Self Managing Property From a Distance

[Jared Mackert]

I am under contract on a property 5 hours away from me. I am considering self managing as its my first property and I would like the experience however, I have some questions/concerns. I plan on using RentRedi to manage the property. It currently has tenants in place but its a college town and the leases end in July. How should I go about getting someone to do a final walkthrough of the units once they move out and I'm assuming I would inherit their security deposits? I would probably pay a cleaning service to get the units ready to show but then how should I go about showing the property through a 3rd party if I don't want to drive down? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[Vicki X.]

Quote from @Jared Mackert:

I am under contract on a property 5 hours away from me. I am considering self managing as its my first property and I would like the experience however, I have some questions/concerns. I plan on using RentRedi to manage the property. It currently has tenants in place but its a college town and the leases end in July. How should I go about getting someone to do a final walkthrough of the units once they move out and I'm assuming I would inherit their security deposits? I would probably pay a cleaning service to get the units ready to show but then how should I go about showing the property through a 3rd party if I don't want to drive down? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 @Jared Mackertcongrats on starting the journey. 

RentCheck for move-out and move-in inspections, done by the tenants. It has worked great for me as I don't need to do anything than reviewing the results and deciding what to fix. And you'll keep the records in the cloud. If you plan on doing showing yourself remotely, you may also want to invest in a few digital items (lock or even camera). I'm working on an article-- I can share the link with you when it's ready. 

A bit more info below in case it's useful for you. RentRedi's UX is a bit chaotic, in my opinion. Make sure you get a few demos and test out the shortlisted ones yourself. Good luck!


I've been managing a few of my single family houses myself, both local and remote. It's not hard with a good network of professionals (handyman, and folks who have the knowledge or can direct me to the right person). You can certainly test them and see what you want to do yourself vs. outsourced (like leasing).

My summary of such tool:

• Listing and leasing: Zillow, Tenant Turner, and others (I said “Others” as many platforms can no longer list on Zillow timely and effectively)
• PM software (lease and esign, rent collection, maintenance etc.): Azibo, Avail, Innago, Apartments.com, Hemlane, Turbotenant, Rentredi, Tenant Cloud, eRentpayment, Zillow
• Rental accounting tool: Azibo, Stessa, REIHub, Quickbooks (not specifically for rentals and pricier though)
• Rental banking: Azibo, Stessa
• move-in/move-out inspection: rentcheck