Monthly books kept by property, and the tax work that follows from them, for landlords, property managers, HOA and co-op boards, and investors.
- Reconciled property by property, so each building's numbers stand on their own
- Owner and board reporting a non accountant can read
- Depreciation and basis tracked per building, year after year
- We work inside the software you already run
What real estate accounting services cover
Real estate accounting services are the monthly books and the annual tax work for people and companies whose income comes from property. Reconciling by property, tracking basis and depreciation across a portfolio, and filing returns that treat each holding correctly.
Two things separate it from ordinary bookkeeping:
- The unit is the property, not the entity: five buildings in one LLC still need five sets of numbers.
- The decisions that matter most, depreciation, passive losses, and the eventual sale, are made years before they appear on a return.
This is accounting and tax work. We do not manage property or hold client funds.
Why property clients work with us
Who we work with
Property work splits by who owns the building and who runs it.
Landlords and rental owners
One unit or a portfolio, in one state or several.
Property managers
Owner statements, AP and AR, and trust and operating accounts across the buildings you run.
HOA, condo, and co-op boards
Reserve accounting, the annual budget, and the audit or review your bylaws call for.
Commercial owners
CAM reconciliation, tenant billing, and reporting at lease level.
Developers
Job costing through construction, then the switch to operating books at lease up.
Investors buying and selling
Basis, depreciation, and what a sale actually costs after recapture.
What the monthly work includes
The recurring engagement, priced as a flat monthly fee.
Property level bookkeeping
Reconciled by property so each building stands on its own.
Owner and board reporting
Monthly statements an owner or a board member can read without calling you.
AP and AR
Vendor bills coded and queued for your approval, rent roll tracked, and aged receivables reported so you know what is outstanding.
Trust and escrow reconciliation
Operating and trust accounts reconciled and kept separate, which is where state rules bite hardest.
Fixed assets and depreciation
Capital improvements separated from repairs and tracked per property, because that split decides whether you deduct it now or over decades.
Budget and reserves
The annual budget and the reserve schedule a board has to approve.
The tax work that follows
Scoped and quoted separately from the monthly books.
Rental returns
Schedule E for most rentals, and Schedule C where you provide substantial services, which is what pulls the income into self employment tax.
Entity returns
Forms 1065 and 1120-S for partnerships and S corps holding property, with a Schedule K-1 to each owner.
Cost segregation
An engineering based study that moves parts of a building into shorter depreciation lives.
1031 exchanges
Deferring gain on a like kind exchange of real property. 45 days to identify the replacement, then close by the earlier of 180 days or your extended return due date, which is what catches a Q4 sale.
HOA returns
Form 1120-H under the section 528 election or Form 1120, a choice made each year.
Sale planning
What the gain looks like after depreciation recapture, worked out before you sign. If you ran a cost segregation study, shorter-life components may be recaptured as ordinary income rather than treated like gain on the building itself, and that belongs in the decision.
FIRPTA
Withholding when a foreign person sells US property, covered on the global accounting page.
Why your rental losses may not be deductible this year
Real estate professional status is the most misunderstood rule in property tax. It does not make rental income tax-free.
Rental real estate is passive by default, so a passive loss usually offsets only passive income. Two routes change that.
Route 1
Active participation
Up to $25,000 of passive rental loss can offset your other income. The allowance shrinks once modified AGI passes $100,000 and disappears at $150,000.
Route 2
Real estate professional
More than 750 hours and more than half your working time in real property trades or businesses, in activities where you materially participate.
It can move rentals you materially participate in out of the passive bucket so losses may offset other income, and it is decided on hours you can evidence.
We work in your property software
You should not have to migrate platforms to change accountant.
- Property management platforms: we work inside the system you run rather than exporting out of it.
- QuickBooks and Xero: for owners running general ledger software instead of a property platform.
- Tied back to the platform: the books agree with what your software reports, so owner statements and the tax return do not disagree.
On spreadsheets today? We set up a chart of accounts built by property and move you across.
How we take over your books
Changing accountant midstream is the part owners dread. It is four steps.
Free consultation
Number of properties, entities, and doors, what software you run, and where the books stand.
Flat monthly quote
Priced on portfolio size and account volume, agreed before we start.
Access and clean up
Read only access to the accounts, and any catch up work quoted separately from the ongoing fee.
First close
We reconcile, publish statements by property, and agree on the reporting pack you and your owners will get each month.
What real estate accounting costs
Priced on the portfolio, not by the hour. The main factors:
- Number of properties and doors, and the number of entities holding them.
- Bank and credit card accounts, including trust and reserve accounts.
- Whether owner or board reporting is needed, and how often.
- How far behind the books are, quoted separately as clean up.
- Whether the tax returns are bundled into the monthly fee or quoted separately.
These are the factors, not a quote. Every engagement is scoped and quoted at a flat monthly fee before work starts.
What our clients say
People that own real estate and have rental properties, absolutely take a look at cost segregations. This can save tens of thousands of dollars, in some cases even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
We had a complicated filing as we sold a property with very high capital gains and depreciation recapture. We needed solid advice on how to end the year in a manner that would legally limit the tax ramifications. George and his team were very organized, thorough and required much less of my time than I expected.
Related services
Talk to a real estate CPA
Tell us how many properties and entities you hold, what software you run, and where the books stand. We will scope it and quote a flat monthly fee.
