1. Who is running this
Rent Free Management, 215 Foundry Street, Suite 400, Charlotte, NC 28203. Any question about these rules should come to us, not to Autonomerly.
2. No entry fee, ever
It is free to enter, free to qualify and free to win. No purchase and no payment of any kind is required at any point, and making one does not improve anybody's chances.
We recommend an Autonomerly account because it is the software the programme runs on and it is free to you for the season. It is a recommendation and not a condition: nobody is disqualified, scored lower, or paid less for not having one.
3. Who can take part
Legal residents of the United States, 18 or over, who have applied to Rent Free Management and finished the setup in their portal.
You must be allowed to manage the property. For each property you claim, you must hold an active licence in the state the property sits in, or be lawfully exempt in that state, at the time you manage it. We check this before anything is paid.
Employees of the sponsor and their immediate households cannot take part.
4. The period
The season runs for the 30 days from the day you join, which is shown in your portal. Claims made after your deadline do not count towards the pool.
5. How to take part
Join from your portal, pick the route that fits your state, set your firm up lawfully, and sign at least one owner to a written management agreement.
Then add the property in your portal. We ask for the address, the town, the number of units and the owner's name, and nothing else at that point.
6. What qualifies
A residential property in the United States that you manage for somebody else, at arm's length, under a written management agreement, for a fee, with the owner's knowledge that you are taking part in this programme.
Not a property you or a member of your household own, in whole or in part, directly or through a company. Not a property already claimed by somebody else this season.
7. The award, and when it is paid
Everybody who qualifies is paid. $100 per verified property per month, for 3 months, for up to 5 properties. That is up to $1,500 per manager.
There is no selection and no element of chance in this part: meet the published conditions and you are paid, however many other people also do.
Each month is earned in arrears, once the property has actually been managed for that month, and each is verified before it is approved. Payment goes to your licensed firm or to you as a sole proprietor broker, never to you personally where you are somebody else's affiliated salesperson.
This is a fixed programme award for documented milestones. It is not a referral fee, not a commission or a share of one, and nothing about it depends on a transaction closing or on what the rent is.
8. The $35,000 pool
$35,000 in total, shared between the winners at the end of the season. It is a total, not an amount per person.
Everyone who joins and has at least one verified property is scored on the published criteria below.
9. How winners are chosen
On the scores, by judges, against the published criteria. It is not a draw and it does not depend on chance in any way.
Judging is by a panel from Rent Free Management applying the weighted criteria below to the evidence in your file. Decisions are final.
Ties are broken on skill, in this order: The higher score on "Owner outcomes". Then the higher score on "Operating quality". Then the earlier date the first property was verified.
10. Tax
These payments are taxable income. We need a completed W-9 before we can pay anything.
We file the information returns the law requires. For 2026 payments that threshold is $2,000. Without a valid taxpayer identification number we must withhold 24 percent and file regardless of the amount.
You are taking part as an independent business and not as an employee of the sponsor. Nothing here creates employment, a partnership or an agency.
11. Checking, and our right to audit
We may verify anything you tell us before we approve a payment or a prize: your licence against your state regulator, the property against public ownership records, and the arrangement directly with the owner on a channel you did not give us.
We may withhold payment, disqualify an entry, or ask for money back where a claim turns out to be untrue, where a property is not at arm's length, or where one person is taking part through more than one account.
12. Telling the owner
You must tell the property owner, in writing, that we are paying you under this programme and giving you the software, and get their agreement, before you claim their property. Your portal has wording you can use.
This is a rule of your licence in several states, not just ours: an incentive from a third party worth more than a nominal amount has to be disclosed to the client.
13. Talking about it
If you post about this programme anywhere, say plainly that you are taking part in it. That is an FTC requirement and it is on you as well as on us.
Nothing we pay you is conditioned on saying anything positive, and you will never be scored on the sentiment of anything you publish.
We may use your first name, your town and your results in describing the programme. Tell us if you would rather we did not and we will not.
14. The winners list
The winners will be published in the portal at the end of the season, and sent to anybody who asks us for it in writing.
15. Changes, and things going wrong
We may correct an obvious error in these rules, and we may end or suspend the season if we are genuinely prevented from running it fairly. If we do, we will score what has happened so far against these criteria and pay what has already been earned.
We are not liable for a participant's own business decisions, for anything their state regulator decides, or for any loss beyond the amounts described here.
16. Not legal advice
Nothing in this programme, in your portal, or in the state checklist we show you is legal, tax or accounting advice. Setting up a firm and holding other people's money is regulated, it differs by state, and the rules change. Take your own professional advice before you trade.
17. Law, and your data
These rules are governed by the law of the State of North Carolina.
What we collect and how long we keep it is in our privacy policy, which covers the licence details and the owner's name you give us here.
The scoring criteria
| Criterion | Weight | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Properties signed and kept | 30% | How many owners you signed, and whether they were still with you at the end of the season. |
| Owner outcomes | 25% | Days to lease, rent achieved against the local range, and renewals. |
| Operating quality | 20% | Maintenance turnaround, inspection completeness, and whether money was handled through a proper trust or escrow account from the first dollar. |
| Compliance | 15% | Licence in good standing, a written management agreement that meets your state's rules, fair housing and screening duties, and the owner disclosure below. |
| What you taught us | 10% | The quality of your reporting on the software: what broke, what was missing, what you had to do outside it. |
Ties are broken on skill, in this order: The higher score on "Owner outcomes". Then the higher score on "Operating quality". Then the earlier date the first property was verified.
Setting up, wherever you are
This is the part that does not change from state to state. What your own state asks for is shown in your portal when you join, and where we are not certain of a state we say so rather than guess.
- Decide whether your state treats this as brokerage. Managing somebody else's property for a fee is a licensed activity in most states, and in a handful it is not. Your state's row is in your portal. Start here, because everything below depends on the answer.
- Form the entity, or trade as a sole proprietor. An LLC is the usual choice. Register with the Secretary of State, appoint a registered agent, and make any assumed name filing your county wants.
- Get an EIN. Free, from the IRS, and the same day. You need it for the bank accounts and for the W-9 you will give us.
- Open a separate operating account and a trust or escrow account. Before you take a single dollar of anybody else's money. Commingling an owner's rent or a tenant's deposit with your own funds is the fastest way to lose a licence.
- Register for state tax. And note that Hawaii, New Mexico, Washington, Connecticut, South Dakota and Delaware tax management fees themselves.
- Get the city or county business licence. Plus home occupation and zoning clearance if you are working from home.
- Insurance: general liability and errors and omissions. E&O is mandatory for licensees in around a dozen states and worth having in all of them.
- A written management agreement that meets your state's content rules. Several states specify what it must contain and how it may end. A template that ignores that is worse than no template.
- Fair housing, FCRA screening duties, and lead paint disclosure. Fair housing applies from your first advert. If you run credit or background checks you take on FCRA duties. Lead paint disclosure applies to housing built before 1978.
- Landlord and tenant rules, deposits, and local rental registration. Deposit limits, where deposits must be held, notice periods, and whether your city makes landlords register the rental.
- W-9s in, 1099s out, and keep your records. You collect a W-9 from vendors and issue 1099-MISC to owners.
Beneficial ownership reporting to FinCEN is not required for companies formed in the United States: that exemption became final on 14 August 2026. Budget roughly $1,200 to $3,500 in your first year, and two to six weeks to be trading in a state that does not require a licence.
Version 2026-09-12.