Property Management Software- Which is best?
Tired of working "in" the business and would rather be working "on" the business?
So are we!!
Implementing Scale-able Systems is the first step for us. We are currently using Quickbooks and Excel spreadsheets, so any property management software would be a significant upgrade.
We demo'd 4 software choices below:
Background:
We are a growing company that manages 200 units in Bay Area, CA.
1. App Folio
Pros: Fancy Graphics & Packaging. Great Marketing Tool.
Cons: Rigid Bank Account System. Total Control required or the software will not work. The AppFolio rep ended the demo after 2 minutes.
2. Total Management
Pros: Intuitive Interface. Month-to-month contract. They were willing to automate emailing monthly reports to each unique owner at no extra cost. Our out-of-state manager uses this software. Flexible for Commercial property.
Cons: No Smartphone App yet. Cost of the integration/migration. $1 per residential unit per month. $2.50 per commercial unit per month.
3. Buildium
Pros: Ease of Use. Month-to-month contract
Cons: Unfamiliar name to us.
4. Yardi
Ultimately we went with Yardi Genesis2. The reason we chose Yardi is because it's a name that we have heard for decades as the "standard". The Yardi reports generated are always thorough and detailed, so we decided to go with familiar software. A management company that we use in Central California manages 8,000 units with Yardi so we thought it was the safe choice.
Pros: No setup cost. 18 Hours included. Easy Upgrade to Yardi Voyager when 500 Units or more. Flexible for Commercial property.
Cons: 1 Year up front cost, renews annually. Time for staff to become proficient with the software- unknown.
All 4 Software have similar recurring cost of $1 per residential unit.
Please reply with your comments. =)