Real Estate Investor, Flipper, PM, vacation rental, Wholesaler · Athens, GA · Member since 2013 · 260 posts · 210 votes
Good problem but still a serious problem.
We have recently gotten very active very quickly on buying, rehabbing, partnering, hiring maintenance, etc. We opened a little Rentec account and although its cool, I want to know if there's a single PM Software / Solution that does all of the following:
1. Expenses: (similar to "Concur")
a. Receipt tracking - take a pic of receipt and assign to specific project.
2. Labor Management (Similar to "LaborSync")
a. Tracking - employees check in and log time at each project.
b. Payroll - Payment of subs and assignment to projects
3. Accounting tools similar to, or at least integrates with QuickBooks
4. A solid suite of PM software features (similar to "Rentec"):
a. Applications: Accepts online apps, background checks, etc
b. Tenant and Owner portals
c. Advertising: Integrates with Craigslist and own website
d. Tenant ability to submit maintenance request
5. PRICE is reasonable and SIMPLE to use.
We have 25 doors but about to add plenty more. Need to find one system and dedicate ourselves to the learning curve or we will drown in the details.
THANKS IN ADVANCE! This will make or break our business!
I'm not sure one single program exists out there that does each of those tasks. We use PropertyWare and Salesforce.com and have custom built programs on the SF platform to meet many of the things you listed. But PW and SF do not have an API so they do not talk to each other. So, we are left with our custom built SF programs to manage the renovations and PW to manage the management.
I know that is not exactly the answer you were looking for, but like you, we went looking and right now are making due with what we think is the best out there until we find a better solution that integrates everything.
Can you define what you think is a "fair" price? I have also considered building something similar to this, but am a little hesistant, not sure if the demand is there to support the cost of development, in order to get a return on the capital.
As @Chris Clothier mentioned, they have their own custom built systems, which I have found to be the case for many large companies, like Chris's. So, the market is really just the "medium" size business.
Timberline gets pretty close to what you want. Be prepared to shell out about 10-30k for it. (I guess Sage is calling it something other than Timberline now)
For employee hour tracking, we use Exaktime. The system is absolutely 'the shiz' and we love the stink out of it... this is, however, quite a pricy solution.
If you're running enough volume to make use of it, Buildertrend or Co-Construct are useful tools that won't cost as much as the Sage software solutions.
Construction software, unfortunately, is rarely well-made and when it is... well, you pay the price for it.