Owning rental real estate is one of the best ways to build long-term wealth and income. However, it’s not simply buying a property, renting it out, and forgetting about it. When you own rental real estate, especially if you own more than one property, you’ll be in charge of screening and managing tenants, scheduling repairs, processing rent payments, tracking operating expenses, and much more.
Handily, you don’t have to be an excellent project manager or keep long lists of things you need to do daily. Instead, many landlord tools and software options are available for you to choose from that help both small real estate investors and large property management companies maximize their efficiency, improve day-to-day operations, and minimize vacancies.
What is property management software?
Property management software is a computer- or cloud-based program that can help landlords handle day-to-day rental operations. Things such as:
- Managing the entire leasing process online, including the tenant application process and the screening and managing of tenants.
- Online rent collection through the scheduling of recurring monthly payments and the ability to automate payment reminders and collect late fees.
- Tracking and responding to maintenance requests as well as scheduling with vendors.
- Tracking operating expenses, generating monthly profit-and-loss and cash flow statements, and preparing end-of-year tax-ready documents.
9 tools to help you manage your rental property
There are various landlord software options available on the market that can work for the varying needs of different real estate investors. Here are a few of our picks for the best property management software and why we think they’re worth checking out.
Apartments.com Rental Manager
Apartments.com is a rental listing website where renters can find homes to rent. But what Apartments.com also offers is the Rental Manager, an all-in-one suite of property management tools designed to make it convenient for property owners to list their properties on the website and others. In addition to listings, the free rental property management solution allows landlords to collect rent, screen potential tenants, handle maintenance requests, and track expenses by property.
The program does come with limitations, however. For instance, the software will only allow you to list your property on five websites. And while it’s free for the landlord, tenants must pay for things like tenant screening reports and credit card payments. Overall, it’s a good tool for real estate investors with a small number of properties, plus the price tag is good—free. However, you may need a more robust solution as your portfolio grows.
AppFolio
For the advanced, professional real estate investor, AppFolio is an excellent option. Geared mainly towards investors with a minimum portfolio of 50 properties, this cloud-based property management platform will allow you to manage diverse property types, including single-family and multifamily homes, condominiums, student housing, homeowner associations (HOA), and mixed-use and commercial properties. The software has a mobile app that you can use on the go. In addition to accounting software and rent collection systems, AppFolio facilitates maintenance requests, marketing for vacant units, tenant background checks, and customizable online tenant applications and lease agreements.
Given its focus on professional landlords, this software doesn’t come cheap, with the minimum monthly plan starting at $280.
Avail
Avail is targeted towards do-it-yourself landlords and primarily offers the ability to create rental listings across top listing websites within minutes. Prospective tenant leads collected from those websites come straight to the Avail inbox and dashboard. You can start conversations with potential clients, schedule showings, ask pre-screening questions, and even request rental applications through one app.
Avail offers two versions. The basic plan is free to use and offers syndicated listings, credit and criminal screening, state-specific leases, online rent payments, and maintenance tracking for unlimited units. The Unlimited Plus, which costs $5/unit, includes everything in the free plan as well as next-day rent payments, waived ACH fees, custom applications and leases, and a property website.
Buildium
Much like AppFolio, Buildium is a robust rental property management software for landlords or property managers with 50 or more units. The app allows you to reduce phone calls and messages and minimize stress from that overflowing Inbox by letting you approve lease applications, track maintenance requests, handle payments, and update financials on the go from one app. This is not a tool for new or inexperienced real estate investors, and the hefty price tag only makes sense if you have an extensive portfolio you need to manage.
Pricing for Buildium starts at $52 per month for the Essential level. There are two more levels: Growth ($166 per month) and Premium ($479 per month), and each comes with a 14-day free trial.
Propertyware
Propertyware is designed for single-family landlords with portfolios of 250 homes or more. While Propertyware focuses on large portfolios, it specializes in single-family homes, making the software easier and less complicated to use than some of the other available options. Like other software solutions in this space, Propertyware offers detailed accounting, customized property reports, a variety of payment options for tenants, tenant screening, and a reduction in the amount of administration that comes from managing and keeping on top of such a large number of properties.
The pricing structure is pretty simple and starts at $1 per unit, per month, with a minimum of 250 units. There is also an initial setup fee to get started.
Rentec Direct
Rentec Direct provides landlord software solutions for both property managers with small rental property portfolios as well as those with larger holdings of thousands of units. Accounting features include online rent payments, a robust reporting system that tracks portfolio performance, and ledger accounting. At the same time, the tenant portal allows you to take maintenance requests, market your rental property, screen tenants, and have your website with advanced lead tracking for prospective tenants.
Rentec Direct is priced based on the number of units a landlord manages. For ten units or fewer, you’d pay $45 a month; at 2,500 units, you’d be paying $2,750 monthly.
Stessa
Stessa wants to help real estate investors maximize their profits. This free program will allow you to keep track of your property performance, finances, and the paperwork that goes along with it all in one place through automated income and expense tracking, personalized reporting, and real-time insights. Unlike some other software programs, Stessa is exclusively focused on finances. The tool offers personalized recommendations and custom alerts that can help real estate investors increase their revenues with real-time insights and help prepare documents for reporting and tax preparation. You can also track expenses with the iOS and Android apps.
The app is free to use and allows you to track unlimited properties, get performance dashboards at the portfolio and property level, and run unlimited monthly reports.
TenantCloud
For landlords who are just starting in rental real estate or only need a few features from their property management software, TenantCloud can be an excellent option. The tool is cheaper than many others in the same space, though the number of features is relatively limited in the free and low-cost pricing tiers. For instance, while you can create listings and screen tenants using the free version, you’d be paying $12 a month for tax reports and auto pay and $40 a month for the lease builder, landlord forms, and QuickBooks online sync.
Still, the basic plan gives you a fair bit of functionality. It allows for unlimited units, making it one of the better tools for landlords or property managers who aren’t looking for many bells and whistles from their landlord software tool.
Yardi Breeze
Yardi Breeze’s tagline is “refreshingly simple software,” It aims to be an intuitive yet powerful cloud-based program that caters to small and midsize landlords to help them streamline operations. Yardi Breeze has built-in accounting software and includes features such as online rent collection, rental applications, templates, automated marketing, activity calendars, maintenance requests, and more. The goal is to make the day-to-day tasks of managing properties not only simple but fast. Free training, onboarding, and customer support are available to help you get set up.
Yardi Breeze’s pricing depends on the type of property you own. For residential properties, for instance, pricing starts at $1 per unit per month with a minimum of $100 per month. There is a more expensive “Breeze Premier” version available as well.
Bottom line
No matter whether you’re a first-time landlord or an experienced rental real estate investor, the tools we’ve listed above can help you simplify your operations, save valuable time, and help you respond to requests faster and more efficiently, meaning fewer delayed payments, happier tenants and, as a result, higher occupancy rates.
Build your real estate portfolio today
At Arrived, our mission is to give everyone—regardless of their background and income levels—the chance to get on the property ladder. Through our platform, you can purchase shares of rental properties for as little as $100 and start building a portfolio—and a stream of rental income—today. Please browse through our available properties here.
