Buying 36 Apartments and Need a Better System

[Harold Albertson]

We currently have 10 doors and are now in the process of buying two buildings with a total of 36 apartments. Our current systems will not work at this scale. We are going to self manage them, for at least a while. I am looking for advice on what systems you have used that are cost effective and efficient.

[Nathan Gesner]

Cozy.co or TenantCloud.com would work for an inexpensive solution. Buildium is probably the cheapest option as far as professional-level software is concerned but that's probably unnecessary at your level. 

Software is tricky because what's important to me may not be important to you. My recommendation is to research the available options and narrow it down to your top three. Sign up for an account with all three, load a few of your rentals into each one, and give it a test run. If a maintenance request comes in, enter it into all three systems to see which one works best. Log payments. Run reports. Put it to the test and decide which one works best for you. 

After you've used software for a year or so, you'll identify flaws and have to evaluate again to see if it's worth shifting to a new system or building work-arounds.