Hello All,

I searched a couple pages in the board and really couldn't find anything pertaining to my question (I apologize it I missed it).

I am getting ready to take my test and the one part I am trying to figure out for after passing it tracking and handling my finances. What I mean by that is tracking money spent but also making sure that enough is kept out for taxes and such since we are private contractors and do our own finances (I am in OHIO BTW if that makes any difference). Is there any advise on software or anything that can help maintain funds correctly so come tax time I don't accidentally screw myself? Thanks!

Try Quicksbook. If you do not like it let me know. I design my own Excel Spreadsheet to keep track of my finances. Let me know if I can help.

Licensed Real Estate Agent
orlando, FL

I have two accounts one I run all my business stuff through and the other for personal

I try to keep it simple. When I make any payments for my business I either use a business check or a business credit card.

That way for tracking purposes I have all of the info on my check register or my business credit card statement.

Then I plug all of the expenses into an Xcel spreadsheet at the end of the year for my CPA.

Thanks,

Mario

This questions is about finances but in a different light.Does anyone have a feel for how much a new agent should set aside to market himself the first year? I realized this could change market to market. I also realize I will probably spend more than I make the first 6-8 months.I have learned from this forum a lot of good ways to spend the money to promote myself. Any ideals would be helpful. Thanks for all the good input.

First thing I did was get a second checking account for real estate expenses. EVERYTHING from fees to marketing costs...anyting real estate related that's going to cost me, the money simply gets put into that account and then I use the checks, debit card to pay for those things. It's easier to have a seperate account...

Quick and dirty real estate math. Don't go full time until you have 3-4 months of what you need to survive in the bank in liquid cash. Have a totally seperate bank account. Pay yourself a weekly payout on a fixed schedule. Have 12-16 weeks of that amount in the bank, usually 3 closings.

Have 4 to 5 as much inventory as you need to close per month. You need 1 deal? Have 5 listings and work the buyer in the beginning if you can get them qualified. Later farm out the buyers to a hungry agent in your brokerage. Later as your pipeline matures you can go 3 to 1 for list to close. Some months you'll hit all your numbers and everything will sell and you will be flush with a empty future pipeline. But 4-5 to 1 close is conservative and probabally right in most markets today. Also make sure you don't take any zombie listings that wont sell due to price or unrealistic equity situations. It takes a good agent to walk on a listing presentation, the first time you do it you will have turned a corner and become something better than 95% of your local MLS members.

The price for www.theredx.com
magic Jack with a good internet connection.
3-4 hours a day of prospecting to expireds, just listed/solds and religious lead followup.

About 100 bucks a month. Maybe 7 bucks extra if you need a godaddy.com wordpress site.

I think a wordpress site is the best way to go. I would avoid adding your site to a subdomain of an overarching domain.