I would take a look at the inside of his car.

@Karla SosaWe use AppFolio and overall, we’ve been really happy with it.What we like:Super easy listing and background verification processACH payments make rent collection smoothBuilt-in CRM for handling maintenance ticketsTenant messaging option (so we don’t have to give out our personal phone numbers)If you have the budget, their Smart Maintenance feature is worth checking out — it routes tenant calls through a call center and sends notifications to you, which really cuts down on handling small tenant issues yourself.What could be better:The accounting side could use improvement.

That said, you can still do it on a cheaper property, but the tax savings might be more of a cherry on top instead of a decision maker. 

I like paying off the $25,000 car note that is at 6%Even if you 8% to 10% return in the stock market, it might be 6% or slightly above 6% after taxes.

One issue that I see with padsplit in Houston is that the people are very dependent on cars.If you try to have 4 people live in a 4 bedroom house and each person has 1 car. finding parking might be difficult for the tenants.The second issue that I see is that the rent's aren't that high compared to other cities making it less of an incentive for people to want to share a place.

Once we have left the site we have no control over wind blown snow , snow melt and refreeze , and whatever snow comes off cars , etc . 

Adding cars which carry property and deferred taxes . . . miles long.

What we like with Appfolio:Easy listing and background verification processACH payments make rent collection smoothBuilt-in CRM for handling maintenance ticketsTenant messaging option (so we don’t have to give out our personal phone numbers)If you have the budget, their Smart Maintenance feature is worth checking out — it routes tenant calls through a call center and sends notifications to you, which really cuts down on handling small tenant issues yourself.I haven’t tried many other platforms yet, but for now AppFolio covers most of what we need pretty well.I would be more than happy to show you the way we are setup, if it helps you to make a decision as well. 

You wouldn’t drive your car for years without an oil change — so don’t run your business without a check-in.Curious — do you review your numbers throughout the year or just wait until tax season?

The fees can take a big chunk especially when vacant and rules which can change sometimes make renting difficult.