Primary residence to first time rental property

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Primary residence to first time rental property

Adam McLean
Member since 2024 · 1 post · 2 votes

Hi there,

Finally turning my 1930 east austin bungalow and primary residence into my first rental property.

Any recommendations on how to set up bank accounts to deal with rent and security deposit? Should I use some sort of tenant cloud platform or Zillow for one property? 

Thanks yall! 
adam 


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  • Ricardo R.Pro Member
    Property Manager · Michigan Ctr, MI · Member since 2016 · 663 posts · 581 votes
    11mo

    Hey Adam,

    Congrats — that first transition from your own place to a rental is a big step, especially with a 1930s East Austin bungalow. You’re doing it the right way by thinking about systems early.

    For the bank accounts, keep it simple but separate:

    • Open one checking account just for rent income and property expenses (repairs, taxes, insurance, etc.). This keeps everything clean for taxes and makes it easy to track profitability.

    • Open a second account (usually a basic savings account) just for security deposits. In Texas, it’s not legally required to separate it, but it’s smart — that money technically belongs to the tenant until move-out, and keeping it separate prevents accidental spending.

    For software, since it’s just one property, you don’t need anything fancy like Buildium or AppFolio. Zillow Rental Manager or Avail work great — they handle rent collection, screening, and lease e-signing all in one place. If you want something a bit more polished for tenants, TenantCloud is solid too and still free at the basic level.

    Since you’re in Austin, double-check your city’s rental registration rules — they’ve tightened a bit in recent years.

    But yeah, two accounts, simple software, and one clean paper trail — that’s the right foundation for scaling later. Once you’ve got the first lease running smooth, adding the next property feels way easier; Adam, I really hope this helps you to get started a bit, I sent you DM on BP... it's one of the reasons I do this, I hope you can assist. Thank you in advance.

    [email protected]810-844-1104
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  • Jordan MoorheadBusiness Member
    Real Estate Agent · Austin, TX · Member since 2015 · 5k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    11mo
    Quote from @Adam McLean:

    Hi there,

    Finally turning my 1930 east austin bungalow and primary residence into my first rental property.

    Any recommendations on how to set up bank accounts to deal with rent and security deposit? Should I use some sort of tenant cloud platform or Zillow for one property? 

    Thanks yall! 
    adam 



     Use apartments.com, it's cheap and easy! I set up a separate bank account for security deposits and one for rents and you can specify where it deposits each

    [email protected]512-888-9122
    The Moorhead Team5140 Reviews
    WebsiteView Page
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