Advice on Real Estate Property Manager Software

[Matteo Foglieni]

Hello all, 

I am about to begin my journey in real estate and currently looking for property in Chicago and burbs. SFH or duplex. I want to set up all the system that will allow me to succeed and create momentum.

Does anybody have suggestions on Real Estate Property Manager Software that I can use with my first property? I know Apartment.com, Turbotenant, Rentredi, Avail, and many others. 

I would need a software for listing, screening, set up a lease, manage and online payments. 

thanks

Matteo 

[Caleb Stevens]

Hey Matteo!

The recommendations you have all seem like good starts. Ultimately, the choice is yours, as whichever you find the easiest to use, you go with.

Personally, since you are just starting out, I would recommned using a free PM Software to not hurt your monthly cashflow. The one that I have used is Apartments.com and overall it is fine, but I have heard of better platforms. I am using it on 3 units at the moment and have had no issues with it so far! Once you have more properties, you can look into using more complex/paid-for programs to make it easier to manage.

Hope this helps and feel free to reach out if you have any additional questions!

[Will Armstrong]

Hey Matteo,

Another option is ivanai.com. If interested, I can get you a few months for free. Feel free to connect if interested!

[William Wright]

Also in Chicago, here was my funnel. Not all in one place, but easy enough for a first few units:

Marketing - Zillow, apartments.com, Facebook Marketplace. Used the $10/week feature on Zillow and found a tenant in winter market for the price I wanted, and has a basic prescreening (self reported income, pets, etc.)

Tenant screening - rentapplication.net (tenant pays ~$40 for credit and background check, I had results in minutes)

Expense/portfolio tracking/document tracking - Stessa (recommended by my CPA)

Rent collection - Zelle (free, fast, integrated with most banks, easy to help a tenant set up)

Don't overthink it at this point. And set up a Google Voice number to put on your listings, best of luck.

[Zach Shepard]

Congrats on your big move @Matteo Foglieni!

Check out Hemlane.com for your property manager needs. They're a hybrid PM model. They will help you do all the items you listed above, plus they have a database of contractors in Chicago to help with your maintenance needs. Maintenance calls from your tenants is usually the biggest headaches for investors. Hemlane takes you out of the equation and allows the tenant to submit a request thru the website and you just get notified about it, and approve or deny the work. Just this small thing is a huge time saver for us small landlords! We've been using them for a couple years now. 

Good luck on your search! Let me know if we can be of any assistance!

[Jonathan Klemm]

@Matteo Foglieni - There are tons of different software out there, I'd suggest doing demos with a bunch of them to see which one works best.  Avail, tenant cloud, Cozy (now apartments.com), and my favorite which @Zach Shepard mentioned is Hemlane!  Their CEO @Dana Dunford is great.  Great product and great people.

[John Warren]

@Matteo Foglieni I am a big fan of the Apartments.com platform which used to be Cozy. I used it until I had 32 units, and it was perfect for what I needed. I am at 114 units now, and I am still in search of the "best" software. I think when you are starting out, you don't need to reinvent the wheel. You can probably use something like the Apartments.com platform very easily.