All Forum Posts by: Connie Chan

I use Tellus app. It's a mobile app that works great for people with a handful of rentals. Rent collection and expense tracking are the things I use most but it also has screening and listings and it's all free. I use tenant chat but my tenants aren't really chatty, we use it to schedule repairs mostly. I'd recommend checking it out! If you prefer handling things on your phone versus a computer it's really a time saver. 

Previously I used spreadsheets. Wasn't great for mobile (google spreadsheets on the phone is so so painful for me) and I also couldn't keep pictures of the receipts so it didn't feel complete. 

Hey @Randy Ferguson. I'm a Tellus user and happy to tell you about my experience. I haven't used all of the features they have yet (it's quite a lot of stuff they handle) but so far so good. I use it for rent collection, chat with tenants, expense logging, financial reports. They also have free listings and screening but I haven't used those yet -- my mother has and she said it was easy. The key thing I'd say that makes me like Tellus is that it's a mobile app so I can reply to my tenants wherever I am. My job requires some travel so being able to just handle a task on my phone is helpful. But the mobile part feels best when I'm at home depot or something and I can just take a photo of receipts and throw it away. 

Plus I get rent reminders, and also notifications is rent is late. It's thoughtful about the details, for example just rent collection you can block partial payments, assign a diff bank account for each property, collect late fees either which can be reoccuring or one time, etc. If you're new to landlording, I recommend using a system to keep your records in place. I used to do things with spreadsheets but I'd lose receipts, or forget to get them from my husband's car, or forget to check my bank account, you get the picture. Software really helps in getting organized. 

I use Tellus app too, also a mobile app with rent reminders and late rent reminders (totally agree the late fee reminders are great. I don't have to be the bad guy and I don't have to log into my bank account each month to check). @Jose Castillo my favorite feature of Tellus is probably the multi-user feature. Basically you can assign more than one user to a property so I have my mom and husband on it too and we can help out with each other's tasks. This means mom can jump in and reply to my tenant for me if I'm too busy. Also it means receipts always get logged right away versus me having to ask her for the receipts!

@Kevin Lefeuvre I usually ask tenants to submit an application after the showing. My other landlord friends do the same but I can see why you'd take applications beforehand. For me, I'd like to meet the person in real life before picking them as tenants. 

@Markum King I use Tellus app that does the screening with naborly. You can ask them for a sample report, it’s really comprehensive and actually free for all parties. That’s huge for me since I know it means I will have more applicants and really be able to pick the best one. The benefit of using Tellus to get the screens is it also helps you keep all the applicants in one place with full documentation. It’s better than trying to manually remember everyone’s name and application.

@Mohamed Farih Yup it's free. No charge. 

I use Tellus as well, it's a free mobile app for landlords that my tenants like because it gives rent reminders and I get a notification when rent gets paid and when it's late. It's also helpful for tracking because there are cash flow statements and downloadable income statements. Also has great rent specific things like being able to block partial payments, different bank account per property. 

The thing that helps me the most has been the notifications when rent is late. It saves me from having to check the mailbox or Venmo or Paypal or anything every month just to make sure rent was paid. It has an automatic late fee option but I don't use it. So far it's been good! Some of my friends use Venmo for rent since their tenants are already on it. I think it's OK if you just have one rental but it's a pain if you have a lot since they have caps on daily transfers back to your bank account. 

Agree with a lot of this post -- I have a pool in one of the rentals and it's best left to a professional to care for. Would I prefer that it didn't have a pool? Absolutely. I've been renting it out for awhile now and I don't think the pool was the decision maker for any of the interested tenants. The pool to me feels like one more thing that can go wrong. The neighbor of that rental property actually filled the pool with soil. I may sell it in near future so I won't go that route. 

@Heath Cejka a heloc is fast but a refinance can take awhile. I guess one downside is if you need the money ASAP then there are faster options than a refinance. Some banks promise weeks and take months.

@Elmo Dasalla just wanted to remind that landlord books, classes, even a BP pro account are tax deductible! Keep those receipts :)