All Forum Posts by: Hideyuki Gojima

@Jonathan M.

Some of the property management softwares offer more than enough features you need as they are designed for large properties.  You should pick the right one for your needs.

If you are looking for some individual softwares. Here is a little list of softwares that real estate investors use a lot.

Document storage : Google drive, Dropbox, Box

Rent payment : Cozy, Zelle, Rentpaymen.com, Clickpay

Accounting : Quickbooks, Freshbooks, Xero 

Good luck!

@Scott Roelofs

Great post and great point!

Surprisingly a lot of investors still mingle their asset or bank accounts with their person assets. I always recommend my users to separately book their financial information to maximize the tax benefit. 

@Eric Bilderback

I understand. Some of the property management softwares offer more than you need as they are designed to cater to large property owners. You have to choose the right one for your needs. 

Here is the list of softwares for each item if you prefer using a different software.

Document storage : Google drive, Dropbox, Box

Rent payment : Cozy, Zelle, Rentpaymen.com, Clickpay

Accounting : Quickbooks, Freshbooks, Xero 

@Colin Sweeney

As everybody says, Cozy will be great as its free. 

Some of the property management softwares offer rent payment as well but sometimes they are built for large properties.  Some free income and expense tracking feature maybe enough for you but it really depends on how much you can do on your own to categorize each transaction properly. You should pick the right one for you. You may have to use accounting software separately if not wisely chosen.

If you want to use some individual apps for each item, here is the list of softwares a lot of investors use.

Document storage : Google drive, Dropbox, Box

Rent payment : Cozy, Zelle, Rentpaymen.com, Clickpay

Accounting : Quickbooks, Freshbooks, Xero 

Good luck!

@Andrew Taylor

You really know exactly what you are trying to do. We are building a property management software that purely serves real estate needs. Our signature product is accounting but probably not the best for flipping yet. However, as you point out, there is no great software for flipping yet. Use cases for rental and flipping are very different and accounting gets complicated if the flipping is a large deal. Not easy as you already aware. 

Quickbooks will never be the best for real estate investors as it is designed to be as general as possible so that any type of small business. I think some of us, software companies, are trying really hard to make you really happy soon. Please wait for a bit! 

@Vincent Q.

If you are managing a few properties, excel should be enough. Most of property management softwares cover what you have to do as a landlord but some of the property management softwares are built to manage large properties. You should find the right fit for your needs.

If you prefer separate softwares for each item, here is a little list that independent real estate owners use.

Document storage : Google drive, Dropbox, Box

Rent payment : Cozy, Zelle, Rentpaymen.com, Clickpay

Accounting : Quickbooks, Freshbooks, Xero 

@Thomas Stanley

I understand it is a bothersome it is better to keep the security deposits separated. 

If you are reluctant to open a separate bank account, you should at least separately record the security deposit in your financial statement and label it as a restricted cash and keep the record of incoming wire or check. 

Good luck!

@Ismael Pena

Of course if you use a property management software, it can do all of the things below but if you are looking for different solutions, things could be more helpful than the others or combinations of the softwares below.

Document storage : Google drive, Dropbox, Box

Rent payment : Cozy, Zelle, Rentpaymen.com, Clickpay

Accounting : Quickbooks, Freshbooks, Xero 

Some property management softwares have much more features than necessary. You should find the right software for you. Please DM if you need my help.

@Michael Spearman

As you already aware, it will be the best to find local lawyer and accountant and discuss it with them as you may not be able to provide detailed information here. 

It seems like you act as a property manager for those owners correct? 

In that case I think you will need to prepare a service agreement with the owner and properly discuss who will be responsible for what.

Who collects the rent. In this case, I guess AirBnB or VRBO and they will wire the money to the owner directly.

If anything happens to the property, who will come to the site and deal with the issue.

If something breaks, who will be responsible for the damage.

For taxation, it sounds like your investors file Schedule E for their tax returns. If you provide a bookkeeping or record keeping of things for the owner, you should use a property management software. You may sign up a property manager and share the account with the owner so that they can see what is going on without you telling them every time. It is the owners' job to file their tax return of course but as a property manager, you will have to assist them preparing financial information for them. 

Good luck on your new business. It is exciting!!

@Colin Sweeney

If you are looking for only rent payment, cozy may be a good fit for you.

There are other softwares like rentpayment.com or clickpay. you may check them out too. 

I use Cozy as a tenant and there is no problem.

Physical check may create unnecessary issues for bookkeeping and accounting so it is always better to collect rent through a software.

If you consider to use a property management, most of the property management softwares have the rent payment feature nowadays. Some property management softwares are built for large properties and you will have features that you will not really need. Find the one that fits your needs.

Good luck!