08 Jun Software to help you organize your real estate investment property
Now that you own your real estate investment property you’re going to want to get yourself organized. Here are the software tools I use to juggle all my real estate investment properties. You can click on the titles to be directed to the site in question (it will open in another tab).
Automatic Direct Deposits Software through rentmoola.com
You don’t want to keep depositing rent cheques every month. Automation is key when staying organized. You don’t have to collect 10 cheques at the beginning of the tenancy and you don’t have to remember to deposit anything on the 1st of each month. You simply get an email listing all the transactions that have gone through on that day. When you find a tenant, you send them the signup link which you can prefill with first month’s rent, last month’s rent, key deposit etc. You also set the recurring payment schedule. The best part of rentmoola is that it is free. There are no costs to you or the tenant. The company makes money if the tenants pay by credit card or sign up for perks. Always have tenants direct deposit from their bank accounts and you (and your tenant) will never pay a cent.
Get a separate no fee pc financial bank account
Keep your real estate investment property money separate from your private bank accounts. Open up a free checking and savings account from a no fee bank. I use pc financial. You can find them in loblaws stores and they are owned by CIBC so you can also do some banking at the CIBC atms and branches. Everything is free: cheques, accounts, deposits, withdrawals etc. I have a checking account for day to day transactions and a savings account where I deposit the last month rent payments.
Use True Rent to organize your accounting, transactions, financials & general info
You will need a place to keep a record of everything that goes on with your properties. Paper and folders are dead. If you can’t find anything I ask your to find within 30 seconds then I would consider you unorganized. True rent allows you to input all your real estate investment property transactions, get a snapshot of money coming in and out, input tenant info, calculate your returns etc. With so much going on, it’s always nice to get an overview of your properties. True rent is free for the first 4 properties.
Accept rental applications online
Once again, paper is dead. To simplify rent applications, I’ve created rental applications online using Rentapplication.net. Rental applications are easy to create with a simple and drag and drop builder. Applications are mobile friendly as well. Personally I have a quick viewing application to weed out sub-par tenants and as well as full applications. I don’t allow potential tenants to come see the unit if they don’t pass my quick viewing application standards. It saves you lots of time and time is money.
An app to scan all your receipts
Did i mention paper is dead? I use an app on my iphone called scannable. It basically a scanner in your pocket. You simply take a snapshot of your receipts and it will edit it ever so slightly so that you have no background image and make it so that the receipt is more readable. I would suggest going into settings and set all captures to PDFs. Most of the time the app would create PDF if it sense a document but sometimes it will create an image file instead. PDF files are much easier to send/manipulate/read. Once the receipt is scanned I share it via the app to my dropbox folder.
Store all your investment property documents on dropbox (or something similar)
Lastly I need to mention that paper is dead (get the message?). Store all your files in the cloud so they are all organized and accessible from anywhere. Make folders for different rental houses and make subfolders for pictures, purchase documents, receipts etc. Again, you should be able to find anything in under 30 seconds. It also makes it easier when dealing with your insurance, mortgage contacts etc. You can find and email them any file in seconds.
If you need any help or are thinking of buying an investment property, send me an email or click the live chat button to talk to me in real time. I’d be happy to help. If you have any better solutions to the problems above I’d also love to hear from you.
Andre Pasche
647-918-5375
andre@normanhill.com
Norman Hill Realty Inc
20 Cachet Woods Court #2
Markham, Ontario
L6C 3G1