Hey everyone,

For about two years I was paying a property manager 10% on 5 units averaging $1,200/mo. That's $600/month, $7,200/year — and honestly, I was still doing half the work. Approving maintenance, chasing updates, answering tenant questions they forwarded to me anyway.

So I fired them and went full DIY. Here's what I learned after making the switch:

The hard part isn't the work — it's the organization.

Collecting rent, tracking leases, handling maintenance requests — none of it is complicated on its own. The problem is keeping it all straight across multiple units without things slipping through the cracks. I tried the spreadsheet route. It lasted about three months before I missed a lease renewal and had a tenant go month-to-month without realizing it.

What actually helped me get organized:

• Setting up automated rent reminders so I'm not the one texting tenants on the 1st
• Having one place to see which units are paid, which are late, and which leases are expiring
• Letting tenants submit maintenance requests somewhere I can actually track them instead of random texts at 11pm
• Keeping expenses categorized all year instead of scrambling at tax time

I ended up building a tool to handle all of this because the existing options were either way too expensive or built for 200+ unit portfolios. 

What's everyone else using to stay organized? Curious if I'm the only one who failed at the spreadsheet method.