All Forum Posts by: Alex Lee

Quote from @Mohammed Rahman:

Hey @Alex Lee If your goals for your portfolio size is <20 units or so, then Apartments.com might be suitable - I've used them and a couple of other options, and prefer their simple interface (also simple for tenants). 

Another consideration is that I may be taking over management of a bunch of rentals and so wanted to make sure I knew the ins and outs.

also with the likelihood of going back to corporate, I may be super tight on time as it's unlikely that I will be just 9-5.

it's likely I'll go through them all but was looking to see if any had insight to help speedball my learning curve some.

thank you for taking the time to share your process, there are certainly some considerations that I've missed

Quote from @Nathan Gesner:

Quote from @Alex Lee:

If you upgrade to a PRO account, RentRedi membership is a benefit for free (actually $1 to sign up). I'm not personally familiar with it. I've used TenantCloud on a trial basis and was pretty impressed for such a low price ($10 a month if you accept online payments, otherwise free).

Software is a common question on BiggerPockets. Here are some things to consider:

1. Most investors don't need software until they have 5-10 rentals. All you need is a single place to track tenant information, payment history, maintenance, and a few other things. You can easily do this on a spreadsheet and it will take less time to track than it would to find and learn a new software. If the software is not simplifying your life or making you more accurate, you shouldn't use it.
2. Software does have extremely helpful features like online payments, marketing syndication (click a button and your property is advertised on multiple sites), electronic document review/signing, maintenance tracking, and owner reports. But do you really need that for your one rental?
3. There's no perfect software out there. Every system you try will have flaws or you'll salivate over a feature that shows up in other software.

Some common names you'll see thrown around a lot: Stessa, Apartments.com, RentRedi, TenantCloud, Innago, RentManager, Avail, Rentec Direct, Doorloop, etc.

I recommend you search for each of those apps online and see what they offer, how much they charge, etc. Make a simple spreadsheet or written list with the features of each and see which ones appeal to you most. Try to narrow it down to your top 3-4. Once you have a short list, get an account with each one and run them through the wringer to see how they really function. Do one task at a time in each app so you can compare apples to apples.

• Load a property with pictures and details.
• Market that property.
• See what your marketing looks like from the public's perspective.
• Submit a fake application to see how easy the process is.
• Run a credit/screening report on yourself.
• Enter a maintenance request, assign a vendor, attach a fake invoice.
• Enter charges to the tenant's ledger.
• Enter recurring charges and automatic late fees.
• Sign documents electronically.
• Run owner reports.

After testing a few apps, one of them should stand out for you. Choose that one and use it. No system is perfect, so don't waste your time chasing after the next shiny object. You should only have to change when your current software has a flaw or lacking feature that is causing you to spend too much work on a work-around. Then you can consider researching and finding something that meets your needs better.

Hi all. I’m an investor and agent in the Ithaca and surrounding area. I’m primarily long term rentals but just closed on a single family on the lake in Ovid that will be a str. 

The town of Ithaca has a lot of new str regulations, the biggest being you cannot rent a non owner occupied property (this is for properties not on lakefront) out for more than 29 calendar days in a year. Their is talk that the City of Ithaca is going to follow suit. Short term rentals around the lake do well but if you definitely have to research each towns regulations because have none and others impose a lot.

Here is a link to the proposed regulations, I can’t find the final draft on a quick search but I’m pretty sure this was enacted without any changes.

https://bit.ly/3rPRNmt

Long term rentals and student housing in Ithaca continue to do really well, you can usually take advantage of both cashflow and appreciation in this market.