Practical tips for landlords who self-manage with spreadsheets. Rent tracking, maintenance, and how to not drop the ball.
I've tried about a dozen rent tracking spreadsheet templates over the years. Most of them are either way too complicated or missing basic stuff you ac…
Google Sheets is honestly a great tool for tracking rent. I used it exclusively for 12 units over 3 years. Here's exactly how I set it up to catch ove…
Maintenance tracking is the thing that bites landlords the hardest. Rent is predictable. Maintenance is chaos. And if you don't track it, things fall …
I tried Buildium. Signed up for the free trial, spent a weekend setting it up, and canceled on day 8. It's not that Buildium is bad. It's a solid prod…
When you have 5 to 10 units, you're in an awkward spot. Too many to track in your head. Not enough to justify $100+/month software. I've been in this …
I've used all three of these tools. Not just free trials. Actually used them to manage real units with real tenants. Here's what I think. The Quick Ve…
Last year I missed a late rent payment for 11 days. The tenant in Unit 4B owed $1,400 and I just didn't notice. Not because I'm lazy. Because I was bu…
My tenant in Unit 6 waited 23 days for a leaking kitchen faucet. Not because I didn't care. Because I forgot. She texted me on a Tuesday while I was d…
I managed 12 rental units in Google Sheets for 3 years. Rent tracking, maintenance logs, expense records, tenant info. All in spreadsheets. For 2 of t…
Every landlord who starts with spreadsheets eventually asks this question. The answer isn't as simple as "when you hit X units." I've managed 12 units…
Let me walk you through exactly what happened when I missed a late rent payment for 14 days. It was March 2024. Unit 4B. Rent was $1,400. Due on the 1…
Nobody wants to be the landlord who sends passive-aggressive texts on the 1st of every month. "Just a friendly reminder that rent is due today! 😊" Yo…
Most landlords don't realize their tracking system is failing until something expensive happens. A missed payment. A forgotten repair. A tenant who's …
I've self-managed 12 rental units since 2022. No property manager. No staff. Just me, a Google Sheet, and my phone. Some months it's easy. Some months…
The internet says 10 units. Some people say 20. My property manager friend says 1. (He's biased.) The real answer depends on factors that have nothing…
I've used both. Spreadsheets for 3 years. Tried Buildium for a month. Tried TenantCloud for 4 months. Went back to spreadsheets with monitoring on top…
I have a full-time job. I also have 12 rental units. Most days, the landlording takes 30 minutes. Some days, it takes 4 hours. And those 4-hour days a…
When I bought my first rental property in 2021, I had zero plan for maintenance tracking. I figured I'd just fix things when tenants called. That appr…
The property management software industry really wants you to think you need their product. They'll show you dashboards and automations and tenant por…
I've been a spreadsheet landlord for 4 years. 12 units. No PM software. No property manager. Just Google Sheets and a few supporting tools. Here's eve…
I get asked about Stessa a lot. It makes sense. It's free, it's popular, and every landlord forum recommends it. But Stessa and RentGuard solve comple…
If you've been researching property management software and landed on AppFolio's pricing page, you probably had the same reaction I did: "Wait, what?"…
Avail (now part of Realtor.com) is one of the most popular free landlord tools out there. And for good reason. It does a lot of stuff for $0. But "doe…
TurboTenant is one of the most popular "free" landlord tools on the market. Over half a million landlords use it. And the free plan genuinely includes…
Rentec Direct is a solid property management platform that doesn't get as much attention as Buildium or AppFolio. That's partly because it targets a s…
This is the most important page on our site. Because most of the landlords who use RentGuard don't think of it as an alternative to their spreadsheet.…
Buildium is a solid product. But at $55/month minimum and a feature set built for professional property managers, it's overkill for most landlords wit…
AppFolio is industry-leading PM software. It's also priced for the industry, not for individual landlords. With a minimum monthly spend of $298 on the…
Every landlord forum has this debate. "Should I use property management software or just stick with spreadsheets?" The answers are usually polar: eith…
Every landlord needs to track rent. The question is how. There are dedicated apps, full PM platforms, free tools, and good old spreadsheets. Here are …
If you manage rental properties, you need a rent roll. It's just a list of every unit, who lives there, what they owe, and whether they've paid. Nothi…
I did my own bookkeeping in Google Sheets for 3 years before handing it to an accountant. And you know what she said? "This is actually really clean. …
I've been managing 12 units in Google Sheets for 3 years. Along the way I've built up a collection of formulas that I actually use every month. Not th…
When you go from 1 property to 3, the spreadsheet question changes. It's not "how do I track rent?" anymore. It's "how do I track rent across multiple…
Tax time doesn't have to be a nightmare. I know landlords who spend entire weekends in April going through bank statements and shoebox receipts. That'…
You built a solid rent tracking spreadsheet. Formulas are working. Conditional formatting shows you which tenants are late. But you still have to open…
Your rent tracking spreadsheet does its job. But you're still doing a lot of manual work every month. Copying tabs, checking dates, scanning rows for …
Missing a lease renewal deadline is one of those mistakes you only make once. Or twice, if you're me. (For a broader approach to due-date tracking, se…
Late fees are one of the most effective tools a landlord has. Not because the money matters (though it does). But because a clearly enforced late fee …
If you manage more than a handful of units, you've probably got data scattered across multiple tabs. Rent roll here, maintenance log there, lease date…
I've been managing 12 units with Google Sheets for over 3 years. Along the way I've tested a bunch of add-ons. Some are genuinely useful. Most are blo…
For about 2 years, checking my rent spreadsheet was the first thing I did every morning. Before coffee. Before email. Open the sheet, scan for blanks,…
In September 2023, I missed a $1,400 rent payment for 11 days. Not because the tenant was hiding. Not because there was a dispute. I just forgot to ch…
Google Sheets is great for tracking stuff. But it has one huge flaw: it only works when you're looking at it. It won't tap you on the shoulder and say…
I never planned to build a software product. I'm a landlord. I manage 12 rental units in Colorado. My tech stack was a Google Sheet and a prayer. But …
Google Sheets is one of the best tools for tracking data. But it has a glaring weakness: it can not send you an email when something changes or goes w…
One of the most common Google Sheets automation requests is simple: "email me when a cell changes." Maybe you want to know when a status updates, when…
If you track due dates in Google Sheets - rent payments, invoice deadlines, contract renewals, maintenance follow-ups - you have probably missed one a…
You have a Google Sheet that tracks something important. Payments, deadlines, inventory, tasks. The data is there. The formulas work. But the sheet ju…
Google Sheets notifications are all-or-nothing. You either get emailed on every single edit, or you get nothing. There is no middle ground built in. B…
Google Sheets is a collaboration tool. Multiple people can edit the same sheet. Forms can feed data in. Imports can update values. But by default, you…
Tracking items with due dates in Google Sheets is straightforward. Knowing when those items become overdue without manually checking every day is the …
Google Apps Script is the fastest way to add email functionality to your Google Sheet. You can send alerts when conditions are met, daily summary repo…
Every small business runs on spreadsheets. Invoices, inventory, schedules, budgets, customer lists. Google Sheets and Excel are the unofficial operati…
Tracking due dates in Google Sheets should not require 30 minutes of formula setup every time you start a new project. Here is a ready-to-use template…
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