Systems

[Greg Barrett]

What systems do you fellow investors put in place to automate/streamline your processes using software and other methods.  

As a franchisee i'm very fond of using systems in my line of work.  I'm referring to anything from: marketing (putting together and tracking marketing efforts), accounting and financials, payment processing, landlord responsibilities, keeping track of repairs, financial projections, tenant info. etc.

Thanks for your help!

[Marcia Maynard]

Note:  Our operation is a small family run business, buy & hold investments for cash flow, 15 residential rental units.  Old fashioned, simple, but still works for us!  Not very computerized.

Policies and procedures, some written and some in my head.   

Forms, some are hard copy masters in notebooks and some are kept as computer files.

Tenant files are in hard copy form in a file cabinet.  Each file has two hole punch binder clips that hold papers.  Application process & correspondence kept on one side; Rental agreement kept on the other side for each tenant.  Also computer files kept of correspondence.

Rent register, hard copy columnar pad - still works for me!

Rental unit notebooks - each unit has it's own for keeping historical data about maintenance, repair and materials used.

Maintenance notebook for info on techniques and standards we use for materials.

Appliance record in a notebook.

Property purchase records in filing cabinet.

Vendor files in filing cabinet and some in notebooks.

Library of Landlording and Real Estate books on a bookshelf and some in an e-reader.

Archive boxes.

Quicken and Quick Books for financials and invoicing.

Almost everything on auto-pay.  Most purchases on a business credit card and the credit card is on auto-pay with our business checking account.

Key management: Keys on hooks, use of masterkeying for our bigger property.

Locking file cabinets, locking key cabinets, and locking office.

Telephone, Computer, Copier, Fax.

Travel Clipboard with Compartment for carrying documents for visits to properties.

P.O. Box at the post office (where we receive our rents) that is three blocks from our Credit Union (where we deposit our rents and keep our bank accounts).  Bank accounts:  Operations - checking; Capital Expenses & Reserves - savings; Security Deposits - money management.

Storage Locker at a mini-storage facility for tools, supplies and materials for property maintenance.  Organized by category.  Use of many shelves, buckets, and caddies.  Color coding: Purple-plumbing, Blue-cleaning, Green-landscaping, Yellow-electrical, Orange-Misc, Red-Carpentry, White-painting, Grey-special projects and PPE (personal protective equipment).