You must use property management software if you want to manage your own property. Even if you are not managing your own property, I highly recommend that you get used to using it. You may end up saving a lot of money and understand how the property management company works.
Property management supposed to be a part of your core team but unfortunately, many property management becomes your enemy and a nightmare. You need to vet the company thoroughly. Vetting the company will be in another lesson. If you own SFR and 1-4 units, you should try to manage yourself. We can help you. There are many benefits for managing the property including improving your cash flow by 10-30%.
Unless you have over 50 units, the property management does not pay attention to your property. They hire a person to pass on the communication from the tenant to you merely. They also use software to manage and record everything going on in your property. You can easily take care of that by using a property management software.
If someone needs to go out to repair, we can hire a professional contractor to go out and repair. If we need to evict a person, there is a company that sends people out to do simple errands such as taking photos of the property and post an eviction notice. I do not recommend if you have more than 50 units.
Zillow manager let you register property for a listing. If it is already occupied, it can set up an account for your tenant to make payments online. If the property is vacant, it can help you list on Zillow for rental. Once you make the listing, you can use them repeatedly which enables you to save time. If someone wants to apply for a lease, they can apply online and send you a credit check. You can decide if they are approved or not once you receive the report. It offers essential parts of what landlords need to manage their property.
If you own more than 50 units, you should use the paid version that handles with tax reporting and everything else.
We use different software than listed here, but that is for our clients. Please contact us if you want to join us.