All Forum Posts by: Jason Hartley

@Cassidy Burns - both Appfolio and Buildium are probably going to be far too expensive for that size portfolio.  You might look at Rentec Direct, or one of the free alternatives to keep your costs down.  Not many landlords with a handful of units want to blow $150+/month on management software.  Honestly, Rentec Direct is just as good with a much better price tag and you can link from your own website.

You may have to store their property, at least anything of value, for a while but it sounds like the place is yours.  Check with a local property manager or eviction specialist to be sure.  If you use a property manager to fill it next time they will handle all of this for you too.

@Jane A. - I'll throw down my vote for Rentec Direct as well.  They work amazingly well for a small portfolio and should do exactly what you are after.  Their customer service is amazing too.  I do both ACH and checks, but switching more and more to ACH because it's so spectacular not having to deal with the payments anymore.

@Daniel Dietz - I'm curious how your demo goes, if you work anything like I do, you are going to love their system.

Your friend is wrong, the LLC won't necessarily protect him. It's an extra layer, but a layer that most lawyers will blast right through with ease. Plus your lender won't allow you to put it into an LLC (due on sale clause). Umbrella policy is a good idea.

Tenant cannot deduct rent.  They can notify you of the problem, and if you can get written proof from the repair service that it was tenant damaged, then you can bill them for the damage and/or deduct it from their deposit.

However, if they are deducting repairs from their rent payments to you, EVICT THEM IMMEDIATELY.  You don't want this tenant if they are so cavalier as to think that is OK.

@Vince Futia, I not sure either Cozy, dwolla, or erent is going to meet all your objectives.  It sounds like you need an ACH system that also handles the accounting, late notices, etc and one that works for a limited number of properties.  Might check out Rentec Direct, it does all this for me and I've been quite happy with them.

@Jeff C. - what year are you in?  It's not 1995 any longer! Embrace some new technology and don't inconvenience your tenants by making them drive to your bank to pay you rent. 

@Daniel Dietz , I haven't used Xero, but I am very familiar with Rentec Direct (5+ years, over 90 units). From a general perspective I can definitely say though (after looking at Xero's website briefly) that Xero is a general accounting platform similar to Quickbooks. It's probably going to be slightly stronger on the detailed accounting (cpa level stuff) than Rentec, but Rentec is going to be much stronger on the tenant and landlord specific stuff. For example, Rentec is going to let you do online ACH payments with your tenants and provide them a portal to check their accounts, etc. My experience is that tenants LOVE this stuff.

You mentioned you and others own the same units. The only thing you may not be able to do with either of the platforms is provide reports specific to ownership percentages. But running a P&L, exporting to Excel and dividing things up by the percentages would be easy enough.

For your construction day job, probably QB Online or Xero would be the way to go. For the landlord stuff, definitely go with Rentec.

p.s.  It looks like this was posted in 2 separate forums so I just copy/pasted my earlier reply.

@Anton Ivanov - consider using one of the mainstream property management apps.  The phone "apps" can never be as powerful as a full blown web or desktop app.

@Daniel Dietz, I haven't used Xero, but I am very familiar with Rentec Direct (5+ years, over 90 units).  From a general perspective I can definitely say though (after looking at Xero's website briefly) that Xero is a general accounting platform similar to Quickbooks.  It's probably going to be slightly stronger on the detailed accounting (cpa level stuff) than Rentec, but Rentec is going to be much stronger on the tenant and landlord specific stuff.  For example, Rentec is going to let you do online ACH payments with your tenants and provide them a portal to check their accounts, etc.  My experience is that tenants LOVE this stuff.

You mentioned you and others own the same units.  The only thing you may not be able to do with either of the platforms is provide reports specific to ownership percentages.  But running a P&L, exporting to Excel and dividing things up by the percentages would be easy enough.

For your construction day job, probably QB Online or Xero would be the way to go.  For the landlord stuff, definitely go with Rentec.

Hey @Derek Boone - You might also look at Rentec Direct if you need a website.  They provide a free website and free domain (if you don't already have one) with any of their paid packages.  Last I checked, their costs were about 1/1,000,000,000th (one billionth right? at least it feels that way) to that of AF.  They've been around as long too, I've grown to trust them a lot and LOVE their customer service.

http://www.rentecdirect.com