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hey guys it's Cameron here with Emerson Property Management every week I bring you tools tactics strategies lessons I've learned things have helped me build up aside from our portfolio in about two years now manage that portfolio today guys I want to talk about property management softwares so whether you have one unit or a hundred if you have a hundred I hope you're handing that over uh or that's probably your full-time job but if you have one two three four five the average landlord in the US has between two and three houses so if you have just a couple something that will help you out immensely is a property management software now I'm I guess a millennial or at in that age age group if you're older than us um you know in your 40s 50s managing you might be doing stuff you know going to pick up rent um send notices to vacate uh in handwriting or God knows what there are some things that property management systems can do to save you a significant amount of time now if you're a millennial and you're like man I just want to optimize and automate as much as I can you got to be careful with some of that but a good property management system will really help you do that now I've got another video I talk about why you should be using a property management software I think that's up here or here but I just want to talk about a few options you could have especially if you only have um you know a few properties so building them is what we use there are pros and cons about every system there are things I love about building things I love about building them things I hate about it it doesn't matter what software you use there's no perfect software so whatever you use stick with it at least for an extended period of time um there's always going to be somebody coming out with a new bell or whistle so don't get distracted by that it really only has to do a few of a few things on your property management software to help out one of those is specifically collect and rent doing maintenance there's a couple other little odds and ends but most of these options I'm going to share with you are free or darn near free so if you are managing a couple properties yourself these are some options you can use and I think it will be immensely beneficial for you and help you save time and money and maybe never have to hand it over to management maybe you can handle this and you find that property management software makes it a breeze you handle your management until you know these things are paid off and you do some cash out refinances or sell it and then you'll live happily ever after so let's get into this these are in no particular order I do not endorse any of these I have not used any of these so these are just options that I've researched a little bit and seemed to you know rise to the top so I'm not getting paid to say any of this these are just options that you can have so PM software options a veil is one stessa inaugo apartments.com which apparently is now cozy um tenant cloud Riddler rent ready rent Tech Direct and hunt interesting name so those are your your I think what two three four five six seven eight those are your nine options there are a hundred different ones but these are damn near free if they're not free they're damn near free they're very very um cost prohibitive or cost effective um when you guys are looking at these softwares the only thing there's a couple things I would stress one make sure like I said earlier that it will collect rent nothing is more frustrating than collect than trying to collect rent or getting a bunch of Zell payments before I turn stuff over I was getting Zell payments and what happens when you have a property or two and they're both 1200 or 1300 a month you have absolutely no idea who paid what so especially if you're getting multiple of those or you're getting checks and you got to make sure you have the name on it you're like I've never seen this tenant's name they're not on the lease blah blah blah so make sure it can collect rent make sure that it puts automated late fees on their Ledger that is going to save I'm telling you guys that right there that one little piece automating late fees will pay for that software even if it's 20 or 30 dollars a month automating late fees will pay the software because if in Texas you have to give a two-day grace period so due on the first late on the second but the first late fees on the fourth if they pay on the fourth in the morning and you haven't gotten up yet to slap a late fee on their Ledger you're not gonna bother him for 50 25 100 whatever the late fee is so you just forget about it if you have a property management software that automatically does that it's already on their ledger so for them to pay they know they see it already on there they're 1200 dollars plus their fifty dollar late fee so that is a huge thing if another bonus is if it can handle some maintenance requests or Communications for you that would also be super helpful so hey I don't don't text me or call me in the middle of the night when stuff's happening rather go through this system and then that system can route to you or maybe your maintenance guy or somebody that you might want to have on call to handle some emergencies so again I'm not getting paid for any of this I'm not this is just honestly a handful of names that I uh have found you know to be popular I've never used any of these but those make sure whatever system you go with that you use and again please please please don't always chase the shiny object I've stuck with buildium since I've started there are things that I know atfolio and some of those other folks do that are great and there are things that building them do that does right now that are great that AppFolio doesn't um don't don't chase the shiny objects please please please stick with the system get into something use it make sure it's fit for purpose you know if it's not doing the basic things you need to you need to get a new system but as long as it's doing those basic things if it doesn't have a dashboard or report you like you know move on now the last thing I'll say Cameron why not just use buildium billium has a 50 unit minimum folio has a 50 unit minimum a lot of the bigger property management software is that give you all sorts of stuff have a minimum so it really doesn't make sense for you to pay 200 or 300 a month for a property management software when you only have two or three or four units that's going to be eaten up 20 15 to 30 percent of your cash every month your cash flow so don't do that get one of these free or damn near free uh softwares nothing's perfect stick with it for a while um everybody's got their quirks and then when you build up a bigger portfolio you can either hand that over or go up to one of these other softwares like I said buildium AppFolio there's umpteen other other ones that are that are larger and again I'm not endorsing any of them we use buildium they don't pay me to say that it's just the one we've used so I hope that was helpful good luck in self-management a good property management software will save you a lot of money and I'll see y'all next week