All Forum Posts by: Jeff Gates

What is the price difference between the two? Come back and post your reviews.

There are about 38 alternatives. You should find some for free, and some that charge you in the $10-$15 range per month. 

• You should write down the features you want and set a priority to those choices. 

Many folks have their favorites, yet not every vendor does everything well. There are many that charge more money. However with three properties you should not spend too much.

I have seen something, new for me. A Roommate agreement.

Your lease agreement should contain proper language making all roommates that will be living in your rental responsible for the lease agreement’s provisions as Joint and Several Liable .

In addition you might use this roommate agreement.

Here are some common details that may be included in a roommate agreement signed by all tenants leasing your rental:

• Division of rent between all parties
• Utility cost splits
• Maintenance responsibilities such as cleaning, yard maintenance, or repair requests
• Overnight guest rules
• Rules regarding parties/gatherings
• Designated quiet times
• Parking designations
• The process for breaking a lease agreement
• Joint and sever-ability of deposit funds
• Joint and sever-ability of late charges

Make sure all of the utilities payment responsibilities is outlined in your lease agreement. 

Mini storage has its own requirements

 I truly believe small Landlords should not use Quickbooks. Sometimes software solutions have too high a learning curve for light weight use cases. Quickbooks is too powerful and too complex for small landlords. Small landlords need some sort of accounting, however so much less than a software application such as Quickbooks with its' high a learning curve. Small landlords have no time to learn a complex application.  Folks that use Quickbooks always disagree with me. However those folks had the time and patience to learn a complex application. The rest of use don't and should not. 

A disclaimer: My wife uses Quickbooks everyday in her profession. I understand both sides of this argument.

I always say, Quickbooks is over kill for small landlords.

A second disclaimer: My profession is a Enterprise Software Architect working for 15 billion dollar companies. And I can build a quickbooks clone very easily. I do believe my opinion counts.

I have had great luck with used cabinets on Craigslist. However you need to wait for the right deal. Timing is not perfect. What I have found is homeowners who want to remodel. And sometimes their kitchen is not bad, maybe for them but not for a rental. I have seen the whole kitchen including every thing for $400-$500.

Having intimate knowledge of the Smart move type application process I don’t believe this should be to difficult for most renters as applicants. If these folks have ever applied for a car loan and or a credit card they have been asked all similar questions, with a similar process.

I suppose there are people in our society who have never applied for a car loan and or a credit card and then these folks might be intimidated by this process. However as a Landlord you must ask yourself, do you really want to rent your property to this segment of our population?

 What good is a auto draft if there will be a non sufficient funds charge? When they are not paying there is no money on the account in most cases.

These are asset accounts and really a accounting step for year end only.