What's the best PM software out there?

Question

Just curious because we have used 3 different software platforms within the course of 6-7 years to stay current with technology. Appfolio seems to be great and we love it. Are there any others that use something different and wouldn't mind sharing your thoughts comparing Appfolio with the others? Thanks

Grant Shipman · Answer

@Ariel Jeidel I'd love to hear which platform you chose and your experience after a year of posting. Currently I use a pm software that is not robust enough in accounting, so we compliment it with QBO and an accounting team.  However, I'd love to find a pm software that was strong in accounting, so I could drop QBO and still have all my recording/optics for investment, operations, and tax needs met by the pm software.  I have been on calls with Rent Manager, Yardi Breeze, and Appfolio.  There sales people assure me that I would not need an additional accounting software, but they also said they are not accountants/bookkeepers.   I'd appreciate hearing anything from your experience. Cheers!  Anyone else- please chime in as well. This seams like a good thread :)   ...And I totally understand that the best system is the one that works for me, and I'm researching towards that end.

Grant Shipman · Answer

@Ariel Jeidel Thanks so much!  Is Appfolio successfully doing all your book work, so you don't need an additional accounting platform to pay your owners or for your CPA to do your taxes each year?

Jamison Conti · Answer

@Grant Shipman

Appfolio is a property based accounting platform which means all income and expense must be tied to a property. You can pay your owners, do 1099s, ect. I have seen some people set up a "corporate property" in order to track income and expense of their company.    You can dm me if you have any questions about it.

Ariel Jeidel · Answer

@Grant Shipman This is first year that CPA has to use Appfolio, so far try haven't had any complaints. We weren't using QBO for paying out the partners in deal and aren't using Appfolio for it either so don't know. I have seen feasters for it, just never tried it.

Ariel Jeidel · Answer

@Grant Shipman We went with Appfolio, overall I'm happy with it but some features that I really need they don't have. For example doing CAM reconciliations is quite difficult. If my choice was QBO or Appfolio I would definitely make the switch again. I do wonder if Yardi Breeze would have been the right choice, was very difficult to get any information on it at the time.

Account Closed · Answer

@Ariel Jeidel what I've found with AppFolio is that tracking your CAM expenses at the end of the year can be cumbersome, its the worst when you have to do your reconciliations out of the system in excel or quick books. You need to be able to create custom expense pools, auto retail calculations, 1099's and 96's, track expenses for gross and triple net leases. I hope AppFolio is going well for you however take a look at Yardi Breeze if you get a moment.

Ariel Jeidel · Answer

@Ryan McKelvey or anyone else that can advise:).

How does Yardi Breeze compare to Appfolio?

We own and manage shopping centers and malls in more than 20 states. Most of our properties have 3rd party local management, some good some not so good and some proprieties we self manage. For all properties, all the financials go through our office i.e. we pay all he bills and deposit all the checks (except for our malls where mall manager deposits). We have been using Quickbooks online but it severely lacking and are considering between Yardi Breeze and Appfolio.

Thanks

Siler Coggins · Answer

I can't speak to the functional pros/cons of Appfolio because I haven't used it very extensively myself. But if you haven't yet I would recommend looking into Roof, which I started using a few months ago. Other than its beautiful interface which is by far my favorite of all the software I've tried , it seems pretty comparable to other rent collection apps in terms of features (online rent collection, maintenance request tracking, bookkeeping).

But what makes Roof stand out is the combination of its tenant features, and the way it organizes communication. The app includes tons of features for tenants to use with their roommates (expense splitting, household chore tracking, shared shopping lists, etc.) which means my tenants actually use the app on their own all the time. So when the app reminds them to pay rent or I send them a message through the app, I can actually count on my tenants seeing it and responding quickly.

Ryan McKelvey · Answer

I have used both Buildium and Appfolio. As @Nathan G. said above I also experience limitations once the portfolio I managed reached around 100 properties.  I am currently trying out Yardi Breeze, as I am currently managing a small portfolio and is more cost efficient and scalable to merge with their Yardi Voyager platform as my portfolio increases.

Dick Rosen · Answer

I think it's all user preference... well mostly. I've used Propertyware and I currently use Appfolio, both very similar, they both have pro's and con's. At this stage I don't have any plans on making any more switches, you cjust have to get comfortable with one and dig in. I've also heard great things about Yardi.

What's the best PM software out there?

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