LandlordMax Newsletter - LandlordMax version 6.05e daily update status now available online

Much like before we continue to work incredibly hard to get the networked and multi-user version released as soon as possible, working pretty much 7 days a week! Although it's not yet available, as of today we're going to start publicly publishing our daily status update on our website for you to be able to see the latest status update. And for you newsletter subscribers, you're going to be the first to see the link and status update!! We will start to publicly mention it, but you are guys are going to be the first to have access to it. A special bonus to you guys which I'll describe shortly.

LandlordMax News and Updates:

Desktop version:

Since the last newsletter we did a silent update of LandlordMax version 6.05d for the Mac OS to resolve a new issue that came due to a new feature in the latest Mac OS X (Mountain Lion). Specifically Apple has decided to include what they call a new "feature" in their system that by default will not allow any downloaded software to be installed unless it's signed. Which means that if you tried to download run the installer it would've said the file was corrupted and so on, which is incorrect and very misleading.

As a workaround you can lower the strictness level of their Gatekeeper "feature" which helped resolve this issue for LandlordMax and many other software solutions. However to permanently stop this issue from happening we had to purchase and acquire a code signing certificate from Apple which verifies our identity. This took a bit of time but we were eventually able to get it processed with some direct help from Apple. Basically this cost us a person week of effort but on the positive side it's now done for the networked version too. For those who are interested in getting more details about this new feature from Apple, the following support page from Apple themselves explains it in more detail: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5290

In any case, we did do a silent release which resolved this issue once and for all. And it only affects new users of the software, existing people will not gain any benefits from re-downloading and re-installing the software unless it's on a new Mac.

Beyond that, as part of our continuing efforts for the networked version we were able to achieve some significant performance improvements for the desktop version, as well as some feature enhancements with the upcoming version 6.05e release. And of course it will be possible transition from one offering (desktop to network and vice versa) to the other with some limitations. For example you will only be allowed to login to the desktop with an Administrator level authentication (username and password) if you try to access a networked database on a desktop system, which is perfectly understandable security wise.

Networked version update:

Now onto the news that more people are interested in right now. We're continuing to get a LOT of progress towards releasing the networked version. And I do mean a LOT! However as we move forward we've encountered a lot of new tasks (and some bug fixes) that we hadn't initially realized in our estimates. Some items that we hadn't planned for as little as a couple of  months ago.

The biggest example is with the latest Mac OS release. Above the code signing effort that I just mentioned which we needed to get done for the networked version anyways, Apple has now dropped integrated support for the Java VM which means that it now has to be bundled within the LandlordMax installer. That in itself isn't that big a deal, the problem is that we can only really bundle Java 7 for the latest Mac OS and the software currently uses Java 6. We've been wanting to upgrade for some time but we were hoping to wait until the next major release.

Unfortunately we no longer had any choice but to do it now. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal but as the system is more and more complex, well let's just say we found out not all libraries used with LandlordMax were Java 7 compatible. Not only that, but one library in particular will not work at all on the Mac OS with Java 7. Which then lead us up the path of having to upgrade a few libraries to their latest versions which in turn caused quite a bit of effort for us to adjust the software to work with their upgraded features and changes.

On the positive side, version 6.05e will be Java 7 based. What does this means for you you ask? To be quite honest not all that much other than you should see a noticeable performance improvement because we definitely noticed it ourselves. But other than that it shouldn't affect you much other than it's current. From our side there are a lot of benefits and enhancements within the language that are helpful for programming the software that we've already started to take advantage of.

On the negative side though it did affect us quite significantly. We probably lost a good month of effort upgrading to Java 7. Not a person month, but a full staff month. Again we would've preferred to delay it to after the networked version was released but unfortunately Apple's decision to no longer natively support Java forced us to upgrade it sooner than later.

In terms of larger scale unexpected efforts, hopefully this is the last big one. To use Donald Rumsfeld's term, hopefully this is our last big unknown unknown.

Beyond that most of the tasks we're working on right now are of the variety "What happens if an Administrator updates/changes a users authentication while they are logged in?" In this particular scenario for example you probably want to automatically logout the user as they are no longer authorized. Of course to prevent someone from being accidentally logged out in the middle of their work, we'll need to add some logic in the program to tell the Administrator that the user is currently logged in and that changing their authentication information will log that user out, and confirm if they are sure they want to proceed. But the option to immediately change someone's credentials (password) or log them out needs to be available in case an employee is terminated and/or security purposes. In other words are there impacts to our design we didn't notice while developing it as we test it.

That being said, basically what it comes down to now is completing all the remaining tasks and fixing all the remaining bugs. Some tasks will be completed very quickly, in a matter of minutes, while others can take some days. On average though, based on prior history, we expect to close a good number of tasks each day. And as we're working almost 7 days a week, you should see some progress every day!

Also the further you are in the release cycle of a software effort, the less and less you should see new tasks being opened. At the stage we're at, most new tasks are of the variety I just showed (unforeseen implications) or bugs that our testing is finding. And more often than not, the later in the release cycle the bugs are found, the smaller and smaller they become in terms of effort to resolve.

So without much further ado, you can find the daily status update for the networked and multi-user version 6.05e of LandlordMax at: http://landlordmax.com/v605estatus

I restarted the chart as of Oct 1, 2012 so that it would be clearer and easier to read. if I didn't restart the chart the daily differences wouldn't be very noticeable because of all our previous effort! Right now it has about a week's worth of data, but you can already start seeing the trends we have to estimate from.

For those not familiar with these two types of charts, the first chart displays the total number of tasks remaining to be completed before the release. When that chart goes down to zero tasks remaining it means the software is ready to be released. Generally this graph should be decreasing. As rare as it is, on some days it can increase. For example, when I made the hard decision that we had to upgrade to Java 7 now rather than later, the chart definitely saw an increase that day. It almost doubled in size overnight!

But don't worry because those kinds of jumps are quite rare. In most cases you'll only see small jumps. That's because for it to increase in value the number of new tasks has to be bigger than the number of completed tasks for that day. That or as illustrated in the example above (What happens if an Administrator updates/changes a users authentication while they are logged in?), someone comes up with a really good question which then necessitates a number of new associated tasks to implement in the software (what we often call scenarios). Looking at the chart for this week, it did increased one day, which was due to this very question.

Therefore to make it easier for people to understand what is happening what we also did is include another chart which shows the number of remaining tasks to be completed against the number of completed tasks. This way you can see the breakdown. It also helps to show the effort going on. So for example if you see no gain, or even possibly an increase, you can appreciate that tasks are nonetheless being completed at a pretty rapid pace.

So why are we showing all this? What's the goal of these charts? I personally decided that we should let people know exactly where we are in the process of releasing the software. Yes it's much easier to say it's coming very soon. And yes most companies hide this information. But I prefer to give you this information. This way you don't have to just take our word that the software will be available soon, you can make your own estimates. You can decide if you agree with our estimates. You can draw your own conclusions. You can see as we're coming very close. And you can get daily updates rather than always having to wait for me to inform you.

The negative part, and the reason most companies prefer not to show this type of information, is that it exposes everything, good and bad! For example it's possible that the chart will increase, which almost no company wants to share because increases are generally an indication that you initially missed something in your estimate that you now have to implement. By being transparent we have no choice but to show everything, warts and all. I do believe people will appreciate this much more than just us telling them it will be available shortly. It shifts the power of knowledge from us to you! It allows you to draw your own conclusions and come up with your own estimates as to when it will be available.

I do hope you appreciate what we are doing as this is definitely not industry standard. This is much much much more transparent than most companies. And I also do hope you can appreciate the effort we're putting in. The chart is changing 7 days a week! There is movement over most weekends. It's almost always moving!

And with all that in mind, and after having seen the charts, my new personal goal and estimate is to try and release sometime in November. That's of course assuming we don't get hit by another big effort such as upgrading to Java 7. But if we do, you'll know right away! You won't have to wait. And please do feel free to send us any and all questions about the charts, I'd be more than happy to answer them.

Other news:

I just recently posted an updated yearly revenues chart for LandlordMax on my personal blog at: http://www.followsteph.com/2012/08/14/landlordmax-2011-another-record-fiscal-year/ along with all the links to the previous yearly posts. As you can clearly see we're definitely growing! And the growth has been sustained throughout the market downturn which caused a significant number of our competitors to collapse. We're really happy and excited by these results!!

LandlordMax Tip:

Do you need to mail checks each month? When was the last time you looked at alternatives? I wrote a post on my personal blog which asks this question and shows you just how much money you could be wasting each month! You might be surprised to hear this, but for those of you who send a lot of checks, you could easily be losing over a $1000-$2000 per month and more of profits!! And this doesn't even include the time you're spending doing this. You can read the details at: http://www.followsteph.com/2012/09/27/amazing-tip-to-increase-your-real-estate-rental-profits-in-less-than-a-day/

Property Management Tip:

Never ever ever use templated forms and/or documents to manage your properties. Never use templated lease agreements, eviction notices, and so on. Sure it's a lot cheaper, but the problem is that in many cases they aren't enforceable because they have errors, are poorly written, or are just wrong. I was talking to someone recently about an experience they had with using a purchased eviction notice. It looked good with a quick inspection but once the person tried to use it, he found out it was completely useless and couldn't be enforced legally. What was really terrible part is that he didn't learn until much much later in the eviction process. He probably lost more money in that one incident than it would've cost him to get the documents from a lawyer.

Always always get your written documents from a local lawyer that knows the laws, especially for your local area. Many cities, municipalities, etc. have special clauses, stipulations, etc. that you have to adhere to. It's critical to get good legal documents. Most good lawyers will already have templated documents they give out to their clients which they can just quickly adjust and customize for you. The value of a proper legal document cannot fully be appreciated until something bad happens. Help yourself and prevent it from happening in the first place.

Industry News, Information, and Recommendations:

What are the Risks of Cloud Services
Reality TV Real Estate Flipping: How 'Real' is It?
Mortgage debt falls by $900 billion
Analysis vs Algebra predicts eating corn?
Dealing With Tenant Drama: Are You Ready?
US apartment rents rise at highest rate since '07 -Reis
Family net worth plummets nearly 40%


Story/Tip of the Month:

If you have an interesting tip, a funny story, or even a horror story, you'd like to share with us which we can publish in this newsletter (with the names changed of course), please send it to newsletter@landlordmax.com.

LandlordMax Testimonial of the Month:

Thank you so much for your prompt response and your excellent customer support!
- Leonard Goolsby

You've got some great software here. Keep up the good work
- Elliott Franklin

Final Words:

If you haven't already done so, I again welcome you to visit our daily progress chart for version 6.05e of LandlordMax at: http://landlordmax.com/v605estatus

And please feel free to let us know what you think.