Recommended Tools & Resources
Just like carpenters use tools and resources to build houses, real estate investors use tools and resources to build their businesses. I created this page to share what I recommend in your real estate investing toolbox. Enjoy!
Some of the tools and resources below have affiliate links, which means my company will earn a small commission if you purchase their product, at no additional cost to you. (See full affiliate disclosure) However, many of the items I recommend don’t pay any commission to me. First and foremost, I chose these tools and resources for their potential usefulness, not whether they make me money. With any product, make sure it fits your needs or goals before spending any money.
Books
I may be a little biased with my two favorite real estate investing books:
The Small & Mighty Real Estate Investor
Discover exactly how to buy, finance, and manage a small portfolio of rental properties that gives you all the flexibility you need.
Retire Early with Real Estate
Tried-and-true real estate strategies to help you escape the 9-to-5 work grind, retire early, and do more with your life.
For Your Real Estate Business
finding real estate deals
DealMachine is a top-rated app that empowers real estate investors by offering access to off-market properties and valuable data for informed decision-making. You can use it to build lists, automate direct mail marketing, drive for dollars, get contact info of owners, organize your leads, and more. If I were starting or growing my rental business again, this would be the one tool I’d use to help me buy more deals.
Start a free 7-day trial or get 45% off a one year subscription
BOOKKEEPING
Quickbooks is my favorite accounting software. It’s flexible and powerful, and it can handle just about any accounting function you need. You can use either the online/cloud-based version or the desktop version. I personally use the desktop version because it costs less and has the functions we like.
LEAD GENERATION
Carrot helps real estate investors build high-performance lead generation websites and landing pages that stand out in your market.
Personal Finance
TRACK YOUR NET WORTH
Empower (formerly Personal Capital) is a free online software that helps you organize and track your net worth and all of your financial accounts. Before Empower I struggled to keep track of my accounts because they were spread out between multiple 401ks/IRAs, banks, real estate investments, and brokerage accounts. Spreadsheets helped, but they were tough to keep up to date. Now, at the click of a button, I have everything automatically up to date, presented in easy-to-understand charts and reports. While Empower is a free tool, they do make money by offering their own mutual funds and advising service – but you’re free to say “No” to those if you aren’t interested.
stocks & bonds investing
Vanguard is the brokerage I use and recommend for stocks and bonds investing and for non-real estate retirement accounts. Their index funds consistently have among the lowest fees of the mutual fund industry. In addition, their entire corporate ownership structure is built to serve investors first, and not to charge excessive fees.
student loans
Student Loan Planner is an amazing resource for those with large student debt balances. My friend Travis founded the website after helping his wife and her friends with their six-figure student loan balances. You can get free advice, refinancing options, or paid consulting depending on your needs.
Cash Back Credit Cards
Cash Back Credit Cards can be an effective tool when choosing the right card, with the best rewards for your situation whether that be travel, cash or rewards points. You can also wisely use rewards cards for business expenses.
Self-Directed 401K/IRA
self-directed iras
Real Estate Investment Using Self-Directed IRAs is a written guide that explains how to use your self-directed retirement account to invest in real estate or related assets like private mortgages and tax liens. The author is Dyches Boddiford, a 40+ year veteran in the business. Dyches has always been the teacher I trust most on this subject. There are MANY pitfalls with expensive consequences if you don’t follow the IRS rules for self-directed accounts. So, this is a must-have for your bookshelf if you are considering this type of retirement investing.
solo 401k
The Solo 401k: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to a Powerful Pension Plan is a written guide about the Solo 401k by Dyches Boddiford and Dorsie Boddiford. This type of account was designed for Americans entrepreneurs with no full-time employees other than the business owner(s) and their spouse(s). What makes it so powerful? Contributions to a Solo 401k can be 2x, 3x, 4x+ higher than limits for a normal IRA. There are no income restrictions for Roth component contributions. And the prohibited transaction penalties are also much kinder in the Solo 401k vs. the IRA.
Rules & Regulations
Rules & Regulations for self-directed IRA/401k accounts are summarized at Wikipedia.com. The article also contains links to some of the relevant laws and IRS publications if you are interested in digging further.
Property Management
Landlord software
Avail.co is a fantastic, free (or low cost) rental property software for the DIY landlord. If you self-manage properties, this website can help you collect rent, market properties, get tenant applications, run credit and background checks, sign digital leases, manage maintenance, and much more.
tenant screening
Rent Marketplace is a free online software that lets you accept tenant applications, order credit/background checks, and complete your lease. It’s all done online with a simple account you can access anywhere. I use this software for a rental my wife and I still own and self-manage outside of my real estate business.
tenant screening
Buildium (paid service) is the software my business partner and I used in the past to self-manage 60 of our investment properties (we currently hired property managers to manage most of them). Getting this software was a game changer for us! We used it to advertise rentals, accept applications, screen tenants, collect online payments, sign leases remotely, track property maintenance, pay bills, do bookkeeping, and more. Buildium helped us systematize and optimize our entire landlord business. Because it’s all done in the cloud, we could manage our business from anywhere.
Property Analysis | Running the Numbers
How to Run The Numbers
How to Run the Numbers for Rental Properties: Back-of-the-Envelope Analysis. This is a comprehensive guide I wrote to help you quickly and confidently run the numbers for rental properties.
Virtual/Paperless Office
paperless filing
Evernote is an online app that helps you categorize, remember, and organize everything. We use it as our paperless filing system for our business. You can read more details about our system in this article (see tool #6).
scanner
Fujitsu iX500 is a top-of-the-line scanner we use to scan all of the paper associated with our business. It’s FAST (40 pages per minute) and smooth, which amazed me after using other clumsy and slow scanners before this one. After scanning, we upload the files to our paperless filing system in Evernote.
Personal Productivity
organization
A Personal Planner is my organization tool of choice. Yes, it’s old school. But I have found that simplicity makes it less distracting and less prone to rabbit holes of unproductive behavior on a smart phone. I’ve written a few articles about how I use my planner, including:
The Collection Habit – How to Get Everything Off Your Mind
5 To-Do Lists That Keep Me Sane
The List of 10 – My Weekly System For Getting Priorities Done
A To-Think List – How to Consistently Stimulate Your Best Thinking
brainstorming
A BIG Sketch Pad is what I use for brainstorming, journaling, planning projects, and taking notes when I attend classes or listen to education online. Your brain power is enormous, and I have found small pieces of paper confine you to small thinking. So, this BIG sketch pad along with your favorite writing utensils do the trick!
annual review
The Annual Review is my ritual towards the end of each year. It’s a process that has helped me set and accomplish more goals than I could have ever imagined. It takes the big visions you have and breaks them into practical, achievable plans for the upcoming year.
book: Getting things Done
Getting Things Done by David Allen is a fantastic book that gave me many of my best productivity habits and systems. If you haven’t read it yet, it’s a must-have on your bookshelf!
book: How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci
How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci by Michael Gelb was a gift to me in college, and I have re-read it many times since. This book helped me become a more creative, well-rounded thinker and person. One exercise from the book, called “100 questions” is life-changing; I do it in my journal every 2-3 years.
heroic
I’m a big fan of Brian Johnson and his app called Heroic. It distills and helps you apply the best wisdom from 600 books he read about personal development, psychology, and living a good life. Brian also wrote an excellent book called “Arete” about his overall philosophy.
I am always looking to learn and grow!
If you have other tools or resources you’d like to recommend, please contact me. Thank you!