What is landlord software?
Landlord software is computer software that helps landlords manage their property. There are different kinds of landlord software available. So what exactly does landlord software do?
Landlord software allows rental managers to control all aspects of rental property including:
- Screening and managing tenants
- Responding to maintenance requests
- Scheduling periodic property inspections
- Processing online rent payments
- Tracking operating expenses
- Generating monthly P&L and cash flow statements
- Compiling year-end tax-ready financial statements
What 5 key Rental Property Management Software features should I look for?
Applications and tenant information:
Tenant portals enable online rent payment, maintenance request submissions, and even community forums for events or public notices to improve communication. Customizable lease forms and easy document distribution help standardize the leasing process and make sure all required documentation is completed and archived. Resident screening lets you evaluate applicants’ credit history, criminal activity, rent history, and income by initiating these checks from within your software. Store vital tenant information, such as resident contact information, late fee reminders, and work order history.
Rent roll and payments:
Online rent payments eliminate the hassle of paper checks and trips to the bank. Utility metering calculates and bills for tenant consumption of metered utilities so you don’t have to check and record manually. Automatic alerts inform landlords and tenants of delinquent rent payments.
Vacancy management:
Automated vacancy postings allow new properties to be listed faster and more easily, reducing the time it takes to fill vacant units. Automated notifications inform you about upcoming lease expirations. Vacancy planning provides proactive identification of vacancies and under-utilized locations. Space tracking helps manage the configuration of available space for move-ins and move-outs.
Maintenance record keeping:
Maintenance request alerts ensure all maintenance issues are taken care of promptly. The ability to prioritize issues, work assignments, requests, and other objectives that require immediate attention helps increase efficiency. Maintenance staff management allows you to easily delegate tasks. Service contract storage lets you easily reference records.
Financial accounting and reporting:
General ledger, income statements, balance sheets, and accounts payable and receivable help you keep tabs on revenue, expenses, and the overall financial health of your portfolio. Payroll management allows you to calculate withholdings for state and local income taxes. Tracking budgets against actuals allows you to view current revenue and forecast future cash flow.
Stessa
Stessa aims to make rental property finances simple by helping both novice and sophisticated investors maximize profits through smart money management, automated income, and expense tracking, and customized reporting.
Pricing is 100% free and includes features such as unlimited property tracking, portfolio, and property-level dashboards, automated income and expense tracking, real estate document organization and storage, unlimited monthly reports, and export of tax-ready financials. Stessa does offer optional premium services to investors for a fee, to assist with rent analysis, mortgage financing, and market research.
Avail
Avail provides software solutions specifically designed for the do-it-yourself landlord. The company offers a complete set of tools and educational content to help the small investor be a confident and professional landlord.
There are two pricing options for landlord software from Avail. A free Unlimited Plan includes an unlimited number of rental units with services for online rent payments, maintenance tracking, tenant screening, and background checks, state-specific leases, and syndicate listings for vacancies.
The Unlimited Plus Plan is $5 per unit per month and includes extra services such as next-day rent payments, custom tenant applications and leases, and the creation of a property website.
Cozy
Cozy has teamed up with Apartments.com to provide the small investors with landlord software that includes state-of-the-art online rental management tools and tenant screening reports. The company’s goal is to help rental property owners be better landlords, and give both landlords and tenants peace of mind.
Pricing for landlord software from Cozy is free for landlords, while tenants pay for things such as tenant screening reports and credit card payments. Renters insurance for tenants is also available through Cozy with an average policy cost of about $20 per month.
Cozy landlord software offers a wide array of services including online rental applications, tenant screening, rent collection, tracking of property expenses, and document uploading and storage.
MRI Software
MRI Real Estate Software focuses on large professional property managers and commercial landlords and managers, with the goal of increasing occupancy and reducing operating expenses. The company specializes in a wide variety of asset types including large residential portfolios, commercial properties, facilities management, and public and affordable housing.
Pricing is customized for the individual needs of each client. MIR landlord software includes solutions for online rent collection, tenant screening, and lease templates, maintenance requests, integrated accounting, resident communication and manager compliance, and credit risk management.
Propertyware
Propertyware provides software solutions to single-family landlords and property managers with portfolios of 250 homes or more. Although the service is designed for large portfolios, the software is less complicated because the focus is on single-family homes.
Pricing tiers range from $250 to $450 a month or more depending on the number of units and solutions, plus a one-time implementation fee. Propertyware landlord software includes solutions for tenant marketing and screening, online payments, inspections, vendor portals, and maintenance project management.
Yardi Breeze
Yardi Breeze positions itself as a refreshingly simple software solution for small and midsize landlords and property managers who need help streamlining operations. The company specializes in small and midsize portfolios of residential units, commercial units, and mixed-use buildings.
Breeze pricing starts at $1 per unit per month, with a minimum monthly fee of $100 for residential portfolios. Breeze Premier pricing starts at $2 per unit per month, with a minimum monthly fee of $200 for commercial and mixed-use portfolios.
Yardi Breeze landlord software includes solutions for marketing and leasing, rent collection, maintenance requests, property management, accounting, and accounts payable.
Buildium
Built by property managers for property managers, Buildium’s comprehensive service allows property owners to control every aspect of their business remotely, making it the best overall choice for both residential and association property managers.
Pros
- Built by property managers for property managers
- Automatic rent collection through a tenant portal
- Online ticket support during business hours
- A lot of training materials offered
Cons
- Expensive pricing plans
- Some customer support complaints
- Not a fit for single property managers
Buildium, our overall best, is a comprehensive software that allows rental managers to control everything from online rent payments, vacancy management, maintenance cycles, and accounting. Through accounting, business operations, leasing, and community association management features, Buildium streamlines the whole property management process. It facilitates the lead-to-rent collection cycle through tenant and leases tracking, automated rent and fee reminders, complete general ledger accounting, and on-demand reports. Among its features, Buildium also has a specialized tenant portal that allows property managers to receive online payments automatically.
While there is no free version, they offer a free 15-day trial. Pricing is based on the number of units you manage and starts at $50 per month for up to 150 units. The more units you have, the lower the cost per unit with a maximum number of 5,000 units at a cost of $1,080 per month (additional units require specialized plans). Buildium also has a 10% discount for anyone that signs up for annual billing.
As it streamlines the whole process, Buildium is fairly simple to use, although basic users may not be able to maximize all of its features. To help users find their way through it easier, Buildium has a ticket-based customer support system, although there were some complaints about the slow responses clients received from it.
TurboTenant
TurboTenant’s pricing model puts all of its costs on the tenants, making it the best free option for landlords.
Pros
- Free regardless of the number of units managed
- Great for DIY landlords
- 24/7 customer support through phone and online
Cons
- Tenants have to pay for it
- Limited advanced features
A lot of rental property management software platforms have free trial options, but often for only a limited number of units or a limited period of time. This is not the case with TurboTenant, which will remain 100% free no matter the number of units you manage. While many free rental property management software platforms leave a lot to be desired, TurboTenant is pretty straightforward to use with a simple interface and setup.
While TurboTenant is free for landlords, tenants pay a fee of $35 to $45 for application and screening, a credit card rent payment fee of 3.49%, and an optional renters insurance monthly fee starting as low as $8. Landlords can purchase a few optional services for a one-time fee, such as state-specific lease agreements for $29, an unlimited number of electronic signatures for $9, 45 common landlord forms for $100, and a rent estimate report that compares similar local properties for $15.
TurboTenant has several features designed to facilitate tenant management for landlords, including managing applications and screening tenants online, creating dedicated listing pages, and sending bulk tenant messages from one inbox. By integrating with Craigslist, Facebook, Realtor.com, Rent.com, Apartments.com, and other rental listing sites, landlords can advertise a vacant property with a single click across multiple platforms.
You can then screen tenants through TransUnion, send and sign all documents online via the platform, and send payment and maintenance requests online. Payments are made through ACH with no fees or by credit card for a 3.49% charge.
Although it’s a free, cloud-based platform, it has been featured and praised by Reuters, USA Today, and Forbes. Considering there are over 350,000 landlords using their software, the reliability and support provided by TurboTenant’s online tools have been proven and endorsed since their founding in 2015.
The company’s strong reputation has earned them three rounds of venture capital investment from four different firms, totaling $10 million.
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.
SimplifyEm
Designed by real estate professionals, SimplifyEm offers the ideal balance of price and features, making it the perfect choice for landlords that need help managing a few properties and don’t want to pay the high cost of other software plans.
Pros
- Supports one to 2,000 units
- Designed by real estate professionals
- Has advanced features
Cons
- High fees for online rent payments
- If you have more than 2,000 units, the platform can’t grow with your portfolio
While SimplifyEm supports any number of units from one to 2,000, it’s the best fit for a few properties, because you can keep your costs as low as $20 per month if you’re starting out with fewer than 10 properties.
The price starts at $25 per month for 10 units and increases by $10 for every 10 units after that. At 50 units it is $60, increasing to $75 for 75 units and 100 for $100 units. You can create a free 15-day trial account without needing to enter a credit card. It does not require a dedicated professional to manage this platform. Independent property owners should find this accessible regardless of their experience.
All packages include email and phone support, income and expense tracking, tenant and lease management reporting, and renters insurance.
SimplifyEm is designed to give a simple and easy way for landlords to manage their properties while also saving time and money. It allows users to track income and expenses, collect rent and tenant applications online, screen tenants, generate and analyze owner reports, track maintenance requests, store documents, and automate repetitive tasks. You can get started immediately because it is cloud-based.
CONCLUSION: Landlords and property managers can use a range of tools to help make their job easier, including software. Whether you’re renting out your home or managing multiple properties or units, there are a lot of features that come in handy for landlords and property managers alike. From tenant management to rental agreements and more, here are some of the best landlord software options on the market today.