Appfolio On Boarding

[J.P. Coghill]

Hey all-

I’m looking for feedback on AppFolio. We’re developers managing our own portfolio and don’t have any outside investors.  

We’ve been trying to onboard with AppFolio for the past two months, but the process has been incredibly frustrating. They’re requesting what feels like an unreasonable amount of information, and the demands keep escalating.

So far, they’ve asked for:

• A video tour of my home office
• Credit checks on me and my partner
• Copies of the deeds for every property we own
• A copy of my partner’s home lease and utility bills
• Business phone bills
• A signed letter from the bank verifying our accounts
• Bank statements

Honestly, it feels more like qualifying for a loan than trying to become a customer. I’m struggling to understand why all of this is necessary just to use their property management software. When I ask for clarification, I only get vague responses.

I’d really like to hear if others have gone through similar experiences with AppFolio. Did you have to jump through so many hoops and provide this level of personal information? It just doesn’t make sense to me.

[Michael Smythe]

@J.P. Coghill they are trying to take care of several things:

1) Approval to access credit reports

• A video tour of my home office (required by the credit repository to show security, so access to office & computers is limited to avoid data theft)
• Credit checks on me and my partner (required by the credit repository to make sure you are not criminals looking to steal others' data)
  Copies of the deeds for every property we own (required by the credit repository to confirm you aren't just self-serving)
  A copy of my partner’s home lease and utility bills (required by the credit repository to prove his legal address, so they can pursue him criminally if he steals data)
• Business phone bills (required by the credit repository to prove an actual business)
  

2) Approval to use banking ACH system to accept tenant payments and pay owners

• Business phone bills (required by banking industry to prove business legitimacy)
• A signed letter from the bank verifying our accounts (to prove legitimate business banking accounts. They will also be able to claw back mistakes)
• Bank statements (To prove the amount of business you average monthly, to set your ACH limits)

These are all going to be required from any PMC software provider that allows you to directly access these services. Otherwise, you'll have to get tenant & owner manual opt-ins for everything with little, if any, control.