All Forum Posts by: Thomas Hayworth

Matt R. has some excellent advice! The only thing I would add is to get everything in writing. Write out a move-in inspection checklist for yourself and your tenant to go through. Walk through the unit and mark down anything that is broken/scratched/dented. Give your tenant a copy of this and keep another copy for yourself. This will help you in the move-out inspection. Photos are even better. I've found fewer tenants argue with photographic evidence when it comes down to discussing damages and security deposits.

I agree with @Marc Winter about putting your criteria in writing before you start your screening process. You don't want to mess with Fair Housing complaints. Writing down your requirements will also help you stay on track and ensure you consider only objective factors in your screening (e.g. credit score, income, debt-to-income ratio, criminal background) rather than subjective factors (e.g. didn't like the look of the applicant, had a messy appearance, too old, too young, etc.). Considering subjective factors like the ones above is a violation of Fair Housing laws (don't do it!). Only consider factors related to your business and make sure you apply the same criteria across the board (for example, you can't ask some applicants for their credit score and not others).

I use Tellus for screening and have been happy with it so far.

@Jacob G. - Check out the National Association of Residential Property Managers (https://www.narpm.org/). That would be a good place to start. 

You can always ask for references. Make sure you know what's included in the fees (and if there are any added-on fees for additional services).

Everyone here will have different opinions about hiring a property manager, but really, it depends on your needs. Full service is different from someone who is just there to collect rent and handle maintenance. 

The fact that she didn't call would make me suspect she's to blame. But see what she has to say. The most important thing is to get it fixed ASAP, especially since you're looking at property damage and it could be considered a habitability issue. You can send her the bill later or eat the cost yourself if she has a legitimate story (preferably backed up by a police report).

Hey @Robert Barbee, @Edward B. you could look into Tellus app. I've had good luck with it. Hope you guys find what you're looking for!

For a good market? High appreciation, low vacancy rates.

I’ve been using it for a while now. So far, it’s been great. Here’s my overall analysis of the app:

Positives:

Yes, it’s really free. I was skeptical at first, but there have been no fees, no monthly payments.

It does what I need it to. Rent shows up on time. I can track expenses (they have this feature where you can take pictures of receipts from your phone and categorize the expense). And they handle a lot of the legwork for listing and screening.

Their screening is solid. I was impressed with the reports I got (credit, criminal background, rental history, etc.)

Their customer service is on the ball. I get responses to my questions super fast. A friend of mine (fellow landlord) uses a different PM software and has to wait a few days sometimes before his questions are answered. He might be making the switch soon.

Negatives:

They say you can manage your account from different devices (phone, computer, tablet, etc.). I have an iPhone and thought the experience was really good. I signed into my account from my computer and…let’s just say it was different. I didn’t find it as full-featured as their app. I actually asked their support team about this and was told that web is still pretty new. So hopefully we’ll see some improvements on that end.

Overall though, I’m very happy with the mobile app. One of the coolest things (I think) is that it’s all designed around their chat. So it makes communicating with my tenants easier. Maintenance tickets, reimbursements, photos, documents…you send it all through chat. Seem kind of unique for property management, but who doesn’t want clearer communication with their tenants?

Those are my thoughts. Feel free to ask me anything else.

You can absolutely change your listing if you want to. Sometimes the market and interest levels will help you decide what to do.

As for the three applicants, it's still a good idea to screen everyone and make sure they meet your requirements. All three people should be on the lease so that you have legal recourse in case anything goes wrong.

How they split the rent and utilities isn't your problem.

Excel works ok, but if you're looking for looking for something that can automatically produce income and expense reports, there are other options out there. For tracking expenses by unit, I've had good luck with tellusapp.com  They also have a mobile version, which is nice if I'm buying something for a property and don't want to lose the receipt.

@Ray Harrell

As I understand it, a lot of the features they offer are optional. I like being able to chat with tenants, but I'm pretty sure the app can just be used for financial tracking if that's what you're looking for. If your tenants aren't on the app, then you may have to enter payments manually, but everything else should still work.