Rental Property Software for Small Landlords can help you collect rent, manage tenants, and track expenses. Whether you own one property or many, we have the features you need to manage properties efficiently, including tenant screening and management, bank payments and deposits, and more.
If you’re a small landlord, you know how hard it is to keep track of all the paperwork involved with your rental properties. You need simple and inexpensive software for managing your rental property. The best rental property software is Rental Property Manager™. No matter what kind of rental property management software or equipment rental solutions you need, we’ve got it all right here!
It takes a lot to be a landlord. Given the money they can make, many people want to be landlords these days. However, this doesn’t mean that it is easy to be a landlord. In fact, being a small landlord can often be quite stressful. This is why so many landlords are starting to look into rental property software for small landlords. These software solutions help landlords keep track of their properties and tenants, as well as give them access to information related to their finances.
Rental Property Software for Small Landlords-Software for landlords can help them maximize the profits and minimize the hassles of running a rental property business. A good software program can handle all aspects of your property business, including tracking income and expenses, scheduling maintenance, generating reports on maintaining a rental property, accepting rental applications and screening tenants, calculating rents and leases, handling evictions and everything else to keep your tenants happy.
What Is Rental Property Management Software?
Rental property management software is a suite of tools to help landlords attract leads to fill vacancies, screen tenants, and manage leases. There are typically communication features so that managers and tenants can discuss maintenance requests or send global announcements such as when snow removal is scheduled. Last but not least, rental property management software has an accounting component to it as well. You’ll be able to receive and record payments and generate reports for income, expenses, cashflow, and other strategic and financial planning interests.
Who Should Use Rental Property Management Software?
Beginning investors with small rental portfolios (fewer than 10 units) and large commercial property management firms can use rental property management software. Different companies create software with specialized features that work best for certain categories of landlords, property types, and portfolio sizes. These programs can be useful to a DIY investor, as well as to a team of users made up of owner, property manager, facility maintenance, and leasing agent, to name a few.
How Much Does Rental Property Management Software Cost?
Most property management software programs charge between $1 and $2 per unit under management. It’s important to note when you’re shopping for a program, most providers will charge you a monthly minimum fee, usually in the $200 to $250 range, even if you don’t have enough properties to warrant that high of a fee. Most programs charge the landlord team, but TurboTenant is a notable exception, pushing its costs onto the tenants. With TurboTenant, and almost all other property management software companies, there are also optional features for both the landlord and the tenant to pay for and use.
BEST CLOUD-BASED SOFTWAREYardi Breeze
As a pioneer in providing cloud-based rental property management software services, Yardi Breeze has stood above other cloud-based software platforms due to the additional features it comes with.Pros
- Unique features
- Free training and customer support
Cons
- There is no mobile app
- A few customer service complaints
If you want to have access to advanced features that facilitate the usage of your cloud-based property management software, Yardi Breeze is the right choice for you.
There are no setup fees with Yardi Breeze, and with the cheaper residential plan every unit you add costs $1 per month, so it’s a pretty affordable property management software for all the features it comes with. You have to spend $100 per month at a minimum ($1 per unit) if you have residential properties and $200 ($2 per unit) for commercial properties with the basic package. There is also a second residential package called Breeze Premier that costs $2 per unit per month with a $400 minimum.
The features include built-in accounting software, online rent collection, rental applications, templates and addendums, maintenance requests, automated marketing, activity calendars with tasks, renters insurance, tenant communication options, workflow sheets, and outsource payments. All these allow users to manage their properties, tenants, and finances with a few online clicks. But what separates Yardi Breeze is the unique feature that allows tenants to take photos with a smart device and directly attach them to a maintenance request on an online platform.
The system is pretty simple to understand, according to previous clients, but even for those that have problems setting it up, Yardi Breeze offers free training and customer support to set up your account and learn the software.
Yardi was founded in 1984 to provide software solutions to the real estate industry.
Rent Manager
Similar to Landlord Studio, Rent Manager offers a clean desktop and app version.
However, where Rent Manager differs is in its relatively expansive feature set.
They easily have one of the longest lists of features of the software mentioned here, though their UI is known for being a bit clunky, and their pricing isn’t transparent.
Rent Manager features
- Accounting features such as online rent payments and reporting
- Owner portal
- Vendor payments
- QuickBooks integration
Rent Manager pricing
Rent Manager’s pricing model is complex, to say the lease. They use two pricing models: per unit, per month, as well as pricing tiers for each of its multiple software versions.
However, they don’t list exact pricing publicly, so you’ll need to contact them directly to learn more about their pricing model.
Propertyware
Propertyware is another rental management software with strong accounting features, such as custom reporting and automatic payment reminders.
If you’re particularly interested in strong accounting reports capability, Propertyware is worth considering as it has some of the best on this list.
The big drawback is that Propertyware is designed for more extensive portfolios above 250 units, so pricing is high.
Propertyware features
- Strong accounting features and comprehensive reports
- Maintenance order management
- Owner portal
- Tenant communications
Propertyware pricing
As opposed to the common per unit, per month mode, Propertyware uses a strictly per unit model that is anchored by a monthly minimum.
Their basic plan is $1 per unit per month with a $250 minimum, making it pricey compared to most of the options on this list.
In addition to the monthly fee, there is an additional onboarding fee equal to x2 your monthly payment ($500 if you’re paying the $250 monthly minimum).
Hemlane
Hemlane has several unique features that make it stand apart from many of the tools on this list.
Features include agent match that can match you with local agents for showings as well as other leasing tools.
The trade-off is that Hemlane is one of the priciest options on the list, depending on how many units you have.
Hemlane features
- Leasing tools such as tenant screening
- Unique local support features such as agent match
- Maintenance management
- Online rent payments
Hemlane pricing
Hemlane has a relatively straightforward pricing model, though it can be a bit on the pricey side. They balance this somewhat with a 30-day free trial to make it easier to decide if you want to invest.
Their Basic plan starts at $30 per month with $2 per unit per month after the first unit. In other words, if you have 20 properties, you’d pay $70 per month.
Their premium-level Complete plan starts at $60 per month and a whopping $32 per property per month for every property after the first.
TenantCloud
TenantCloud is one of two options on this list that offers a 100% free version. Plus, it offers that plan up to a whopping 75 units.
What’s the trade-off? While their free plan is unique, TenantCloud as a whole offers a limited number and scope of features, lacking many of the premium features most property management tools have.
TenandCloud features
- Basic accounting features such as online rent payments and reports
- Work order management
- Vendor payments
TenantCloud pricing
TenantCloud offers a 100% free plan of up to 75 units.
However, if you’d like to get some of the features not available to the free plan, you can move up to the starter paid tier at $9 per month for up to 150 units, and $35 per month plan up to 500 units for TenantCloud’s complete list of features.
Rentmoji
Rentmoji is another great rental property management software with both a convenient desktop and mobile app version.
With Rentmoji, you get a clean UI that’s easy to navigate, along with a long list of valuable integrations such as QuickBooks.
The only negative is the price tag, with Rentmoji coming in with a higher price tag than most options on this list while offering similar features.
Rentmoji features
- Tenant communication tools
- Lots of integrations
- Maintenance management
- Accounting tools such as automatic rent payments
Rentmoji pricing
Rentmoji doesn’t list their pricing publicly, so you’ll need to contact their sales team directly to find out more.
Rentec Direct
Rentec Direct is a property management software solution with a balance of features, such as work order management, tenant screening, and mobile app.
The software has a few bright spots, including robust reporting features as well as lead tracking.
The trade-off for being an established solution with lots of features, though, is that users report the UI feels a bit clunky and dated.
Rentec Direct features
- Robust reporting
- Maintenance management
- Tenant portal with SMS communication
- Mobile app
Rentec Direct pricing
Rentec Direct’s starter plan is reasonable, though many will find the basic unit maximums limiting.
Their basic plan comes in at $35 per month for up to 10 units, $55 for 50 units, and up to $450 for 500 units.
Market Trends to Understand
Integrated suite vs. point solutions. Integrated suite rental management software combines a range of applications such as accounting, record-keeping and maintenance tracking into one system. In contrast, rental property manager software point solutions serve one specific function (such as processing online rent payments) and are either used in conjunction with other software or in a standalone capacity.
Size and number of properties. Certain rental tracking software systems are better suited for a large number of units or properties with mixed portfolios, whereas others are best for single properties with only a small number of units.
Web-based vs. on-premise deployment. Web-based (or “cloud”) rental property management systems store the application and all associated data online and are accessible from anywhere with Internet access. On-premise systems require software to be installed on a computer or server in your facility.
Mobile-optimized. Some rental property manager systems are accessible via tablet or smartphone, making it easy to view, enter and track data on-the-go.
How landlord software works & the benefits of using It
Landlord software comes in two different versions: 1) Computer-based software is downloaded and run on your desktop, laptop, or tablet. 2) Web-based landlord software operates in the cloud and offers online access from any internet-connected device anywhere in the world.
Some landlord software systems also offer smartphone mobile apps that securely connect with web-based software to track expenses and monitor property performance with iOS and Android applications.
According to the 2021 State of the Property Management Report recently released by Buildium, there are five top technologies renters expect landlords to offer:
- Communicating via text or email
- Paying rent online
- Submitting maintenance repair requests online
- Electronic leasing
- Access to a resident portal
Even though the demand for rental property is at all-time highs, with average single-family rental occupancy rates at 95.3%, the race to find good and keep good tenants is even stronger. The average length of time a tenant stays in a single-family rental is three years, and landlords are investing in technologies to earn the best rents and keep tenants even longer.
The best landlord software applications help you efficiently run your rental business, meet the needs of your tenants, and maximize the financial performance of your investment real estate:
- Improve your online tenant application process to reduce application errors, manage the entire leasing process online, and update applicants on their application status.
- Online rent collection including a variety of rent payment options, schedule recurring monthly payments for tenants, and automated rent payment reminders to reduce late payments and improve cash flow.
- Track maintenance requests for tenants and schedule repairs with vendors to increase tenant satisfaction, keep occupancy levels high and tenant turnover low.
- Automating your real estate business with landlord software allows you to spend less time on paperwork and routine matters and more time growing revenues by scaling up your rental property portfolio.
Conclusion
If you are a small landlord, property management software is a must. Rental Property Software for Small Landlords offers a convenient and powerful software solution to help you run your rental business.
You’ve got a property to manage and a lot of great things in the pipeline. You have interesting ideas, but need help making them happen, so you’re trying to figure out what rental property software will work best for your business. And you know there are all kinds of benefits that come from using a good management software