The questions we actually get.

No. You pay nothing until RentCaddie has collected your first rent, for up to 60 days. No credit card to start. After your first rent lands you have 7 days to choose a plan. You get every Pro feature for up to 25 active leases.

Starter covers the core toolkit for smaller operations. Pro supports up to 25 active leases and adds automation, reporting, inspections, and vendor workflows. Portfolio adds unlimited active leases, team controls, smart locks, short-term rentals, AI operations, and priority support.

Yes. Cancel from your dashboard with one click. You keep access until the end of the billing period. No contracts, no penalty.

Yes. Paying for the year up front gives you two months free compared with paying monthly — $64 on Starter, $472 on Pro, $1,192 on Portfolio. The Pricing page shows both prices for every plan.

There is no RentCaddie setup fee. You can use the Smart Importer for supported files; contact us if you need hands-on migration help so we can review the scope.

A fresh workspace can be started in a few minutes. Migration time depends on the source, amount, and condition of your data.

No. If you can use Gmail, you can use RentCaddie. The onboarding wizard walks you through adding properties, importing tenants, configuring rent collection, and setting up your resident portal.

Use the Smart Importer with a supported export, or contact us before sharing access so we can confirm what can be migrated and how long it should take.

The Smart Importer can map supported spreadsheets into RentCaddie. Review the preview carefully before importing, especially current balances and lease dates.

It works at any size, but it really starts paying for itself around 3+ doors or any co-living configuration. Below that, free tools may be enough — we'll tell you honestly if we don't think you need us yet.

Tenants can pay by ACH or card through Stripe when the property manager has completed Stripe Connect onboarding. Stripe processing fees apply. Cash and check payments can also be recorded in RentCaddie.

Stripe processes the payment on the property manager's connected Stripe account and pays out according to that account's schedule. RentCaddie does not hold tenant funds.

Stripe controls payment confirmation, availability, and payout timing. ACH commonly takes longer than cards, and timing can vary by account and risk review.

Native co-living support. Each roommate has their own lease, their own portal login, their own rent obligation, their own ledger. They each pay their share independently. No more chasing one person for everyone's money.

Stripe reports failed payments so the tenant can correct the payment method and try again. RentCaddie keeps the balance visible and can apply configured late-fee rules separately.

Yes. Per-template config: flat amount on day N + daily accrual after. Late fees post to the tenant ledger automatically and show on next month's invoice. Per-state caps are surfaced as guardrails, not enforced.

Each property has a public application link you can share directly or post anywhere. Applicants fill out the application, upload identification and pay stubs, and sign a screening authorization — all on their phone in about 10 minutes.

Up to you. Set an application fee (or waive it) in your application settings and it shows on your public listing. RentCaddie does not collect the fee for you today — you collect it directly from the applicant.

RentCaddie organizes applications, supporting documents, references, and screening information. Available screening data depends on the provider you use. Property managers remain responsible for lawful criteria, notices, and decisions.

Yes. Allow guarantors in your application settings and the applicant adds their cosigner, who gets their own private link, completes their own application, and signs the lease alongside the tenant.

Have them upload their last 2 years of tax returns and 3 months of business bank statements. You review the documents and decide if the income qualifies.

Yes — a Co-living Lease template ships in your workspace. You can customize section-by-section, add custom variables, set per-section initial requirements, and save your own templates. Upload an existing PDF lease as a one-off if you prefer.

RentCaddie supports an electronic-signing workflow and records signing activity. Whether a particular agreement is legally enforceable depends on the document, the parties, and applicable law, so property managers should use approved lease forms and obtain legal advice when needed.

Yes. Drop a PDF into the approve modal during lease creation, drag signature/date/initial fields onto the right pages, send for signing. You can save it as a reusable template afterward.

Signed documents are stored with your workspace. Available copies and signing records can be accessed from the relevant lease workflow.

Use the Amend Lease flow from the tenant drawer. Pick the amendment type (rent change, term extension, add roommate, parking, utilities, custom), set effective date, send for e-sign. On tenant signature, the lease auto-updates and future rent charges cascade.

60 days before lease end, send a renewal offer with your terms (new rate, new dates). Tenant accepts in-portal, signs the renewal addendum, and the new term auto-applies. If they decline, the lease ends naturally or auto-converts to month-to-month (your choice per lease).

Yes. Schedule E-ready chart of accounts: rent income, late fees, deposits, operating expenses (by IRS category), capital expenses with depreciation schedule, per-property P&L. Every number traces back to the underlying ACH deposit or vendor invoice.

QuickBooks CSV export is built in. Direct API sync is on the roadmap. For most owner-operators the CSV monthly is sufficient — fewer moving parts.

RentCaddie categorizes every expense to the correct Schedule E line (Advertising, Repairs, Utilities, Insurance, Mortgage Interest, Depreciation, etc.) as you enter them. At year-end, generate the per-property Schedule E PDF, hand it to your CPA, done.

Automatic 1099 tracking on vendors. We flag vendors who hit the $600 threshold, you confirm their W-9 info, and we generate the 1099-NEC PDFs at year-end. Print and mail.

Each property has an owner-entity tag. Filter all reports by entity. Property-level P&L rolls up to the LLC level for separate Schedule E submissions.

Team access and reporting permissions depend on your plan and the roles currently available in the product. Contact us if you need a specific accountant workflow before subscribing.

A clean, mobile-first resident portal where tenants can make available payments, view shared lease information and documents, submit maintenance requests, and message their property manager.

No. The resident portal works in any web browser on phone or desktop — nothing to install. Tenants can add it to their home screen so it opens like an app, but it's never required.

We use safeguards designed to protect personal information. See the Privacy Policy for details. Access controls are designed to keep each resident within the records shared with their account, but no online service can guarantee absolute security.

Once their property manager has connected Stripe, a tenant can turn on autopay from the portal: they choose a saved bank account or card, pick the day (the rent due date by default), and agree to a written authorization. Each month only the rent still unpaid that day is taken — never more than they owe — and they can pause or turn it off at any time. Stripe processing fees and settlement timing apply.

60 days out, they get a renewal offer (if you've sent one). If they accept and sign, lease continues. If they decline, they fill out a move-out checklist in-portal, schedule the move-out inspection, and we cancel future rent charges automatically.

RentCaddie uses safeguards designed to protect data in transit and at rest, together with access controls, logging, and workspace separation. No online service can guarantee absolute security.

RentCaddie has not completed its own SOC 2 audit and does not claim SOC 2 certification. We review security and compliance needs as the product and customer requirements evolve.

Access is limited to people who need it to operate, secure, or support the service, as described in our Privacy Policy.

Your workspace data remains yours. Contact support to request an export, and review the Privacy Policy for retention and deletion terms. Your connected Stripe account remains separate from RentCaddie.

Email legal@rentcaddie.com to discuss your requirements and whether we can provide an appropriate agreement for your use case.

When you set up a new resident's lease, their Security Deposit goes on their account as soon as it's signed and is the first step on their resident page. Paying it holds their room. They can pay it any time before move-in day.

1. Open Tenants, press New tenant, type their name and press Next.
2. The lease setup opens. On Financials, the Security Deposit is set to Collect with its due date.
3. Once the lease is signed, their page shows "Pay your Security Deposit" as step one.

Yes. New leases collect first month's rent up front by default, due the day before move-in, so it's on their account from the day the lease is signed and they can pay it with their deposit. You can switch that off for any tenant on the Financials step.

1. Paying online: on their resident page, they tick "Also pay first month's rent" beside the Pay button and pay both together.
2. Paying you outside RentCaddie (cash, check, Zelle, Venmo, Cash App or PayPal): open Tenant Ledger, pick the resident, press Record a payment, choose how they paid, and enter the full amount.
3. Either way, their ledger shows the money paid ahead, and it pays the first month on its due date.

Monthly rent goes on each resident's account on its due date — the 1st for most leases — so before move-in only the Security Deposit shows. Rent also waits until the Security Deposit is paid, so nobody is billed for a room they have not secured. They can still pay their first month's rent early.

You can mark it paid right on the roster, and doing that records the expense for you. Each cleaner's card has a Record payment button with what they earned for the cleans still unpaid; save it and RentCaddie adds a cleaning expense for each place they cleaned, dated the day you paid, and the card shows Paid with the date and amount. Those cleans can't be paid twice, so if you pay on the 1st for last month, switch the roster to last month first.

1. Open Short-term rentals and choose the Roster tab.
2. Set the period to the month you are paying for.
3. On the cleaner's card, press Record payment.
4. Check the amount, the date you paid and how you paid, then press Record payment.

Yes, on every plan. On their application, your applicant adds each cosigner by name and email and marks them Guarantor. Each cosigner gets their own private link, fills in their own application, and signs the lease on their own link when you approve. Two cosigners are allowed unless you changed the limit.

1. Open Applications and press Send application link to send your applicant the form.
2. On the step called Additional, they press Add another under Other adults on the lease, once for each cosigner.
3. For each one they enter the name, email and date of birth, and pick Guarantor under On the lease as.
4. Each cosigner is emailed their own application. All of them show together with your applicant on the Applications screen.
5. When you approve the applicant, the cosigners carry onto the lease and each one signs on their own link.
6. To allow more than two, or to turn cosigners off, open your application form settings and look under Co-applicant / guarantor.

Add your bill address as a forwarding address in Gmail and RentCaddie approves Gmail's confirmation for you, usually in under a minute. There is no code to find and no link to open. After that, a Gmail filter sends each bill from your utility company to your Bill Inbox, where it waits on Expenses for your Confirm.

1. Open Settings, then Bill Inbox, and copy your bill address.
2. In Gmail on a computer, open Settings, See all settings, Forwarding and POP/IMAP.
3. Press Add a forwarding address, paste your bill address, then press Next, Proceed and OK.
4. Wait a minute and reload the Gmail page. Your bill address no longer says it needs verifying. Leave Forwarding set to Disable so only your bills are sent.
5. Open the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab and press Create a new filter.
6. In From, type your utility company's email address, then press Create filter.
7. Tick Forward it to, pick your bill address, and press Create filter.

Yes. A forwarded utility bill is booked to its home or unit and each resident is charged the share their own lease says, with nothing for you to press. Only the first bill from a company waits for your Confirm. If the lease says you cover the first part of the bill, that comes off first; what is left is split between the residents by the days each lived there, and days when nobody lived there are yours.

1. Forward the bill to your bill address, or set your email to forward it by itself. The address is on Settings, then Bill Inbox.
2. Open Expenses. The first bill from a company waits at the top with the home, the months it covers and what each resident will pay. Press Confirm.
3. Every later bill from that account posts by itself. Each resident is charged, told, and you get a notice of what was charged.
4. To look at one company's bills first, open Settings, then Bill Inbox, and switch that company back to waiting for a tap.
5. A resident whose lease says you pay utilities is never charged. To change that, open their lease and create a lease addendum with new utility terms.

6 months of Pro free, everything included, no credit card. A video review adds 3 months and a written review adds 3 more. After that Pro is $236 a month. Each review counts once, and only after your first rent has come through RentCaddie and while your free time is still running. A review does not have to be positive to count. No card is on file, so nothing is charged unless you choose a plan.

1. Open Billing to see the date your free time runs to.
2. Collect your first rent through RentCaddie. Reviews count from that day.
3. Record a video of at least 30 seconds about how you use RentCaddie, with no resident's name or details showing, and email it to hello@rentcaddie.com.
4. Write a review in your own words and email it to hello@rentcaddie.com.
5. Open Billing again. The date has moved on by three months for each review we recorded.

They can type their routing and account numbers instead of signing in to their bank. The bank list has a link at the bottom to enter bank details by hand; the payment then confirms with two small deposits in their account in one to two business days. If they need it to count today, they can pay by debit or credit card on the same screen, or pay you another way and you record it.

1. On the bank screen, they tap "Enter bank details manually instead" at the bottom of the list of banks.
2. They type the routing and account number from their bank's app or a check.
3. When two small deposits reach their account, they confirm the amounts on their resident page and the payment goes through.
4. Paying you outside RentCaddie instead: open Tenant Ledger, pick the resident, press Record a payment and choose how they paid.

Change that month's rent bill itself. On the day the month's rent appears on their ledger, open the bill, lower the amount and say why in the description. Their rent on the lease stays the same, so the next month bills the full amount again. Do it before they pay that month, because a bill can't be lowered below what has already been paid on it.

1. Open Tenant Ledger and pick the resident.
2. On the morning that month's rent appears, tap the pencil on that rent bill.
3. Change the amount (for example, $725 to $675) and add the reason to the description, like "$50 off for the window repair".
4. Press Save changes. The resident sees the lower amount on their page.

Only if you choose to be. Rent paid to you directly (Zelle, Venmo, check or cash) has no fee at all; you record it on the resident's ledger. When residents pay through RentCaddie, the resident pays the fee by default: 0.8% up to $5 by bank transfer, 2.9% plus 30 cents by card, and RentCaddie adds nothing on top.

1. Open Settings, then Payments.
2. Under Who pays the processing fee, choose the resident or you, for bank transfer and for card separately.
3. Any fee you cover is recorded as a business expense.