Whats the best Management software in your opinion?

Rental Property Investor · Owatonna, MN · Member since 2017 · 37 posts · 12 votes

Hey guys, about 4 months ago I bought my first investment property (a duplex), and i currently have it managed by a separate company (for multiple reasons). I am now looking into buying my 2nd property and want to start transitioning into self management.

What is your guys, personal favorite all in one management software?

I'm currently looking at.

Buldium

Cozy

Rentalutions

I would love to hear anyone's opinion and experience on the matter.

Thanks!

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Matt Jones

Real Estate Agent · Pensacola, FL · Member since 2014 · 379 posts · 307 votes

Matthew Kern I use cozy currently, it’s been great for my first 8 doors and would probably be fine as I transition to 12 next month. It’s free, easy to use and functional enough to get me by with very little work on my part. I’m getting ready to upgrade because I will be managing for others soon and I’ve been looking at buildium or appfolio which are much more involved and require a lot more time to build out. They also have much higher capability and many more functions. If you have the time to build out the software, want to pay for it and plan to scale up your rental business very quickly try one of the bigger and more expensive companies. If you are only going to manage for yourself and it’ll take you a while to get above 10-20 doors I’d recommend starting with something free at first and building slowly. Cozy fit my business well for 2 years and I’d probably continue with it if I wasn’t managing for others soon.

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Yvonne H.
Mooresville, NC · Member since 2018 · 68 posts · 39 votes
8y
I don't know all of those but 2 reasons I do not use Cozy are:
-I can't tell immediately when a tenant has submitted a payment and I don't get an email notification about it
-I have to manually charge a late fee if a tenant pays late, which puts that burden fully on me, whereas the current service I use automatically charges it if the tenant pays late.
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Matthew KernPro Member
OP
Rental Property Investor · Owatonna, MN · Member since 2017 · 37 posts · 12 votes
8y
@Yvonne H. and what service do you currently use?
0 Reply
Yvonne H.
Mooresville, NC · Member since 2018 · 68 posts · 39 votes
8y
erentpayment
0 Reply
Matt Jones
Real Estate Agent · Pensacola, FL · Member since 2014 · 379 posts · 307 votes
8y
Matthew Kern I use cozy currently, it’s been great for my first 8 doors and would probably be fine as I transition to 12 next month. It’s free, easy to use and functional enough to get me by with very little work on my part. I’m getting ready to upgrade because I will be managing for others soon and I’ve been looking at buildium or appfolio which are much more involved and require a lot more time to build out. They also have much higher capability and many more functions. If you have the time to build out the software, want to pay for it and plan to scale up your rental business very quickly try one of the bigger and more expensive companies. If you are only going to manage for yourself and it’ll take you a while to get above 10-20 doors I’d recommend starting with something free at first and building slowly. Cozy fit my business well for 2 years and I’d probably continue with it if I wasn’t managing for others soon.
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Matthew KernPro Member
OP
Rental Property Investor · Owatonna, MN · Member since 2017 · 37 posts · 12 votes
8y
@Matt Jones @Yvonne H. Thanks guys!
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Matt A.
Investor · St Augustine, FL · Member since 2016 · 135 posts · 126 votes
8y
I cant believe people still trust ErentPayment after last years debacle! Rick Sands handled the issue horribly, folks lost a lot of money and I still have never received an explanation from the company as to what happened - but furthermore what THEY were going to do about it.

Im using cozy now - and it does have a few shortcomings compared to erent. @Yvonne H. - automatic late payments are in the system (at least for me... they claimed I'm a beta tester), albeit only simple "late fee" based and at "x" days. I've requested both THIS option as well as a daily late fee - its not coded into their system yet and I keep hearing "what a great idea". They aren't perfect, but as other have pointed out, they are still free (to me).

I absolutely agree that this platform wont scale past the units we currently have. This HAS become a business ranter quickly and appfolio / buildium / etc are going to have to replace cozy sooner than later for numerous reasons. You really have to think about getting out of the "Ima" (Ima gonna do this... Ima gonna do that) mentality, hire the experts in their field and focus on BUILDING the business. Its easier said than done, but one heck of a goal that we are striving for this year.
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Yvonne H.
Mooresville, NC · Member since 2018 · 68 posts · 39 votes
8y
@Matt A. I agree with you on most everything about erentpayment but Cozy is not the answer, and I can't speak to the others. True erentpayment does NOT deserve my business and they were truly horrible...they even got rid of being able to talk to a person on the phone during the debacle...I am embarrassed to say that I still use it. Why, you may ask, am I still using this shameful company? Because I had so many tenants and properties already set up and I have not had time to put in the work to get all those properties set up and make tenants get their info transferred to another service.
That being said I still recommend against cozy. Why? Because they are not up to par and I don't want to set up my properties on cozy to save $1, only to have to move to another new service a third time. I did try cozy as a replacement and immediately realized it was not going to do what I needed. It's extremely important to me to be able to see if tenants have submitted their payments, and I don't want to have to keep track on day 6 of who needs a late fee sent much less chase after my tenants for it.
Even if I only owned one property I would not use cozy until they provide those 2 things that currently they do not. It's worth $1 to not have to chase late fees. I am looking for a service that will do what erentpayment does, but that has better customer service. I'm probably going to give appfolio a try.
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Yvonne H.
Mooresville, NC · Member since 2018 · 68 posts · 39 votes
8y
Caveat, I do use cozy to advertise.
0 Reply
Ben G.
Rental Property Investor · Will County, IL · Member since 2018 · 39 posts · 11 votes
8y
@Matt A. - Any word or idea on when Cozy is upgrading auto late payments from beta? This is the first I'm hearing of that, and it sounds like great news.
1 Reply
Ian WalshBusiness Member
Lender · Philadelphia, PA · Member since 2016 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
8y
Appfolio is like Apple and PropertyWare is like a PC.
2 Reply
Kraig Kujawa
Investor · Orlando · Member since 2016 · 151 posts · 72 votes
8y
Originally posted by @Yvonne H.:

@Matt A. I agree with you on most everything about erentpayment but Cozy is not the answer, and I can't speak to the others. True erentpayment does NOT deserve my business and they were truly horrible...they even got rid of being able to talk to a person on the phone during the debacle...I am embarrassed to say that I still use it. Why, you may ask, am I still using this shameful company? Because I had so many tenants and properties already set up and I have not had time to put in the work to get all those properties set up and make tenants get their info transferred to another service.
That being said I still recommend against cozy. Why? Because they are not up to par and I don't want to set up my properties on cozy to save $1, only to have to move to another new service a third time. I did try cozy as a replacement and immediately realized it was not going to do what I needed. It's extremely important to me to be able to see if tenants have submitted their payments, and I don't want to have to keep track on day 6 of who needs a late fee sent much less chase after my tenants for it.
Even if I only owned one property I would not use cozy until they provide those 2 things that currently they do not. It's worth $1 to not have to chase late fees. I am looking for a service that will do what erentpayment does, but that has better customer service. I'm probably going to give appfolio a try.
Hi Yvonne, you can see who has scheduled payments with Cozy in addition to who has set up their account for auto draft.
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Kraig Kujawa
Investor · Orlando · Member since 2016 · 151 posts · 72 votes
8y
Originally posted by @Matt A.:

I cant believe people still trust ErentPayment after last years debacle! Rick Sands handled the issue horribly, folks lost a lot of money and I still have never received an explanation from the company as to what happened - but furthermore what THEY were going to do about it.

Im using cozy now - and it does have a few shortcomings compared to erent. @Yvonne H. - automatic late payments are in the system (at least for me... they claimed I'm a beta tester), albeit only simple "late fee" based and at "x" days. I've requested both THIS option as well as a daily late fee - its not coded into their system yet and I keep hearing "what a great idea". They aren't perfect, but as other have pointed out, they are still free (to me).

I absolutely agree that this platform wont scale past the units we currently have. This HAS become a business ranter quickly and appfolio / buildium / etc are going to have to replace cozy sooner than later for numerous reasons. You really have to think about getting out of the "Ima" (Ima gonna do this... Ima gonna do that) mentality, hire the experts in their field and focus on BUILDING the business. Its easier said than done, but one heck of a goal that we are striving for this year.
Wow, that late payment this sounds amazing. How did you get the beta notification? Did you opt into it?
0 Reply
Matt A.
Investor · St Augustine, FL · Member since 2016 · 135 posts · 126 votes
8y
@Yvonne H. - agree that moving to another platform is going to suck, but disagree on two points. I DO get automatic late payments on the cozy platform. In full disclosure it JUST STARTED for April collections, and I had to update my lease terms for all units... but it is there. On the other hand its NOT robust - just a simple flat amount and "X" number of days.

Im also getting an email summary in the evenings when tenants make a payment. Im billing some utilities (water, trash in some cases) and cozy does send a summary when a tenant initiates a payment - very similar to erent.

Im in agreement 100% that its a real PITA to make a third move to another platform, Ill personally cross that bridge soon as we close on the next building. Cozy is fine for a handful of units

@Ben G. - no idea when it may move to production. I "found" it about a week ago while inputting the terms for a new lease... then a couple days ago I received an email about the "new feature". I shot back a response rather quickly with my suggestions, however Ive personally found them to be more lip service than action... although I was pretty adamant 6-8 weeks ago that they were missing the boat by not having this feature.

No idea on their plans, and they dont seem to share lots on their site either. Im using it as it works for the few buildings that we currently have... soon as I add one or two more its absolutely time to move to something more robust.
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Cornelius Dudley
Vendor · Glenn Dale, MD · Member since 2014 · 25 posts · 9 votes
8y
Rent Manager is a great solution.
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Cornelius Dudley
Vendor · Glenn Dale, MD · Member since 2014 · 25 posts · 9 votes
8y
Originally posted by @Ian Walsh:

Appfolio is like Apple and PropertyWare is like a PC.
What do you mean? Can you give some more clarity?
0 Reply
Brie SchmidtBusiness Member
Moderator
Real Estate Broker · Chicago, IL · Member since 2013 · 6k+ posts · 5k+ votes
8y
I use Buildium and love it, but it may be too expensive for a small portfolio. My managers use PropertyWare, which is the worst and Appfolio, which I also feel is subpar but not awful. I refuse to use Appfolio because I did a demo with them a few years ago and it took over 2 years to get them to stop calling me every week. I have never dealt with a more unprofessional company.
I pay for my own Buldium and transfer their data into it every month because I like it so much.
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1 Reply
Yvonne H.
Mooresville, NC · Member since 2018 · 68 posts · 39 votes
8y
@Ian Wash do you mean PropertyWare is more flexible, expandable, cusomizable vs. Appfolio? or that it is clunkier and glitchier?

@Brie Schmidt can you elaborate about PropertyWare--why is it the worst? I hear you about Appfolio--I have not signed up for the demo, I was turned off by their website that provides zero info (there is literally only one accessible page!) unless you submit your email & contact info.
Thanks!
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Brie SchmidtBusiness Member
Moderator
Real Estate Broker · Chicago, IL · Member since 2013 · 6k+ posts · 5k+ votes
8y
@Yvonne H. - Their reporting is awful. I have spent at least 80 hours on the phone with them and my PM trying to get accurate reporting.
My portfolio is split between 2 PM's - half use Buildium and I can go through the reports in 2 hours, the other half is property ware and it takes me 8-10 hours usually with a few emails back and forth asking for clarification.
On the report it shows $0 collected and $0 due so I don't know what they paid. Also if I take rent collected and then minus expenses in the summary it never matches the deposit. But my PM has everything in there so to transfer all their properties would be a pain so I deal with it. But it is 10 times the work than Buildium
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Matthew KernPro Member
OP
Rental Property Investor · Owatonna, MN · Member since 2017 · 37 posts · 12 votes
8y
Thank you everyone for your inputs. I think I'm going to go with Cozy for now, and once I build enough units up I will transition to Buildium.
0 Reply
Jessica Chambers
Property Manager · Portland, OR · Member since 2017 · 1 post · 0 votes
8y
Is anyone using Rentec Direct? I only have 13 doors, so I need a solution that works for smaller porfolios, but I am a PM managing for others. Our company has been using Quickbooks for ages, but I am interested in using something specifically made for Property Management.
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Maugno M.
Flipper / Landlord · Tyler, TX · Member since 2016 · 255 posts · 126 votes
8y
Does Cozy charge the tenants ?
0 Reply
Siler Coggins
Richmond, VA · Member since 2018 · 18 posts · 22 votes
8y
@Matt A. @Yvonne H.
wow I was not aware of the ErentPayment craziness but just read about it. Tried their software briefly and am very glad I didn't stick with it.
Also didn't know Cozy was including rent payments, they must have added that after I stopped using it!
You could check out Roof—still missing a few minor things I'd like but the big features are all there and work great, including notifications and late fees. I usually try to unplug from thinking too much about who's paying rent unless I'm in my office, but there's a great mobile app for doing just that if you need to. It also seems to be growing really quickly, updates almost monthly.
1 Reply
Nathan GesnerBusiness Member
Moderator
Real Estate Broker · Cody, WY · Member since 2010 · 28k+ posts · 41k+ votes
8y
The best software: the one that works for you!
I know Property Managers with 1,000+ units that swear by Propertyware or Appfolio or Buildium. I also know Property Managers with 1,000+ units that will tell you why each of those sucks.
I use Propertyware for 300+ units and it's great. Very robust but also expensive. I used Buildium for a couple years and it was very easy and affordable, but lacking the features needed to facilitate my growth as a company. I almost switched to Appfolio until I dug deeper and learned some of the problems it has. I know one Appfolio user that has been with them for 13 years and he not only switched to Propertyware, he wrote a scathing review because of Appfolio's terrible customer service and other limitations.
For most private investors managing their own rentals, I think TenantCloud, Cozy, or rentecdirect are really good options. Even then, you have to test each one out and see what will work for you.
I see no reason to pay for software until you get into the neighborhood of 50+ units so you can really simplify processes and focus more on growth. Then I would start with Buildium.
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Yvonne H.
Mooresville, NC · Member since 2018 · 68 posts · 39 votes
8y
@Matt A. I just scoured cozy to find where I could automate the late fee and could not find it. Where is it?
0 Reply
Matt A.
Investor · St Augustine, FL · Member since 2016 · 135 posts · 126 votes
8y
@Yvonne H., I was setting up a new lease and found it in the lease terms. From the "payments" tab on the left, hit "rental details" on one of your tenants, then edit "RENT"... it should be in there.
Remember, this is supposedly a beta feature they invited me to (Ive been pretty loudly asking for this feature for some time). Im not sure if its been rolled to the community yet. Please let me know if you find it as well.
Matt
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