Buildium Bank Feeds Frustration - Software Suggestions

[Jason Solley]

We have 15 rentals and have been using Buildium for 8 years for tenant communications, collecting rent, and leasing. Quickbooks was our original accounting software but left it to use Tiller with Google Sheets and are outgrowing it and now need trust accounting with better reporting.

Our gripes with Buildium Essentials. We do not like how you enter expenses through the bank feeds. We have a lot of expenses since we buy our properties distressed and put a lot of sweat equity in them. Entering 100 expenses at the end of the month is very time consuming compared to Quickbooks or Tiller spreadsheet, plus you cannot do this through the mobile app. My other gripe is the mobile app. It is so limited and seems like you have to login to the full site for most tasks especially when leasing and trying to get to Tenant Turner to see appointments on our iPhones.

We are considering changing platforms and my current software spend with Tenant Turner is roughly $100/month or $6.67/unit. This is just a baseline and understand the value of good software but do not see us having 50 units in 5 years since we only self-manage. 

If we could choose the ideal software, it would have 90% funcitionality from a mobile app in some limited fashion. Expense tracking is high on the priority list with the ability to capture receipts at the time of purchase with a receipt scanner. We also do not want to loose Tenant Turner (best app ever for leasing). From what we see, we know that it is going to take at least another $100/month but understand it could take more to get what we want so don't limit suggestions due to cost.

If anyone is looking at getting Buildium, it's great software, I just don't think it works well for us. I am more than happy to speak with anyone looking at the software and have recommended it to several people. If you have an office and just do property management, I think it is wonderful software. For someone who does this part time working off your cell phone with a high volume of receipts and partners on some investments, I think there are better option. Stay tuned to this post to see the recommendations.

Thanks, Jason