All Forum Posts by: Ron Brady

We prefer Rentler.com for tenant application and payment management and Stessa for financial management.  Both free to us and work well for our 7 property portfolio.

We find a similar response rate to individual appointments.  My wife and I disagree on this, but I feel strongly that the right way to rent a property if the property is a good one and demand is reasonable, is to schedule open houses.  Thus, applicants who apply are told "great, we're having an open house this Saturday from 10-12.  Others are interested in the property and we're telling everyone to come by then".  Serious parties will find a way to make it.  If you wish, you can also schedule a second Open House on the Mon or Tue evening after, in case potential tenants have to work.  One big benefit of this is when people show for the open house, if there are many, my wife shows the house while I small talk with the waiters outside or I will tour a second group.  When potential renters see that others are interested in the property, it creates a sense of urgency.  The two times we did this, we yield successful applicants within 24 hours.  My wife still believes however that many working people cannot make the open house. Since she shows the houses, I've considered it smart spousal policy to let her do it her way since it is only her time.  Don't tell her I wrote this.

Re: pests, we put into our leases, at the end, under Additional Lease Provisions, many items including the following: 

• "It is the responsibility of the tenant to keep the unit in good order, and in a safe, clean and pest-free condition. Tenant shall notify the landlord and pay for costs associated with ridding the property of any and all pests upon first sighting so as to avoid infestation."

When one set of tenants reported bed bugs, we reminded them of this lease provision and thus their obligation to remediate it. 

Congratulations on getting started! We created a separate LLC and then set up a business checking account for the LLC. If you've not done so already, there is plenty on bigger pockets and the internet about whether to set up an LLC or not. We decided to before we purchased our first property. We run everything in the business--rent, mortgage and expense payments, etc. through the LLC bank account. Then, we also decided to use Stessa, a free accounting software for real estate investors. We really like it and would recommend it. It takes some work to set things up right, but we figured it out using Stessa's guides and common sense. At tax time, we really relied on the end of year reports we got from Stessa to properly complete our taxes. Good luck!

We have 7 properties and used Cozy.co happily for two years.  When they were acquired by Apartments.com, we tried to stay with Apartments and simultaneously tested Rentler.com.  While Rentler charges potential tenants a higher application fee, we like Rentler's user-interface far more than Apartments.com.  We'd recommend you consider it.

Different take here. If we sentence people, believe that sentence appropriate then ensuring them housing opportunities is fair. So long as all landlords have to play by the same rules, I’m fine with it. 

We were transferred over from the shuttered cozy.co to apartments.com. Not liking apartments and thus are trying rentler.com with early positive results. We’d recommend others take a look.

When Cozy moved us to Apartments.com, we tried it and considered alternatives.  We're keen on Rentler.com and, pending a few more weeks of trial, are likely to transition all our properties to it. 

We were 2 year cozy users.  With switch to apartments.com, we're still experimenting between apartments and rentler.  At present, we prefer rentler but we'll see if apartments can keep our business.

We use Rentler.com and Apartments.com.  We prefer Rentler and will, over time, move all of our tenants there.  We have six rentals.