New Landlord Seeking Advice!

[Taylor Comer]

Hello all!

I am excited to say, that my boyfriend and I about a few days away from closing on our first real estate investment property, a four plex!

I am already a very organized person, but with us being first time landlords I want to make sure we have all our bases covered and start off strong.

With that being said, can anyone give some tips or techniques that have worked for them in staying organized with our documents, to-do lists, bank account organization (security deposits, cash flow, etc.), tenant issues, etc?

We definitely love the idea of setting up a 1 800 number for our tenant issues to be forwarded to an email for us to check rather than them calling us any time of day and we have a few other ideas to make processes easier but would love some advice!

Thank you everyone for being so awesome!

-Taylor

[Melissa Melia]

Hi @Taylor Comer, congratulations on your acquisition! If you haven't connected with a local landlord/rental housing organization, do, as they often offer legal forms, a resource desk for Q & A, events, for a nominal fee.  I agree with @James Wise that you can manage the accounting through Excel and online banking for now.

Also a note on safety- be careful about providing a lot of personal information including your home address to tenants, as some don't know appropriate social boundaries. Consider a mail service that allows you to receive mail and payments in a way that meets state and local requirements, but also provides you with some personal boundaries. Good luck!