Another software question...

[Craig M.]

Hello everyone. I just inherited the duties of managing our families (my in-laws) small apartment building in Hawaii. It was built by my wife's grandfather 55 years ago and eventually handed it down to my mother in-law.  After it became too much for her she hired a "friend" to take care of it the last few years.  He is a part time property manager and is being compensated for the work.  For whatever reason she wants to bring the responsibility back to the family and I have been given the task.  I am not a realtor nor am I a property manager.  I have a few rentals of my own; (2) single family homes in Hawaii where I live and a condo in Vegas.  I have been very fortunate and have had really good long term renters in all of them and software has not been needed.  The apartment building has 10 units so I think it'll help me a lot.  Applications, background, credit, and eviction checks, collecting and keeping track of rent, keeping track of maintenance (requests and repairs), and book keeping to hand over to the accountant during tax time.  I am very familiar with the building and some of the old timer tenants as I've spent many weekends doing repairs with Grandpa K before he passed but for the future, I'll be hiring for most of the repairs/maintenance.  We're usually at 100% but there's always 1-2 units that have turnover every couple years.  I've narrowed it down to Rentec Direct or Avail and Stessa.  RD seems to be the only all in one.  Avail needs the addition of QB or Stessa.  Stessa needs something like Avail also but I just found out it (Stessa) doesn't support Android which I have.  I couldn't even sign up for an account on Cozy since it's with apartments.com and I didn't really like apts.com.  So...is anyone using Rentec Direct alone successfully?  Any downfalls/complaints?  As a new apartment "caretaker" will it suffice for what I think I need?  Any other all in one programs out there you'd recommend?  Any help is greatly appreciated.  Sorry for the long post but I thought a little context would help.  Mahalo.

[Zachary Ray]

Rentec Direct or Buildium are great for under 100 units. I would use the trial on Buildium then make your decision. The interface is newer and cleaner than Rentec Direct. If you are looking to grow I would check those out but if you are only managing a few maybe Cozy could suffice for you.