All Forum Posts by: Ian Dyer

If you have experience with Appfolio, what are they like to work with? We've heard from a couple of their salespeople, and they seem to have an attitude of "we're big and don't really need your business". I know that once we choose a company, we won't be working with their salespeople. So, I'd love to hear from anyone who is or was using Appfolio, to hear how they treat you once you're a customer. Are they responsive and helpful? Or is it more of what I got from the salespeople, "you need us, we don't need you" kind of thing? 

We manage or operate about 200 rental units. We're considering Yardi, Buildium, Appfolio, RentRedi, Rentec. We currently use Cozy/Apartments.com. We want to make the best decision, because we're likely to stay for a long time with the company we choose since it's a lot of work to switch. 

We're choosing between Buildium, Rentec, Appfolio, RentRedi & Yardi. Any advice on which one to choose?

Many of our tenants need to have the option to pay with cash or money order, so we chose the 4 companies above because they work with PayNearMe, which lets tenants to to 7-11 and places like that, where they'd buy money orders, and instead pay $4 to use PayNearMe to pay their rent. That sounds like we need it, so the cash payers can pay electronically. So, we're not looking at Avail, Rentler, Cozy, eRentPayments, Innago/Quickbooks, because they don't seem to offer a way to pay for cash payers.

We need to be able to customize monthly bills to add the monthly water bill amount. I also like the idea of tracking maintenance through the app. And, we need to send rent invoices by email.

We're choosing between Appfolio, Buildium, Rentec & Yardi. Any advice on which one to choose?

Many of our tenants need to have the option to pay with cash or money order, so we chose the 4 companies above because they work with PayNearMe, which lets tenants to to 7-11 and places like that, where they'd buy money orders, and instead pay $4 to use PayNearMe to pay their rent. That sounds like we need it, so the cash payers can pay electronically. So, we're not looking at Avail, Rentler, Cozy, eRentPayments, Innago/Quickbooks, because they don't seem to offer a way to pay for cash payers. 

We need to be able to customize monthly bills to add the monthly water bill amount. I also like the idea of tracking maintenance through the app. And, we need to send rent invoices by email. 

Who is using Stone Plastic Composite aka solid polymer core aka SPC for rentals?  Do you have a favorite brand?

We've been using Lowes Style Selections Natural Oak 7mm Thick Wood Plank 8"x48" Laminate Flooring in 100 rentals for years. It's $0.69/sf, but really $0.99/sf because it requires underlayment which is $0.30/sf. We use the Lowes Amex to get 5% off. This laminate is pretty easy to change out a few boards when someone moves and there are damaged areas. But, it's not waterproof, not even very water resistant. So, it kitchens and baths, we use 12"x12" beige slate sticky tiles for $0.89/sf. They're good because we can easily replace a damaged one. The negative is that they move at times, creating ugly gaps that show dirt. 

It seems like SPC is a better choice because it will last a lot longer, and is waterproof so we can use one product throughout the homes. 

Does anyone have recommendations where to buy good SPC at a good price? Home Depot had an MSI "Rigid Core Multilayer LVT" product for $1.69/sf, with underlayment already attached, that says it's waterproof, scratch resistant, mold resistant, which are the qualities of SPC. The wear layer is 6mil, not 12mil or 20mil as the higher quality ones are. The MSI warranty says "lifetime" for residential, then later says "one year", so it's unclear. The matching quarterround is $3/lf, which is outrageous, but we'd just use white composite quarter round for $0.50/lf.

OR, if you recommend a different product, please reply. We're looking for the best flooring for rentals. 

Genny Li is correct. Do that. Get a 30 year fixed owner occupied loan. 

SPC (Stone Plastic Composite aka Solid Polymer Core) seems to be the latest, greatest product, better even than LVT/LVP. Who has experience with SPC? We operate 100 doors, so we want to find one SPC product, in a color that will be manufactured for years so we can keep using it and always have access to more for repairs. 

Where are you finding the best price on SPC? 

Cody-Did you ever buy the SPC flooring overseas in bulk? How did it work out? I'd be interested in doing it.

What program do you recommend? Ideally, we'd like to respond to email and text messages in the same program. 

If that's not possible, at least we want to send texts from our computer, so we have a record and an ongoing thread of the conversation on our computer, like we do with email. 

Even better would be a program that lets us send, receive and reply to email, text and Facebook Messages.

What are the best options to passively earn 5-7%? That would be helpful to know, if you don't mind sharing.