subject: What To Look For In A Real Estate Accountant [print this page] Im still taking you along the path on how I got started and the lessons I have learned. Some of these lessons took a long time to learn, some were learned the hard way and some I learned early on. Perhaps the most important lesson that I learned in those first years was that you better have some dependable folks in your real estate office.
I started out with an accountant in town. The president of the REIA group was using him. It seemed like a good move to go with him and stuck with this gentleman for a year or so. Then I decided that I wanted to move on because I was growing faster than any other real estate investor in town. I wanted a more from an accountant than I thought he was capable of bringing to the table.
I live in Springfield, Ohio and I hired two nationally known offices in Houston, Texas. It was two brothers running this association. I would fly to Houston and meet with them.
I remember working with them until three in the morning one time. I was going over my plans and mapping out my business. I used them for a year and then that become too much of a hassle. Theres a lot of land between Ohio and Texas. Traveling it for my accounting was tough. I figured that I needed to bring this back into my hometown.
When it comes to real estate accountants, hire someone who can get you your most beneficial tax structure. I have some properties that I do different things with. I want an accountant who can give me the best tax benefits for each deal. This means I have to interview around. I have to speak with a number of accountants to find the best one.
I interviewed a number of local accountants. I didnt go commit to somebody right away.
By the way, I would recommend that you do this if you dont have someone that youre happy with or you decide to change. You should interview folks. That was a good lesson Ive learned. This was, in fact, a big lesson learned for me.
What I did was I put together a couple questions and I went out to meet with them. What happens was I showed up at this nice fancy accounting office. I had called in and talked to reception. She had hooked me up with whoever the owner was and we set an appointment up. I come walking in to meet with the owner. The owner offs me to some clerk.
If I would have hired them day one I wouldnt have known that. If I hadnt taken the time to see what they were about, I would have climbed on board with them and been treated that way the whole time. That wasnt the way I wanted to be treated.
Youre the CEO of your business and you know you ought to be treated with respect. I wanted to be respected and Im sure you do too. So I would take the time to find the right accounting office to work with.
You want somebody thats small enough to keep it personal and big enough that they can handle your growth. I would recommend that you interview accountants. You want the right fit on this one.
