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Show Summary
In this conversation, Vanessa Larios, founder of Closing Day Accounting, shares her journey into the world of bookkeeping and accounting for real estate agents. She emphasizes the importance of early financial help for new realtors, the value of streamlined services, and the significance of tax strategy in maximizing financial success. Vanessa discusses how her firm specializes in providing comprehensive financial services tailored to the unique needs of real estate professionals, ensuring they can focus on closing deals while leaving the financial complexities to experts.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Vanessa (00:00)
The best time is immediately. As soon as you start, get the help and that way you can lead to success because the earlier you start, like you just said it right now, later on you’ll be playing catch up and it gets very expensive to catch up on your books, to catch up on your taxes. You may have overpaid. There’s a lot of deductions that ⁓ real estate agents do not know that they can.use to lower their tax bill or just simply keep the most, you know, the most money that they can keep.
Dylan Silver (02:09)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest, Vanessa Larios is the founder of Closing Day Accounting based out of Tucson, Arizona, specializing in bookkeeping, accounting, and tax services for real estate agents. Vanessa, welcome to the show.Vanessa (02:26)
Hi Dylan, thank you so much for having me. I’m thrilled to be here.Dylan Silver (02:30)
It’s great to have you on here, Vanessa. I always like to start off at the top of this show by asking guests how they got started in the real estate space, and in your case, working with realtors for their accounting bookkeeping and tax needs.Vanessa (02:47)
Yes, definitely. the way that I started, I’m Vanessa Larios. Everyone, thank you for the introduction, Dylan. I am co-founder of Larios Financial, which led us to closing the accounting four years later. And my career in finance started really early. It began when I was 18 years old and I started working at Chase Bank. I had to drop school because unfortunately my mom and dad went through divorce.And I had to step up being the oldest sibling of three. I had to step up and cover that gap for my dad leaving. And I said, it’s time to go full time and become an employee, help my mom out. And what better way than starting in finance? So I always saw myself being an entrepreneur in the future and with degrees, but unfortunately, you know, things don’t always happen your way. But anyways, yes.
Dylan Silver (03:44)
Well, hey, onthat note, it’s almost.
maybe divine intervention, because I know how sorely needed these services are. We were talking, Vanessa, before hopping on here. When it comes to the niche of bookkeeping, tax services, accounting in real estate, how many times do you see it where people think, like, I’m going to handle it myself, and then they realize, oh, I can’t handle it myself. So we need as many folks like you, Vanessa Larios, in the field as possible to let us know as a realtor myself, like, hey, there’s people
out there who can help not just ⁓ with your needs that may feel like an obligation like tax services but also help you with strategy as well that can save you money and make you money.
Vanessa (04:31)
Exactly. Yes, so a few years being spent in the banking industry, I learned the fundamentals of banking, customer service definitely, and how people interacted with money on a day-to-day basis. So I, you know, hands on site and it was, that’s when after, when COVID happened, honestly, that’s when we decided that my husband and I,would combine our strengths. My husband’s background is all in accounting. He worked for the University of Arizona for about 12 years.
And I did the whole banking for about 12 years myself too. So COVID was, it was an unfortunate time for many of us, but it was a learning experience for a lot of us too. Because like I said, we had always talked about being business owners and becoming business owners to the point where we can help our community out.
everyone around us. like I said, La Dios Vida also started, it was just word of mouth. And then after wanting us, after wanting to niche down, we said, what about real estate agents? I feel like that is a great niche and that way we can really put our focus into one business versus so many others.
So I am focused in helping real estate agents with their bookkeeping, with their accounting, with their taxes. I am not an accountant. I’m more on the marketing side, networking, ⁓ trying to get our name known and trying to provide, ⁓ you know, just ⁓ making sure that we help everyone around us and that we get known. so yeah, bookkeeping is definitely the fundamental.
It’s the base of everything. I think about it as like the foundation, like the floor when you’re building a house, how it has to be, you know, perfect. It has to be straight. It has to be smooth. And that’s pretty much bookkeeping in this world. As long as you have ⁓ your books clean, you know where your money is getting spent. You know where your money is going. And you have a visual plan.
So then accounting is about, let’s compare it to that too. It’s like the walls in your house. You need this, you need that one and this, right? So that’s accounting. It’s what forms it. And then taxes is like the roof of your house. Taxes, it’s what closes everything. And that’s when, you you have that stress-free ⁓ tax time where it just helps you move on and…
with that tax planning and having correct taxes and all that, that’s when you’ll be able to succeed and make plans for the following year.
Dylan Silver (08:08)
There’s no question that, you know, so many of those things, it can feel like spinning plates in the air for folks who are not familiar with it. I know.Earlier this year, you before I was aware of just how sorely I needed to have someone handling these aspects of the business for me, I was thinking, I can do this on my own. You know, I’m a brand new realtor, first year licensed, you know, I can figure it out on my own. Now at the end of the year, I’m wishing that maybe I had not done that because now I’m catch up. At what point in time, Vanessa, do you think it’s right for newer realtors to start looking at these services?
Vanessa (08:35)
Yes.Dylan Silver (08:45)
when they’ve reached a certain number of deals? it when they’re just starting out? When’s the best time for them to start looking at this?Vanessa (08:51)
The best time is immediately. As soon as you start, get the help and that way you can lead to success because the earlier you start, like you just said it right now, later on you’ll be playing catch up and it gets very expensive to catch up on your books, to catch up on your taxes. You may have overpaid. There’s a lot of deductions that ⁓ real estate agents do not know that they can.use to lower their tax bill or just simply keep the most, you know, the most money that they can keep.
Dylan Silver (09:29)
You know, when we talk about some of these ways that they might be able to save on their tax bill, I think a lot of people, especially coming, I can speak for myself, coming from the W-2 world, where you’re always, for the most part, especially if you’re younger in your career, maybe single, so you don’t have dependents, right? You’re not necessarily getting this huge amount of money back. So you might think, well, okay.I’m just going to be spending more money, right? But what I’ve learned from tax strategists is even people who may have a W-2 job, but they’re also a realtor, they now have a business which they can write deductions for basically. And so they might, I’ve heard, me if I’m wrong, they might actually be entitled to receiving money back because they have business expenses now.
Vanessa (10:56)
Exactly. Yes. So great point there. So for example, if you are a full time employee, if you’re an employee and we file your taxes on a 1040 and then let’s say you’re also a real estate agent, you just started off, whatever it may be the case, you add it as a schedule C to your taxes, saying what to do, what the name of your business is. And then that’s when we can go ahead and add all these deductions down. ⁓ And there’s so manythings that you can write off. For example, people don’t realize that your vehicle, you cannot track your mileage or the gas spent meals. It’s 50 % that you can deduct from your meals, especially, you know, as a real estate agent, you’re on the go here and there. And then all the supplies, office supplies, anything, staging, there’s so many things that you can write off that I just feel that they’re not fully aware.
of their full potential and try to save the most come tax time. So yeah, it’s really different being a W-2 and then if you’re 100 % business owner, let’s say, you’re gonna get a 1099 as a contractor. So once you get those 1099s, you are a contractor, you are your own boss pretty much, you are responsible for paying taxes.
And I’ve encountered this problem so many times and I want to emphasize the importance on knowing that come tax time, you are responsible for all those taxes that need to get paid at the end of the year. So like Medicare, social security, all that. There are ways that we can help. For example, let’s say that we switch you to S-Corp and now you have to get yourself on payroll.
we run the payroll for you, all those taxes get taken out, there’s quarterly taxes that, ⁓ quarterly tax payments that we can make. For example, if you project you’ll make $100,000, we’ll say, okay, so let’s sit down and maybe let’s start off with making this quarterly tax payment for this amount on April and so forth. And that way come tax time, if you overpay it, you’ll get it back, but it’s always better to have a plan versus
getting hit with this huge tax bill.
Dylan Silver (13:23)
Yeah, number of people playing ketchup, especially in the younger years of your business, I can speak for myself and probably a lot of other agents who just getting started.you start to make maybe some money and you’re like, OK, well, now I’ve got to hire a bookkeeper. I’ve got to hire someone to help me with my taxes. But it’s of course better to start at the beginning. And I would say this. I would say this to everybody who I know is probably rubbing pennies together and trying. They got rid of the penny, rubbing nickels together and trying to get started in their real estate business. As a newer agent, you’re paying, you know, fees for the real estate school that you go to. You’re paying broker fees. You’re paying
MLS fees, you’re paying fees to NAR, you’re paying fees for like the remote lock boxes to get into. So you’re thinking, what’s another fee here? This is one of those things where if you make a dollar in real estate, you’re going to need this or you’re going to need to be an expert in it yourself. So it’s better to start early on. I want to pivot here, Vanessa, and ask you about the ways where people traditionally might be going to multiple different
businesses or multiple different experts, you’re able to help them in a really a vertically integrated way with the tax services, with the bookkeeping, specializing in real estate. Can you talk to us a little bit about being able to do that for folks?
Vanessa (14:48)
Yes, absolutely. we start from the beginning with you making sure that we use QuickBooks online. I believe that is the best software out there. we make sure that you, step number one is don’t commingle your accounts and just try to keep always your personal money and your business money separate. Don’t do that because then it causes chaos.Dylan Silver (15:57)
I was mentioning that there’s really such a diverse range of options, almost… ⁓too many options in some ways for people to make a decision on who to go to for bookkeeping for tax services. And sometimes people just throw their hands up in the air and say, well, too many options. I’m just going to go do it myself. Right. Or I’ll go to, you know, maybe some brick and mortar places where I don’t necessarily know when you walk into some of these places that they’re trying to save you money. They may just be trying to get you in and out. But you’re able to do the bookkeeping and the tax services specifically
Vanessa (16:10)
There go, okay.Great.
Dylan Silver (16:36)
for real estate agents. In that regard, you’re really able to save them both time and money because they don’t have to go to separate people. They’re able to do everything under one house.Vanessa (16:47)
Exactly. Yes. Okay. So for example, bookkeeping, we start with QuickBooks and by adding all their transactions on QuickBooks, we do provide monthly reports to each real estate agent. We say, okay, this is where you started. This is where you finished last month. And this is what we recommend that changes get done. For example, spend a little less in advertising and…add more here, for example, right? So we not only provide those reports, we actually add the value where we want to make sure that the following month is better for you. So then ⁓ accounting, it’s for example, all the cash flow and other ways that we can help you to manage it and to succeed with ⁓ your business. So, and then come tax time, you…
By the time that it’s tax time and we are the ones helping you throughout the year with your bookkeeping and your accounting, tax time is going to be a piece of cake because we’ve been working with you. We know what you went through. We have the report. We have the profit and loss on hand. We have all the information right here that we need to go ahead and file your taxes. And that’s it. We use Drake software, which I love that software. And we do have an in-house CPA.
And if I’m not really comfortable with after, because I do prepare taxes. I do have my P10 and my ERO number. I prepare it. But if there’s something that I’m like, hmm, this doesn’t feel right. CPA, please review this. Let me know if I’m 100 % right before submitting. ⁓ He’ll go ahead and sign off, submit it. So we’re good. And it’s great to have that backup too, where the CPA is the one that signs off and submits, because it just gives not only.
Myself it gives our clients that peace of mind. So we want to make sure that you’re not going to these Known places for your taxes because to be honest, yes, it’s It’ll they’ll get there. They’ll get the job done, but they won’t go ⁓ They won’t ask questions you whatever you show up with you show up with your 1099 made a hundred thousand dollars that year they’ll put on that 10 on your taxes that
You have a 1099 made $100,000 that year. They will not be adding all your expenses and everything else that you spent throughout the year. Those places are just, I want you in and out and that’s it. We’re different here.
Dylan Silver (19:19)
You know.That’s it.
On that note, Vanessa, I’ve seen so many of…
I would say newer agents, also just people in general outside of real estate, right? ⁓ Kind of without.
I guess it’s probably some level of not knowing, some level of overwhelmed to say, hey, like I said, I’m either gonna do it myself or I’m gonna go to one of these brick and mortar places. And like you mentioned, Vanessa, they want you in and out. They’re not really putting any great effort to save you any money. And you could be entitled to thousands of back or thousands of dollars less that you could be saving if you owe.
Vanessa (20:00)
Right.Dylan Silver (20:08)
And ⁓ that’s not what they’re looking at as their responsibility to you. So when it does come to tax strategy specifically, this is really where in my mind it pays to have someone like yourself ⁓ in your Rolodex as part of your team, because otherwise you’re going to end up not just playing catch up, but also spending literally thousands of dollars or not getting back money that you’re owed.Vanessa (20:36)
Of course, definitely, I understand. I’ve seen it so many times, unfortunately. I’ve had clients that have gone through those tax offers themselves where they pay a lot of money to get their taxes filed. And then come the following year or throughout the year, they’ll get an IRS beautiful notice, hey, this was reported incorrectly or problems came up throughout. ⁓I always recommend everyone to just go ahead, get yourself, whether it’s not myself or us, get yourself an accountant, get yourself a tax preparer, ⁓ somebody that will help you because at the end of the day, you’ll end up overpaying because number one, you already paid online for submitting it yourself. Number two, you’ll be playing pretty much catch up.
by trying to find a tax accountant that can help you submit it the correct way. And that’s not what you want to focus your energy on, especially real estate agents. You’re supposed to be focusing on closing deals and your family and whatever else you want. Let us handle your accounting, your bookkeeping, your taxes, and let us make sure that you’re set up for success.
Dylan Silver (21:57)
Amen. Amen.Let’s offload some of that weight and let’s focus on closing day. Right. We are we are coming up on time here though Vanessa. Where can folks ⁓ reach out to you or your team. How can they learn more about closing day accounting.
Vanessa (22:05)
Yes.So our biggest platform right now, well, like I said, we did start a few months ago on social media, but we are on Instagram and our Instagram name is Closing Day Accounting. Very, very easy to remember, hopefully. And ⁓ if you guys follow us there, we are uploading some videos, very informational ⁓ videos that we hope helps the audience and not just real estate agents, hopefully just everyone in general.
that gets a 1099 because ⁓ at the end of the day, 1099s are pretty much all the same. However, just our focus and our specialty are to help real estate agents. So check us out. We would love a follow. We’ll follow back and just let us know that you came across us through Dylan. Dylan, you were amazing, incredible. I really appreciate this interview today and I’m very grateful for the opportunity.
Dylan Silver (23:10)
Thank you so much for coming on the show here todayVanessa (23:13)
Thank you.
