Managing Properties Remotely - What Tools do you use?

[Nitin John Abraham]

HI all, I own about ten doors in the Kansas City Area. They are being managed by 3 Property managers. My questions for all of you is how do you track your properties:

1) I use Trello to track each of the properties and information such as the below item:

1. Address, Parcel Number, utility info, mortgage info, property tax info, PM info

2) I use a XL spread sheet to track expenses to date, repair costs, monthly rent 

3) I use the BP rental calculator for cash on cash return and NOI

4) I use dropbox to store all my purchase docs, mortgage statements, repair bills etc.

The challenge is the maintenance of the spread sheet everytime I buy properties and to monitor trello for actions that are due etc.

Any suggesting on automation/software to use where i can track all of the information on my properties?

[Varun Talluri]

@Nitin John Abraham Try Cozy, its a property management software easy to use and powerful.

[Alex Olson]

Originally posted by @Nitin John Abraham:

HI all, I own about ten doors in the Kansas City Area. They are being managed by 3 Property managers. My questions for all of you is how do you track your properties:

1) I use Trello to track each of the properties and information such as the below item:

1. Address, Parcel Number, utility info, mortgage info, property tax info, PM info

2) I use a XL spread sheet to track expenses to date, repair costs, monthly rent 

3) I use the BP rental calculator for cash on cash return and NOI

4) I use dropbox to store all my purchase docs, mortgage statements, repair bills etc.

The challenge is the maintenance of the spread sheet everytime I buy properties and to monitor trello for actions that are due etc.

Any suggesting on automation/software to use where i can track all of the information on my properties?

Cozy is great. Also would recommend one PM. What PMs are you using?

[Nitin John Abraham]

@Alex Olson I have property managers each above their own software but I am looking for suggestions on what I could use to track all of them and future adds to my portfolio

[Nitin John Abraham]

@Alex Olson pardon the typo - each of the PMs have their own software.

[Lee Ripma]

@Nitin John Abraham

I do my accounting in quickbooks. For every property I have a bank account. All the bank accounts are linked in quickbooks. Every property is a class. I go through each week and categorize charges. It spits out reports at the end of the year or whenever I need them. Shouldn’t really matter that each PM uses different software.

[Nitin John Abraham]

@Lee Ripma agreed I do use QuickBooks online as well and have it connected to my bank accounts

[Zach Robbins]

@Nitin John Abraham I currently two different property managers managing my properties. Each month I get their statements and a virtual assistant records the transactions from their statements into Quickbooks Online. Quickbooks offers a feature called "Classes". Classes allow you to record all income and expenses to a specific class. So if you create a class for each investment you end up with some good reports for each property including a profit and loss report. 

I also use a cloud file storage service to manage my paperwork, including the property management statements I get each month.  You can also attach files to each record in QB's which is perfect for linking copies of invoices to invoice records. Note I do this because it makes it easy for myself or CPA to recall the invoice if needed as you're working in QB's. But I've still always kept a copy of each invoice in my cloud filing system in case I ever moved away from Quickbooks so that I wouldn't have to worry about getting those copies back out (not sure how easy or difficult that is). As for the cloud service I use I don't think that matters much and you should just use one you prefer. I used to use Dropbox but then switched to OneDrive only because I was already paying for Office 365 for email and other services, and OneDrive is included with that subscription so no point in paying for the same service twice. You always may be able to get away with a free version. If you're using Gmail look into using Google Drive. 

The above will handle everything on your list. It may not be flashy but between the Quickbooks accounting software and the file storage where you can save PDF copies of mortgage docs and everything else, plus word and excel docs you create yourself to manage bits of information can all be done.

That said, coming up with a good filing system, whether it's hard copy or digital, is important so that you can recall this information when you need it.

[Nitin John Abraham]

@Zach Robbins thanks! I am currently doing exactly this!

Appreciate your detailed response.

[Mike D'Arrigo]

@Nitin John Abraham why are you using 3 PM's in the same market?

[Nitin John Abraham]

@Mike D'Arrigo different areas in KC.

I also don't want to put all my properties with the same PM. This also helps me evaluate the service provided by each PM and helps me grow my portfolio with the right team.

[John D.]

I use Buildium, its very user friendly and has everything I need from advertising syndication, accounting, tenant portal with pay online, tenant screening and remote signing. The staff are incredible at onboarding, they did almost everything for me in terms of data transfer. Good system, great support and good for smaller landlords. 

My properties are all within 30 minutes, however, with Buildium its very rare to ever see any tenants or speak to them in person. Prior to that we used Quickbooks. 

[Ruth Blue]

@Nitin John Abraham

Cozy for sure.

Also we have an account set up with COZI!

We use it as a shared calendar and create appts and track maintenance between everyone. This may not work for you but our family business with rentals it is great. Definitely worth a look.

Dropbox

Docusign

[Ryan Landis]

Cozy is nice - I use it as well. For those using QuickBooks or any other software (Freshbooks, etc.) the trick is just figuring out if you prefer to track in that or excel. If you have one bank account for example, I would just say use excel add a couple of columns with dropdowns and call it a day (saves you the monthly fees and there is no learning curve).

[Dan Krupa]

@Nitin John Abraham we use QuickBooks and buildium. Between the two we are able to schedule all our maintenance, run reports, and know all our financials weekly. 

[Sean McCluskey]

For those using quickbooks, did you find a way to make that more cost effective (promo code, etc?). Or is it costing you over $1000 a year?

I'm using Quicken Rental Property Manager, which is more old school but affordable and very straightforward and understandable (no classes needed, ha!)