All Forum Posts by: Wade Sikkink

Thanks for the answer on the pricing.  At that price, your product would definitely be targeted at large property management companies.

Any product that won't post it's pricing on it's website must be really expensive.....

Are you tired of maintaining big spreadsheets to keep track of the finances on your rentals?  Those days are over.  Today you have alcalo.

alcalo was designed specifically for small to medium, self-managing landlords.  It makes the bookkeeping simple, accurate and secure.  No more typo's.  alcalo automates transaction entry and automatically prepares your basic reports.

Best of all, alcalo is free to use if you have fewer than 10 units.  Check it out today at www.alcalo.com.

@Michael King I've got some ideas on this topic.  I've tried lots of different software products and found most lacking.  PM me and I can share some insights with you.

I tried TenantCloud and found the bookkeeping part to be very hard to use and doesn't give me the reports I need in a usable way.

This is a really interesting discussion. I think the take away is that everyone has a different opinion on the best way to make money in real estate.

Here's the bottom line that I always keep in the back of my mind.  Real estate makes money in three ways:

• Cash Flow
• Appreciation
• Mortgage pay down

You have to craft a strategy for your market, that fits your risk profile and your available capital to make money one of these three ways. In general (beware generalizations....) multi's do better on cash flow and SFR's do better on appreciation.

I own a 14 unit that cash flows about $3k per month. We are in the process of buying the first, of hopefully several, SFR's. The SFR's add an appreciation play to our portfolio and they attract a different kind of tenant, so we have some diversification. Mortgage pay down is a factor on all our properties because we finance them all.

As you think about your own market and portfolio, always make sure you are being deliberate about how a particular investment is expected to contribute to your overall success.

Good luck.

I have always included the late fees in a 3 day pay or quit notice.  The form my attorney provided has a space for it, so apparently that's ok here in Nebraska.  However, every state is different so check with your attorney.

You will have a hard time finding something affordable that does a good job with the bookkeeping.  @Peter Vang Jensen PM me and I can share some ideas with you.

I've tried TenantCloud and their accounting function is hard to use and not intuitive.  Manually entering everything seems like a pain.

Quickbooks is not designed for a real estate business.  Too many "tricks" to make it work.  I'm waiting for something better that was actually designed for real estate.  Self managing landlords need something designed for them.