The rise of the rental property business in the US has created a rush for vendors to offer specialized accounting software. The financial challenges faced by landlords and property owners have led them to demand more from those who sell accounting software. Professional organizations are catching up fast with the latest accounting software for rental properties.
The last thing you want to worry about as a realtor or an investor is the finances. You are probably already forced to use a variety of accounting software, whether you like it or not. If you own multiple rental properties, then you should be aware that there is some specific financial software out there, designed especially for rental property management.
If you are a rental property owner and you like to keep your finger on the financial pulse of your business, then this is the software for you. This is the top-of-the-line resource tool, built specifically for rental properties. You’ll know where every penny is going—down to the subtlest detail—and be prepared to answer any questions your accountant or tax preparer may throw at you. Includes three copies for Mac, PC, or Web Access.
This award-winning software makes it easy to manage your rental properties. Made by landlords for landlords, this program will help you track income and expenses, calculate your cost basis for each property, maximize tax deductions and more.
Why use rental property accounting software?
Rental property accounting software simplifies your life as a real estate investor. Routine bookkeeping takes just a few minutes each month, tracking receipts and paying bills is much less of a chore, and generating tax-ready financial statements at the end of the year can be done with just the push of a button.
There’s a lot of accounting software on the market today, from services with a monthly billing or annual membership fee to some pretty amazing accounting software that is absolutely free.
Stessa
Stessa is a cloud-based digital platform created by real estate investors for real estate investors. Property owners can manage, monitor, and communicate the performance of real estate assets with partners or tax preparers.
Simply enter your property address, connect accounts, and run reports with a single click. Features include a performance dashboard at the portfolio and property levels, automated income and expense tracking, secure document storage, and unlimited monthly reports.
Pricing is free with premium services such as rental analysis and mortgage financing available for a fee.
Buildium
Buildium rental property accounting software is a good match for professional real estate investors with large property portfolios.
Property owners can manage accounts receivables and payables, view payments and deposits, sync and reconcile bank accounts, generate monthly and year-end financial reports, and even e-file Form 1099s for independent contractors.
Billing begins at $50 per month after a 14-day free trial.
FreshBooks
FreshBooks is a cloud-based accounting software system that helps real estate investors grow revenues and boost ROIs. Users can send invoices, monitor expenses, and collect rent payments online.
The software is an all-in-one accounting solution for rental property owners to manage every bookkeeping need, including recurring invoices for rent payments, late payment reminders for tenants, and auto-billing rent payments to speed up cash flow.
Billing begins at $108 per year for up to 5 clients, after a 30-day free trial.
AppFolio
AppFolio, popular among landlords with large rental portfolios, offers the best advanced features to control your units remotely, and additional support and resources to grow your business and maximize its efficiency.Pros
- Pay only for the features you need and use
- Supports all types of units
- Has a mobile app
Cons
- Has a minimum monthly fee
- Not fit for a small number of properties
Besides supporting all types of units, AppFolio has developed à la carte features a landlord would need to operate and grow their business remotely, earning our top vote for best for advanced features.
Because it doesn’t have tiered pricing, but rather an onboarding fee and then a monthly fee based on the number of units, AppFolio is best for those that have multiple properties. Although each advanced feature is pay-as-you-go, there is a minimum monthly fee of $280, which means smaller property managers would have to pay a higher cost per unit if they manage fewer than 166 commercial units or 200 residential rentals.
To set up an AppFolio account, you would need to pay a at minimum $400 onboarding fee, after which the cost of each property is as follows:
- Residential: $1.40 per unit monthly
- Commercial: $1.50 per unit monthly
- HOAs: $0.80 per unit monthly
- Student Housing: $1.40 per unit monthly
AppFolio supports multiple property types, including residential properties, commercial buildings, student housing, and community associations. Each of the features is designed for the specific property type you’re using, so AppFolio has everything a landlord would need—accounting software, rent collection features, maintenance requests, marketing tools for multiple platforms, utility billing, and customizable online leases.
Optional advanced features include a leasing assistant powered by artificial intelligence, professional websites for your properties, premium leads, tenant screening, insurance for landlords and renters, online payments, maintenance contact center, utility management, automated accounts payable, and tenant debt collections.
Founded in 2006, AppFolio has over a decade of experience in providing property management services to clients. Their property management software was the first product they developed, so it’s what they take the most pride in and continuously develop. With over $140 million in revenue in 2017 and an additional $60 million of investment in 2019, AppFolio is confirmed to keep developing and growing in the future.
DoorLoop
Want an all-in-one rental property management solution with:
- All the features we mentioned above (and more)
- Stellar–and responsive– customer service
- Designed with ease-of-use in mind
- And at a price that easily fits your budget?
Then DoorLoop is the pick.
DoorLoop is designed by property managers, for property managers, so it was crafted with many of the common pain points of other property management software (slow and clunky UI, lousy customer service) in mind.
Whether you deal strictly in rental properties or have a mixed portfolio, DoorLoop can handle any type of property.
DoorLoop features
- Manage your entire property accounting in one place: Including automatic rent payments, custom reports, bank reconciliations, multiple payment methods, and integrations with popular accounting software such as QuickBooks.
- Convenient tenant portal: Collect rent, communicate with tenants, even allow tenants to submit maintenance requests themselves directly from within the app.
- Streamlined work order management: After tenants submit their maintenance request from within the app, create the work order, attach notes and images, assign it to a vendor, pay that vendor, and communicate with the tenant.
- Owner portal: Print checks, run reports, and more.
- Marketing and screening made easy: Automatically list vacant units on top sites, screen tenants, and run background checks, all within the app.
- And much more
DoorLoop pricing
The most significant variance within the property management software space is easily price. Some are affordable, while some are way outside the average budget. A few offer free trials, most don’t.
Fortunately, DoorLoop has you covered on both ends.
Not only can you try DoorLoop for 50% off your first two months. After that, DoorLoop pricing starts at just $49 per month billed annually for up to 20 properties.
Rentroom
Rentroom is a complete property management solution that boasts good accounting features and an intuitive interface.
The software also boasts some unique community features, making it a decent option for condos, multi-family, and HOA properties.
Rentroom’s accounting reports are limited, though, so if that’s a key feature for you, this might not be the best option.
Rentroom features
- Online rent collection and payment reminders
- Other basic accounting features such as cash reconciliation
- Tenant portal
- Maintenance management
Rentroom Pricing
Rentroom offers a free trial to try out the software before investing. However, they don’t list their pricing publicly, so you’ll need to contact them directly to find out more.
Propertyware
Designed with single family home landlords in mind, Propertyware has earned its place as our best rental property management software for single family homes.Pros
- Mange over 250 properties through it
- Has a mobile app
- Multiple pricing tiers
Cons
- Some customer support complaints
- Fit only for large portfolios
Focused on single family home property management, Propertyware is fairly simple to use, without complicated features commercial management software can have, making it the best choice for single family home management, whether you have few or many. You’ll benefit from Propertyware’s management features whether you are starting out with your first few single family homes or growing into a portfolio of more than 250 of them. It has everything a landlord needs including online rent collection, accounting, maintenance requests, vacant property marketing with leasing agents, marketing with listing syndication, tenant screening services, lead tracking and follow-up, and a portal for vendors.
Propertyware currently has three pricing tiers: Basic, Plus, and Premium, with costs starting at $1 per unit, 1.50 per unit, and $2 per unit, respectively. With the Basic plan, you can run reports; advertise your vacancies; manage the properties with owner and tenant portals; and streamline maintenance work orders, accounting, tenant screening, and rent payments. The Plus plan adds conveniences like two-way text messaging, eSignatures, and inspections. At the Premium level, you can manage your maintenance projects and add portals for your vendors. Each respective tier has a minimum monthly fee of $250, $350, and $450, so to optimize your unit costs, this program is best for managers of at least 250 homes.
Integrations for efficiency include Mail Merge and DocuSign, but aside from those, Propertyware has chosen an in-house approach for marketing, lead generation, and tenant screening rather than integrate with third-party software.
Propertyware is owned by RealPage, a Texas-born company founded in 1998 that currently serves more than 12,400 clients from North America, Europe, and Asia. All members of Propertyware’s management team have over 20 years of experience working in real estate, which means users get software designed by people who understand the industry and how it works.
Sage
This software provides a wide collection of property management accounting solutions. By implementing sage in your real estate company’s bookkeeping department, you can increase efficiency and profitability. This software delivers business information instantly. By referring to its dashboard, you can receive updates on balances by your tenants, amenities required in your units and even any charges that could be outstanding.
A very helpful feature of this Malaysia accounting software for rental property is that it can handle multiple lease contracts at the same time By using sage, you can manage retail, commercial and even mixed use properties concurrently. The software is able to capture, record, analyze and present concessions as well as different types of leases. In addition to that, it can perform comprehensive tenant management.
Pros
- This software can perform a wide variety of accounting tasks
- It can deliver business information as soon as it is generated
- The software has an easy to use dashboard
- It can handle multiple lease agreements concurrently
- The software can handle different types of properties
Cons
- It is not accessible for free
Property Matrix
This is a property management accounting software that is both powerful and user friendly. Property Matrix is fully customizable. Therefore, you can create tailor-made dashboards that present accounting information according to your preference. The software is also capable of enterprise accounting because it can manage thousands of property units simultaneously. Furthermore, you do not have to pay any extra processing or transaction fees to the software’s providers.
By using this software, you can manage financial documents in a better, more efficient way. Property Matrix also boosts communications within your real estate company by facilitating memo and email blasts. Furthermore, you can use the software to automate accounting activities such as the delivery of financial reports and task scheduling. You can try out this software at no cost at all by signing up for the demo account. After its trial period has elapsed, you are then required to pay for the tool.
Pros
- It is fully customizable
- This software can perform enterprise accounting
- There are no extra, hidden fees involved with this digital accounting tool
- It provides media for inter-department communication within your company
- The software facilitates automation
- It is accessible for free through a trial demo
Cons
- It cannot be integrated with other accounting software
What is rental property management software?
A rental property management system is software that enables rental property owners and managers to execute a considerable number of essential daily tasks–including managing and tracking tenant information, accounting and billing, maintenance, and posting vacancies online–to help all operations run smoothly for a given property.
Rental property management software also generates reports on activity like monthly rent payments, income, and expenses, to help you monitor the financial health of your property.
Conclusion
Rental properties are a hot topic among investors and self-managing agents alike. These properties can grow quickly with the right set of rules and strategies in place. If you’re interested in growing your rental portfolio, it is extremely important to track each property closely. You need to know what you’re investing into and how well each investment is performing. Some property owners prefer to handle the rent collection and bookkeeping themselves. If this sounds like you, then you need to look for a good software that would help you manage your finances efficiently.
Software designed specifically to manage rental property. It allows you to enter customer and property information, log income and expenses, track payments, and generate statements.