The reasons for becoming a landlord are many, but the challenge of managing the property is the same. Whether it is the result of an inheritance, the desire to hold on to a first home, or portfolio diversification, most small-time landlords face the challenge of managing this important investment with such antiquated systems as the shoebox full of receipts, hand-written ledgers, intricate folder systems, and homemade spreadsheets.

Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU) is easing the management burden for individual owners of rental properties by giving them an improved software tool to help them organize their rental property information in one place.

"Our customers continue to be the driving force behind the evolution of our products," said Peter Karpas, vice president and general manager of the Quicken Solutions Group. "In the case of Rental Property Manager 2.0, our customers spoke and we listened. In just 10 months, we've responded by making this product much more valuable to new and existing users. This proves that we are truly in this business to meet consumer needs."

"Most private landlords - unlike commercial investors - are not professional property managers and therefore have a difficult time dealing with the cumbersome job of tracking and juggling information for multiple properties," said Doug Richards of Coldwell Banker Commercial in Salt Lake City, and instructor of "Creating Wealth Through Real Estate Investments." "Quicken Rental Property Manager allows you to see how each property is performing by providing an easy way to keep a reliable record of the most important rental and tenant transactions and information. This software could be quite helpful for small-time property owners."

Quicken Rental Property Manager 2.0 includes all the features found in Version 1.0, including easy setup and instant drill-down into reports. The latest version adds new features that help customers instantly understand how their rental properties are doing by comparing performance over time and by property. Additionally, there are more reporting options that enable property owners to view and analyze the data in various ways. Some of the new features include:

• Integrated Rent and Tenant Tracking: The new Rent Center provides an at-a-glance view of everything property owners need to track rental payments. They can instantly see who has and hasn't paid rent this month, view a tenant's payment history and discover any outstanding balances due. With just one click, users can access critical tenant information, such as contact information, lease terms and security deposits.
  
  
• One-Click Tax Report: The software reduces tax-time hassles by automatically creating a rental tax report that maps directly to the Schedule E. Categorize expenses as “not sure,” and the tax report will list them separately for your account to review. At tax time simply print the report, give it to your accountant, or export it directly to TurboTax.
  
  
• Income and Expense Reporting: Users can see a snapshot of income and expense changes over time and compare the performance of each property. They can also drill down to see the detailed transactions behind the numbers - something that can't be done with spreadsheets.
  
  
• Tax Break: The purchase price of Quicken Rental Property Manager 2.0 is deductible as a rental expense on tax returns.

"I started using Quicken Rental Property Manager and before I knew it, all the information in my big envelope of receipts, bills, leases, and cancelled checks was entered and organized," said Patricia Nystrom of Hamstead, N.C. "Keeping Quicken Rental Property Manager updated month to month will be easy, and I don't have to dread my annual battle with the big envelope at tax time."

Quicken Rental Property Manager 2.0 is available from Intuit at no charge to registered users of version 1.0 until Jan. 31, 2006.