I've been investing for 15+ years and have a reasonably strong track record of personally acquiring and rehabbing 100+ distressed single-family homes. 

Property can be hard to rent in the colder months, particularly around the holidays.I do 12-month leases because it keeps me on track with inspections, rent increases, and other things.

I run my entire "empire" using Excel/Sheets for tracking expenses, Apartments.com for online payments, MysmartMove for credit/background checks, DocuSign for electronic signing, and Zillow & turbotenant for posting up listings.

@Michael K Gallagher You are on the right track. 

The ones who think something big has changed, clearly havnt read the actual settlement or Department of Justice Statement of Interest in the MLS PIN case.

To be able to get that respect from any agent you need to have a proven track record of closing deals.

That is a number we track and it is increasing.

I wish I had kept track of my initial costs to fully stock my units.

I tracked that one down and the lender they were impersonating I called and talked to personally they were shocked to say the least..

If you use a software designed for long term rentals, you'll have less of those type of features, but you may get features that help with getting a lease signed, maintenance ticket tracking, and the like.