Needing advice on 1st deal

We’re looking at our 1st purchase and would be very appreciative if anyone would be willing to offer advice.

We feel we can trust the manager, & he has great rapport with tenants. However, record keeping isn’t a strong suit.

We’ve gone through bank deposits for the last 2 years and the average deposit/month is 3500 to 4000.

The expenses are paid out of this account.

That being said, the manager is saying they collect 16,000/month in gross rents.

When we asked the manager to help us understand the descrepancy, he didn’t seem to have an answer.

To me it seems he either:

  1. is taking the lion’s share (it’s mainly cash payment)

  2. not doing a good job of collecting

Aside from talking with the tenants, how else would you verify rents?

Any other thoughts?