All Forum Posts by: Madeline Burke

@Joel Heard would you like to field that question from @Account Closed ?

@Francis A. Thanks for the followup!  
I agree that a comparison of free PM softwares would be useful for landlords in our target market (the 1-99 property range). I don't already have something like that put together, though, and would want time to do very careful diligence in an effort not to misrepresent another company.

I rent my spare room and found my most recent housemate on Craigslist, he's great. I ran a credit check, called references, and had coffee with him before accepting. The trick, for me, is to be very honest in the listing and to be upfront about expectations. We signed a six month lease to try each other out and I like having a lease because I now have clauses, like a guest policy, in writing. 

I think tension only builds when the rules are unclear/inconsistent.
Good luck!

@John A. smart! Thanks for the tip!

Welcome! Hope you find BP as supportive as I have! Look forward to reading about your success stories soon :P

Loving these suggestions- thanks for starting this thread!

I also make a 1 page "Emergencies" sheet for my properties. It is super basic but just says where the fire extinguishers are, where the water main shutoff is, the main electrical breaker, has an encouragement to call 911, and includes some critical phone numbers in case they can't get a hold of me right in the moment. 

Welcome to BP @James Willard Birmingham! Glad to have you here and looking forward to learning some management tips from your experience :)

@Zachary C. I haven't used all of them but largely I think they lack analytics or scale-able ways to organize larger portfolios. 

Several free services generate professional looking single-property webpages and automatically syndicate your listings to different numbers of major listing sites so you can market by clicking one button every time you turnover. 

Online rental applications are nice too because it integrates the screening process. Personally I like that it puts the application fee/credit screening in the hands of a third party (or "scape goat") for when you have to give an applicant bad news ;)

The main thing, though, is online or automated rent payments. Having that is such a relief. And most of these tools send rent reminders, automatically add a late fee, and only charge the tenant a small processing fee.

Feel free to DM me if you want to talk specifics. Otherwise- good luck!

Welcome Greg! I just moved away from Boston - glad to hear someone is holding down the fort!

@Zachary C. and @Alex S. There are also some less-robust but free online-based software options the are totally enough when you only have a few properties. 

I don't want to toe the line into conflict of interest because I work for one of those companies but if you google "free landlord software" you'll get a number or competitive options that should suit you better than just Excel until you grow into a paid model.