Buildium no longer syndicating (with out fees)?

Paul DeSilvaPro Member

OP

Investor · New York, NY · Member since 2017 · 148 posts · 252 votes

6y

@Ben Day

I've seen a change with Buildium. We use QBO all the way for bookkeeping.

I'll look into TenantCloud, thanks for the recommendation.

I think you're 100% correct, online subscriptions are here to stay and will be much more common. Even Craigslist is charging now! Look at Disney, the parks are at minimal capacity but my Disney stocks are up 39% ytd most likely because of Disney + and online subscriptions.

Shea SpinelliPro Member

Rental Property Investor · Tyler, TX · Member since 2016 · 198 posts · 89 votes

5y

@Ben Day @Paul DeSilva I'm in the process of choosing a software company and it came down to AppFolio and Buildium. AppFolio won't take my business since I'm not at 50 units yet. Buildium says there is a misunderstanding and they don't charge for syndication. The rep said it's a charge on the site they push to that we have to have a relationship with. I've found QBO isn't powerful enough to handle the detailed accounting needed. We run QB desktop and will continue to. I'm leaning heavily to implementing Buildium and came across this thread. I test drove TC and they wouldn't let me onboard non-US citizen's (here legally) and I have some residents on visa here.

Plus, Buildium has a great app for the residents and this is going a long way with my number one requested item to provide.

Ben DayBusiness Member

Accountant · Oklahoma City · Member since 2017 · 80 posts · 64 votes

5y

@Shea Spinelli what data are you not getting out of QBO? My firm uses it exclusively and we get all kinds of info out

Lionshare Bookkeeping LLC

Shea SpinelliPro Member

Rental Property Investor · Tyler, TX · Member since 2016 · 198 posts · 89 votes

5y

@Ben Day Neither QB Desktop or QBO were designed specific to rentals, but my accountant said QBO wasn't as powerful and capable as QB Desktop. This was when QBO was first rolled out, things may have changed.

Shea SpinelliPro Member

Rental Property Investor · Tyler, TX · Member since 2016 · 198 posts · 89 votes

5y

@Ben Day what's your pain points with Buildium? I'm thinking of giving them a year.

Ben DayBusiness Member

Accountant · Oklahoma City · Member since 2017 · 80 posts · 64 votes

5y

@Shea Spinelli if it’s a CPA saying QBO isn’t powerful enough, I can understand that. But, only because most CPAs I’ve seen make that statement have zero desire to learn new tech and are set in their ways. QBO has been a powerhouse since 2017 for us. Might be work another look if you’re looking for synergy. But if you’re happy, you’re happy!

Lionshare Bookkeeping LLC

Ben DayBusiness Member

Accountant · Oklahoma City · Member since 2017 · 80 posts · 64 votes

5y

@Shea Spinelli #1 complaint with Buildium is that they don’t play well with others. The tech they integrate with is very curated on their end, which means if you want to build your business you have to build it their way.

My rule with software is that you should go with the tools that do the specific job you’re looking for, and sync them with other rockstar tools. I like QB for accounting but their payroll processing is a joke and their merchant processing is rough - so we have other tools for those things and they all integrate. Big seamless system, using companies who specialize in that thing.

Buildium’s specialty was being first on the scene. They pivoted to focusing on tenant management and PM reporting. They bolted on accounting. None of this is bad. But they’re not the best at everything, and they haven’t shown much interest in playing well with the rest of the tech industry. The fact that my preferred tech stack and Buildium can’t play well together is why we like TC. If Buildium stopped holding its customers hostage and started collaborating, I’ll change my tune in a second.

Lionshare Bookkeeping LLC

Steve Morris

Real Estate Broker · Portland, OR · Member since 2019 · 4k+ posts · 2k+ votes

5y

"Any info, feedback or experiences on this would be greatly appreciated"

Use those other sites and you're probably gonna have to pay anyways (esp CoStar and apartments.com). Buildium prob gets a better deal than you, so I'd still rely on them for one-stop stuff.

Shea SpinelliPro Member

Rental Property Investor · Tyler, TX · Member since 2016 · 198 posts · 89 votes

5y

@Ben Day I've had that experience with other software giants in other industries. It's a pain and you end up spending more time in their work around, rather than having a seamless, efficient experience. I'm going to talk to TC again, it was a while back when I ran them. I need a resident app.

Matthew Irish-JonesBusiness Member

Real Estate Agent · Buffalo, NY · Member since 2017 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes

5y

@Paul DeSilva buildium is not a great software. It’s greatest asset is how easy it is to learn.

It’s horrible for accounting, billing, it’s work order function is terrible, clients hate their owner statements, and it is absolutely worthless for job costing.

The fact that it’s not pushing out to as many syndicated sites is another example of Buildium falling behind the times.

Lastly, it really has almost no options to be able to customize anything.

Irish Jones Realty4.947 Reviews

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Shea SpinelliPro Member

Rental Property Investor · Tyler, TX · Member since 2016 · 198 posts · 89 votes

5y

Who are you using @Matthew Irish-Jones? I’m trying to pick who I’m going with and up until today, it was Buildium.

Keep in mind, I’m not large enough for AppFolio.

Matthew Irish-JonesBusiness Member

Real Estate Agent · Buffalo, NY · Member since 2017 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes

5y

@Shea Spinelli honestly it depends on what your doing. My company has a robust maintenance dept, and we need a lot more services on the operations side. If you are a smaller portfolio and really plan to focus on leasing Buildium might work. We have grown too big and too complex for Buildium.

Irish Jones Realty4.947 Reviews

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Joe SplitrockPro Member

Moderator

Rental Property Investor · Sioux Falls, SD · Member since 2015 · 9k+ posts · 18k+ votes

5y

@Paul DeSilva this has nothing to do with Buildium playing nice with others, but rather Zillow choosing to charge for listings. You will have the same issue with any platform if you try to syndicate to Zillow owned platforms.

Paul DeSilvaPro Member

OP

Investor · New York, NY · Member since 2017 · 148 posts · 252 votes

5y

Originally posted by @Shea Spinelli:

@Ben Day @Paul DeSilva I'm in the process of choosing a software company and it came down to AppFolio and Buildium. AppFolio won't take my business since I'm not at 50 units yet. Buildium says there is a misunderstanding and they don't charge for syndication. The rep said it's a charge on the site they push to that we have to have a relationship with. I've found QBO isn't powerful enough to handle the detailed accounting needed. We run QB desktop and will continue to. I'm leaning heavily to implementing Buildium and came across this thread. I test drove TC and they wouldn't let me onboard non-US citizen's (here legally) and I have some residents on visa here.

Plus, Buildium has a great app for the residents and this is going a long way with my number one requested item to provide.

Like said in this thread, I believe that software selection really depends on what you need to get out of it. We are sticking with Buildium for now because it's working for us. That being said we do not use Buildium for bookkeeping or contractors. We mainly use it for tenant screening, rent collection, listing vacancies and communication with tenants. We use QBO for bookkeeping and manage contractors directly.

Paul DeSilvaPro Member

OP

Investor · New York, NY · Member since 2017 · 148 posts · 252 votes

5y

Originally posted by @Matthew Irish-Jones:

@Paul DeSilva buildium is not a great software. It’s greatest asset is how easy it is to learn.

It’s horrible for accounting, billing, it’s work order function is terrible, clients hate their owner statements, and it is absolutely worthless for job costing.

The fact that it’s not pushing out to as many syndicated sites is another example of Buildium falling behind the times.

Lastly, it really has almost no options to be able to customize anything.

It's not a robust platform for the aforementioned items. I do like the platform for the reasons that I listed in the previous post. That being said I could probably get software that will handle listings, communications and online payments for a third of the price or free BUT we are already intergraded with Buildium, we like the tenant portal they have, we like the website that comes with it and it's working for now. We have a 12 unit portfolio that we self manage and are probably not using Buildium to its full potential.

Being a smaller company every dollar counts and Buildium is becoming more expensive every year, as we scale maybe we will get more out of it.....

Kind of rambling on here so to sum it up we do like Buildium in the capacity that we use it but we could probably find something comparable for free and we are still not sure if we will keep using Buildium when its time to renew our subscription.

Paul DeSilvaPro Member

OP

Investor · New York, NY · Member since 2017 · 148 posts · 252 votes

5y

Originally posted by @Joe Splitrock:

@Paul DeSilva this has nothing to do with Buildium playing nice with others, but rather Zillow choosing to charge for listings. You will have the same issue with any platform if you try to syndicate to Zillow owned platforms.

I agree, it seems to be that most listing service providers are getting away from FREE listings. This is just another expense that we will have to account for. I was trying to bring light to the point of Buildium is less attractive for us now. It is an expense that may not be needed for our company right now. There are free property management software options and other possibilities that may work better for us but we are still undecided if moving companies and having the hassle of that for us and our tenants is worth while.

[email protected]918-728-8080

Tracy StreichPro Member

Real Estate Broker · Tulsa- OKC Oklahoma · Member since 2017 · 868 posts · 801 votes

5y

@Paul DeSilva This is not a Buildium problem. It is a Zillow problem. Nationwide including MLS lisitngs as of Jan 12th Zillow is charging $10 per week for listings. This has been a big deal coming for the last year and they dropped it on everyone about 45 days ago. You will still have to manually enter into Zillow and pay them for the listing. It will still be easier for you to keep everything in your software and have it syndicate to the other platforms. You will just have to pay for the syndication but at least you will not have to double enter. All free listing sites will work towards a paid feature. That is how they really make money.

[email protected]248-209-6824

Drew SygitBusiness Member

Property Manager · Royal Oak, MI · Member since 2012 · 12k+ posts · 9k+ votes

5y

Buildium was purchased by Real Page back in February 2020. Real Page is a big player in the apartment management market, but also owns SFR & small apartment software Propertyware.

You may want to ask your Buildium rep what upgrades are planned for 2021, because we've heard from our PW rep they have major plans for improving Buildium. It'll probably still be an entry-level software, but with more features.

We do 100% of our PMC accounting in Propertyware (PW). We started out doing accounting in QB, before using PW, then used both for 3 years, before switching 100% to PW. Now if you're doing sales and flips, you'll probably still need QB for those.

Logical Property Management4.9451 Reviews

Nathan GesnerBusiness Member

Moderator

Real Estate Broker · Cody, WY · Member since 2010 · 28k+ posts · 41k+ votes

5y

@Paul DeSilva this is happening with all the software providers. I use Propertyware and ShowMojo, both of which syndicate to dozens of websites. They no longer syndicate to Zillow but it's not their fault. Zillow is getting too big for their britches and needs to increase income, so they now charge $10 per listing per week to advertise on their website.

I stopped syndicating to Zillow and guess what happened? My leads came in from other sources! I haven't slowed down a bit and I'm at 400 units with somewhere around 15 rentals marketed at any given time. When Zillow shuts down, others pick up the slack.

As for software, Buildium is decent for getting started but there are probably free/cheap options like Cozy, TenantCloud, and others. I personally know TenantCloud can handle marketing syndication, maintenance tracking, online payments, and much more. Since you're already using QB to track finances, I don't know why you can't switch to a cheap alternative like TenantCloud for $10 - $15 a month.

The DIY Landlord Book4.7248 Reviews

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Jill F.

Investor · Akron, OH · Member since 2016 · 2k+ posts · 4k+ votes

5y

Originally posted by @Nathan Gesner:

@Paul DeSilva this is happening with all the software providers. I use Propertyware and ShowMojo, both of which syndicate to dozens of websites. They no longer syndicate to Zillow but it's not their fault. Zillow is getting too big for their britches and needs to increase income, so they now charge $10 per listing per week to advertise on their website.

I stopped syndicating to Zillow and guess what happened? My leads came in from other sources! I haven't slowed down a bit and I'm at 400 units with somewhere around 15 rentals marketed at any given time. When Zillow shuts down, others pick up the slack.

As for software, Buildium is decent for getting started but there are probably free/cheap options like Cozy, TenantCloud, and others. I personally know TenantCloud can handle marketing syndication, maintenance tracking, online payments, and much more. Since you're already using QB to track finances, I don't know why you can't switch to a cheap alternative like TenantCloud for $10 - $15 a month.

It blows that Apartments.com started charging too so Buildium can't automatically syndicate there either :(

Shea SpinelliPro Member

Rental Property Investor · Tyler, TX · Member since 2016 · 198 posts · 89 votes

5y

@Jill F. maybe there’s a pattern happening. Realtor.com just picked up Avail. Do you think they’ll charge for posting? Apartments.com picked up Cozy.co and Zillow boosted their portal for rentals.

Jill F.

Investor · Akron, OH · Member since 2016 · 2k+ posts · 4k+ votes

5y

I dunno but I bet they're all trying to move into web-based property management software they now do applications, screening, listings, and with cozy online rent payments; Since property management software is usually a paid subscription market it would probably be easier to monetize as a package than just a listing service. I bet the companies with good listing sites are going to leave Buildium and the likes out in the cold for listings and try to take away their management software customers.

Joe SplitrockPro Member

Moderator

Rental Property Investor · Sioux Falls, SD · Member since 2015 · 9k+ posts · 18k+ votes

5y

Originally posted by @Paul DeSilva:

Originally posted by @Joe Splitrock:

@Paul DeSilva this has nothing to do with Buildium playing nice with others, but rather Zillow choosing to charge for listings. You will have the same issue with any platform if you try to syndicate to Zillow owned platforms.

I agree, it seems to be that most listing service providers are getting away from FREE listings. This is just another expense that we will have to account for. I was trying to bring light to the point of Buildium is less attractive for us now. It is an expense that may not be needed for our company right now. There are free property management software options and other possibilities that may work better for us but we are still undecided if moving companies and having the hassle of that for us and our tenants is worth while.

When I first got in the business in 2004, newspapers and yard signs where the main ways you advertised rentals. It cost $15 a week for two lines in the paper. It was just a regular business expense. In business it really comes down to value more than expense. I see people spent $100 of time to save $5. It is tripping over dollars to catch pennies. Buildium should be doing far more for your business than syndicating listings. You could switch to a free platform, but keep in mind most free software is usually headed towards monetization in the future. Free is usually just a way to attract users. There are three ways for software to make money:

1. Pay to use it

2. Advertise on the platform

3. Pay services within the platform

My point is that nothing is free. Any business needs to make money, whether today or in the future.

Paul DeSilvaPro Member

OP

Investor · New York, NY · Member since 2017 · 148 posts · 252 votes

5y

Originally posted by @Nathan Gesner:

@Paul DeSilva this is happening with all the software providers. I use Propertyware and ShowMojo, both of which syndicate to dozens of websites. They no longer syndicate to Zillow but it's not their fault. Zillow is getting too big for their britches and needs to increase income, so they now charge $10 per listing per week to advertise on their website.

I stopped syndicating to Zillow and guess what happened? My leads came in from other sources! I haven't slowed down a bit and I'm at 400 units with somewhere around 15 rentals marketed at any given time. When Zillow shuts down, others pick up the slack.

As for software, Buildium is decent for getting started but there are probably free/cheap options like Cozy, TenantCloud, and others. I personally know TenantCloud can handle marketing syndication, maintenance tracking, online payments, and much more. Since you're already using QB to track finances, I don't know why you can't switch to a cheap alternative like TenantCloud for $10 - $15 a month.

I did a deep dive into TC last night and it seems like a very robust platform and much more customizable than Buildium. If we do make the switch it will probably be over a 3-6 month period.