What Tools Do You Use?

[John Seitz]

I have my loan set up to buy my first property. I live in St. Louis, MO but my property will be in Destin, FL. There are so many online tools/services to choose from for running the business that it can be overwhelming so I thought I'd come to the experts. 

What tool do you recommend for:

- Finding a property to buy (I've used Mashvisor for this so far)

- Analyzing the market and individual property (Mashvisor has some great tools, but I don't trust their numbers. I've also used All the Rooms which I like a lot better)

- Property Management - I'm thinking of hiring someone to do cleaning and maintenance (tools for this?) and doing the booking (tool for this?) and bookkeeping (tool for this?) myself.

- Understanding local rules and regulations

- Taxes

Is there anything I missed?

Thank you,

John

[Bruce Woodruff]

I'm with @John Underwood

No need to pay for any apps. This is easy. Use the actual market to find and evaluate the property. You can use Zillow or equivalent to find houses. Then use VRBO or AIR to check out the nearby competition to see what rates and occupancy are like. Definitely do not use apps for this...they are using computer algorithms that are usually wrong - get the real numbers if you're serious about this.

Use any good CPA for your taxes, have a meeting before you get started so you can keep your books correctly, etc....