Feedback on Rentvine

[Michael Fucillo]

Hello!

As the title suggests I'm looking for feedback on Rentvine from someone who has or does use it.  I have seen a lot of discussions on other PM software (Buildium, Propertyware, Property Manager, Appfolio, Yardi).  The appeal of Rentvine is the customer service and help getting set up.  I am not an accountant, but need to start using more sophisticated accounting software.  Rentvine's claim is that they offer help getting set up with double entry accounting.  

Additional features I like are free esigning and document management, online payments, tenant screening, maintenance requests, vendor payments, owner payouts, owner statements, communications at the  property level and with tenants.

Portfolio currently consists of:

Owned

7 family long term 

5 family long term 

2 Short term SF

Managed 

2 Short term SF

Future plans for growth are to continue buying LTRs and managing additional STRs.  I know the portfolio isn't huge, but it's somewhat diverse. It would be helpful to have some software to stay organized.  Currently using Stessa for accounting, apartments.com for rent collection and document sharing.  Everything else is manual (email, writing checks from the bank, ect).

Also open to any suggestions if you are using something that you think would fit these needs.

Thank you in advance!

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Michael Fucillo:

I have not used RentVine but I know some large PM companies that use it and think it's great. Buildium is commonly recommended for smaller PM companies. I used them when I first started 13 years ago, but switched to something more robust when I hit 150+ units.

Software is a common question on BiggerPockets. Here are some things to consider:

1. Most investors don't need software until they have 5-10 rentals. All you need is a single place to track tenant information, payment history, maintenance, and a few other things. You can easily do this on a spreadsheet and it will take less time to track than it would to find and learn a new software. If the software is not simplifying your life or making you more accurate, you shouldn't use it.
2. Software does have extremely helpful features like online payments, marketing syndication (click a button and your property is advertised on multiple sites), electronic document review/signing, maintenance tracking, and owner reports. But do you really need that for your one rental?
3. There's no perfect software out there. Every system you try will have flaws or you'll salivate over a feature that shows up in other software.

Some common names you'll see thrown around a lot: Stessa, Apartments.com, RentRedi, TenantCloud, Innago, RentManager, Avail, Rentec Direct, Doorloop, etc.

I recommend you search for each of those apps online and see what they offer, how much they charge, etc. Make a simple spreadsheet or written list with the features of each and see which ones appeal to you most. Try to narrow it down to your top 3-4. Once you have a short list, get an account with each one and run them through the wringer to see how they really function. Do one task at a time in each app so you can compare apples to apples.

• Load a property with pictures and details.
• Market that property.
• See what your marketing looks like from the public's perspective.
• Submit a fake application to see how easy the process is.
• Run a credit/screening report on yourself.
• Enter a maintenance request, assign a vendor, attach a fake invoice.
• Enter charges to the tenant's ledger.
• Enter recurring charges and automatic late fees.
• Sign documents electronically.
• Run owner reports.

After testing a few apps, one of them should stand out for you. Choose that one and use it. No system is perfect, so don't waste your time chasing after the next shiny object. You should only have to change when your current software has a flaw or lacking feature that is causing you to spend too much work on a work-around. Then you can consider researching and finding something that meets your needs better.