Appfolio

[Ryan Pyle]

I am looking at using appfolio software to help manage my units. I've been using Quickbooks for the last 10 years. I am an accountant by trade so I love QB, but I'm at 147 units now and I need something that can help manage the non-accounting side of my business. My books look great, but everything else is in a bungle of spreadsheets (service calls, unit status, make-ready flow, lease expiration dates, etc).  Plus, I would eventually love to hire someone to help me, and having a professional, easy to use system would make it easier for me mentally to hand things over.

I am hoping to get a few questions answered from those of you who use appfolio:

1. Pricing: were you able to negotiate with them?

2. Conversion: hopefully I can connect with someone who converted from QB to appfolio as I'd love to hear how easy or difficult the process was.

3. Flat fee: they say there are no hidden fees. Have you found this to be true? Is everything really included in the monthly subscription, or do they try to upsell modules and add-ons?

Thanks in advance.

[Lisa Doud]

Hi Ryan,

  I started my company June of 2012, and I had been using Buildium for my property management software prior to that at Gallery of Homes Realtors In Virginia Beach,  I saw how they charged you for every little service, and I knew I didn't want that with my company.  I did my research and ended up going with Appfolio.  

To answer your questions It doesn't matter what kind of software you are coming from they are going to tell you to export your data and fit it in to their google spreadsheet.  Since I was a new company, I didn't have to import any historical data, but I had download the data from Buildium, copy it in to the Google Spread sheet and submitted to the Transition team, and they put everything in for me.  

Their pricing is as far as I am concerned very reasonable for all that they offer.  The Appfolio property management software runs $200 a month (and has not changed in 2 years).  I know they charge you a larger fee than most to start up, I believe I had to pay the $600, and another $400 to set up the electronic banking portion, but it was well worth it, because you are not charged anything else for those things.  I also paid for their website services, (which was ok to start, however I don't like having to send my changes in and wait for them to take affect, so I took it back over ).  The website set up cost me $1000 and nothing else.  

As I started using the software I started reading how we could have tenants fill out applications online, and all we had was hit the convert button and we didn't have to go through the hole process of putting all the information about their families in as well.  they charge $15 per credit report, and I was using background Info USA and they were the same cost, but I had to manually put all the tenant information in, and I just wanted to work smarter so I chose to discontinue using Background Info and go with Appfolio for the background.  I am very glad that I did that, because we do all our screening through Appfolio, which uses Experian for credit  checks, and we also report to Experian Rent Bureau, which records lease dates, owed balances, and also can help boost or drop a credit score based on the tenants payment history.  This has turned out to be such a wonderful tool because tenants are coming back to me paying debt because they can't get the apartment they want because their outstanding balance was reported to Experian Rent Bureau.

I can honestly say that there is no one calling my office and trying to get us to use different add on services that they have, but they will send out an email and if you are interested in it  then you call them, which is what I did when we started Tenant liability insurance.  We actually implemented tenant liability insurance with appfolio because we had a tenant caused fire in a property and after all was said and done the owner's insurance company went after the tenants for the fire damage, and they did not have the money to pay it.  Appfolio charges $9.50 for every unit covered, but when you have a stupid tenant that doesn't hear a toilet running all night and wakes up to water through the entire kitchen and bathroom of her apartment, that is what it is for.  They paid out the claim and we never called the owner's insurance company.  

So roughly the only reoccurring costs you have is $200 (up to 200 units) a month for the software,  and $15 per each credit report that I run.  When I left Gallery of homes I was sent the bill for the software, and I find it ironic that for the month of may 2012 (89 units) their cost was $249.00.  

The only negative that appfolio tells you that the electronic bank set up only is for incoming transactions and does not go for paying out owners.  But that also includes Multiple bank accounts, ( main operating accounts, and Security deposit accounts), and also Credit card processing, 24 Hr Cash payments with 7-11 and Ace Cash advance.  

If you have any further questions just let me know.... As I said we have been using it for 2 years and have been thrilled with all the new tools they have implemented and not changed our pricing structure.