Organized by the job, not by vendor

Landlord Tools
The Toolkit Every Small Landlord Needs

Running a few rentals means doing the books, collecting rent, screening tenants, keeping leases and fixing things, usually in the evenings. Here are the landlord tools for each of those jobs, what they cost, and a simple way to combine them without paying for a platform built for a management company.

See the toolkit See SealedFolio's two plans

Short answer: pick one tool per job and keep the books in one place

Small landlords do best with a short stack: one place for the books and tax reports, one way to collect rent, a screening service, a lease template that fits your state or province, and a maintenance log. Free calculators cover buying and tax estimates. The books are the anchor, because everything else ends up there as income, expenses or a document.

SealedFolio is the books-and-records piece: a desktop app for Mac and Windows that keeps rental transactions, receipts, leases and mileage in an encrypted database on your computer and produces Schedule E and T776. It does not collect rent or screen tenants.

Landlord tools by job

JobWhat the tool doesTypical cost model
Bookkeeping and taxCategorizes income and expenses by property, stores receipts, produces Schedule E or T776Monthly or annual subscription; free tools earn from banking or payments
Rent collectionTenants pay by bank transfer or card, with reminders and late feesPer-transaction fees, often paid by the tenant
Tenant screeningCredit, criminal and eviction reports with the applicant's consentPer report, usually paid by the applicant
Leases and e-signingState or province specific lease templates, addenda and signaturesPer document or bundled with a platform
MaintenanceWork orders, vendor contacts and repair history per unitBundled with platforms or a simple log
Mileage logTrips to rentals, hardware stores and the bank, at the IRS rateFree apps or part of your bookkeeping tool
CalculatorsCap rate, cash flow, cash on cash, depreciation, 1031 and rent vs buyFree

Free landlord calculators from SealedFolio

These run in your browser, and the numbers you enter are not sent anywhere. All of them are listed on the free landlord calculators page.

Example: a three-tool stack for four rentals

Diagram of the landlord tools example: four rentals collecting 6,250 dollars a month, with rent collection, bookkeeping and mileage tools
Landlord tools: a three-tool stack for four rentals. Diagram by SealedFolio.
  1. Rent. Four tenants paying $1,350, $1,425, $1,600 and $1,875 a month, $6,250 in total, pay through a rent collection service whose ACH fee the tenant pays, so it costs the landlord $0 a month. Deposits land in the rental bank account.
  2. Books. The landlord imports the bank statement into a bookkeeping app once a month, categorizes 40 to 60 transactions and attaches receipts. Over the year that is about $75,000 of rent and $31,000 of expenses across four properties.
  3. Year-end. In February the Schedule E report goes to the preparer with the mileage total (say 1,120 miles) and depreciation, instead of a shoebox and a spreadsheet.

Screening and leases are bought per applicant and per lease when a unit turns over. With SealedFolio as the books piece, the yearly software cost for four rentals is the Portfolio plan at $297 a year, since Pro at $179 a year covers up to 3 properties.

What SealedFolio covers in the landlord toolkit

What it does not do: collect rent, screen tenants, sign leases or publish listings. For a ranked look at full platforms, see the best rental property software guide, and for private, offline options the local property management software page.

The books-and-records tool in your stack

SealedFolio Pro is $19 a month or $179 a year for up to 3 properties. Portfolio is $39 a month or $297 a year for unlimited properties. Both come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

See SealedFolio pricing

Landlord tools: frequently asked questions

What tools does a small landlord need?

Five jobs need covering: bookkeeping and tax reports, rent collection, tenant screening, leases, and maintenance tracking. Add a mileage log, a place for receipts and documents, and a few calculators for buying decisions. One platform rarely does all of it well, so most landlords combine two or three tools.

What are the best free landlord tools?

Free calculators for cap rate, cash flow, cash on cash return, depreciation and 1031 exchanges handle most buying and tax estimates. Several online rent collection platforms have no monthly fee and charge tenants or charge per transaction instead. Free bookkeeping tools usually make money from banking, payments or upgrades, so check how before you rely on one.

Do I need property management software or separate landlord tools?

With a few units, separate tools for each job are often cheaper and better than one platform built for management companies. Property management software starts to pay off when you have staff, owners to report to or dozens of units.

Which landlord tools keep data off the cloud?

Most landlord platforms are web apps that store tenant and financial data on the vendor's servers. A desktop app such as SealedFolio keeps the books, receipts and leases in an encrypted database on your own computer.