Property Management Software Recommendations

[Jacoby Lewis]

Hello BP Community,

I recently purchased my first property and was planning to use Cozy for property management but noticed they have been acquired by Apartments.com. Does anyone have experience/feedback using Cozy through the Apartments.com platform? I'd like to determine if I should move forward with Apartments.com or look into other property management software options. What are your thoughts? Alternative recommendations welcome.

[Nathan Gesner]

You can't find the perfect software. Others may tell you Cozy is the bomb-dot-com but then you try it out and realize you don't like the way the monthly report is formatted.

The best software is the one that works for you!

Sit down with a piece of paper or a spreadsheet and write out the things you need software for: marketing vacant units, tracking tenant contact information, accepting rent payments, tracking income/expenses, tracking maintenance requests, monthly financial statements, etc.

Once you know what you want it to do, you can search these forums for the 10,642 threads where this same question has been asked (seriously, it's sometimes on here ten times a day) and narrow your search down to the top 3-5 systems people are recommending. Sign up for a free/trial account with the three that seem most attractive to you, then run them through the ringer. Go to each system and enter a property. Market a vacancy and see how they advertise on other platforms like Zillow or Zumper or Apartments.com and compare. Submit a fake application. Submit / edit / track a maintenance request. Accept some fake payments, run reports, etc.

See how well each one meets your needs. Get a feel for how user-friendly it is. Once you find something that meets most of your needs, lock it in and give it the old college try for a year. After a year, you'll be more educated about what the software can or can't do and better able to investigate and find something else.

Don't waste time looking for the perfect solution! Find something that meets most your needs. Fill in the gaps with a spreadsheet or other tool, then get back to business.