Education
Proactive
CPA & Accounting Services for Real Estate Brokers, Brokerages & Agents in St. Louis & Across the US
Build a Stronger Brokerage. Help Your Agents Build Stronger Businesses.
Real estate agents know how to sell homes.
That doesn't necessarily mean they were ever taught how to manage the accounting, taxes, cash flow, and financial decisions that come with running a commission-based business.
And as the broker or brokerage owner, you have another set of financial responsibilities entirely.
Hottenrott & Associates helps with both.
We provide proactive tax planning, accounting, bookkeeping, tax projections, and tax preparation for real estate brokers and brokerage owners — and we can also become a financial education and accounting resource for the agents on your team.
We can work with your brokerage in person or virtually. We genuinely like both.
People-First Approach
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Reliability You Can Count On
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A Focus on Quality
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People-First Approach · Reliability You Can Count On · A Focus on Quality ·
Accounting & Tax Services for Brokerage Owners
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Your Brokerage Is a Business. Treat the Numbers Like One.
A brokerage can grow rapidly while the financial side struggles to keep pace.
Accurate accounting gives you the information you need to understand profitability, manage cash, prepare for taxes, and make better decisions about the future.
Hottenrott & Associates can provide ongoing accounting and tax support based on the needs and complexity of your brokerage.
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Brokerage Accounting & Bookkeeping
We can help keep your books current, organized, and useful throughout the year.
That can include account reconciliations, transaction categorization, balance-sheet review, financial statements, QuickBooks support, cleanup work, and coordination with your internal administrative staff.
The goal isn't simply to produce reports.
The goal is to give you financial information you can actually use.
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Business Tax Preparation
We prepare business tax returns and coordinate the business return with the owner's personal tax situation.
For closely held businesses, those two pieces should not be treated as unrelated events.
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Proactive Tax Planning
ax planning should happen while there is still time to make decisions.
Rather than waiting until the return is prepared to discover what you owe, we can review projected income during the year, estimate potential tax liability, and evaluate planning opportunities before year-end.
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Tax Projections
A strong year should be good news — not the beginning of a tax panic.
We can develop tax projections based on actual and anticipated financial performance so brokerage owners can make more informed decisions about estimated payments, cash reserves, compensation, and year-end planning.
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Financial Reporting & Advisory
As the brokerage grows, you may need more than bookkeeping.
We can help you interpret financial results, monitor performance, understand cash flow, establish budgets and forecasts, and evaluate important financial decisions.
But Here's Where This Gets More Interesting.
We Can Help Your Agents, Too.
You spend enormous amounts of time helping agents become better at real estate.
Lead generation.
Contracts.
Negotiation.
Technology.
Marketing.
Follow-up.
Listings.
Buyer consultations.
But there's another skill that determines whether an agent can turn a successful real estate career into lasting financial success:
Learning how to run the business behind the sales.
That's where we can help.
Hottenrott & Associates can work with your agents individually for accounting and tax services, and we can work with the brokerage as an educational resource for the entire team.
The Brokerage Tax & Accounting Program
Give Your Agents Access to Financial Education They Can Actually Use.
We can create an accounting and tax relationship tailored to your brokerage.
That may begin with a single team presentation.
It could develop into quarterly tax education.
Or it could become an ongoing relationship in which interested agents work directly with our firm for their bookkeeping, tax projections, tax planning, and tax preparation.
The program can be as simple or as comprehensive as your organization needs.
And it can be delivered at your office, at one of ours, or virtually.
Tax Education for Your Real Estate Team
Bring a CPA to Your Next Team Meeting.
Most agents receive plenty of training on how to earn commission income.
Far fewer receive practical education on what happens after the commission check arrives.
We can provide educational sessions for your agents covering topics such as:
Understanding 1099 and commission income
How estimated taxes work
How much to consider setting aside for taxes
Business versus personal expenses
Recordkeeping and bookkeeping basics
Common business expenses for real estate professionals
Mileage and vehicle recordkeeping
Understanding LLCs, sole proprietorships, and S corporations
When an S corporation analysis may be appropriate
Owner payroll and compensation considerations
Quarterly tax projections
Preparing for a high-income year
Year-end tax planning
Retirement contributions and their tax implications
Keeping business and personal finances organized
What information your accountant actually needs
Financial habits that make tax season considerably easier
These sessions are designed to be practical.
We don't want agents walking out of a meeting knowing twelve new tax acronyms.
We want them walking out knowing what they should do next.
Group presentations provide general education. When an agent needs recommendations based on that person's specific tax situation, we can work with the agent individually.
Individual Accounting & Tax Support for Your Agents
Education is useful.
Implementation is better.
Agents who want additional help can work with Hottenrott & Associates individually.
Tax Preparation
We can prepare the agent's individual tax return and, when applicable, the return for the business entity through which the agent operates.
That gives us the opportunity to see the complete tax picture rather than addressing one isolated piece.
Bookkeeping & Accounting
Agents who don't want to spend their evenings categorizing transactions and reconciling accounts can outsource the accounting work.
Clean books also make tax planning substantially more useful because decisions can be based on current financial information rather than estimates assembled months later.
Quarterly Tax Projections
Commission income isn't always predictable.
One excellent quarter can materially change the financial picture for the year.
Instead of relying on a guess about how much to send in, we can review actual results and anticipated income and prepare updated tax projections.
Entity & S Corporation Analysis
An LLC or S corporation shouldn't be selected because another agent said, “You need one.”
The right structure depends on the numbers and circumstances.
We can evaluate the agent's current structure and explain when a different structure or tax election deserves consideration.
Year-Round Tax Strategy
The most valuable tax conversation often happens before the tax return exists.
When income changes significantly, an agent makes a major purchase, adds a team member, starts investing, changes entities, or has another major financial development, we want to have that conversation while there are still decisions available.
New Agent or $20 Million Producer — The Financial Questions Change
TA new agent may simply need help understanding:
“How do quarterly taxes work?”
A growing agent may be asking:
“Should I create an LLC?”
A successful producer may be wondering:
“Should I elect S corporation taxation?”
A team leader may be asking:
“How should I structure compensation as my team grows?”
A broker-owner may be thinking:
“Is this brokerage actually as profitable as it should be?”
The financial needs change as the business changes.
That's precisely why we prefer an ongoing relationship rather than meeting for the first time when a tax return is due.
Help Your Agents Think Like Business Owners
here is an important mental shift that happens in a real estate career.
At first, the focus is understandably:
How do I close more transactions?
Eventually, successful agents need to start asking different questions.
What am I actually earning after expenses?
How much should I reserve for taxes?
What does it cost me to produce a closing?
Am I keeping reliable business records?
Am I making financial decisions based on numbers or instinct?
Is my business structure still appropriate?
What should I do with a particularly strong year?
How do I turn this income into long-term financial security?
Those are business-owner questions.
We help agents learn how to ask them — and then help them find the answers.
Give Your Brokerage Another Reason to Be Valuable to Agents
Your value as a broker is about more than providing a place to hang a license.
The strongest brokerages create an environment where agents can build sustainable businesses.
Tax and accounting education can become another resource you provide to your team.
You don't have to become the tax expert.
Bring us in.
We can speak at a sales meeting.
We can hold a tax-planning workshop.
We can provide a virtual training session.
We can conduct periodic financial education for the team.
And agents who need individual assistance can choose to establish their own relationship with our firm.
You keep doing what you do best.
We'll handle the accounting and tax conversations.
In Person? Absolutely.
There is something valuable about getting people into a room, opening up the conversation, and letting agents ask the questions they've been wondering about.
We enjoy doing that.
If your brokerage is in the St. Louis area, St. Charles County, Belleville, Edwardsville, or the Metro East, talk with us about an in-person team session. Outside of that area? Let’s talk about the logistics of getting us in front of your team in person.
Virtual? Absolutely.
Virtual meetings make it easy to educate agents across multiple offices, accommodate busy schedules, and include team members wherever they happen to be working that day.
We enjoy that, too.
This doesn't have to be complicated. We can meet your team where they are — literally and financially.
Why Hottenrott & Associates?
We Believe in Proactive Accounting
A tax return records a year that's already over.
We would rather help you make decisions while you can still affect the outcome.
We Understand Business Owners
Real estate professionals aren't just taxpayers.
Agents, team leaders, and brokers are entrepreneurs running businesses with changing income, expenses, goals, and financial decisions.
We approach the relationship accordingly.
We Understand Real Estate
Real estate is already an important part of our practice and perspective.
That allows us to understand the conversations real estate professionals are having and the financial questions that tend to come with success in the industry.
We Combine Accounting and Tax Strategy
Good tax planning depends on good information.
When accounting, projections, planning, and tax preparation work together, you get a much clearer financial picture.
We Teach
We don't believe accounting advice is particularly useful if you don't understand it.
We explain what we're seeing, why it matters, and what choices you have.
How a Brokerage Partnership WorksWe start with the broker or team leader. We learn about your brokerage, number of agents, current accounting needs, team structure, and what you'd like to offer your people.
We design the right level of support. That may be brokerage accounting, team education, individual agent services, or a combination.
We introduce the program to your team. We can do this through an in-person presentation, virtual meeting, training event, or another format that works for the brokerage.
Interested agents can work with us directly. Individual agents can engage Hottenrott & Associates for the services that make sense for their situation.
We stay proactive. Depending on the engagement, that may include ongoing accounting, tax projections, planning meetings, educational sessions, and year-end strategy.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Yes. They are separate engagements, but we can provide accounting and tax services for the brokerage while also working individually with agents who choose to become clients.
That can create a much more coordinated financial resource for the organization without requiring the broker to manage everyone's tax situation.
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No.
A brokerage can engage us for its own accounting or team education without requiring individual agents to use our firm.
Agents can decide whether they want individual accounting, tax planning, projections, or tax preparation services.
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Yes.
We enjoy in-person presentations and can discuss providing an educational program at your office or team meeting.
Virtual presentations are available as well.
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Yes.
Depending on what your brokerage needs, we can discuss periodic sessions addressing topics that become particularly important throughout the year.
For example, the questions agents have early in the year may be different from the questions they should be asking before year-end.
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Yes.
For individual clients, we can prepare tax projections based on the agent's specific financial situation and update those projections as appropriate when income changes.
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Yes.
Rather than automatically recommending an S corporation to every successful agent, we prefer to analyze the circumstances and explain the potential advantages, costs, compliance responsibilities, and alternatives.
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Yes.
New agents can benefit tremendously from learning good accounting habits before several years of messy records accumulate.
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Yes.
As production increases, entity structure, payroll, projections, bookkeeping, tax strategy, team expenses, and other financial decisions can become increasingly important.
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No.
We love working locally and meeting clients in person, but we are also comfortable providing accounting, planning, and educational services virtually.
Your Agents Know How to Sell Real Estate.
Let's Help Them Understand the Business They're Building.
Let's Help Them Understand the Business They're Building.
A good year in real estate should create opportunity — not uncertainty about accounting and taxes.
Give your brokerage access to a CPA firm that can help you manage the financial side of the business while helping your agents become more informed business owners.
Whether you want help with the brokerage itself, want to provide tax and accounting education to your team, or want to do both, let's talk.