rehab company operates.
Bob
What commission do you pay? - Posted by Donnie
Posted by Donnie on August 26, 2004 at 21:27:40:
Just curious what you pay your construction manager. What kind of a salary? commission? Does he would 40 hours a week?
Donnie
Re: How Do You Keep It Straight? - Posted by jasonrei
Posted by jasonrei on August 26, 2004 at 11:49:02:
Business is owned by two partners- me and a friend. We draw a biweekly salary, and split accumulated profits when it makes sense. We are employees of the company. Used to have a construction crew on staff, but we fired them all.
We have an 1800 sf office. Inside we have our main office (18’ x 18’). Have our own desks. Each have 2 cells. Laptop computers with PCS cards for the road, cable connections in all offices. Office computers will be networked this week. Office has only one land line, that’s for our fax machine. Also have a fridge and water cooler.
Five 3’x4’ dry erase boards. One for pending purchase info. 2 for houses we own. 1 for rehabs. 1 for notes. Three file cabinets. One for houses we own, one for houses we’ve sold, one for other stuff.
We have 4 smaller offices (roughly 8’ x 8’).
1st small office belongs to our construction manager. He oversees the subcontractors, and pays them from our checking accts. We pay him biweekly (commission + base). He has a laptop and cell.
2nd small office is our accounting room. Desktop computer. That’s where we drop our receipts and duplicate checks. We pay one of our girlfriends to come in once or twice a week and enter the info in Quickbooks. Our accountant was billing too much. They also do filing and stuff.
3rd office is a research room. That’s where our on-staff “ant” will be. Desktop computer there. Our construction manager used to be our “ant”, but we were struggling more with managing rehabs than we were with bringing good deals in.
4th office is office supply storage, for now.
We have a large reception area, but no receptionist yet.
We also have a big storage area that will someday be a couple of offices. Right now it is full of appliances, lumber, paint, and a bunch of other worthless crap we somehow felt the need to keep.
I believe we may one day have a receptionist, a construction manager, and two “ants” in our office. Might also have a dedicated sales/finance person, MAYBE.
The last 2 months have been unusual in that we’ve been doing a lot of administrative stuff. Notice I’ve been on this forum a lot lately? We’re in kinda lazy mode. My partner got married and took time off, I did the same and have a vacation coming up starting Monday.
Typically, I think our schedule is something like this:
8-9 Go over our rehabs
9-3 Follow up on leads, work on bringing in leads, look at houses
3-5 Follow up on pending purchases and sales (send requested docs, set appts for appraisals and stuff)
5-7 Follow up on what we missed
We used to work til past midnight on a regular basis, but that’s no longer necessary.
Cool thing is, we haven’t advertised or looked for deals since early July, but have gotten 5 deals under contract since then from referrals and residuals from advertisements.
When I get back from my vacation, we’re gonna really hump it.
How many are there? - Posted by kwack41
Posted by kwack41 on August 26, 2004 at 14:58:06:
“We pay one of our girlfriends to come in once or twice a week and enter the info in Quickbooks.”
Is this the partner that just got married girlfriend or one of yours? Or did you mean girl friend?
LOL
Re: How Do You Keep It Straight? - Posted by Gary (MO)
Posted by Gary (MO) on August 26, 2004 at 14:19:54:
Thanks for sharing Jason…!