10 Things You NEED as a DIY Landlord (Self-Managing Rentals)

BiggerPockets Blog
Published: October 15, 2025
Hosting Operations

Summary

This article from BiggerPockets discusses 10 essential tools for DIY landlords, emphasizing the importance of property management software, vendor lists, and project management systems. Hosts should consider adopting these tools to streamline operations, improve guest communication, and scale their businesses, while also highlighting the importance of avoiding the common mistake of thinking managing a rental is simply collecting rent.

Key Insights

  • Building a reliable vendor list, including contact information and service details, helps in efficient property maintenance and avoiding unnecessary delays.
  • Property management software can be used for guest communication, vendor management, and managing calendars across different booking platforms.

Action Items

  • Hosts should integrate project management software with vendor lists to improve coordination.
    Effort: medium
    Impact: medium

Tools & Resources

  • Buildium: The article mentions Buildium.
  • Guesty: The article mentions Guesty.
  • Breezeway: The article mentions Breezeway as a tool for maintenance.
  • TurboTenant: The article mentions TurboTenant.
  • RentRedi: The article mentions RentRedi.
  • AppFolio: The article mentions several property management software options, including AppFolio, Buildium, RentRedi, TurboTenant, Hospitable, and Guesty.
  • Hospitable: The article mentions Hospitable.

Common Mistakes

  • Rookies often assume managing a rental is just collecting rent and mowing the lawn, failing to account for the need for systems, tools, and backup plans to handle issues and scale efficiently.

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