"Rent Manager" Software

[hart]

Does anyone use "Rent Manager" Software?  I've heard excellent things about it from a very experienced/successful landlord with many units.  I've only begun looking into the software, but I know that it's expensive.  I've been using Quickbooks up till now.
Any thoughts?  Thanks.

[propertymanager]

What do you want it to do?  Personally, I don't use any software other than Quickbooks Pro and don't need anthing else.  In fact, the very last thing I need to do is waste a bunch of time entering redundant information into the computer.

Good Luck,

Mike

[furnishedowner]

We use "Rent Right", also expensive but it seems the best for our needs. Only annoying thing is that it can't figure out a vacancy rate.

[hart]

Thanks for the replies. 
A couple of quick follow-ups...

Mike,

Do you provide tenants a monthly "statement/receipt" - if so, how?  MS Word? 
Do you use any features in Quickbooks except the normal check register/profit and loss, etc.? 



Furnishedowner,

Have you ever used Quickbooks?  If so, what in particular do you like better about Rent Right? 

Thanks again for your thoughts.

[furnishedowner]

I think we use QuickBooks for the monthly utility cost sheets. I've heard that we could have maybe just used QuickBooks completely, instead of Rent Right.

But we have a lot of in-and out tenants, since we are furnished rentals like a hotel. Our advisors (Canadian retired accountants--our annual guests) did an analysis and recommended RentRight. We have been happy with it. Before that our old accountant used Peachtree.

I paid for all this but admit to no expertise as my bookkeeper and office staff do all the inputting. Do what is simplest for you if you are computer handicapped like me.

Furnishedowner

[propertymanager]

Do you provide tenants a monthly "statement/receipt" - if so, how?  MS Word? 
Do you use any features in Quickbooks except the normal check register/profit and loss, etc.?

Hart,

I don't provide tenants a monthly statement.  I pickup all rents in person and it is the tenant's responsibility to call me between the 1st and 4th of each month.  I then pickup the rent and do a quick walk through of their rental.  Making contact with every tenant each month eliminates a lot of problems. 

I do give the tenants a receipt if they pay in cash (which I strongly encourage).  I create and store all my documents on Microsoft Publisher.  So, I simply print out a bunch of blank receipts and carry them with me.

I don't use any features of Quickbooks Pro except the check register and various reports.  I don't print checks with Quickbooks Pro because I always must carry regular check with me for Lowes, fuel, etc.  So, I run EVERYTHING through ONE checkbook for each company.  I try to keep things extremely simple and efficient.  That's how I can operate several cozen rentals BY MYSELF (including management, maintenance, and all the paperwork) and still only work 3-4 hours per day (and take a LOT of 3-4 day weekends).  I try not to duplicate anything.  For example, I must keep a paper file for each tenant with things like the lease, lead-paint disclosure, application, emergency notification form, move-in/move-out form, notices I've posted on their door, etc.  A lot of people enter all this information into their rental software.  I think that's just silly.  Wasting all that time to put tenant information (that I already have in a file)  into a computer program is inefficient and non-productive.  The same is true of the property information.  Even with dozens of properties, I know where/what  they are and I don't waste time putting that into a computer. 

In addition, as a landlord, I'm a cheapskate.  Using a rental property software that has a relatively high initial cost, high support costs, and a monthly fee is not something I would do unless there was a benefit.  Simple, cheap, and efficient is what I'm shooting for.  That maximixes my profit and minimizes the work I need to do!

Hope that helps.

Mike

[furnishedowner]

I can understand doing simple rent receipts with a little carbon rent receipt booklet. I did that at first and it worked fine.

But then companies and agencys started renting from us and they wanted a formal invoice and receipt. For a while we did everything in triplicate so we could also track the total amount of rents. Drove us crazy.

Finally we had to get the software and do it on the computer. We also have a big whiteboard in the office with all the info. We live and die by what's on the whiteboard.

But I liked best of all the little rental receipt booklet. Keeping it simple was nice.