Landlords, by their nature, are generally cheapskates. Just ask their tenants. You have to be. The market sets your rents, not you. But you can control your expenses. And landlords can have a lot of expenses:
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Mortgage
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Insurance
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Taxes
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Repairs
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Improvements
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Utilities
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Management fees
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Landscaping
Part of managing the property is keeping track of these expenses. Today, there are some great programs for keeping track of your properties – such as Appfolio, Buildium or QuickBooks.
Trouble is, you pay a monthly fee for each of these. Starting from $10/month to several $100/month for a larger portfolio.
Maybe you’re not managing 1,000 rental units – yet. You can handle all your income and expenses on an Excel spreadsheet. Pretty much free if you have Excel on your computer. But spreadsheets are tough to manage on the go with your phone.
Google Docs? Another possibility. With either a spreadsheet or Google Docs, you have to set them up and do everything manually. Links can be broken, cells can be moved. There is potential for mistakes if you don’t keep track of everything. Or protect the cells. Plus, there are no interfaces with other programs such as Craigslist.
Why Not an App? Most Apps Are Cheap
Lots of the property management software packages out there have their own apps. The apps are definitely useful. Property management is not a career that can be done successfully sitting at a computer desk.
Property managers need to be mobile.
For smaller property managers, all that infrastructure and cost is not really necessary. Smaller guys just need to:
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Track income and expenses for tax purposes
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Review their costs to see what they can reduce
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Make sure they are making money and receiving cash flow
If you like to keep it simple, there is the appropriately named The Landlord App. For just $4.99, you can manage all your single-family rental properties. Multi-unit capability is coming soon.
Here are some of the features of The Landlord App:
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Track rent payments by showing who has and hasn’t paid on one single page
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Edit past and future rents
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Enter rental expenses and repairs (roof repair, plumbing cost, mgmt. fees) all categorized in the same fashion that the IRS requires
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Track what bills have been paid (water, gas, electric)
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Mass email or text tenants for invoices that rent’s due or you’re going on vacation, for example
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Advertise rentals quickly on Craigslist (maintain property ads in the app and post it on the go)
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Track and illustrate cash flow for each property (real-time display of what you earn each month for one or all your properties)
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Track miles driven (no need for a log book, it keeps track of your miles for you)
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Maintain tenant, lease and mortgage information
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Allows you to use multiple devices, i.e. phone or tablet by exporting your data – currently only available for Android
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Maintains a back up of your data for when you buy new devices
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Export financial and tax reports through email to an Excel spreadsheet
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Tenant screening service included for a reduced rate
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Keep track of events with a built-in calendar (schedule showings, keep track of when rent is paid)
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You can find their user manual on YouTube
These features are basically the same as what the big boys in property management software do. But at a fraction of the price. Some of the features may not even be in the other software packages.
Sure it doesn’t have the prettiest graphics, but the makers of The Landlord App are not looking to win awards. They are looking to help you with your property management.
How Does the Competition Stack Up?
Just like there are thousands of apps out there, there are a lot of other rental property manager apps. At the prices most of them charge, landlords could buy several to see which ones they like and then delete the rest.
Even with buying several, you would still have a lower monthly payment than Buildium or AppFolio. In most cases, you will have NO monthly payment.
Here are a few we found just searching the web. Most of them have similar features to the Landlord App. All prices are as of the date of the writing of this lesson:
Rental Property Manager – Can take pictures of receipts and link them to expense reports. Will also send out texts to multiple tenants but make it look like you just sent a text to one - $5.98
DIY Landlord – Supposedly the only app on the web that supports partial payments – not that partial payments from your tenants are a good thing. DIY Landlord has a payment plan depending on how many tenants you have. The app is free, but then charges about $0.99 for the first tenant, and less for additional tenants.
Rent Tracker – Similar pricing plans to DIY Landlord. It has the ability to track multi-unit buildings. The app is also good for property managers who manage other people’s properties. It allows you to put the Owner’s information in as well as the tenants.
There are more of these super cheap apps out there, with more features being developed every day.
We are not trying to endorse any of one app at Real Estate Mogul.
We are just trying to show you that you don’t have to pay $25-$100 per month to have some great ways to track your real estate empire.
Speak
Have you used any of these apps? Share below.
Browse the Web – Besides property management software, pause before you decide on a big purchase for your business. Look around for ideas on the web. Someone may have come up with a much better (and cheaper) solution.
Simplify – Don’t make things too complex. Often the simplest solutions are the best ones. If you have just one rental property – a spreadsheet might be all you need.
Go Mobile – Your phone can be the most powerful device you have in running your business these days. Be on the lookout for ways to make it more efficient and more effective.
Share the Knowledge – Let everyone know in the comments section what apps you may have found that could help out other investors.
JP Moses
is a real estate investor in Memphis, TN, with experience ranging from land lording to note buying, rehabbing, and wholesaling. However, wholesaling is the area that he enjoys most and where he bring the most experience and expertise to his students.