What do you actually use your property management software for?

[Sunoo Bertsch]

Curious how other self-managing landlords use PM software in practice. From what I've seen, some people use it almost entirely for accounting, others mainly for rent collection, and some don't use it at all.

What do you use it for? And if you're only using part of it, what made you ignore the rest?

[Gary Childers]

Sunoo, From my experience self-managing rentals, most landlords end up using PM software mainly for a few core things:

• Rent collection

• Expense tracking/accounting

• Tenant communication and records

• Document storage (leases, applications, notices)

A lot of the other features look great on paper but don’t get used much once you develop your own systems. For example, some landlords already have their own maintenance contacts or bookkeeping process, so they only use the parts of the software that actually save time.

When I was managing my rentals, the biggest value was simply keeping everything organized in one place—payments, tenant info, and documentation.

In my opinion the goal isn’t to use every feature, it’s to reduce stress and keep clean records.