For owners who see their rental only through the monthly statement
Second Look reads your management agreement, your lease and twelve months of owner statements, then matches every fee, repair and deposit line to what you signed. A person checks every flag. You get a memo in five business days. $59 per property.
Nothing to pay today. You pay when you upload, refundable until your memo arrives.
The comparison
Most owners pick the first column. Here is what each option actually does with your documents.
| Skim and trust | AgentAudit app | Your CPA | Second Look look-back | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | $12.99/month or $79.99/year | $150–$450 an hour | $59 once per property |
| Reads your management agreement | No | No | If you pay for the hours | Yes |
| Matches every fee to a clause in it | No | No | If you pay for the hours | Yes |
| Flags repairs over your approval limit | Only if you remember the limit | No | If you ask | Yes |
| Checks rent and late fees against the lease | No | No | If you ask | Yes |
| Checks the arithmetic, month by month | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Drafts a records request | No | No | Not usually | Yes, quoting your agreement's own clause |
| Who checks the result | You | You | Your CPA | A reviewer checks every flag |
| Turnaround | Whenever you get to it | Whenever you type it in | Their schedule | 5 business days |
The gap
A. A repair line shows what you were charged. It doesn't show what the vendor billed.
B. Your agreement sets an approval limit. The statement doesn't say whether anyone asked you.
C. Fees arrive one at a time: leasing, renewal, inspection, "maintenance coordination." Nobody totals them against the fee schedule you signed.
D. If you live in another state, the statement is the only view of the property you get.
A markup isn't wrong in itself. Many agreements allow one. The question is whether yours does, and at what rate.
The public record
These are regulators' case files about specific brokers. They say nothing about your manager. They show what happens when someone puts the vendor's invoice next to the owner's statement.
| Vendor invoice | Billed to the owner | |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen faucet repair | $225.00 | $279.00 |
| Shower handle repair | $130.00 | $497.14 |
| Garage door | $695.00 | $895.00 |
Settled by stipulation: a $5,000 fine and surrender of the property management permit. The broker did not admit liability.
Read the order (PDF) → (opens in a new tab)| Vendor invoice | Billed to the owner | |
|---|---|---|
| Contractor invoice | $740.33 | $1,100.00 |
| Contractor invoice | $88.76 | $170.00 |
The accusation says the brokerage "failed to obtain approval from the property owners for the mark ups." An accusation is an allegation, not a finding.
Read the accusation (PDF) → (opens in a new tab)Repairs above the management agreement's spending limit, without the out-of-state owner's permission. The owner was also charged for carpet cleaning they had already arranged and paid for themselves.
$7,000 fine and $1,314.94 in restitution.
Read the decision → (opens in a new tab)How it works
Upload or forward your management agreement, your current lease and your last twelve owner statements: PDFs from any owner portal, or a spreadsheet.
Every line is extracted and run through six checks against your own documents. A reviewer checks every flag before you see it.
What matched, what didn't and what's missing, with a polite question list and a records request you can choose to send, or not.
ILLUSTRATIVE OWNER STATEMENT AND AGREEMENT. EVERY FIGURE IS INVENTED. NOTHING HERE IS ABOUT ANY REAL MANAGER.
OWNER STATEMENT · MARCH · 1 UNIT
WHAT YOU SIGNED
Press a check to put the pen on the statement.
FLAG 1 OF 7 · FEES · MATCHED
8% of $1,800.00 is $144.00. Agreement §4.1 allows 8% of rent collected.
FLAG 2 OF 7 · FEES · QUESTION
Maintenance coordination, 10% of $412.00, is $41.20. No clause in the agreement lists a coordination fee.
Suggested question: "Which clause of our agreement covers the maintenance coordination fee?"
FLAG 3 OF 7 · REPAIRS · QUESTION
Statement, March: "Plumbing repair, kitchen"$412.00
Agreement §6.2: owner approval required above$300.00
Approval on file: none found
Vendor invoice attached: no
Suggested question: "Could you send the vendor invoice for the March kitchen plumbing repair, and the approval record for it?"
FLAG 4 OF 7 · RENT · MATCHED
Rent collected matches the lease. The $75.00 late fee was collected and reached the owner, as the lease says it should.
FLAG 5 OF 7 · DEPOSITS · MISSING
The lease says a $1,800.00 deposit is held by the manager. No statement in the set shows it.
Suggested question: "Could you confirm where the security deposit is held and send the current balance?"
FLAG 6 OF 7 · ARITHMETIC · MATCHED
1,800.00 + 75.00 − 144.00 − 412.00 − 41.20 − 412.00 = 865.80. The draw matches the lines above it.
FLAG 7 OF 7 · DUPLICATES · QUESTION
The same description and amount appear twice in one month.
Suggested question: "Were there two kitchen plumbing repairs in March, or is one of these lines a duplicate?"
An invented statement and an invented agreement, to show what a flag looks like. Figures are placeholders.
What you get
Every fee charged maps to a clause in your agreement, and the rate math is right.
Rent collected and late fees charged, against the lease, and whether late fees reached you if your agreement says they should.
Lines over your approval limit with no approval on file, larger repairs with no vendor invoice, the markup where both invoice and charge exist, and the same "minor repair" coming back.
What was collected, who holds it, and what was kept or returned.
Opening balance plus income minus expenses equals the closing balance and your draw, with the reserve held as agreed.
The same charge twice, in the same month or across months.
Price
$59once per property
One management agreement, one lease, up to twelve monthly statements (up to 150 pages). Six checks. Every flag reviewed by a person. Memo, question list and records request within five business days.
Reserve a look-back$15a month per property, $9 a month from your third property
Each new statement checked within three business days against the same agreement and lease. Running totals of fees by category. A year-end income and expense summary for your tax preparer (a summary, not tax advice). Cancel any time.
OPENS AFTER YOUR LOOK-BACK
A building with up to four units counts as one property. Larger buildings: ask for a quote at hello@REPLACE_ME.com.
Founding look-backs: the first 50 memos are reviewed line by line by the founder, who is building the checks.
Questions
No. Audits of financial statements are a service only licensed CPA firms provide. Second Look is a bookkeeping reconciliation: we compare your statements to your own agreement and lease and list what matches and what to ask about. It is not legal, tax or accounting advice.
Not from us. We never contact your manager or your tenant. You decide whether to send the question list or the records request.
Then the first thing you get is a short request for a copy, which you send yourself. The check starts when it arrives; your $59 covers the wait.
Owner statements saved as PDF from AppFolio, Buildium, Propertyware, Rentvine, Rent Manager and others, plus spreadsheets. Scanned statements work too, but take longer. Tell us your portal in the form so we can prioritize it.
They are stored encrypted, used only to prepare your memo, and deleted when you ask. Tenant names are redacted from the memo. We don't sell data.
Then the memo says so, line by line. A clean memo is a good result: it means your statements match what you signed.
The memo lists it as a question, with the two documents side by side. Many questions have an ordinary answer. If one doesn't, your agreement, your attorney or your state's real estate regulator is the next step. We don't give legal advice.
Not today. Reserve now, and we'll email you an upload link and a $59 payment link. You pay when you upload, and you can ask for a full refund until your memo is delivered.
Reserve
Reserve a look-back for one property. No payment today.
Within two business days you'll get an email with a secure upload link and a $59 payment link. You pay when you upload, and you can ask for a full refund until your memo is delivered. While you wait, find your management agreement. It's the document that makes the check work.
We'll email you when the monthly check opens. If a statement starts to bother you before then, reply to that email.
If you reserved a look-back, an upload link and a $59 payment link will reach you within two business days.