Does anyone run their own website and collect rent payments and maintenance requests on there? I am buying a 5 unit property and wanted to set up my own website and have tenants go on there to pay rent and submit any request.

I run my website and include the tenant portal provided by Rent Manager. It works well for rent collection and tenant maintenance requests but is probably overkill for a single 5-unit. If you have plans to expand it may be something you can grow into.

@Ryan....overview of Rentmanager?

Thanks

I've done some work for other peoples sites. If you want to keep it simple and easy I'd recommend WordPress for the site. It's got a free plugin for making forms that email you. That would be cheap and simple for tenant requests.

@Ryan Murdock

Overview of rent manager? Happy with it?

I was thinking of using a wordpress theme and incorporating woocommerce to accept payments etc. Not sure if this would be the best way to do it or go with one of the other available services.

Originally posted by @John Thedford :

@Ryan Murdock

Overview of rent manager? Happy with it?

I am happy with it but any opinion I have should be discredited somewhat simply because I have never used competing software platforms (Buildium, Appfolio, TenantCloud, Yardi, etc) so I really don't have much to compare it to. 

I started with RentManager Xi and have since upgraded to RentManager 12. Prior to that I was forcing the square peg of property management through the round hole of Quickbooks - adequate but definitely not ideal.

RM is pretty robust so if starting from scratch the learning curve could be pretty intense. I had the luxury of having another person figure it out initially and then show me. Once I learned to "think" like the software it was pretty easy to keep going. It integrates with PayLease and Amrent which  I love. Prospective tenants can complete my online app which then directly populates RM so all of their info is captured. A couple mouse clicks results in a comprehensive Amrent screening process and another click converts them from "prospect" status to "tenant" status and we're up and running. Very little manual entry which is great.  You can automate rent and late fee charges every month and use it to track all the financials, including entering bills and printing checks

The mobile apps are convenient as well. Tenants can pay rent online as well as check their account history and balance depending on what you give them for permissions. They can also submit service requests which I can then "assign" to any number of my preferred vendors. Those vendors have an RM app on their smartphones so they are alerted each time they receive a workorder from me. Workorders include all the details of the issue including tenant contact info. Once the issue is resolved the vendor can close out the workorder on their app so I know it has been done. They can also leave comments and upload pics, all of which I can see from either my desktop or my own smartphone.

This just scratches the surface of it's capability. My guess is the other software products also offer similar features but I have no first hand knowledge. 

Oh, one more thing: The RM tech support line is the best I've found in any industry. Period. They are outstanding. And this is coming from a guy who routinely melts down on my cell, cable, internet provider tech lines. They will spend as much time as you need working through just about anything and they are very pleasant to deal with - a very rare thing these days. 

Hope this helps.