All Forum Posts by: Sarnen Steinbarth

@Chris Simmons

How are you liking Xero?

It is on the short-list of options for our company.

Definitely talk with insurance agent / legal counsel.

You also run into a situation of what if they don't take it with them when they leave. . . I had this at one of the properties we managed at my old company.  

We had to have our maintenance team go and disassemble it and haul it away (they didn't ask if they could have it, they just got one, then left it).

@Joshua Dorkin

Great guide.  Thanks!

@Vonnie Bradley

I have used Propertyware and Buildium - both pretty solid.

Are there certain features you are looking for in a software?  Certain budget?

Each software has pro's and con's.  Often times accounting is the biggest complaint (that landlord software does not do that very well).

For paid software I have used both Buildium and Propertyware - both good, I would say Propertyware a little more powerful.

We used Propertyware at my old property management company and were pretty happy with it.  Only downside was around $200 per month minimum (depending upon all the features you get), so when I downgraded to less than 10 units that was a pretty steep fee to pay monthly.

 Definitely loopnet.com for commercial listings, though I don't see it much for residential.

Zillow.com and Postlets.com are the same company now.

@Kyle D.

There are a handful of options.  Are you looking for a free service?

Another feature you may want to look into is automatic online marketing (syndication) - we have found that is a feature many landlords love!

 Probably, the best idea.  Not worth the hassle for the relatively small dollar amount.

Another fridge issue addressed here: http://www.joetenant.com/ask-a-pm/2015/7/16/refrigerator-broke-took-10-days-to-get-tenant-a-replacement

Mine would be (in no particular order):

• Not knowing landlord-tenant law
• Not knowing fair housing law
• Not screening the tenants
• Not know what forms to use or how to complete them
• And probably leniency topic already mentioned at start of thread

We did a very similar blog article to this recently.

In addition to PL and CL,

I'll also throw in realtor.com and rent.com as 2 worthy sites that are not included in the postlets syndication.