Rental Property Investor · Estes Park, CO · Member since 2017 · 283 posts · 1k+ votes
I have read all the forums/etc that I can find out PM software along with online review/comparisons. I want to make a final decision. I think I have landed on Rentec Direct, but I've not heard anyone mention it on BP.
Does anyone have experience with Rentec Direct? Please chime in if you do.
This is what I would like to use it for:
-Individual rooms within single family homes.
-50 units and under
-paperless system to accept application, screen tenants, background checks, sign documents/leases, accept rent payments, auto reminder to tenants, accounting/bookkeeping software, produce basic financial reports, and auto post to craigslist/etc.
@Grant Shipman - I've used Rentec for many years. Also I've tried some of the others, Buildium/Appfolio, etc. The latter tend to cater to the larger property managers who have thousands of properties. They really don't care much about us small guys with a couple hundred or less units. After experiencing too many customer service nightmares from the others, I've stuck with Rentec Direct. They have the same features, but they focus specifically on guys our size and their support is spectacular.
My advice, spend a day trying them all out and go with whichever one works best for you. Try out their support too, give them each a call and see what happens.
Check out Buildium and Rent Manager. One of these will fit your needs depending on your desire for growth and automation of your business. I I don't think there is a software that can auto post to Craigslist because Craigslist doesn't allow auto posting. A software may provide you with the code necessary to cut and paste into Craigslist but you can't auto post to Craigslist.
@Grant Shipman I personally use Buildium, but also have looked into RentecDirect. Out of all the offerings, these two are both suitable for medium size portfolios like yours and are very similar in terms of price/features.
Buildium does everything you want, except the auto posting to craigslist which isn't possible. It will syndicate vacant units to the Zillow network and other rental sites.
However, I don't think any of the property management software is specifically geared to renting individual rooms in a house. I think you could "hack" your way around it by designating the house as an apartment type property, and then each bedroom as a unit in the building. I suggest starting a free trial account at Rentec and Buildium to explore how they each handle this.
@Grant Shipman I started using Buildium maybe 5 years ago, and at that time it was much more feature rich than RentecDirect. Now Rentec has really caught up, and might even offer better value than Buildium. Both charge on a per unit basis (individual apartments count as units), so you need to compare the pricing that way.
I really like the free website with online application, and it collects the application fee electronically. All of my tenants use the website to log in and pay rent electronically each month.
@Grant Shipman - I've used Rentec for many years. Also I've tried some of the others, Buildium/Appfolio, etc. The latter tend to cater to the larger property managers who have thousands of properties. They really don't care much about us small guys with a couple hundred or less units. After experiencing too many customer service nightmares from the others, I've stuck with Rentec Direct. They have the same features, but they focus specifically on guys our size and their support is spectacular.
My advice, spend a day trying them all out and go with whichever one works best for you. Try out their support too, give them each a call and see what happens.
I agree with Jason's comments above. I have a portfolio of ten units and I spent nearly six months searching for a system that would fit a smallish portfolio like mine. RentecDirect was my choice. Their customer service made the difference.