Real Estate

Project-based bookkeeping for developers, flippers, and property managers who need to see profit by deal, not just by month.

The Industry

A fix and flip investor closes 12 deals in a year. His tax return shows $220,000 in profit. Sounds great until he realizes he can’t cover his quarterly estimate payment because the money is already tied up in four new acquisitions. He thinks the Highland house made good money because it sold for $85,000 over purchase price. But nobody tracked the $38,000 in unexpected structural work, the $12,000 in holding costs during the six-month renovation, or the $22,000 in selling costs. Real profit was $13,000 on a deal that tied up $180,000 in capital for half a year.

Real estate accounting breaks the normal rules. Revenue and expenses don’t align by month. A developer might show losses for 18 months straight, then $2 million in revenue when a project sells. A property manager collects rent that isn’t their money and holds security deposits that aren’t their liability to spend. Standard monthly bookkeeping creates a financial picture that’s either meaningless or actively misleading.

Who This Covers

Real estate developers, home builders, fix and flip investors, rental property owners, property management companies. Anyone in Utah buying, building, renovating, or managing real estate as a business rather than a personal investment.

What Makes It Different

Project timelines that span months or years. Large capital tied up before revenue arrives. Multiple cost categories per deal including acquisition, soft costs, hard costs, holding costs, and selling costs. Separate LLCs per property or project. Lender draw documentation requirements. Trust accounting for property managers handling other people’s money.

What We Handle

Every property gets tracked as its own job. Developers see soft costs like architecture, permits, and legal separated from hard construction costs by project phase. Flippers see acquisition price, rehab spend by category, holding costs during the renovation period, and selling costs at disposition. When the deal closes, you know exactly what it made and why. That $85,000 gross profit becomes a real number you can learn from instead of a guess.

This is the same job costing discipline we apply to construction clients, because real estate development and renovation work the same way. Costs need to tie to specific projects. Revenue needs to match the deal that generated it. When you own multiple properties across separate LLCs, each entity needs clean books that stand on their own. We handle the tracking so you can evaluate deals based on actual performance instead of gut feel.

Project-Level Tracking

Every deal tracked from acquisition to disposition. Rehab costs coded by category so you can see where money actually goes. Holding costs calculated including loan interest, property taxes, insurance, and utilities during the renovation period. Closing costs captured on both the buy side and sell side. Final profit per deal calculated with all costs included.

Entity and Cash Management

Multi-entity bookkeeping when each property sits in its own LLC. Intercompany transfers tracked properly so money moving between entities doesn’t create confusion at tax time. Cash flow visibility showing capital deployed, expected returns, and available funds for new acquisitions. Lender-ready documentation for draw requests and refinancing.

Common Problems

Most real estate investors know their total profit for the year but can’t tell you which deals made money. That Provo flip felt tough, but was it the foundation issues or the four-month delay finding a buyer? Without project-level data, you keep taking similar deals hoping for different results. Worse, you might avoid property types or neighborhoods that actually perform well because one bad experience colors your perception.

Entity structures create their own chaos. You have five LLCs, money moves between them, personal funds cover gaps, and by December nobody can trace what went where. The holding company paid for repairs on a property owned by a different LLC. Your personal account covered earnest money that was supposed to come from the investment entity. Your CPA spends 10 hours untangling transactions before they can even start the returns.

No Deal-Level Visibility

Total revenue and total expenses for the year, but no way to see profitability by property. The house that sold for $100,000 over purchase looks like a winner, but you never calculated the $40,000 in renovation overruns and the $15,000 in holding costs from the extended timeline. You bid on similar properties thinking you have a winning formula.

Entity and Tax Surprises

Multiple LLCs with transactions flowing between them and personal accounts filling gaps. Nobody tracks intercompany loans properly. Tax time arrives and your CPA needs days just to figure out which entity owns what income and expenses. Profitable deals create tax liability, but the cash is already deployed into new acquisitions. You owe $45,000 in April with no liquid funds to pay it.

What Changes

Every deal becomes a case study. You know the Lehi townhouse made 18% return on capital while the American Fork single-family barely broke even after the extended hold time. Historical data shows that properties needing foundation work consistently underperform your estimates by $12,000 to $20,000. You stop bidding on those deals or adjust your offers accordingly. Your next 12 months of acquisitions are informed by actual performance data instead of memory and gut feel.

Entity-level books stay clean throughout the year. Intercompany transfers are documented as they happen, not reconstructed in March. Your CPA gets organized financials for each LLC with supporting detail for every transaction. Tax estimates account for when deals are scheduled to close so you’re not scrambling to cover a liability with capital that’s already committed elsewhere. You spend your time finding and executing deals instead of digging through bank statements trying to figure out what you actually made.

Data-Driven Acquisition Decisions

Historical cost data shows what similar renovations actually run. Holding cost calculations account for realistic timelines, not optimistic estimates. You know which property types and locations consistently perform and which ones look good on paper but disappoint. Deal evaluation moves from intuition to analysis without slowing down your acquisition pace.

Clean Entities and Predictable Taxes

Each LLC has books that stand alone with proper documentation for intercompany activity. Tax preparation happens without the annual archaeology project of reconstructing what moved where. Quarterly estimates reflect actual deal timing and expected closings. You plan for tax obligations instead of discovering them. Capital deployment decisions account for upcoming tax payments alongside acquisition opportunities.

Utah's Construction Bookkeeping Specialists