Small landlords manage rent collection, maintenance requests, and lease tracking in spreadsheets and text messages

A landlord with 3-15 rental units collects rent via Venmo/Zelle with no automated tracking, receives maintenance requests via text message with no ticket system, stores lease expiration dates in a spreadsheet they forget to check, and calculates security deposit deductions by hand. When a tenant disputes a charge, the landlord scrolls through 6 months of text messages to find the relevant conversation. So what? Small landlords (1-20 units) own 48% of all rental units in the US — roughly 23 million units. They are running a real business on consumer tools designed for friends splitting dinner. Missed rent reminders, lost maintenance requests, forgotten lease renewals, and security deposit disputes cost small landlords an estimated $3,000-8,000 per year in lost rent and legal exposure. Why does this persist in the first place? Property management software (Buildium, AppFolio, Rent Manager) is designed for 50+ unit portfolios and costs $200-500/month — absurdly expensive for someone with 5 units generating $8K/month. The free tools (Avail, TurboTenant) cover rent collection but not maintenance tracking, lease management, or communication in one place. No product serves the 3-15 unit landlord with an all-in-one tool at a price point that makes sense for their scale.