Preferred Software for Starting Out?

[Sally Pearson]

Hello! I am in the process of working with my mentor (former colleague and wholesaler) and brother-in-law for analyzing properties in Wisconsin and Cincinnati. Manifesting that I will find and close a deal within the next 90 days. I am now beginning to research best software for REI starting out...I am looking into multifamily and STR, so likely won't have more than 10 doors in my first year. What should I be tracking and what are some recommended software to do so? For now I am under the understanding that I need a property management and income/expense tool. Ones that have stood out to me so far include TurboTenant and Buildium (latter more so for when I have more doors), and Rentastic or Quickbooks for Income/expense. What are some other things I should consider that I am not? Thank!

[Nathan Miller]

@Sally Pearson I would recommend sticking with something that is specific to property management.  There are important tools that real property management software offers over general accounting platforms like Quickbooks.  Things like a tenant portal, online tenant payments, maintenance, real trust accounting (if that ever becomes a need).

There's a lot of great options out there.  I would recommend using free trials and see which one you feel most comfortable with, and also try out their customer support during the trial and see who you get along with the best.

There's also a few platforms that offer discounts to BiggerPockets members.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

 

[Eliott Elias]

What exactly is it that you want to be tracking? 

[Marcus Auerbach]

You can, but you don't need any software. Perhaps Excel. For now this will only distract you from what you should be doing: deals.

Before I get killed here by team technology here, let me say this: I appreciate the notion of "starting professional", but in my 15 year experience working and mentoring a lot of new investors, software, websites, logos, business cards and entities etc are all "shiny objects" that serve no real purpose other than mesmerizing and distracting from the real job on hand, which is buying properties and renting them out.

Software and automation have it's place, when you have grown so big, that this is becoming a bottleneck, then it is a solution to an actual problem.

[James Mc Ree]

I use Excel and am managing 11 SFRs. It's been an evolving set of workbooks since 2013. They do everything I need them to do. They are easy to create or modify as my needs change. I don't have any fancy tenant portals, user interfaces, etc that professional tools offer. I also don't have professional tool fees to pay. One of my goals was to automate as much as possible and I am pretty close to that with Excel.

I don't know how far Excel scales. I can see it working fairly well up to the point where I would need to hire recordkeeping office help. Excel doesn't do as well with multiple users. I don't plan to get that large to see what it's like.

Think about how large you intend to get. 10 Doors can definitely be managed with Excel. It makes sense to go with professional software if your goal is to get much larger as you would start off with all your data in the system.

[Drew Sygit]

@Sally Pearson you get Rent Redi for free if you upgrade to BP Pro membership