If this was a retail project the costs would be $345 (with labor and before mark ups).

.* Call local property mgr's and/or ask for referrals from your relator friends/associates, and ask them for referrals - sometimes they will be nice enough to offer helpful advice, especially, if you tell them you will consider using them when you turn the house into a rental in a yearAs a 27yr appraiser and Realtor/Broker, the paint job has minimal affect on the value, unless it is so bad that I have to mark it down in quality and/or condition.

@Mark Ainley I'm considering Chicago as a new market (for me) as well and would love a link to your podcast and / or article as well!

Mark Faulkner

I'm in Angel Fire and it's exceeded my marks.

She mailed the lease post marked 7 day before she required us to let her know if we would stay or leave.

Contractors are running a business , we mark up materials , we mark up labor , we mark up our subs .

Also, most of those niche options miss the mark on some bookkeeping fundamentals.

Mark Faulkner 

Go to Etsy and search for "rental property tracker," and you will find hundreds of nice spreadsheets to track 10-20 rentals, usually for under $10.Software has extremely helpful features like online payments, marketing syndication (click a button, and your property is advertised on multiple sites), electronic document review/signing, maintenance tracking, and owner reports.