All Forum Posts by: Connie Chan

@Kyle Mccaw Thank you for sharing this data. I do worry it’s too early to say though. A lot of the layoffs haven’t happened yet. And it’s still unclear when a lot of these small businesses will reopen. Not everyone has many months of expenses saved up and I’m afraid that even the best intentioned tenants may need help. I’m prepared to offer deferral of payments (with some limit) if needed. The impact probably also varies a ton by city and type of building.

@Blaine Alger check out the app Tellus. I use it for managing my rentals and have found using the app to be really helpful to do things on the go. Especially things like taking pics of receipts. Renters like it too because the app sends them reminders to pay rent if they don’t turn on the AutoPay. It’s also free and full of features. I haven’t used all the features but so far it has scaled with my units nicely. Best feature for me is the ability to manage with my husband and mom, you can have multiple owners tied to the same properties.

@Ryan Deasy I know of some that service california. Message me if you need any in that state.

@Jacob Lapp is it possible to make money in the stock market now? Yes. Is it possible to lose a lot of money right now? Yes. Is it possible to get a good nights sleep with your money in equities? NO Peace of mind investing is why so many of us got into real estate. We can somewhat predict worst case scenarios and insure against them. We enjoy steady reliable returns. Equities don’t offer any downside protection and tons of volatility. Daily volatility. If you must I would suggest start with smaller amounts.

@Matt Bailey it’s within a few days at most and has gotten faster over time. I’ve had times where Tellus sends me the rent within one or two days! One of my tenants uses AutoPay, the rest prefer to trigger the payment themselves each month and use the app notifications. I set each rental to route rent to a diff bank account and also block partial payments. I haven’t used Tellus tenant screening yet since my tenants haven’t moved out in the last few years. The screening service is free for all parties, I’m sure you could ask them for a sample report. To me getting lots of applicants with a free screening is a better strategy than asking tenants to pay for screening. I can see why some would see the payment as a “filter” but I would prefer to choose from a wider net of candidates.

@Nathan G. Adding a pool heater! But it was a great tenant and they’ve always taken good care of the house. My mom decided to split the cost even though we know we probably won’t recoup it. Most annoying request? Flickering light bulb. Second most annoying request? The floor makes a creaking sound.

@Michael Plaks this is super helpful. Thank you everyone! I’ll check out these links. Looks like it’s a common question for all landlords.

Any tips on what questions I should use to select the best one? Thank you in advance!

@Karen O. Yup I only use the mobile app for Tellus. Personally, I prefer a company that’s mobile first. Not only do I like using the phone camera for expense tracking, its also because my tenants all prefer a mobile app rather than desktop for chat and rent payments. So a mobile first solution makes more sense for my needs. The reports I agree are nice to view on a desktop. I have emailed the PDF’s that Tellus generates to myself in the past. But now I’m used to just reviewing it on the phone :) Anyways, thanks for the information on the other options!

@Connie Chan thanks everyone for the input! I think I’m going to continue self managing this one after putting more thought into it. I live close-ish enough and the rent is already on auto-pay.