Record Keeping

Record keeping is necessary mainly for four reasons – 1) taxes, 2) court appearances, 3) balancing your budget, and 4) your own personal interest.

The Minimum

The absolute minimum requires you to keep originals of, or track the following.

• Original rental applications (for tracking down the renter)
• Original leases (for court and lease renewal time)
• Copies of all receipts from any work done on the property (for taxes)
• Track all payments received, their amount, and the day they were received (for taxes, court, and your budget)

Any decent property manager should be able to provide you with all of these things whenever requested. If they can’t, then they’re not doing their job.