{"id":42,"date":"2023-05-17T12:04:32","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T12:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diyrentalmanager.com\/?page_id=42"},"modified":"2023-09-17T20:42:16","modified_gmt":"2023-09-17T20:42:16","slug":"tools-needed-to-self-manage-rentals","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/diyrentalmanager.com\/tools-needed-to-self-manage-rentals\/","title":{"rendered":"Tools You Need To Automate Self-Management Of Your Rentals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
My husband and I have been self-managing over 10 rental units since 2022 (with our first tenant starting back in 2015), and we have learned so many ways to make self-managing simple and effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After many years of struggling to collect rent on time (or at all), doing most of the maintenance work ourselves (or stressing about trying to find someone to do the work), and just overall struggling (and not enjoying the process), we’ve finally worked out a great system full of tools that only need us for 5-10 hours a month<\/em>. Most of those hours are responding to texts and emails. Some months, it’s even less than 5 hours because of how much we’ve automated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I wanted to create this resource guide to help you be able to cut through the crap and be able to free up your time from your rentals as we did. If you are like us, you did not get into the rental game to create another job for yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These are the must-have tools and resources we use today<\/strong> that completely changed the way we self-manage. I pride myself in looking for the most cost-effective yet still efficient way of doing things, so the items listed below are priced well yet still really high quality (and better yet, some of them are even free!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Before you do anything else, you need to create a Google account with a Gmail address<\/a> (something like “yourbusinessnamepm@gmail.com” so people know you’re the property manager). You need a Gmail account to take advantage of the other tools I recommend below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gmail is one of the most user-friendly email services out there. Plus, it has other add-on features (all for free) that let you create a business phone number and have an online document storage solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our goal as DIY property managers is to run our business like professional property managers. Doing so makes dealing with tenant problems significantly easier because now they are talking to a business that has to follow policies instead of a small-time landlord that can listen to their sob stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To be seen as a professional property management company, we need branding. That starts with our Google account and email address. This email address will be one of the two main forms of communication tenants can have with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just remember, the best things that hold up in court are physical, written documents and photos (not he said, she said), so make sure you are communicating with your tenants through email and text the majority of the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tip: To create a logo – <\/em>use Canva<\/a>. They have free logo templates that you can use and customize to add another layer of professionalism to your property management business!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n1. Gmail<\/h2>\n\n\n\n