Property Operations Software for Self-Managing Landlords
Estavo is rental property management software built for landlords who self-manage their portfolios — not property management firms, not accountants, not enterprise operators. If you’re tracking income, expenses, mortgage payments, insurance renewals, and maintenance requests across one or more rental properties in a spreadsheet, Estavo is what comes next.
It was reverse-engineered from a real Google Sheets system used to manage 11 vacation rental properties in Outer Banks, NC. Every feature exists because a real self-managing landlord needed it.
New to Estavo? Go from sign-up to your first logged transaction in under 10 minutes → Quick Start
What Estavo Does for Rental Property Owners
- Unified income and expense ledger — every dollar in and out, organized by IRS Schedule E categories automatically. No more separate tabs for bookings vs. expenses.
- Obligation tracker with automatic urgency — set up your mortgage, insurance, and utilities once. Estavo generates draft transactions on schedule and flags renewals before they expire.
- Maintenance and vendor management — log work orders from the field, assign contractors, attach photos, and link costs to your expense ledger in one step.
- Tax-ready reports — P&L statements and Schedule E exports mapped line-by-line to IRS categories, ready to hand to your CPA at year end.
- Secure access credential vault — WiFi passwords, door codes, and lockbox combinations encrypted with AES-256-GCM, visible only to Owner and Manager roles.
Who Estavo Is Built For
Estavo is the right tool if you are:
- A self-managing landlord with 1–100 rental units who handles leasing, maintenance, and bookkeeping yourself
- An Airbnb or VRBO host juggling multiple short-term rental properties and booking platforms
- A real estate investor building a portfolio and outgrowing a Google Sheets rental tracker
- A property owner who wants professional-grade financial reporting without hiring a property management company
Estavo is not built for large property management firms, enterprise operators, or landlords who need to collect rent on behalf of tenants. It does not act as a payment gateway — it tracks what you receive and spend.
How Estavo Is Different from Spreadsheets and Generic Accounting Software
| Spreadsheet | QuickBooks / Generic | Estavo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built for rentals | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| IRS Schedule E categories | Manual | Manual | Built-in |
| Obligation auto-drafts | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Per-unit P&L | Complex formulas | ✗ | ✓ |
| Urgency alerts | ✗ | ✗ | Computed automatically |
| Mobile-ready | ✗ | Limited | PWA — works on any phone |
| Short-term rental booking fields | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
The Five Views
Everything in Estavo lives in one of five views — no cluttered nav, no unused modules:
| View | What it’s for |
|---|---|
| Today | Your daily obligation horizon — what’s due, expiring, or checking in today |
| Portfolio | All your properties and units with urgency indicators at a glance |
| Money | The unified ledger — all rental income and expenses in one sortable table |
| Work | Maintenance requests, vendor assignments, and repair cost tracking |
| Reports | P&L statements and Schedule E exports for tax season |
Two Concepts That Differ From Other Tools
Units generate income, not properties. A duplex is one property with two units. Rent attaches to Unit A and Unit B separately. Your mortgage attaches to the property. This keeps per-unit P&L accurate and your Schedule E clean without manual allocation.
Income and expenses are both “transactions.”
There is no separate bookings module or expenses module. Everything is a transaction with a direction: credit for money in, debit for money out. The same ledger handles your Airbnb payouts, monthly rent, repair invoices, and insurance premiums.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is Estavo?
Estavo is property operations software for self-managing landlords and real estate investors. It replaces spreadsheet-based rental tracking with a purpose-built platform that handles income and expense bookkeeping, recurring obligation management, maintenance tracking, and IRS Schedule E reporting for rental portfolios of 1–100 units.
Is Estavo free?
Yes — the free tier is permanent for 1 active rental unit. No credit card required, no time limit. It is not a trial. Paid plans start at $19/month for up to 5 units. See Billing & Plans.
Does Estavo work for both short-term (Airbnb/VRBO) and long-term rentals?
Yes. Each unit has a lease type — short-term or long-term — that controls which features appear. Short-term units get booking platform fields, check-in/out dates, guest name, and a Guest Welcome packet. Long-term units get tenant info and lease date fields. You can have a mixed portfolio with some short-term and some long-term units.
Can I import data from a Google Sheets or Excel spreadsheet?
Yes. Estavo provides CSV templates for properties, units, and transactions. Map your columns once, upload, and review before committing. White-glove migration is available for new subscribers. See Import from Spreadsheet.
Why does my Total Income differ from my bank balance?
Several reasons: transactions not yet entered in Estavo, the date used (transaction date vs. bank settlement date), mortgage principal (which builds equity — not an expense), or unconfirmed draft transactions that haven’t counted yet. See How Financials Work for a complete breakdown.
Does Estavo integrate with Airbnb or VRBO?
Platform sync (automatic booking import from Airbnb, VRBO, etc.) is a Phase 2 feature. Currently, you record bookings manually or import them via CSV. Manual entry takes about 60 seconds per booking.
Is Estavo a mobile app?
Estavo is a Progressive Web App (PWA) — install it from your browser to your iPhone or Android home screen and it runs like a native app with full-screen mode, camera access for receipt photos, and offline support. A native Android app (Expo) with full read/write support is built and headed to Google Play. See Mobile & PWA.