My First Post! (Trying to become a landlord)

[Andrew Garcia]

Hello everyone!

I own a property north of Fort Worth, TX. I purchased this house in April 2022 and lived in it just shy of 3 years. I have since moved from the property and have decided to rent it out long-term. Any advice for this newbie landlord? I have decided I want to self-manage this property, but I am very overwhelmed by all the stuff I feel I need to learn as a landlord. I was planning to post my property to Avail.com and using their software for managing the property. would anyone recommend using this software, or perhaps a different software? also, any other advice in general? I am all ears! I did purchase Brandon Turner's books "The Book on Managing Rental Properties" & "The Book on Rental Property Investing" and have read both of those so far, so hopefully I am off to a great start! 

Also, I'd like to find groups to network with either in the San Antonio or Fort Worth, TX. If anyone has recommendations on any real estate investing groups that meet in-person in either of these cities please let me know!

[Stuart Chinworth]

Add the Texas Property Code to your bookmarks for quick reference. We have a few Clients that self manage but we handle the tenant screening, application and the lease agreement. For them it is worth the fee for us to source, vet and place a tenant. I think there are also some protections afforded to the landlord when using promulgated forms that are widely used. One system we use for tenant screening is TransUnion SmartMove, applicant pays the fee and the reports gives us a lot of good insight.