Buildium Property Management Software

[Lee Kozokas]

Hey Guys!

Thought this would be useful to all of you looking into obtaining property management software. Just completed through the 15 day trial of Buildium and I am not impressed, mainly due to customer service. You would think a company attempting to convince someone actively seeking property management software would provide top-notch customer service to lock in the consumer but that was absent here. I would hate to think what customer service is after purchase, as the trend for businesses is normally to provide good service up front and then fade once the deal is done (not ideal obviously but that's how it tends to go). 

Buildium kicks out emails checking up on you through out the trial. Within the email, it is "sold" as a specific person is tending to you, though, as I assumed, that is not true. I replied to two of the emails they sent me with an number of questions (below), never did I get a reply. That led me to call the company to ask, which unfortunately was another let down. The rep I spoke to gave very vague answers to 3/4 of my questions. When I pushed for further clarification, there was no attempt put me on hold to find the answer or to get back to me upon further research at a later time. I also asked if they were going to bother replying to my email, which I was told to just call in with questions. 

After these experiences, I did submit feedback via the website. I was not responded to. 

Last night, after my trail expired, I did get a call from Buildium asking if I had any questions or needed anything. I relayed that I am still weighing my options. I was bothered by the very loud call center the rep was contacting me from though. Must have been at least 10 other reps nearby making the same calls. 

Overall it was a poor experience for me. I due admit, I am a customer service snob so to speak, but if I am paying $45 dollars a month for a service in a market where there is significant competition, I expect better. Another note, if you do try out Buildium, do not go through the trouble of interesting your own property data in the platform, I did just to learn if I did decide to subscribe, I would lose all that data and have to start again. Lost a few hours of my life with that mistake. 

Maybe others had better experiences, I would like to think so. Seems like the platform itself is pretty solid, minus the phone apps, which still need key features that they are supposedly working on. 

Hope this helps some of you out, which is the intent of this post! I think I will try tenantcloud out next.

Thanks!

- Lee 

P.S. Below are the emails I sent to Buildium

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Mon, Oct 8, 1:37 PM (12 days ago)

Hello,

I do have a few questions, thank you in advance for your thoughtful reply:

1) My main concern with the platform is that it is tilted more towards operation vs accounting. I am seeking a single platform to take care of both ops and accounting. I realize some accounting features are included, such as the 1099 filing and basic expense tracking. A lot of my properties require rehab so expense tracking on a per unit basis is very important to me. When tax season comes, is Buildium capable of producing documentation I can provide my accountant for easy tax prep? (granted I log every income and expense, as I plan to).

2) Is there any kind of discount for active duty military members?

3) How do I get rid of the pre-filled in data in the trial? I went through the tutorials and no longer need to see them. I want to get a feel for the platform as it would actually look in my case, not with fictitious data.

4) Using the example data mentioned in above in question 3, I entered each of my properties per building, including lease data. It took a while to do. Now I am unsure if that was the best approach. For example, must of my properties are duplexes. So i set the property up as "XX/XX XXXXXXX Street" with two units. When I testing adding a general ledger entry, this is a problem though. I cannot delineate between the two units. So if I replace the flooring in unit 1, 76 Wadham street, I would have to apply the expense to the entire property. My CPA had my properties broken out on a unit basis, not property, so this would not convert well.

5) I do not see much info on the phone app. How capable is it? Is there an option to take photos of receipts to be uploaded? Through the general ledger, i see you can upload documents but that is a cumbersome process since the data still needs to be manually entered.

Thank you for answering these questions. I will be expanding my business and need to make sure the property management platform I select is indeed the best one available to meet my needs.

Lee

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Oct 11, 2018, 7:20 AM (9 days ago)

Hello,

Just wondering if someone will be responding to my questions below as I consider using Buildium.

Thanks

Lee