It's a common instinct, and I think it's backwards. I'd love to hear if others agree. A CPA files your return. A bookkeeper makes sure there's something accurate to file. When one person does both once a year, miscodings pile up quietly until April. Do you keep them separate, or is one person han...
My parents own 3 rentals in the Chicago area (a two-flat and two single families). My dad self-manages and has always done the books himself with a spreadsheet, a notebook, and a pile of Home Depot receipts. I’m trying to help him get more organized before tax season. For those of you who self-ma...
I have had a PM manage my property over the last couple of years and now looking to switch. Based on the lessons learned as I am reviewing the property manager landlord agreement it seems very much lopsided in favor of the PM..I would love to hear from landlords who have been able to make some mo...
I've been thinking quite a bit about how AI might eventually change the day-to-day work of owning and operating rental properties, particularly for smaller landlords who still handle most things themselves. One thing I've noticed is that even a relatively small portfolio can demand a surprising a...
Are You Invoicing Your Tenants for Damage They Cause? When I first became a landlord, if a tenant called about a maintenance issue, I fixed it. Their kid broke a window? I fixed it. They flushed a diaper down the toilet? I called the plumber and paid the bill. As my portfolio grew, I started look...
Hi everyone, Ask owners why they left their last property manager and one answer comes up more than any other: "They never tell me anything." Ask the managers and you hear the other side: owners who want a call for every small repair, then get frustrated when the monthly statement shows up with s...
Most repairs aren't hard. A leaking sink is a plumber, a part and an hour. What wears landlords down is everything around the repair: the back and forth with the tenant, the plumber who doesn't confirm, the invoice that arrives with no photos, and the question nobody asks a week later: is it stil...
Silent Money Killer. What is it? I've been thinking about what quietly eats small landlords' profits between tax seasons. Three things come up constantly: Personal expenses mixed with rental. Groceries on the business card that nobody notices until April. Uncategorized repairs. Is it a repair or ...
I get asked whether self-managing a small rental keeps more of the profit, or whether hiring a manager is giving that profit away. I do not think it is a door-count rule. On the value-add 1-4s I buy and run in Columbus, I use the same checklist every time. If I cannot get to the property, or get ...
I own two single-family rentals in the Birmingham area — 1229 Linwood St, Birmingham (35215) and 153 Mabelon Dr, Hueytown (35023). Both are occupied under Section 8 (Housing Choice Voucher), $1,200/mo and $1,300/mo. My current property manager is exiting Section 8, so I need a new manager who han...
I'm an inexperienced out-of-state owner with one duplex in small-town Alabama (slightly outside of Birmingham), bought in 2021 and run by a property manager since day one. This year went badly and I honestly can't tell how much of it is my fault. I'd like blunt opinions. Quick summary - A long-te...
Tenant turnover is one of those things where I think it's easy to go too far in either direction. On one hand, you want the unit to be clean, well-maintained, and appealing to the next tenant. On the other, not every turnover needs to turn into a mini renovation. If the flooring still has life le...
If you could hand off ONE thing about managing your long-term rental forever, what would it be? Maintenance coordination? Rent chasing? The books? I'm genuinely curious what you hate doing vs. what you just think you're supposed to do yourself.
Question for anyone managing more than a handful of doors. How do you keep track of when your vendors' certificates of insurance expire? I talk to a lot of property managers about their paperwork, and this one comes up more than I expected. The COI comes in as an email attachment when you first o...
I’ve noticed most landlords don’t mind the big decisions. It’s the small messages that wear them down “When is the plumber coming?”, “Did you get my rent?”, “Is the repair done?” For those of you self-managing, which messages take up most of your time? And have you found a system that keeps them ...
I recently had a tenant turnover at one of my properties in Florida. Since I self-manage my rentals, especially the ones out of state, finding ways to make turnovers easier is always a priority. One thing that's been a game changer is having Kwikset SmartKey locks installed. Rather than replacing...
Hello, my tenant is breaking his lease early and I need to find another tenant by December. Does anyone recommend any property managment companies in San Antonio? Zip code - 78220
A lot of the owners I talk to never set out to be landlords. They inherited a house, kept the old place after a move, or took a job transfer and could not sell at the right number. Now they are handling a tenant from two states away on a weeknight. Owning a rental by accident is fine. What gets e...
For those of you managing for third-party owners: the 1st isn't rent day, it's statement day. Rent roll, deposits, repairs, the note explaining why the plumber cost $640, and every owner wants it slightly differently. The managers I've seen stay on top of it do three things: one statement templat...
A vacant unit in winter is where small misses get expensive. Here is the checklist I run the day keys come back. Utilities first. Transfer gas, electric and water into the owner's name the same day so there is no shutoff gap. Set the heat to a steady temperature and read your insurance policy's v...
On 1-4 unit rentals, a renewal is not just a rent decision. It is a vacancy and turn decision. Here is the filter I use when a lease is 60-90 days from ending. Pull leased comps for that unit type on that street (or the closest ones), not zip-wide averages. Price a real turn: paint, flooring touc...
When it comes to building a relationship with a property management company, what do you value most? Whether it's communication, transparency, reliability, or just knowing your clients and investments are in good hands. Curious to hear what everyone looks for in a property management partner and ...
On Monday I asked which job you'd hand to an AI teammate first. The answer that kept coming up across this week's threads was maintenance, and when you dig into it, most of the pain is the vendors: the plumber who doesn't call back, the handyman who's booked for two weeks, the invoice with no pho...
Honest question for self-managing landlords and small PMs. A property manager I talked to recently said the hard part isn't the software, it's the discipline. Tenant texts land on his cell, owner emails sit in Gmail, a contractor calls about a leak, and none of it makes it into the system unless ...
Saturday morning I was in the middle of my workout and there was a big pop. The whole neighborhood's electricity went out. I reported the outage, and then the utility came to my house. Apparently, we were the culprit. A squirrel. It lost its life, but it shut down the system. I sent it to a buddy...