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LandlordMax Newsletter - Preview of new Accounting Customization Feature

Although we expected to have the new version of LandlordMax released before now I'm very happy and excited to report that we're extremely close! Right now we're in the final stages, we're in what we call the feature stabilization phase of the release. Basically this means we're in the final stages of fully testing and preparing the software for the release. Assuming all goes well the new version will be released before the end of this month. Yes we're that close!!

As such, and before I get to the preview, I do want to take a moment to let you know that we're planning to slightly increase the price of the Desktop Edition with this new release. As with everything else prices do go up with time because of inflation, and as such this will be our first price increase for the Desktop Edition in over 5 years, so it's definitely been due for some time. Therefore to thank you for subscribing to this newsletter, I'm giving you a heads up to potentially save you a some money by upgrading your license before the new version is released so that you can avoid the price increase (it also applies to the 50% upgrade discount). As well we will be changing the upgrade policy somewhat which will affect all Editions. You can read more details about this in the section called LandlordMax Price Update.

This newsletter also includes a preview video of one of the big new features of the software, the ability to customize your accounting view. That is to say you'll be able to select which columns you want to appear in the accounting tables, which order you want the columns to be in, as well as what sorting order you want each column to have. You can read more about this in the section called LandlordMax Preview.

Lastly, the other major topic of this newsletter is about the release date of the new version of LandlordMax. Although as a policy we do not officially state a release date, what I can tell you unofficially is that we're extremely close. I can also officially tell you that this is going to be the last newsletter until the new version is released. The next newsletter is going to be the announcement of the release!

LandlordMax Price Update

Firstly I'm very excited to announce Version 11.05 of LandlordMax which will be released very shortly. This version number is official and will not change, even if in the extremely small chance that the software is released at the start of next month. We're officially confirming the version number to assist those who want to upgrade now before the new version is released to take advantage of the current price.

Before I continue I'm going to take a moment to explain to you how the version numbers works in case you're not familiar with it. The version number of the software is the year it was released followed by the month, and lastly the letter is the update. Therefore version 6.05 was released in our 6th year of business. The month is a bit more complicated in that January is 00, February is 01, and so on. After the version number you'll generally find a letter, this indicates the update number of that version. Therefore the current version 6.05f has been updated 6 times (a, b, c, d, e, and f). You can view the different updates for version 6.05 at: http://www.landlordmax.com/support/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=76

As such I suspect you're immediately wondering why we're releasing this new version as 11.05. Yes it's because it's been 5 years since we've had an official major version release. Actually that's not true by any means, what it actually means is that it's been 5 years since we've increased the version number. We've had major upgrades to the software, we just didn't increase the version number to make it easier for our customers. By this I mean version 6.05 could be defined as 2-3 major upgrades rather than one single version number. In other words some of our "minor" upgrades to version 6.05 added so much new functionality and features that in themselves they could be considered their own major releases.

For example version 6.05e should've been released as a new version number but was instead released as a minor update. If you look at the Release Notes for version 6.05: http://www.landlordmax.com/support/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=76 you will find that version 6.05e is really a major new version in terms of the number of features added (especially if you combine it with the other new features over the other previous lettered updates). The only reason we didn't upgrade the version number for version 6.05e was to make it a lot simpler and easier for people who wanted to upgrade from the Desktop Edition to one of the Network Editions (Soho, Pro, and Enterprise Editions). Doing this saved people from first having to upgrade versions and then Editions. Instead we just decided to allow them to upgrade Editions without having to worry about the version they were currently on. Quite a lot of people took advantage of this opportunity which is great!

Another big advantage we offer is that with any purchase of the software we give you up to a year of free upgrades with your purchase. This means that if a new major version of the software is released within less than a year of your purchase it's included with your license. As an example, let's say you buy Windows 8 today from Microsoft and they release Windows 9 ten months after your purchase, do you get to upgrade to Windows 9 for free? Not with Microsoft. However with LandlordMax you would get to upgrade for free as part of your license! We don't know of any competitor who offers this. In fact most of our competitors require monthly or yearly subscriptions, nevermind getting free upgrades!! And of those that do, it's only as long as their refund policy.

In addition to the free upgrades, we also offer you a 50% discount on all upgrades when you do upgrade. So not only did you get some free upgrades in the past, they are discounted by 50%.

In case you're wondering why we offer free upgrades with your license, the intent is to remove any worries you may have that a new version will be released after you purchase the software, that if the next month, or even if several months later a new version is released it's included with your license. It is NOT a subscription service, nor are you guaranteed to get any additional upgrades, it's mainly there so that you don't have to worry new versions will be available shortly after you purchase the software because you would get them up to a year after your purchase. Again the intent is to remove any worries you may have that a new version is going to be coming out just around the corner.

If you want to know up to which version your license includes you can go to the About Workarea in the software and it will tell you up to exactly what version your license includes. You can also the instructions on how to do this in the following page of the online user manual: http://www.landlordmax.com/support/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=112

Having said all that we're expecting to make some changes to both the price and upgrade policy of the license. The price increase will only affect the Desktop Edition (the Network Editions will stay the same price). The change to the upgrade policy however will affect all versions.

Firstly the Desktop Edition of the software has been priced at $165 for over 5-6 years. As with everything else, including your real estate rental units, prices do have to be adjust for inflation with time. Therefore the Desktop Edition will increase to $199 with the release of version 11.05. This basically adjusts the price of $165 for inflation since the last price increase.

As for the upgrade policy of 1 year of upgrades, this will be adjusted to 3 months. We are doing this for a number of reasons, the most important being that it confuses quite a lot of people. To the point we've had to remove it from our website as a benefit with your purchase. Many people would incorrectly view our upgrade benefit as a yearly subscription fee which it is NOT! Therefore we will no longer promoting it as a benefit and adjusting it to three months. This is expected to significantly reduce confusions people had. And although we're shortening the length of free upgrades this is still much higher than the industry norms, and it's still the best that we know of within our industry. We don't know of any other property management software company that offers 3 months of free upgrades with your purchase. Most companies will only offer free upgrades for as long as you can request a refund where you can just re-buy the software. If you're using a SaaS (hosted, cloud based, etc.) solution then you just pay each month regardless of whether or not there are any upgrades to the software. In other words we don't know of any competitor who offers as good a deal for upgrades as we do, even after the length adjustment.

That all being said, we will continue to offer the current price of $165 for the Desktop Edition on the website as well as the year of upgrades with every purchase of LandlordMax until the new version is out. This means that if you upgrade now you will be able to save some money on your purchase of any upgrade of the Desktop Edition before the new version is released. You will also get up to a year of upgrades rather than the upcoming adjustment to three months. And just to re-iterate, although we do not have an official release date we are expecting to release the new version any day now. Therefore if you want to take advantage of this deal we do recommend you do it sooner than later because it will no longer be available once the new version is released.

LandlordMax Preview

As I mentioned in the introduction the new version of LandlordMax is going to include the ability to customize the Accounting section quite significantly according to your needs.

What we found through support requests over time is that different people have different needs as to what data they need to view in the accounting tables. In the current and past versions the Description field was designed so that it could be completely open ended and was guaranteed to be in every screen and report (the Description field will continue to be available on all reports). However what we found is that in some cases this just wasn't enough information, or the information may have been truncated on smaller screens, and so on.

Therefore what we're introducing with the upcoming new version is the ability to customize your columns, to select which columns you want to see in the accounting tables. And not only can you select which columns you want to see, you can select in what order they appear, what width they will be, and so on. The biggest benefits of this is that it allows people with very different needs and screen sizes to display what information is most important to them. This feature is going to be available for the main accounting table, the Scheduled entries, and the Suggested entries.

In addition to that the printout as well as the CSV export (that is the ability to export the table to a CSV file which you can then open as an Excel spreadsheet) will also include the columns you selected, as well as the ordering, and so on. This way whatever you see in the accounting screen, whichever columns you want included or excluded, will be exportable to an Excel spreadsheet as well.

Without further ado you can view the video preview of this feature by clicking on the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2j04KMUO1k Just another quick tip, if you look closely at the screen you may notice some other new features coming up such as the ability to print checks and so on.

Other News:

LandlordMax Tip:

A feature that's often overlooked within LandlordMax is the ability to manage different Accounts. For those of you who expect to start printing checks with the software, you may want to take a moment to view the following video which explains how you can setup and manage different accounts: https://www.landlordmax.com/releaseNotesV605/Accounts/Accounts.htm And if you haven't already viewed the video of the new accounting features above then you might want to as it shows the new Accounts filter that's going to be available in the upcoming version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2j04KMUO1k

Property Management Tip:

We receive a fair number of requests from people looking for an SaaS solution, that is cloud based, hosted service, or hosted website, that they can use to manage and access all their data. This is great in concept as it allows you to use different computers and always have all your data with you. The problem is that most people don't realize it also comes with some potentially very high risks that they most likely are not aware of because that's due to the type of data they are managing. This is especially true for systems critical to your business operations. If you have been considering these types of services then it is strongly recommended you read the following article to fully and properly understand all the pros and cons of such solutions and services: http://www.followsteph.com/2012/04/19/what-are-the-risks-of-cloud-services/

Industry News, Information, and Recommendations:

• Is it better to buy or rent?
• $28.25: The minimum wage D.C would need to support a modest 2-bedroom
• What you'd need to make in every county in America to afford a decent one-bedroom
• Bubble to bust to recovery
• The San Francisco housing crisis explained
  

LandlordMax Testimonials of the Month:

"Big thanks for the quick and helpful response.  I am tutoring another property manager at another apartment complex who just recently purchased the software at my recommendation.  I am walking her through the setup and how to begin using the software."
- Joel

"I really appreciate you time, help, and understanding! The support has been great!"
- Troy Christman

"Thank you very much for the quick, detailed response. Each time I have emailed with questions you have responded promptly with clear answers. This is much appreciated!"
-Michael Villopoto

"Thank you for the info. I love your software. We own/manage 170 properties across 5 LLCs and it does everything we need."
- Janet Canoles