Property management software experience

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Property management software experience

Karla Sosa
Investor · Oxnard, CA · Member since 2019 · 6 posts · 5 votes

Hey BP community!

I’m looking to get honest feedback from fellow landlords especially those managing small portfolios (1–20 units).

I’d love to know:

  • What property management software do you currently use?

  • What do you like most about it?

  • What do you wish it did better?

  • Have you tried any others and switched?

  • What features are a MUST for you?

I’m in the early stages of real estate investing (looking at fourplexes in Bakersfield) and also doing some market research to understand what tools are actually helpful vs overkill for small landlords.

Would appreciate any recommendations, experiences, or even frustrations you've had with landlord software

Thanks in advance

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Most Popular Reply

Daniel Rivera
Property Manager · Jersey City, NJ · Member since 2023 · 18 posts · 18 votes
1y

We manage small-to-mid-sized portfolios (1–20 units) for clients in New Jersey with Proactive Property Management, and we’ve tested a few property management platforms over the years, so I’m happy to share what’s worked and what hasn’t.

What we’re currently using:

We’re back on Buildium, and it’s been a great fit, especially for a growing portfolio.

What we like most:

1. Strong integrations (tenant screening, ACH payments, maintenance requests, accounting)

2. Clear owner and tenant portals

3. Scales well from just a few units to much larger portfolios

4. Professional-level reporting that’s easy to export for accounting and tax prep

Other platforms we’ve tried:

Hemlane – A solid choice for landlords who want to stay hands-on but need help coordinating leasing and repairs.

Doorloop – Clean interface and easy to use, but we ultimately switched back to Buildium for the deeper integration capabilities and more robust accounting tools. 

Must-have features for us:

1. Online rent collection with automatic late fees

2. Maintenance tracking with vendor assignment

3. Digital lease signing and tenant screening

4. Owner statements and financial reporting

Final thoughts:

If you’re starting with a fourplex, it’s important to choose a platform that offers enough automation to save you time but doesn’t overwhelm you with unnecessary complexity or cost. I believe Buildium hits that balance.

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  • Gene HackerPro Member
    Flipper/Rehabber · Lake Isabella, CA · Member since 2011 · 969 posts · 488 votes
    1y

    I have 30 to 40 units and I use rentredi.  I like most things about it.  The repair request was pretty basic so we use podio to track tenant requested repairs.  Other than that, it works well for us and it is very reasonably priced. 

    1Reply
  • Daniel Rivera
    Property Manager · Jersey City, NJ · Member since 2023 · 18 posts · 18 votes
    1y

    We manage small-to-mid-sized portfolios (1–20 units) for clients in New Jersey with Proactive Property Management, and we’ve tested a few property management platforms over the years, so I’m happy to share what’s worked and what hasn’t.

    What we’re currently using:

    We’re back on Buildium, and it’s been a great fit, especially for a growing portfolio.

    What we like most:

    1. Strong integrations (tenant screening, ACH payments, maintenance requests, accounting)

    2. Clear owner and tenant portals

    3. Scales well from just a few units to much larger portfolios

    4. Professional-level reporting that’s easy to export for accounting and tax prep

    Other platforms we’ve tried:

    Hemlane – A solid choice for landlords who want to stay hands-on but need help coordinating leasing and repairs.

    Doorloop – Clean interface and easy to use, but we ultimately switched back to Buildium for the deeper integration capabilities and more robust accounting tools. 

    Must-have features for us:

    1. Online rent collection with automatic late fees

    2. Maintenance tracking with vendor assignment

    3. Digital lease signing and tenant screening

    4. Owner statements and financial reporting

    Final thoughts:

    If you’re starting with a fourplex, it’s important to choose a platform that offers enough automation to save you time but doesn’t overwhelm you with unnecessary complexity or cost. I believe Buildium hits that balance.

    5Reply
  • Mayya Soibnazarova
    Accountant · Member since 2024 · 4 posts · 6 votes
    1y

    We are an accounting firm specializing in property accounting. Based on our experience and analysis, the most cost-effective and straightforward approach is to start with a basic QuickBooks Online (QBO). As the portfolio grows, we typically recommend migrating to AppFolio - our preferred platform for residential third-party property managers. For owner operators of commercial properties, my personal favorite is Yardi Breeze.

    1Reply
  • Brendan WinansBusiness Member
    Real Estate Agent / Investor · Bakersfield, CA · Member since 2015 · 47 posts · 25 votes
    1y

    I don't manage my own properties any more, but when I did I used Buildium. I was able to manage over 100 units by myself with that software. It checked all the boxes back then, I imagine even more so now. 

    Winans & Associates4.714 Reviews
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    1Reply
  • George Skondras
    Specialist · New Roads LA · Member since 2025 · 11 posts · 4 votes
    11mo

    Hi Karla

    I recently joined this group, I apologize for an outdated reply. 

    If you are still looking to find an application that will serve your needs, and since you're starting out, you can give AI a try. It can be a good investment of your time since it will give you the flexibility to create Apps as you grow your portfolio. It's also a skillset that will help you now and in the future. You can literally start by telling AI to "Create an Application to allow my tenants to pay rent online" or "Create an App that keeps track of my tenants and leases" or "Create a listing page for this apartment, with attached images"

    At first I was an AI non-believer, but for smaller software development, it's definitely worth a try.

    Hope this helps

    George

    0Reply
  • Andrew Self
    Real Estate Agent · Nashville, TN · Member since 2024 · 37 posts · 23 votes
    10mo

    I use Baselane and it has been great. I’ve been using it for about 6 months. I haven’t used any other progress so I can’t compare, but what I love the most is its all in one. I do tenant screening, lease creation, rent collection, bookkeeping, etc for each unit and property of ours. I wish they had an app, but still can easily be used on your phone is one thing I would change.

    0Reply
  • Srinivasa Subramanian
    Property Manager · Waterville ME · Member since 2020 · 43 posts · 39 votes
    10mo

    @Karla Sosa

    We use AppFolio and overall, we’ve been really happy with it.

    What we like:

    • Super easy listing and background verification process

    • ACH payments make rent collection smooth

    • Built-in CRM for handling maintenance tickets

    • Tenant messaging option (so we don’t have to give out our personal phone numbers)

    If you have the budget, their Smart Maintenance feature is worth checking out — it routes tenant calls through a call center and sends notifications to you, which really cuts down on handling small tenant issues yourself.

    What could be better:

    • The accounting side could use improvement. Credit card transactions still have to be entered manually.

    • We actually use QuickBooks Online (QBO) for our accounting since it gives us more flexibility and reporting options.

    • I’d also love to see an in-app calling feature (right now it’s text only).

    • More flexibility to create custom CRM statuses would be nice too.

    I haven’t tried many other platforms yet, but for now AppFolio covers most of what we need pretty well.

    1Reply
  • Kenneth Johnson
    Investor · Denton County, TX · Member since 2025 · 2 posts · 0 votes
    1mo

    Buildium's a solid call for a fourplex-sized portfolio, agree it hits a good balance without overwhelming complexity.

    One thing I ran into even with the bigger platforms though: owner reporting specifically still felt clunky, lots of manual formatting to get something that actually looked clean and branded for owners, even when the platform technically had a "reports" feature.

    Ended up building a small tool just for that piece (OwnerReportPro.com), turns rent, expenses, and receipts into a branded PDF in a few minutes without needing the full platform. Not knocking Buildium, just flagging that reporting quality specifically is worth digging into regardless of which platform you pick, some are better at record-keeping than they are at making something owner-facing look good.

    0Reply
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