Expert Buildium Bookkeeping Services For Scaling Property Investors & Managers In Seattle
Buildium's chart of accounts is built for a fairly uniform portfolio, one property type feeding one rent roll. Seattle management companies routinely run mid-rise multifamily, converted single-family houses split into units, and a handful of short-term rentals through the same Buildium instance, so the GL mapping has to do three different jobs at once without collapsing them into one number. Get that mapping wrong and it is not cosmetic: Seattle rents are high enough that a misbooked deposit or a short-term payout coded to the wrong revenue account moves a trust or owner statement by a material amount.
We work with accountant access inside your own Buildium instance, exactly as you would grant an internal hire.
Washington rules that apply here
- Deposit return deadline
- 30 calendar days
- Statute
- RCW 59.18.280
Why Buildium Operators in Seattle Come to REA
Residential and association management in one system
One chart, three revenue logics
Long-term rent, converted single-family unit rent, and short-term nightly payouts behave differently in the ledger: gross booking versus net payout, monthly versus nightly, one tenant versus a platform intermediary. Mapping all three to the same revenue account in Buildium's simpler GL flattens the performance differences an owner would otherwise want to see by property type.
Owner draws on split-title houses
A converted single-family house with separately owned units often still sits under one address and, without deliberate setup, one property record. Buildium calculates owner draws per property, so unless each unit is its own property record, draw calculations pool income and expenses across owners who have no claim on each other's unit.
Association funds beside rental trust
Where a company manages both a building's HOA or condo association and the rental of individual units inside it, assessments and reserve fund transfers have to stay on a separate bank feed and GL tree from tenant security deposit trust ledgers. Association money and tenant trust money are legally distinct pools, and running both on one platform makes it easy for the feeds to blur if the chart of accounts was not built to keep them apart.
Buildium and Washington Deposit Rules
RCW 59.18.280
The deposit side is where a coding error stops being cosmetic. If a security deposit on a converted-unit rental is posted to the wrong property record, or left out of the trust liability account entirely, the mistake will not surface until someone reconciles that specific tenant's ledger against the bank balance. Under RCW 59.18.280 the manager has 30 days from the tenant vacating to return the deposit or send a specific, itemised statement of deductions, and at Seattle rent levels the deposit is large enough that a missed or wrong reconciliation is a real liability, not a rounding difference, and can waive the right to retain any of it.
Washington RCW 59.18.280 requires the deposit, or a full and specific statement of the deductions, to be postmarked within 30 days of the tenancy ending and the tenant vacating. The window moved from 21 days to 30 under HB 1074, effective July 2023. Miss it and the right to retain any of the deposit is waived.
All Washington requirementsHow we keep you inside it
- Deposit liabilities tracked per tenant in Buildium, so a 30 calendar days deadline is answerable from the ledger
- Trust accounts reconciled three ways every month
- Deduction documentation recorded against the correct ledger
- Aging deposits flagged before the statutory window closes
Buildium Accounting & Bookkeeping Services
For Seattle Portfolios
- Process Review & Set Up
- Bank Reconciliations
- AP / AR
- Accurate NOI, Balance Sheets
- Recording HUD's & Accruals
- Owner Distributions
- Monthly Statements & Reports
- Management Fees
- Corporate Bookkeeping
- Tenant Chargebacks
Take the Whole Close, or One Function
Seattle operators use REA for the full monthly close or for the single function that has become a bottleneck. Each one is performed inside your Buildium instance.
Trust Accounting
Compliant, audit-ready trust funds
Learn moreBank Reconciliation Services
Three-way reconciliation, every account
Learn moreAccounts Payable & Receivable
Bills paid, rent collected, owners paid
Learn moreBookkeeping Cleanup & Catch-Up
Back books fixed and current
Learn moreCAM Reconciliation
Annual commercial true-ups
Learn moreOn a Different Platform in Seattle?
We Work Inside All of Them
Experts In All Property Types
- Single-Family
- Multifamily
- Student Housing
- Affordable Housing
- Community Associations
- Commercial
Experts In All Property Types
Residential, commercial and everything in between. The asset class changes what the books have to prove, and our teams are staffed accordingly.
- Single-Family
- Multifamily
- Student Housing
- Affordable Housing
- Community AssociationsSee the page
- CommercialSee the page
Check Out What Our Clients Have To Say About Us
Property Managers, Investors & Owner Operators
I highly recommend Real Estate Accounting (REA) services from this group. They truly are great and have helped us tremendously at a time we needed it the most. I felt very comfortable giving up all my accounting responsibilities to this team and I'm still glad I made the decision to work with this group. Nothing less than an amazing experience!
REA and team have been nothing but excellent helping our firm with its day to day financial needs. Their expertise, professionalism, and timeliness have made our lives so much easier. We foresee a long relationship with REA and team.
Real Estate Accounting truly is a special company. They helped as if they were a part of our company, with the concern and caution as an employee would have, but even more. They quickly ascertained our needs and developed an effective team to help with our accounting needs. They were extremely responsive and always accurate. I would recommend their services to anyone who needs help with their property management accounting.
Frequently Asked Questions
We manage a converted house with three separately owned units under one street address. Can Buildium keep their books apart?
Yes, but only if each unit is entered as its own property record rather than as sub-units of one property. Otherwise owner draw calculations and owner statements will pool income and expenses across owners who have no claim on each other's unit.
How do we stop our short-term rental units from skewing the numbers on our multifamily buildings?
Give short-term income and OTA platform fees their own GL accounts, separate from long-term rent, and post the net payout rather than the gross booking. Otherwise a rent roll built for monthly tenancies gets compared against nightly, fee-heavy income that behaves nothing like it.
Does reconciling in Buildium mean we are safe on the 30-day deposit deadline?
Reconciliation confirms the trust bank balance matches what is owed across all tenants, it does not by itself confirm any single tenant's deposit was actioned before their 30-day window closes. That still depends on move-out dates being flagged and checked against the ledger promptly enough to act within RCW 59.18.280.
More in Washington
Other Washington markets, the platforms we work in, and the functions available on their own.
Buildium Bookkeeping for Seattle
Schedule a call and we will review your Buildium setup, your Washington deposit handling, and what it takes to close clean every month.