The Best Low-Cost Tools for Managing a Growing HMO Portfolio

Photo by Snug Properties

At the beginning, it all feels manageable. A few tenants, some certificates in your inbox, WhatsApp messages with contractors and folders scattered across your laptop. But as portfolios grow, the admin grows with them and suddenly you are wasting time searching for documents, chasing reminders and trying to remember where everything lives.

The good news is that systemising your portfolio does not need to be complicated and you don’t need expensive subscriptions or the latest AI tool. In fact, a few simple tools early on can save huge amounts of stress later.

The first step is deciding where all your files live

Most property investors use one of the following:

  • Google Drive
  • Dropbox
  • OneDrive / Microsoft 365

The platform itself matters less than consistency.

Google Drive is excellent for collaboration, working on live documents together and easy sharing with VAs, investors, lenders. Dropbox – easy to use but be aware that if you share a  folder with someone it will consume the other person’s storage and possibly trigger them to upgrade just to view your files. Microsoft OneDrive is best if you already have a Microsoft set up, or if you use Excel heavily.

Whichever you choose, keep everything in one platform.

Create a simple folder structure

When organising our clients’ files, we usually organise them by property owner (if a company) and then property.

For example:

  • XYZ Property Ltd
    • 12 High Street
      • Lettings
      • Compliance
      • Finance
      • Maintenance

Sync the folders to your desktop using the Dropbox/GoogleDrive/OneDrive for desktop app, so that moving files around on your computer and uploading to the Cloud becomes quick and natural.

If you work with a VA, cloud storage makes collaboration incredibly easy because they can see and organise your documents for you from anywhere.

Using email labels and folders

Most stress comes from messy inboxes (if it’s not coming from tricky tenants!).

Create email labels or folders that mirror your property folders. If you have a folder for “12 High Street” in Google Drive, create the same label in your email account with a subfolder for “Compliance”. 

You can even automate saving attachments sent by email straight into your property folders in Google Drive etc using tools like Zapier or Make.

This works brilliantly for:

  • Letting agent statements
  • Gas safety certificates
  • Mortgage paperwork
  • Contractor invoices

Small automations save huge amounts of admin time over a year.

Use simple tools to track your to-dos and expiry dates

You do not need complicated software at the beginning.

Your calendar is one of the best admin tools you already have. Use one off reminders or recurring events for inspections, renewals and compliance deadlines.

Simple apps like:

  • Apple Reminders
  • Todoist
  • Microsoft To Do

can also help you track actions without becoming overwhelming and they will notify you when the tasks are due.

For maintenance and compliance, even a basic Google Sheet can work well. You can use conditional formatting (how? Just ask Google or ChatGPT!) which will colour-code expiry dates as they draw closer, and track outstanding issues and monitor progress very simply.

Use email for reporting maintenance, not WhatsApp

WhatsApp becomes chaotic surprisingly quickly as portfolios grow. 

Email may feel old-fashioned, it creates a much cleaner audit trail and keeps communication easier to track later – especially when you start working with a VA.

Tenants also tend to communicate more clearly and less impulsively over email than instant messaging.

Know when it is time for a CRM

Once you move beyond around 12-15 tenants, a proper CRM usually starts becoming worthwhile as a single source of truth for your portfolio.

Systems like COHO help centralise and streamline:

  • Compliance
  • Maintenance
  • Tenant onboarding
  • Tenant communication
  • Document storage
  • Reminders
  • Rental income visibility 

One mistake we see regularly is property investors waiting far too long before implementing systems. It becomes much harder to systemise once the portfolio is large and habits are already deeply embedded.

Final thoughts

Systemising your portfolio is not about becoming corporate, overcomplicating things or paying for multiple subscriptions. It is about reducing stress and creating structure before the admin becomes overwhelming.

The earlier you put simple systems in place, the easier growth becomes later.

One of our core services is helping property investors organise and streamline their admin. We regularly audit client systems, organise their folders and workflows and help property investors move from reactive chaos to far smoother property management.

Reach out to us to explore how Beam’s virtual property admin team can take this off your plate.

About the Author:

Jane Scroggs and Taran Hughes are the founders of Beam Virtual Property Support, in partnership with The HMO Roadmap. Their team of virtual assistants handles all aspects of lettings, compliance, credit control and property maintenance, always focused on streamlining your operations. Learn more about Taran and Jane here.