All Forum Posts by: Jordan Sand

@Paul NA  - I think all decent softwares these days are subscription based, where you pay per month. I couldn't find one that was an up front price. I'm on Hemlane and it has saved me more than $30 per month in time and professionalism. I checked out all of the other ones and the closest in quality was Buildium if you check that out as well. 

@Latesha C. - I used American Home Shield for awhile. It saved me when they got a new AC unit for me (think I had a similar situation as Bryce), but then I had some situations where I totally got screwed over. In one case, their two AC vendors said nothing was wrong with the AC unit. The tenants were stuck in 80 degree weather and AHS wouldn't do anything about it. I got a third party AC company out there to fix it (paid them $350) and the AC started working. Since they have standard policies with some "not high quality" vendors, they said that we had to cover the amount since we didn't go through their vendor. But their vendors were pretty poor.

Moral of the story -- It can sometimes save you money (and most importantly, it does help you budget these expenses better), but read the fine print and know that there are some cases where you won't be happy with the outcome / situations when you have enough of them. 

@Cynthia Ackley - There are a lot of owners, like me, interested in this. 

You may want to check out www.hemlane.com and see if you can partner with them. I use them to manage my property (marketing the property, rent collection, accounting, etc.). I control the decisions. Then, they have the option to use third party licensed agents to do the showings and other third party folks to do all of the maintenance calls. 

I also found that home warranty companies don't always resolve it, since their vendors can often be really poor quality (got into some bad situations where it cost me more money in the end). Home warranty is more like an insurance versus what you are talking about is more like a maintenance coordinator. 

@Eddie T. - i'm not using paynearme (all my tenants are now banked as I changed by portfolio) but i know a couple of investors (not on BP) who recommend it. 

I am surprised to see a couple of folks still using paper checks. Tenants have told me that it got "lost in the mail" and their account information is written on the check. 

PayNearMe for unbanked tenants works well. Then, Hemlane for online transfers. After reading this thread, I checked with their team (have come to know them well since using them) and they also use Stripe - safe and secure. 

@Kiet N. - that's a real shame and loss in court fees. I only accept two methods (money order as @Account Closed mentioned and online payments through Hemlane). I also learned the hard way by allowing direct deposit and the tenant entered $550 in my account before the court date ... I won't give them direct deposit any more. Here were my requirements with online payments (and have been a strong advocate for my current provider because they offer it):

1. requirement to receive only full payments (no partial)

2. ability to cancel payment requests after I serve the eviction notice

3. won't give the tenant my bank account info (learned this mistake from direct deposit)

4. requires me to request payment (although I do recurring and shut off if needed) before tenant can pay me

The major property management softwares should provide this feature.

@Alexander Timberlake

I used to use home warranty, but then I started building up handymen and electricians in my area. At that point, I realized that the service call was less, I didn't have to worry about paying a high monthly fee to the home warranty company (when I wasn't using them), and the quality of the service was a lot better. If you have a list of really good vendors, I'm not sure you need it. You are taking a chance with your appliances, but most likely you will come out ahead without paying the high monthly fee.

@Alex Kouvatsos - welcome.

1. Make sure you have complete background and credit check. You will also want to call their past landlords (past 2) to confirm they have paid on time and did not violate the lease.

2. Don't use a free one -- get a State-specific lease that a lawyer has put together.

3. Try for online -- ACH is best as it does not carry any fee. I don't like PayPal or Venmo since I had to evict once and couldn't due to partial payment made. I transferred over to a system that does not allow for partial payments.

I am currently on Hemlane for these. Also, use Capterra to look at what is out there ... as least, that is what I did. I have friends who have also had success with Buildium and Appfolio, but they have more units than me. You can also use some free services, but I don't know if they provide leases. 

Good luck with it all.

There are plenty of tools out there, @Jack Forester. I am currently on Hemlane and they have fast rent collection (3 days).

Also, use Capterra to look at what is out there. I looked into RentMonitor and am relieved to hear that I did not go there.

@Daniel J. - that is the beauty with Zillow. I can see how those properties (which have been on the market for awhile) have changed their rent prices to accommodate demand. My issue with Craigslist is that I don't know the days on market and cannot tell whether or not the Craigslist property is priced according to the market.