House hacking landlording & property management software

[Jonathan Bebey]

Hello BP community, 

I am planning to buy my 1st house hack in the next couple of months. I have done some research on property management and software. I am planning to manage my 1st property by myself. However, I work a busy 9-5 job making it difficult for me to answering phone calls/texts/emails. Does anyone have suggestions on property management software for a house hack? I read about Hemlane, which seems great but expensive. Please let me know which services you all recommend! Thanks! 

[Lawrence Potts]

@Jonathan Bebey,

If this is your first house hack, you can easily manage it from your 9-5 without any expensive software. It’s good to know what’s out there as you grow, but not needed for your first deal. I currently househack a 4plex and the only software I use is apartments.com. It’s free and records all auto payments, reminds me when leases are ending, etc. I started off with Cozy but they got bought out by apartments.com.

It’s easy for them to set up their deposits too. Just email them the link through apartments.com.

I probably get 1-3 calls a month. It’s either a rent question or a minor maintenance issue that isn’t always urgent. Take each call professionally but it doesn’t take much time out of my day to manage. Make sure books are clean and you have separate accounts for security deposits. Be professional, this is a business and you need to comply with all city/state laws.

if your units are updated and clean, you won’t get many calls. If there’s deferred maintenance, expect more calls. Do the work upfront and save yourself the headaches later on.

Hope this helps! Best of luck to you 👍