"While we are in town do you mind if we go to Meijer, walmart, aldi's tractor supply company, the grain elevator..."

I just don't see a big enough difference between the RentRedi and all of the other free softwares to justify spending $9/month.Long story short: Why should I use RentRedi compared to the free options out there?

Without that you can be sued personally for any issue within it on your str.Its much harder for people to pierce the corporate vail and sue you personally if your property is owned and managed in a LLC .Financing is one of the only drawbacks as it is a commercial process and banks usually like to see 3 years of a decent tax return.We have 19 properties and all are in an LLC and in fact we only hold 2-4 properties in each LLC (all are owned by one parent company and done in one flow through parent company)to even further shield the liability that may/can occur on a property.There is no doubt you are exposed to higher risk on many fronts if an investment property is held personally.

For self management I think this type of software is a must have! 

Were you already closed and this is something the title company missed?

What are some of the main things you look for in a great Property Management company?  

The full guidelines on the Freddie site for LLC are:Permitted Transfers of Ownership subject to conditionsIn situations where all of the following conditions are met, Freddie Mac will permit a Transfer of Ownership of the Mortgaged Premises:-At least 12 months have passed since the Origination Date-The Servicer has complied with all mortgage insurance requirements applicable to the transfer-The transfer is to a limited liability company (LLC) or limited partnership (LP), provided that:The managing member/general partner of the LLC/LP is the original Borrower.

I had an apartment I put on Airbnb & it was lucrative, but the company sold the property and I had to shut it down.

However, finding good liability insurance will be difficult, call your current insurance company of find an experience insurance broker to learn more.

Also, there are a lot of great softwares out there that basically take care of what property managers do, so you could look into that instead.10% vacancy: In my market, 5% vacancy is plenty, this is something that you will need to figure out for your particular market.