These are the list of sites that landlords must have to properly manage your property. Even if you hire a property manager or company, you must continue to check your information and assess your situation.

Zillow Rental Manager

• It has most of bells and whistles to help you manage your property. Best of all, you can list your property for rental for free.
• It also lets your potential tenants apply directly from the link you send them via email. They pay the application fee on the site. You do not need to go through a complicated process of getting certified to check someone’s credit anymore.
• You can receive electronic deposit using their payment gateway.
• Your tenants get reported to the credit reporting agency, Transunion, every month. It helps improve your tenants’ credit as long as they pay on time.
• https://www.zillow.com/rental-manager/properties

City-Data

• You can check the data for a city or zip code.
• Always check for the population of a zip code.
• Always check the crime rate.
• Always check demographics.
• http://www.city-data.com/

Rentometer

• You can find out in detail how much rent is near your property.
• It gives average rent and median rent.
• You can see the bell curve of data which shows what the majority of rent rates are.
• You can see the detail view of size and number of bed/bath for each rental property.
• Must have for landlords.
• https://www.rentometer.com/

Self-Direct IRA

• This is how rich people legally avoid paying tax.
• You can make your retirement dollar at work.
• Start small but soon you will realize the power of a compounding effect.
• Must consult a professional. Karen Hall will help you with understanding your option.
• https://udirectira.com/

Home Repair Service

• You will run into a time that your home requires some repairs and maintenance.
• There are three websites that I highly recommend. One is Angie’s List. It is the oldest and most popular company that lists various contractors and customers rate them. It may not be cheap but high-quality workers. Due to high demand, they may not be available for your job.
• The second one is Thumbtack. You post your job request in detail; contractors will compete for your job. It also shows ratings for the contractors, but most contractors have few ratings. Some of those reviews are not from real customers. Regardless, they are the cheapest option. It is hit or miss. Many contractors are good, but few bad ones will make you frustrated.
• The third one is Home Advisor. It is a hybrid of above two companies. Price is also somewhere between the two. You post a job request; Home Advisor will select and send contact info for two contractors. Those contractors will call you. If you don’t like them, tell the operator you want other contractors. Oh, the operator calls you within 24-48 hours after they send you the contact info for those two contractors to ensure they followed up.
• https://www.angieslist.com/
• https://www.thumbtack.com/
• https://www.homeadvisor.com/

Pest Control

• You may need to get rid of insects and mouse.
• Remember, you can only rent a property with a living condition. Many cities consider infestation as a non-living condition.
• You can ask the tenant to pay if you have that claus in the rental agreement. Logical thing is to cover the first 90 days. After that, I will say you are not the one who caused the infestation.
• I use Terminix most of the time due to their name value and reasonable price.
• https://www.terminix.com/

Alarm System

• Please install the alarm.
• Tenants will love it. They think you care for them.
• It costs $300 to $500 from the Ring. If you just install the alarm, it will be $350. If you install Ring Door Bell and Alarm, it will cost $500. It also requires you $10 a month for monitoring.
• You need it when the tenant moves out and the place becomes vacant. If you don’t install an alarm, you going to end up losing all the appliances, copper, and metals including electric panels.
• If you didn’t have an alarm and got theft, the insurance company may not cover the loss.
• You can watch multiple properties from your mobile device as well as your desktop computers.
• Time to time, Costco has it on sale. The price should be much lower.
• https://shop.ring.com/pages/security-system