Better Property Management Software

[Steven Gersch]

I am looking at property management software and have been intrigued by both Hemlane and Rentec Direct. I have noticed that Rentec Direct is almost always cheaper no matter how many units you are managing, plus it has an accounting feature that can be synced up to quickbooks. Hemlane, on the other hand, has the SMART account with premium features that coordinate maintenance requests with professionals, 3rd party agents for property showings, and access to legal advice and documents. Anyone that has any input as to experiences with either software, or BOTH especially, is greatly appreciated.

[Brian Olson]

Hi @Steven Gersch - I've used both Rentec Direct and Hemlane. The short(er) version of my experience is that Rentec seemed awesome and they were...except that they used 3rd party processors for a variety of things and those 3rd parties were a huge PITA. Those processors are setup to deal with small retail businesses...not a landlord with a handful of properties. I tried and gave up.

Then I switched to TenantCloud and that was great for a DIY setup. I was with them for about 2 years or so but the maintenance side of things just never developed. I wanted to be able to bid out jobs, get estimates, pick a contractor and move on. With TC you have to find those contractors yourself. TC doesn't do anything to help you there.

Then in comes Hemlane. This is where I've been for the past few months (3-4). So far I'm very happy. They do all the legwork for your tenanted properties. They process the incoming maintenance requests, find a few contractors and get bids then ask you which contractor you'd like to proceed with. Fantastic. Everything has been awesome with these tenanted properties.

The shortcoming with Hemlane is that, although they advertise that they work with local real estate professionals, I haven't had that experience. They were unable to find me a Realtor on the ground to work with. Since they weren't able to find someone locally to help they are unable to do anything about turnovers (or anything that doesn't have a tenant in the property). At the time I switched I had two vacant properties so I ended up flying out there myself to put lockboxes on doors and find contractors to deal with turnover maintenance. Luckily I found some great help locally, a Realtor and handyman, but if you don't have these resources I wouldn't count on Hemlane. Great solution, just not quite what they claimed in my experience. If you know that going in you should be in good shape.