Monarch Money for Landlords and Rental Property Owners (2026 Verified Guide)

Landlords with 1-3 rental properties have a specific accounting problem: rental income and expenses for each property need to stay separate (Schedule E reports each property individually) but most personal finance apps lump it all together. Monarch’s solution is Plus tier’s Business Tracking, which lets you create a separate “business” entity per property with its own P&L, accounts, and transaction filtering.

For 1-3 property landlords, Monarch Plus is a legitimately good fit. For 4+ properties or commercial real estate, dedicated tools (Stessa, REI Hub, QuickBooks) become better. Here’s the verified breakdown.

When Monarch Plus is the right choice

Monarch Plus’s Business Tracking is per Monarch’s documentation: “designed for freelancers, sole proprietors, single-member LLC owners, rental property owners, and anyone tracking income streams that flow through to personal taxes.”

For rental property owners specifically, it’s the right tool when:

• You own 1-3 rental properties (single-family, duplex, small condo)
• Properties are titled to you personally or to a single-member LLC pass-through
• Rentals are meaningful but not your full-time business (you have W-2 income or freelance income that’s separate)
• You file Schedule E for rental income (not Schedule C)
• You’re not depreciating cost-segregation studies or doing 1031 exchanges

When you need dedicated rental property software instead

Move to dedicated tools when:

• You own 4+ rental properties
• You manage commercial real estate (more complex tax treatment)
• You have rental properties in an LLC with multiple members (partnership tax filing)
• You’re doing cost segregation, bonus depreciation, or 1031 exchanges
• You need tenant management, lease tracking, maintenance ticketing
• You’re a professional investor generating most of your income from real estate

In those cases, look at Stessa (free for up to 50 properties, real-estate-specific), REI Hub ($25-100/month, accounting-focused), or QuickBooks Online with the Real Estate Industry edition.

For 1-3 property “side landlord” investors, Monarch Plus is the cleanest option because it bundles rental tracking with your personal finances rather than requiring a separate tool.

Setting up rental property tracking in Monarch Plus

Step 1: Subscribe to Monarch Plus

Per Monarch’s documentation, Business Tracking requires the Plus tier ($299/yr new subscriber, $199/yr existing-Core-member upgrade). Path:

1. Sign up for Core first (use SMARTMONEY for 50% off — $49.99 first year)
2. Connect your accounts during the Core trial
3. Upgrade to Plus from inside the app (Settings → Billing → Manage Subscription)
4. Plus has its own 7-day trial separate from Core’s

For full Plus details, see Monarch Plus vs Core.

Step 2: Create a “business” per property

Per Monarch’s Business Tracking documentation: “You can create distinct businesses (for example, a consulting business, an Etsy shop, a rental property) and assign accounts and transactions to each one, so nothing gets mixed together.”

For each rental, create a separate business entity in Monarch:

1. Go to Plus features → Businesses
2. Click + Add business
3. Name it something specific (e.g., “Rental — 123 Main St” or “Rental — Lake Cabin”)
4. Configure (more below)

Naming convention matters at year-end. Use the actual address or a unique identifier so your CPA can match Monarch’s P&L to Schedule E rows.

Step 3: Create or assign accounts per property

You have two setup approaches depending on how you bank:

Option A — Dedicated checking per property (recommended):

If each rental has its own checking account (best practice for landlords for liability protection and bookkeeping clarity):

1. Connect each rental’s bank account to Monarch
2. In Business Tracking, assign that account to the corresponding property’s business entity
3. All transactions on that account auto-tag to the right property

Option B — Shared accounts with manual property tagging:

If multiple rentals run through one bank account (or your personal account), you’ll manually tag each transaction to the right property:

1. Connect the shared account to Monarch
2. As rental-related transactions come in, tag them to the appropriate property’s business
3. More tedious but workable for landlords with 1-2 rentals

We recommend Option A for any landlord with 2+ rentals. Spending 30 minutes opening a separate checking per property pays off in 5+ hours of bookkeeping time per year.

Step 4: Set up Schedule E categories

For rental properties, the IRS Schedule E expense categories you’ll track:

• Advertising — Zillow, Apartments.com, Craigslist listing fees
• Auto and Travel — driving to the property (track via mileage app, log in Monarch)
• Cleaning and Maintenance — landscaping, regular maintenance, cleaning between tenants
• Commissions — paid to property manager, leasing agent
• Insurance — landlord insurance, umbrella policy portion
• Legal and Professional Fees — attorney, CPA, eviction-related costs
• Management Fees — property management company
• Mortgage Interest — interest portion of mortgage payment (NOT principal)
• Other Interest — HELOC if used for property
• Repairs — fixing what’s broken (vs improvements which are depreciated)
• Supplies — general supplies for the property
• Taxes — property tax (often paid via mortgage escrow)
• Utilities — if you pay any utilities (often water/sewer)
• Depreciation — calculated separately by your CPA
• Other Expenses — HOA dues, pest control, anything else

Set up custom Monarch categories matching these. Monarch’s auto-categorization will learn over time which transactions belong where.

Step 5: Track rental income separately

For each property, the income side:

• Rent — monthly rent payments (categorize as Rental Income)
• Late fees — separately categorized for clarity
• Pet fees — if applicable
• Security deposits — these are NOT income on receipt; track separately in a manual account or as Transfer
• Refunded security deposits — Transfer (not income or expense)

For deposits specifically, IRS treatment is: deposits are not income while held; they become income only if you keep them (e.g., damage offset). Track this carefully — your CPA will appreciate it.

Track property value via Zillow

Monarch supports real estate as an asset type via Zillow’s Zestimate algorithm. Per Monarch’s documentation: “Real estate has a unique setup where you can track your home’s or property’s market price using Zillow.”

To add a rental property as a tracked asset:

1. Go to Accounts → + Add Account
2. Search for “Real Estate” or “Property”
3. Enter the property address
4. Monarch fetches the current Zestimate and updates monthly

For each rental, add the property as an asset (separate from the rental’s bank account). This gives you net worth tracking that includes property equity.

If you’d rather use your own appraised value (e.g., recent appraisal for refinance), use a manual asset instead of Zillow’s Zestimate.

Generating year-end Schedule E data

At tax time, your CPA needs:

1. Per-property income totals for each rental
2. Per-property expense breakdown by Schedule E category
3. Mortgage interest paid (your lender will send a 1098 separately, but Monarch’s number should match)
4. Property tax paid (if not on 1098)
5. Depreciation schedule — your CPA calculates this; you provide property purchase date, basis, and improvements

To pull the right data from Monarch:

1. Go to Cash Flow → filter to a specific property’s Business
2. Set time window to the full tax year (Jan 1 - Dec 31)
3. Export to CSV (How to Export Transactions)
4. The CSV has all the per-property transactions for the year, categorized by Schedule E line items

Send to your CPA with property addresses clearly labeled. They’ll handle Schedule E preparation.

What Monarch Plus DOESN’T do for landlords

Honest limitations:

1. No tenant management. Monarch tracks money but doesn’t manage tenants — leases, screening, applications, communications. Use Avail, Rentec, or Cozy for tenant-facing tools.

2. No lease tracking. When does the lease expire? What’s the rent escalation? Monarch doesn’t model this. Track in a separate spreadsheet or calendar.

3. No maintenance ticketing. Tenants reporting issues, contractor scheduling, expense tracking against work orders. Use a tenant-management tool.

4. No depreciation calculation. Monarch tracks expenses; depreciation is a tax-time calculation your CPA does (usually MACRS 27.5-year for residential rental).

5. No cost segregation studies. If you’re doing accelerated depreciation via cost segregation, you need a CPA + cost-seg engineer. Monarch doesn’t help with this analysis.

6. No 1031 exchange tracking. Like-kind exchanges have specific reporting requirements. Use specialized 1031 software or your CPA.

7. Limited rental P&L reporting. You can view Cash Flow filtered to a property and export CSV, but Monarch doesn’t generate formatted Schedule E reports. Your CPA does the formal reporting.

8. No mortgage amortization tracking. Monarch shows mortgage payments as expenses but doesn’t separate principal vs interest unless you manually categorize each payment. Tedious — most users let the lender’s 1098 handle the year-end split.

Pricing math: when does Plus pay for itself?

Plus is $299/yr ($199/yr existing-member upgrade). For landlords:

Plus pays for itself if:

1. You’d pay ≥$300/yr for a separate rental tool (Stessa Premium is $30/mo = $360/yr; REI Hub is $25-100/mo). Plus is cheaper than dedicated tools and bundles personal finance.
2. The Trust & Will benefit ($299 value) makes Plus effectively free in year one if you’d buy estate planning anyway.
3. You’re saving 5-10 hours/year of bookkeeping reconciliation at $50-100/hr opportunity cost — that’s $250-1000 in opportunity cost saved.

Plus does NOT pay for itself if:

1. You only have 1 rental and it’s profitable enough to make bookkeeping a non-issue (just use Core + custom categories).
2. You already have Stessa or QuickBooks set up for rentals — don’t double-pay.
3. You’re a professional landlord with 5+ rentals who needs dedicated tools.

How Monarch compares to landlord-specific tools

Monarch’s edge for the side-landlord segment: it’s the only paid tool that handles both your personal finances AND your rental tracking in one app. Stessa is excellent for rental-only but doesn’t help with your W-2 budget, retirement, etc. QuickBooks is overkill for 1-3 properties.

Common questions

What if my rental is held in an LLC?

Single-member LLC: it’s a pass-through, treated like personal income for tax purposes. Monarch Plus’s Business Tracking handles this fine.

Multi-member LLC: this is a partnership for tax purposes (Form 1065). You’ll need partnership-level accounting (QuickBooks). Personal Monarch is for your personal share of the partnership distributions only.

Can I track multiple properties under one “business” or do they need separate ones?

Per Schedule E rules, each property needs separate income/expense tracking. Use a separate Monarch business per property. The Cash Flow filter then shows you per-property P&L.

What about Airbnb / VRBO / short-term rentals?

Same approach as long-term rentals from Monarch’s perspective. Tax treatment is different (short-term rentals can be Schedule C if you provide substantial services, otherwise Schedule E) — your CPA handles that. In Monarch, just track income/expenses per property.

Does Monarch handle property tax escrow correctly?

Sort of. Your mortgage payment includes principal + interest + tax escrow + insurance escrow. Monarch sees the full payment as one transaction. To split correctly, manually categorize the breakdown each month, or use your lender’s annual 1098 statement at year-end for the precise split.

Can my partner help manage the rentals in Monarch?

Yes — both partners on Shared Views can access Business Tracking. Many couples have one partner manage rentals and the other manage other finances; both have full visibility.

What about real estate professional status (REPS)?

REPS is a tax election (750+ hours/yr in real estate, 50%+ of total work hours) that allows you to deduct rental losses against ordinary income. Monarch doesn’t determine REPS — your CPA does. Monarch helps by giving you the time-spent and income data your CPA needs.

Can I track rental property improvements (capital improvements)?

Yes — categorize as a separate “Capital Improvement” category (custom). At tax time, your CPA depreciates these over their useful life rather than expensing immediately.

What about HELOCs used for rental property?

Connect the HELOC as an account. Categorize HELOC payments and interest separately from primary mortgage. The interest is deductible against rental income on Schedule E if the HELOC was used for the rental.

Does Monarch help with property manager fees?

Categorize property manager fees as “Management Fees” (Schedule E line item). Monarch’s recurring detection often picks up monthly management fees automatically.

What if I use Stessa AND want to use Monarch for personal finance?

Common setup. Use Stessa for rental-specific bookkeeping (free, real-estate-focused). Use Monarch Core for personal finance (Core, $49.99/yr with SMARTMONEY). Don’t pay for Plus’s Business Tracking if Stessa is handling that — just use Core.

For larger rental portfolios (5+ properties) or commercial real estate, Stessa (free for landlords) is genuinely the right tool — we don’t have an affiliate relationship with Stessa, so this recommendation is purely on fit. For LLCs with multiple members, QuickBooks Online with the Real Estate edition is the standard.

Related reading:

• Monarch Plus vs Core
• Monarch Money for Freelancers
• Monarch Money Review 2026
• Monarch Money Promo Code 2026
• How to Connect Bank Accounts to Monarch
• How to Track Expenses in Monarch
• How to Set Financial Goals in Monarch
• Monarch vs Quicken Classic vs Simplifi
• Monarch for Retirees & 401(k) Tracking

Not financial, legal, or tax advice. Rental property taxation is complex and varies by state and ownership structure. Consult a fee-only fiduciary advisor or your CPA. Schedule E categories referenced from IRS Pub 527; verify with your CPA for your specific situation. We earn a commission if you sign up for Monarch through a link on this page; the price is the same. Every Monarch feature claim is verified against Monarch’s official Help Center documentation as of May 7, 2026.