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Real Estate

Real estate accounting, property tracking, and investment management

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15 min read

Real Estate Brokerage Bookkeeping in 2026: GCI, Agent Caps, Trust Accounts, and RESPA Compliance

How independent real estate brokerages should set up their chart of accounts in 2026 — separating GCI, agent splits, and franchise royalties into contra-revenue, running three-way trust-account reconciliations, documenting 1099-NEC payouts under IRC Section 3508, defending RESPA Section 8 entries, and accruing E&O self-insured retention reserves so company dollar, audit readiness, and Section 199A QBI all stay visible.

Mike Thrift

real-estatebookkeepingfranchise-bookkeeping
12 min read

Coworking Space Bookkeeping: ASC 606 Deferred Revenue, NOI Per Square Foot, and the Occupancy KPIs Lenders Demand

How coworking operators separate hot desk, dedicated desk, and private office revenue under ASC 606, hold refundable deposits as liabilities, allocate common-area square footage to compute NOI per foot, capitalize build-out as Qualified Improvement Property with 100% bonus depreciation in 2026, and report the occupancy, RevPOD, churn, and MRR concentration metrics that lenders and acquirers actually price on.

Mike Thrift

bookkeepingreal-estaterevenue-recognition
14 min read

Title Insurance and Settlement Agent Bookkeeping: ALTA Best Practices, Three-Way Reconciliation, and the Compliance Realities of Closing Other People's Money

How title insurance agencies and settlement firms keep escrow trust books — three-way daily reconciliation, ALTA Best Practices controls, premium remittance liability tracking, RESPA Section 8 compliance, and the wire-fraud controls that survive a state department of insurance audit.

Mike Thrift

real-estatebookkeepingcompliance
11 min read

Form 1099-DIV Box 3: The Return-of-Capital Basis Trap for REIT, BDC, and MLP Investors

A practical walkthrough of Form 1099-DIV Box 3 nondividend distributions — how return-of-capital payments from REITs, BDCs, MLPs, and managed-distribution funds reduce your cost basis under IRC Section 301(c)(2), convert into immediate capital gain under 301(c)(3) once basis hits zero, and what records you need to keep so the IRS matching program never catches you short.

Mike Thrift

taxtax-complianceform-8949
12 min read

Section 1033 Involuntary Conversion: A Non-Farm Business Guide to Deferring Gain on Property Destroyed, Stolen, or Condemned

Section 1033 lets non-farm businesses defer gain on property that is destroyed, stolen, or condemned if the proceeds are reinvested in qualifying replacement property within 2, 3, or 4 years. This guide covers the election mechanics on Form 4797, the similar-or-related-in-service-or-use vs. like-kind tests, the carryover-basis recapture trap, and the bookkeeping needed to survive an IRS look-back.

Mike Thrift

taxtax-planningtax-compliance
12 min read

Section 467 Rental Agreements: Stepped, Prepaid, and Deferred Rent Under the Tax Code's Anti-Abuse Rule

Section 467 forces accrual accounting and imputed interest on commercial leases over $250,000 with stepped, prepaid, or deferred rent — overriding cash-basis treatment, recharacterizing part of every rent payment as a deemed loan between landlord and tenant, and creating Schedule M-1 book-tax differences from ASC 842 straight-line rent.

Mike Thrift

taxtax-compliancereal-estate
15 min read

California Proposition 19 and the End of the Old Parent-Child Property Tax Bargain: A 2026 Guide for Heirs of California Real Estate

How California's Proposition 19 replaced Section 63.1 for parent-child transfers after February 16, 2021 — the family home and farm rules, the one-year occupancy requirement, the BOE-19-P and BOE-266 filings, the $1,044,586 value cap floor, and the step-up-basis trade-off that determines whether to gift during life or transfer at death.

Mike Thrift

real-estateestate-planningtax
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