All Forum Posts by: Ben Travis

I have over 20 single family rentals and love TenantCloud.  @Wade don't know what you mean about accounting as it is my favorite part (I do want more reports).  They just updated late fees, so I can customize to each lease.  First two months I made a lot on late fees and now no one pays late:)

We use TenantCloud.  It allows to even charge an application fee.  Very customizable and give me a free listing site.  It does have some screening and background checks, but not necessary to use them.  Hope that helps. 

So seller finance for $600k (5% interest only - $30k/yr for 3 years) and you're fighting for $585K ($417k jumbo and $60k in second, which combined payment will most likely be near $33k/yr, though amortized).  For $15k and maybe a point over market on the rate you don't seem to be gaining that much by making it complicated.  Replacing your $60k in 2 years will be nearly impossible without re-financing the whole house again and then your looking at transaction fees that if added up probably will surpass $15k.  

My vote is for owner finance at 5% (maybe they will drop to $590k) for 3 years and in 2 years refinance as a jumbo and you just saved $10k in transaction fees, while keeping your payments lower for two years, which increases current cashflow to put towards paying down principal.  

Here is a list of options for free software.

http://listoffreeware.com/list-of-best-free-online-property-management-software/

Fully agree with the google searching "reviews of TenantCloud".  I have tried most of the startups on this list and my review would be similar.  I no longer pay $60/mnth for the clunky alternative.  Charging handy man for bids is unique, but I haven't used that part yet. 

http://listoffreeware.com/list-of-best-free-online...

@David Dorau
I had almost the same situation few years ago when my tenants got a dog. At first I wanted to evict them, but they happened to be very responsible and neat. No smell and no noise. So I added pet fee on lease. From my experience, tenants with pets are more reliable.

I've been using TenantCloud for a while and I haven't gotten charged any fees and my Tenants said they pay for free as well.  I love the photo maintenance requests and manager tool.  Customer support is quick, but not live.  The free website did seem pointless at first, but now I use it for the digital applications, which is a big time saver.  They need to add a way to download data in other ways then PDF, but they say it's coming.  Screening is with Checkr ($20).   

@Steven Anderson I hope you don't mind me following here, but had the same question from Oregon.  Trying to build an excel investor dashboard and looking for any ideas on the metrics to track.  I have:

Capitalization Rate

Cash on Cash Return (COC)

Return on Investment (ROI)

Internal Rate of Return (IRR)

Gross Rent Multiplier (GRM

Operating Ratio (OR)

Debt Coverage Ratio

Net Operating Income (NOI)

I was also thinking about vacancy ratios for timing and even a depreciation tracker and tax calculator.  Please help with ideas and I would be more then willing to share the spreadsheet.

I use TenantCloud to post automatically to postings to Postlets, because it provides a link to the application and it lists to all the RentPath websites.  I would have to agree with Mike Gallagher that the best marketing is a rental sign.

I do all of that with TenantCloud and have closed my paid account with AF.  I only have 22 properties (all homes), but it works great.  I do applications, listings to zillow and others, website, payments, accounting, maintenance, reports and its all free.  I am still waiting for the got ya as they are free, but they claim they will always be free for up to 75 units.     At SXSW I saw one of their people and they said they will have the ability to get bids on jobs like cleaning, painting and such soon - I assume this is how they make money.