"Non-cloud" property management software?

Question

Through some of my networking, I've been contacted by a growing property management team to source through some property investment software (50 units, currently using hardcopy files and Excel). The people in this team are retired and one is pretty 'up' on the IT lingo and all, so they have some progressive requirements. However they've made it emphatically clear that they doesn't trust "the cloud" with the security of sensitive information on application and contracts. I've scoured a lot of the forums here on BP for the topic of PM software, but my question has a slight twist to what I've seen already posted.

I've done some initial research in packages such as AppFolio, PropertyWare and Buildium, but is there any software that is non-cloud based (ie housed only on a personal computer)?

The other requirements seem faily typical:

• Expense tracking and rent revenue, etc. (for overall bottom-line net profit and taxes)
• Lease/contract archival (for scanning documentation and storing in the software);
• Lease alerts (ie which property has a lease expiring in 30, 60 days, etc)
• Data backup to external sources (again, non-cloud based)
• Even without cloud-based software, they want to still be able to access the software remotely and securely through any internet connection. (This one seems kind of over my head technically if I'm keeping with the non-Cloud based requirement)

From what I've seen of apps like AppFolio and Buildium, they offer all these and more from which I think they'd definitely benefit, however these all seem to be cloud-based, albeit Saas-certified.

Before I go through the battle of trying to convince them that cloud-based is probably safe enough with this data (after all, these programs appear to be widely used) and probably the way to go, does anyone know of any PM software that has all these requirements mentioned above, though is hosted on the client?

Thanks.

Michael Seeker · Answer

Per my original post, there's a huge need to be able to access data from anywhere so never really spent any time on a non-cloud-based option. I have built out a cloud-based PM site that is 100% tailored to my business. It does not have the bells and whistles of the paid services, but it allows us to interface with our tenants the way we want to and manage our accounting and maintenance requests at a level that was not available (or user-friendly enough) from any of the 3rd part vendors I've reviewed.

From the various online software we've demo'd within the past year, we were close to going with Buildium or RentecDirect but ultimately decided something proprietary would serve us better long-term.

Lucas Bonasio · Answer

@Michael Seeker were you able to develop your "non-cloud-based" software? I know this is an old post, but I have been looking for the same type of software and even thought about building one myself...

Please let me know. Thanks!

Robert Macklyn · Answer

Some where I have read that the task management tool can also manage the property in a streamlined manner. Once the set up has to be done accordingly, the tool goes on managing the things effectively.

Michael Seeker · Answer

Hey @John Cardillo - I've been wanting the same type of setup, but have not had any luck finding what I want.

Ultimately, to be able to access from different locations there will have to be a database hosted somewhere (this is "the cloud" that everybody refers to). I've started developing some software on my own, but have not gotten to the stage where I can remotely access it. If I continue development I will definitely go there though.

If you don't find what you're looking for elsewhere, feel free to PM me and see if what I'm working on could be mutually beneficial.

-Michael

John Cardillo · Answer

One last try: @Ryan S.

@Brian W.

John Cardillo · Answer

Thanks, @Rhett Tullis, @Ryan S. & @Brian W.

for your feedback. AFter reviewing some of the options, I think I may have a decent recommendation to just go with the Cloud-based packages as these seem to have the most options as well as satisfy all the specified requirements, except for being cloud-based. But, I think it's worth the recommendation, especially if I dig a little further into each of the cloud based packages' security policies. Thanks again.

John Cardillo · Answer

I thought I had conquered the tagging of people with the @ symbol!

Brian Woods · Answer

@John Cardillo, you might want to checkout - PropertyBoss. I know, years ago when I was checking out their system, it was an application and not web-based and I believe that it still is to this day. Hope this helps.

Ryan Swan · Answer

Rhett beat me to it, but the one that came to mind immediately was also Quicken Property Management (I know there is at least a 2013 version). This site has reviews of various property management platforms that might be helpful. One interesting trend is the "year founded" column...all of the biggest cloud based software is from the past 10 years or so, while the older application offerings look like they're from the mid 90s.

Rhett Tullis · Answer

Not sure it is feasible or even possible to do complete background checks, credit checks or the like without some sort of online/cloud service any more. I would also wonder what other "requests" they will have of you once you begin working together. The only option , although I have not used it, would be to use the quicken property management software but not sure they are even supporting that anymore.

"Non-cloud" property management software?

"Non-cloud" property management software?

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