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July 11, 2025 19 mins

Money isn't just about what's in the bank—it's about the mindset that gets it there and keeps it growing. Gita Faust, owner of Fast Track Consulting, reveals how proper accounting transforms commercial real estate profitability beyond simple bookkeeping.

Gita's journey began unexpectedly when a devastating car accident left her disabled for nearly five years. Unable to perform basic physical tasks, she pivoted to virtual bookkeeping in 2001, eventually specializing in real estate accounting. Today, she helps investors understand the critical gap in their financial strategy: what happens after you purchase a property.

"People are good at analyzing whether to buy a property," Gita explains, "but after that, it falls apart." This insight highlights a blindspot many real estate professionals face—they focus intensely on acquisition without equal attention to post-purchase financial management. The smallest decisions compound over time, potentially impacting profitability by millions. Even choosing between Uber or Lyft represents the analytical mindset needed for success.

While discussing emerging technology, Gita offers a practical perspective on AI in real estate accounting: "AI is good to a certain point." It can analyze single-property financials but struggles with complex scenarios like multi-property expense segmentation or distinguishing between expenses and capital items. The human touch remains essential for comprehensive financial management.

Ready to transform how you handle your real estate finances? Connect with Gita at fasttracconsulting.com or call 215-579-1465 to discover how changing your accounting approach can dramatically improve your investment outcomes.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Heather Ewing, the CRE Rundown.
I have a terrific guest for youyet again today.
It is Gita Faust and she is theowner of Fast Track Consulting.
Gita welcome.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Thank you, heather.
It's a pleasure coming here,being with you having a brief
chat to share how one and all ofus can attain what we need in
our CRE business.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
And so let's dig into it a little bit.
Right, I've known you I thinkis it about six months or longer
on LinkedIn.
We've been connecting and I'vebeen learning about the way you
help business owners and reallydig into the numbers and even
much more beyond that withmindset and things.
But for our audience that maynot be as familiar with you,
share a little bit more aboutyourself.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Oh wow, where do I start?
So let's make it a little bitshorter, because we don't have
all day I was.
I graduated from accounting.
Since ninth grade we had tochoose a faculty.
You know whether you want totake science, accounting or
history, ba, arts, right.
So I selected accounting andthat continued throughout my

(01:18):
journey, even though I dabbled alittle bit into programming,
which I loved.
But I didn't like the cold.
You know the rooms had to bereally cold back home in India,
so I used to get sick very often.
So I quit that and I went back,jumped into accounting, and it
has taken me from day one for myninth grade till today, from

(01:47):
day one for my ninth grade tilltoday.
A point came in where I had tomake a decision what I want to
do, because of an accident I hadincurred and it left me
disabled for a long time and Idecided I'm going to go with
accounting and bookkeepingstarted in 2001.
And I was virtual at that pointas well, so for me it was
nothing.
Being virtual was not a newendeavor, you know, a task that

(02:13):
I had to take over, and sincethen I started my business in
2001 and 2005,.
I found my niche in real estateand that is because one of my
clients pushed me into it.
And you know, one thing hasescalated to another.

(02:34):
I have courses in QuickBooks,courses how to for real estate,
almost all segmentations in thereal estate industry, almost all
segmentations in the realestate industry.
We offer accounting andbookkeeping services.
You can find nuggets of adviceon each of my LinkedIn posts out
there.
We connected on LinkedIn andhere I am today.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
That's fantastic.
So what's interesting and whatpiqued my attention is that the
accident.
So I had a pivotal accident too.
I'm interested what happenedand how did that shift your
trajectory or your mindset?

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Okay.
So it's a story that it's worthtelling because you can see
different professions, how theyall work out.
I was pregnant seven months andI got hit.
We was stopped at a trafficlight.
I mean sorry, we were stoppedat a railroad track and the

(03:44):
person behind me was reading anewspaper and and he just
escalated and hit me from behindand that gave me a big shock.
Doctors couldn't do any testingnothing with me, because I was
pregnant, of course you knowthat left me disabled.

(04:05):
Uh, for a long, long time Icould not carry any weight with
my right hand.
Uh, I could not carry a cup ofempty mug from the dining table
to the kitchen.
I was that bad.
It took me almost five years torecover where I could sit for
half an hour to an hour at atime.
That's unreal.

(04:26):
And the profession.
That person at the back was alawyer, so of course he won the
case Anyway, but that after fiveyears my son was perfect.
He was great.
He has his master's inemergency management and is a

(04:48):
captain at a station right now,firehouse in Warrington, but
he's doing great Perfect family.
You'll see pictures of meposting of his prince and
princess all the time.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Definitely.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
And that pivot, that time had come.
I had to make a decision.
Which my parents always taughtme is saying whatever you do,
you need to study and you needto learn to stand on your own
feet.
He knew that was very importantfor me, so I decided to start

(05:38):
something that I knew well andwas embedded in me since my
childhood and share with otherbusinesses how they can be
profitable.
Just looking at the revenue isnot profitable, you know.
You have to look at the wholepicture, what you have.
So I started part-time and onething escalated to another.
I first started as abookkeeping business and that

(05:58):
bookkeeping business.
I sent out 15 or 20 letters.
I got a couple clients rightaway In like a month.
I was surprised and I'm like,oh my God, this is good right.
And then as you know, as inevery profession, we all strive
to learn and we yearn forknowledge.

(06:19):
We learn we use it to how to bebetter.
You know we yearn to.
How do we excel and give ourclients or prospects more than
what we know and they know right.
So started, restarted,educating myself in all
different aspects of theindustry real estate industry as

(06:43):
well as the accounting industry.
So that's how I get started andthat's my story and that
pursuance that I had to do,something that was instilled,
you know, in me and I lovechallenges.
You give me a challenge, I'lltake it, you know.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
That's why your post this morning, I just loved it
and it's it's a differentmessage and I think that's also
what I find refreshing, becausefrom the outside and I'm always
like thank God for costsegregation you know all these
different ways of elevating abusiness through the planning,
really understanding the sourceof the issue so it can be

(07:25):
fleshed out, versus justbookkeeping, like they are in
great contrast and a lot ofpeople, I think, don't realize
that.
But there's the Gita twist ofit, of the mindset, which is
interesting because spending weall have our habits good, bad

(07:47):
and indifferent and in you beingable to have those tough
conversations with people,that's what can truly turn a
business around, and I thinkpeople have never thought of the
level of power that you canhelp people take back within
their own businesses.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
True, true.
And you need an analytic mindas well, because in the real
estate industry, as you can see,people are good at analyzing to
a point where they are ready tomake the decision to whether
buy that, purchase the property,you know, or let it go.

(08:27):
Right, we have some wins, wehave some losers, and they are
good at that, but after that itfalls apart, right.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
And that's where you step in and shine Right.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
And you know how do you see?

Speaker 1 (08:44):
Oh, I'm sorry Go ahead.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
No, it's the same concept.
Like my, one of my post was,you know, deciding whether to go
with Uber or Lyft, right,deciding whether to go with Uber
or Lyft right.
And that penny your analyticmind starts even with the
smallest expense, which canescalate to millions and
billions of dollars.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
Right.
So following the breadcrumbs,and especially as you grow and
scale, that's where the simpleUber or Lyft really really does
add up.
How do you see mindsetfactoring into you know, the
next level of business?

Speaker 2 (09:28):
So For my honest let me be a little bit honest you
know, mentors and coaches aregreat in the real estate
industry, but they don'temphasize after the fact, after
you make the purchase of theproperty, after you close the
property, and this is one thing.

(09:51):
I've had a couple ofconversations with coaches.
I said why don't you teach themthat you say because that's not
our forte, right, so that mentorand coach may be there for a
specific reason to change themindset of the person who's
being with them and working withthem.
So that mindset of the money notonly in the bank or showing the

(10:21):
bottom line on your profit andloss, it's that mindset that
that is very important.
You have to learn it also.
So you don't have to learn howto do the data entry or where to
put the numbers in which bucket, right, that's the person who
can do it for you, where you canconcentrate on building your

(10:46):
business, growing your wealthand your assets, right.
So what I want to reach as manyas I can mentors, coaches, real
estate professions that theyneed to also change their
mindset on the accounting sideas well.

(11:06):
You just don't want a personwho's just data entry, data
entry.
You want that person to go makethat extra effort to give you
what Real estate investors youknow, anybody in the arena, real
estate arena know what thenumbers mean.

(11:29):
That's what they need to learnwhat your numbers mean after the
fact Right.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
I think of coaches, mentors, kind of like you learn
different areas from each ofthem and you create your tool
belt that you draw upon.
I don't know, Do you offercoaching?
Because I can see it would be aperfect segue that they teach
right the deal points, or maybethe sales, the development, and

(12:02):
then they hand them off to you.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
Yes, I do offer coaching and mentoring as well
and you know, one would be greatpart for me to mentor with a
coach and I'm a mentor with acoach or a mentor, you know, be
okay, let's get it right.
I would right.
You know it would be great if Ithey can bundle up my coaching

(12:25):
and mentoring into their programas well, because that they are
whomever they are coaching andmentoring would get that extra
lift right away.
They don't have to wait andlook for somebody else to do
right you know and to it's ahabit, right?

Speaker 1 (12:46):
so even if it was brought up in the very beginning
of when people first joincommercial real estate and
they're an associate or they'relearning that, even if it's a
tiny, you know ten dollars aweek or something of that nature
to get into the habit.
So then, as the the volumeincreases, that it's already a

(13:07):
smooth path for them.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
I agree, I agree.
So I agree, so I agree yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I was going to sayshifting gears a little bit.
How do you see AI intervening?

Speaker 2 (13:21):
and or assisting with this.
Right now, ai is good to acertain point.
So let's take for an example ifin your one accounting file you
have 10 properties, you can'ttell AI to segment those
expenses by property, because AIdoes not know that.

(13:46):
By property, because AI doesnot know that.
All right.
And I'm also thinking how doyou teach AI whether it's an
expense or it's a capital item?
You know, how can you tell AIto split your mortgage versus
interest, versus more escrow?
You know?

Speaker 1 (14:04):
so.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
AI is good to a certain point, you know, uh, but
if you, it's not going to giveyou a rent roll, but you need to
feed in the information to aito get you a report right.
So where do you get that datafrom?

(14:25):
okay, right it's in the CREindustry, whether it's
multifamily or it's a truly acommercial, industrial or
shopping strip or something, theleases are different.
You know you need to close toyour CAM reconciliation.
There's only so much you can dowith AI so far, right Now.

(14:45):
On the other hand, if you haveonly one property in one
accounting file, like aQuickBooks file I'm going to
talk about right, then AI can do90% of your work because it's
only one property.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
That makes sense.
It's more simplistic.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
Yeah, yeah, so you know it's.
You can use AI feed in yourprofit and loss and tell it to
interpretate it.
You know, just give it to chatgpt by month and it let's see
how it interpretates that it cando.
It can tell you where yourexpenses were high, where where

(15:24):
it was low, whether you receivedrent that month.
You did not receive it with adollar difference.
Unless you feed them thetenant's name, then it'll spit
out the information for you aswell.
So you know, in each industry,in our industry, ai is good to a
certain point.

(15:45):
Then you need that human touch.
Maybe in future, you know, ifyou see Star Wars and things
like that, you know.

Speaker 1 (15:57):
Yes, there will come a day, right Right.
Well, my last question for you,and this is always the big one.
But what does living fully meanto you, Gita?

Speaker 2 (16:13):
That is a loaded one, right it is, isn't it?

Speaker 1 (16:17):
That's why it's always last.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
I am glad living fully means for me.
I'm a very simple person, right.
So for me, if I've learned tolive where I had no money and

(16:42):
where I have money today, okay,right, but, but you have, you
know, maybe trillions, who knows?
Right, but it is being happy inthe moment and not fretting
about the little things.
You know it's like, okay, youknow what that girl has a

(17:05):
beautiful dress.
It looks like a million dollar,but I want one like that.
No, you know, I'm going to stayin my own limits and decide
what my priority is.
You know I want that highticketed price bag or the dress,

(17:26):
or you know whether I want tolive within what makes me happy,
and that's what I have beendoing.
I'm happy with what I have andI live below my means, even
though I can afford that.

(17:46):
Not a million dollar dress,definitely not.
But I I'm, I'm enjoying myselfand making me as a priority.
That's, and my spouse, right.
And then comes next line peoplelike kids and grandkids, and

(18:07):
all right.
So, you know the simplest wayyou can live and be truthful to
yourself.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
I think that is sage advice, of being truthful to
yourself and, like you said, ofnot comparing yourself to this
one or that one and this item orthat item.
So yeah, sage words, my dear.
I just want to thank you somuch for joining us today, gita,
and how can people connect withyou, because I know they're

(18:39):
going to want to reach out toyou to get their businesses
really in their prime fitness.
What's a good contact for you?

Speaker 2 (18:48):
You can social media me.
My name is Geeta Faust and youcan reach me at
fasttrackconsultingcom.
Just remember, the trackdoesn't have a K because most of
the listeners are missing totrack their numbers and so it's
to get them thinking that youknow, fast track is something,

(19:10):
but fast track tracking theirnumbers is crucial as well, and
you can always reach me at215-579-1465.
And thank you, heather.
Appreciate you having me share.

Speaker 1 (19:29):
It's a true joy.
Definitely, thank youappreciate it.
Thank you, gita.
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