All Forum Posts by: Jasmine Delves

Storing images in your property management software is a good idea (assuming you don't have thousands of photos to upload) as you can link them to specific properties.

From my experience, Quickbooks is great as a general accounting software option but for managing STRs, I'd lean towards property-management software. That way, it covers the accounting side of things as well as giving you access to more industry-specific features.

Agree with the suggestion to use property management software to track/assign income and expenses.

Good advice above to be cautious!

I agree with the above advice. The most important thing is just to keep communication open from the very beginning so you can establish a good rapport. That way, they will know you're reliable and approachable.

Costco and Home Depot are my go-to's. 

Another thing to check with inherited tenants is how they pay their rent. I like to use online rent collection and automate late fees so it would be inconvenient to have a tenant who was unwilling to pay this way (although I do always give a second method to pay, so it's not the end of the world). If you decide to keep them, just make sure you double-check everything first.

How frustrating! 2 days would be annoying in itself but 4 weeks is on another level. If you're looking for something with a tracking and accounting focus, there are options out there. Depends on what your main priority is.

I'd start with a list of questions for pre-screening tenants (current income, whether they smoke or have pets, etc.) and then if they meet that criteria and want to apply, run a tenant screening check on them. This will check their credit score, eviction history, rental background, etc. 

The most important thing is to make sure that you aren't discriminating in any way throughout the process. The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination based on certain protected classes: color, disability, familial status, national origin, race, religion, sex. Some states have additional protected classes, such as sexual orientation, age, and student status, so check your local and state fair housing laws to be on the safe side.

As you have mentioned, it's good for listings but there are software options out there that have better online rent collection, tenant screening, and accounting features. So instead of using Zillow, I'd look into other property management software that will allow you to better manage your tenants/accounts in the long run.