Rental business management software has been around for quite some time. In fact, some software companies have been in the game for more than a decade. And you may be wondering whether rental business management software is right for your rental business. You’re not alone. Many people have this same question but don’t know where to start looking for answers about rental property management software.
It is a responsive web application that meets the requirements of all kinds of businesses in the rental domain. Rental Business Management Software offers powerful tools to manage your business more efficiently.
A good workflow is important in any business. And with the booming renting business, and more and more people are taking an interest in getting involved in it, a good management software can do wonders for your business. Rental property management software (RPM) is still a relatively new software category, but there already exist some great products for managing your rental property business. This article describes and gives you insight into the rental management industry, reviews and compares the best rental management software solutions available today, as well as provides helpful tips on implementing and using such essential solutions to the full extent.
Process a rental transaction from start to finish with our simple and easy-to-use rental management software. Rental Point Of Sale (POS) from Dell is designed to help you manage your rental business, increase productivity, reduce administration costs, and improve customer service. This web-based solution allows for house accounts and online reservations. The integrated CRM capabilities gives your employee quick access to notes, issues and accounts data – improving efficiency of the transaction process and helping the employee focus on the customer.
Equipment Rental Software
Equipment rental software is the backbone of a rental-based business model. While traditional retailers use point of sale (POS) systems, rental operations rely on point of rental (POR) software to manage their unique business needs. Within these equipment rental management systems, equipment is catalogued into an inventory database, rental reservations are accepted and scheduled and equipment servicing and maintenance is managed. Rental equipment software manages all points of the customer experience and operational processes of a rental-based business.
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.
SimplifyEM
SimplifyEM is an excellent option if you’re primarily looking for an accounting tool for managing your properties.
SimplifyEM mainly makes tracking and collecting rent easier, with some unique features such as payment reminders.
They have a free trial version of the software that’s unique among other property management software tools in that you can test out the complete software for a limited time without putting any sensitive information in.
Features include:
- Robust accounting features
- QuickBooks integration
- Reminders
- Automated rent payments
SimplifyEM Pricing
SimplifyEM has a free trial version of the software. Their paid plans start at just $20 per month, making it one of the most affordable paid plans on this list, though it only covers up to 10 units.
RentRedi
RentRedi is a good option for small landlords as they have a smartphone version that’s easy to take with you while offering an affordable $20 monthly plan with an unlimited number of units.
However, it’s important to note that users report that RentRedi can be inconvenient to use regularly if you have more than a few units, particularly when you’re trying to manage multiple tenant payments.
Features are also limited compared to the more comprehensive software on this list, though it offers a decent place to get started.
Features include:
- Mobile app
- Rent payment tracking
- Tenant portal
RentRedi pricing
RentRedi has an affordable pricing model starting at $19.95 for an unlimited number of units, though with limited features.
Unlike most of the options on this list, however, they don’t offer a free trial version. So, you’ll need to invest in the first month to see how you like it.
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.
Rentec Direct – For Landlords with over 10 Properties
Rentec Direct is a robust property management software for all sorts of landlords. It doesn’t matter if you have 10 properties under your management or a thousand of them; this software will likely leave you satisfied.
| Cost | $35 per month |
| Mobile app | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes. 2 weeks free trial. |
What Rentec Direct can offer you
- Free Training & Support
- Property & Tenant Accounting
- Tenant Screening
- Online Payments
- Cash Payment Network
- Online Property Advertisement
- Tenant Email & SMS Notifications
- Property Management Website
- Automatic Reminders
- Customizable Income/Expense Reports
- Detailed Rental and Vacancy Reports
- Online File & Attachments Storage
Where Rentec Direct is a winner
No upfront fees
Rentec Direct doesn’t require any upfront fees for you to hop on and get started with your property management.
Free website
As part of the package, you’ll also receive your very own website from where you can promote your business. Keep in mind that you might need a professional web developer to adjust your website if you ever feel the need to, because doing it yourself might throw things off a bit.
Quickbooks compatibility
If you use Quickbooks to keep track of your accounting, you’ll be glad to know that Rentec Direct offers complete support for it. You won’t have to migrate any data – you can continue to work on your favorite accounting software.
Landlord training
Something that not every property management software offers – free training on how to be a good landlord! Rentec Direct was created by a landlord with a software background, and it’s great the company is now training other landlords on how they can maximize their profits while keeping their tenants happy.
Automatic late fees
Late fees can get quite uncomfortable, which is why Rentec Direct’s automatic late fee deduction is a great feature. You won’t have to approach your tenants about the matter all!
Low cost per unit
As you continue to add more properties under your management while using this software, your management fees per property will be some of the lowest in the market.
Where Rentec Direct falls short
Minimum door limit
It’s not like Rentec Direct doesn’t allow less than 10 properties, but they have a minimum fee per month regardless of how many houses you’re managing. If you have less than 10 properties, we’d recommend that you stick with another software because you’re simply losing money here.
Screening costs money
While most property management software expect the tenants to pay for screening, Rentec Direct also requires you to pay $7 per screening report – and that’s just the basic version. A premium screening costs $15, which is quite a letdown and an expensive one at that.
Our verdict on Rentec Direct
Rentec Direct offers a multitude of features that we’d normally expect a far more expensive software to have. However, it is a tad bit expensive. It’s mostly ‘directed’ towards homeowners who’re really serious about making headway into the property management business and isn’t recommended for landlords who simply want to automate the management of a single property they own.
Benefits of Adopting Equipment Rental Software
Regardless of which type of buyer you are, the many features of equipment rental software bring tons of benefits to help rental businesses achieve operational success. These benefits include:
Newfound organization. Many rental businesses will move to equipment rental management software from less efficient manual methods, such as spreadsheets, basic emailing for customer management and even paper tickets and contracts. Equipment rental software will provide incredible organizational benefits for these new adopters. Automating the tracking and availability of equipment, setting maintenance reminders and autogenerating customer communications will free up operators to spend more time training employees and checking in on customers.
Increased transparency. Equipment rental reporting tools give operators and managers unparalleled transparency and insight into their business. Specialized reporting dashboards offer a customizable view of the status on all equipment the company has. And such dashboards can be drilled down to account for filters such as equipment type, time since last maintenance and time until rental is returned. All of this combined enables rental businesses to make more informed decisions to propel their operations.
Decreased equipment downtime. Equipment rental software offers two distinct means of decreasing equipment downtime, thus enabling businesses to generate more money per asset:
- The first is through maintenance management features that monitor metrics such as overall usage and time since last maintenance to prescribe predictive and preventative maintenance. By ensuring equipment is properly maintained through automated maintenance, rental businesses can keep assets out of the shop and keep them rented.
- The second benefit equipment management software has for decreasing downtime is simply greater transparency into scheduling. By having an organized calendar of unrented days, businesses can focus on renting their equipment these days to increase revenue.
Conclusion
Rental business management software is a must for any owner of a small business property. The truth, however, is that this type of software has evolved a lot over the last decade. From running your business in-house or to outsourcing everything to a third party provider, the road goes both ways.
Running a rental business has challenges that are different from running a brick and mortar store. You have to watch your profit margins, but also want to be sure your renters are happy and taken care of. That is why there are business management software solutions.