Innago, Cozy, other FREE PM software, what's the catch?

[Justine M.]

Hey all, was wondering what everyone's thoughts and/or experience has been with these free property and landlord management softwares.  I'm a little hesitant and feel like there is a catch given that they are free, such as selling our data or using it for other purposes that much of us would not like. I don't have too many properties, 10 units, and they barely break even so very price sensitive due to local rent control and covet moratorium issues. Would love to hear any thoughts or experience with these platforms. To note, I do not care for any tenants being able to make auto payments or anything of that nature really. Given that I do not want to deal with those creative tenants that may not pay eventually and have to go through an eviction, so they're free lawyers or tenant advocates will advice them to use and make a digital payment, which would make things a lot worse in trying to reimburse them since if you receive or accept payment it automatically usually voids your active notice or eviction case and you have to start over.

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Justine M.:

Most of the softwares are free with limited services, hoping you will upgrade for better features. I use professional software that is expensive, but I have tested some of the others. TenantCloud was pretty robust for free and it gets better if you upgrade to the paid version. It's pretty inexpensive considering the time-saving features it includes.

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.