All Forum Posts by: Connie Chan

@Jason Kozlowski Another thing I hear is: A easy to self manage B okay to self manage if you have a good handyman C/D easier to outsource to a property manager 😂

@Spencer Dillinger I wanted a mobile app so I use Tellus. It gives me a notification whenever rent is paid and my tenants can choose to use Autopay or not (some use autopay some don’t). It’s also free if you use ACH checking and it gives me the late fee option. It also has a feature to track expenses by taking photos of a receipt so it’s good for calculating my actual profit against rent collected. Depending on your needs there are different options out there. I chose Tellus since I wanted mobile and all their extra features and I want the option of renting out rooms individually in the future.

@Leroy Wallace Jr totally agree with @Grant Rothenburger here. Treat it like a business not a hobby. That means professional communication. Documentation. Be friendly but not so close to your tenants that it interferes with your business operations. This is important as I know many landlords who haven’t raised rent in 5+ years simply because they feel bad about doing it to their nice tenant. Know the law which is again different state by state. Some states are more landlord friendly than others. And protect yourself by having systems in place. For example if your tenant wants to text you, use software that automatically backs that up and gives you read receipts. Have a way of collecting rent that notifies you if rent wasn’t paid. Otherwise each month you’ll have to set a calendar reminder yourself to know it was paid. I use a free app called Tellus for my rent collection, receipt tracking and chat. It’s been good to use since I can do it all on my phone. Whatever you end up using make sure you have a system that keeps it documented. The worst is if you are disorganized and run into a tenant that causes problems down the road. The he said she said situation can be avoided with good software.

@Thomas M. Grace how did it do that? Sounds very worrisome! Thank you for the heads up

@Sarah Pursell whatever you decide be super careful on how you word it. You don’t want her to sue for a retaliatory rent increase for example (it actually happens). So make sure you’re using safe language in conveying whatever you decide.

@Kristen Ray I agree with Corina and would never give my bank account information away. I use a separate account for each rental but still, if I need to evict a tenant I want complete ability to block partial payments. PayPal isn’t that great because renters can actually dispute the payment and get it back. I’d use an option that’s built just for rentals. Been using Tellus app for the past year and it works well for collecting rent. No fees and tenants like it. Some tenants use autopay others just get a rent notification and click to pay. I don’t enforce the late fees but it gives you that option too.

@Shamus Wheeler My recommendation is to try managing it yourself at first. It’s the best way to learn what property management entails and more importantly it will also help you know the property better. For example you’ll notice more things that should be fixed or better maintained and also get a real sense of how much it cost to fix things. After you get some taste of it, then if you’re too busy you can hand it off to a manager. There are also property managers that help with just the tenant search and listing. So you could outsource just that part and it won’t cost nearly as much. Lastly make sure you have your systems in place and a good way to document things. I use Tellus which is a free mobile app to collect rent for free and back up all my chats with my tenants. It also lets me take photos of receipts and categorize it by unit so finances are easier. Whatever system you use make sure it is something you can stick with.

I have lots of friends from China looking at real estate but many of them only focus on prime cities. The incentive is not just financial return but stability. So for a lot of them they won’t want cities where the risk of prices falling is high. They’d prefer stability over rental yield. Not true for everyone I know, but the majority of Chinese investors I work with think that way.

I use Tellus app. My tenants like the mobile app notifications and it allows me to split up a rental into different units if I want. It's a newer app but free to use. 

I use Tellus app, it's been great and does free screening, free rent collection, maintenance requests, etc. My mom, husband and I have been using it for a year and my tenants are also happy with it.