All Forum Posts by: Christian Szpilfogel

 It could work as there a number of associations that publish current bench mark costs available via the web. But there would need to be intelligence in the software to know how to assemble that into something coherent. 

We kind of do that now with our PM tools. Our tenants do self service to pay their rent, generate maintenance tasks, generate their own rent receipts and statements, update their own insurance policies (if they don't use an integrated vendor). Leasing is electronic and built into the PM tool, advertising and showing scheduling too.

I would not trust a system to select a tenant anymore than I would on AirBNB. But I can list a unit, collect an application, run screening, offer a lease for eSignature... all within the system.

 I sent via BP's DM. Not sure you noticed it in your notifications. :) 

 It does. But it is in the premium package only at the moment. It uses their relatively new REST APIs. I expect over time, as they become more comfortable with their new APIs, that they will offer it in at least their mid tier package. As it is today, we do rent reconciliation in Buildium and then export it to QBO where we do everything else. 

I really wish PM software would stop trying to be accounting software but instead integrate with it.

At 40 units, you should consider property management software. I use Buildium and it has Appliance tracking built in. 

This feature is available in my PM tool (Buildium). It included emails and text messages. It only currently misses out on inbound emails and adding that would be nice. But we tend to rely more in bidirectional text messages.

 Fair enough. If you are looking to build point solutions then I think there would be some white (or at least grey) space you can work into. I use solutions like this today such as RentSync which complements my Buildium PM tool. RentSync allows me to manage how listings are send to various ILSs. 

The gaps I generally have are related to local jurisdiction issues. For example, issuing legal notices. In Ontario, for example, we have to issue late rent payments (N4), interference (N5), rent increase notices (N1 or N2) on very specific forms and which must be done precisely correct or risk it being voided. The struggle then is that even with a population of 18M in Ontario, a solution may be too niche for a developer such as you. So these kinds of things we have to take outside the PM tool.

I think there are also things that could be done to improve the application process and social media interaction. For them to be useful, using data from the PM tool would be useful. But to get at that data, you would need to access APIs and most PM tools don't have that unless it is in the high end packages. Buildium for example just introduced RESTful APIs but it is only available in their top tier package. Other PM tools that have APIs are typically on the high end packages (e.g. Yardi Voyager, Property Vista, etc) and cost / complexity prohibitive to small investors. 
 If I can think of something useful to contribute, I'll certainly let you know. :) I have absolutely no qualms of paying for something useful!

I don't mean to be a party pooper but there are literally thousands of PM tools available. Sadly I'm not kidding. So you are looking to develop something in a very crowded field. These PM tools come in various shapes, sizes and price points to address a particular segment's needs. If there is one thing I wish we had was a PM tool selector. LOL.

Before I settled on my current PM tool, I had to wade through a lot of PM tools and short list a few that seemed to be a good fit for my business. I then had to test each of the features to measure the claims made. It was a heck of a process.

The reason it is a heck of a process is because property management has a really long list of required features to address a company's specific processes. You can't even keep the list in your head so in my case I put it into an excel spreadsheet and did a side by side evaluation. Other companies will have a different list and different priorities.

One of the things that keeps PM tools from being a perfect fit is that different jurisdictions have different laws. And if you have a PM tool that can do just about everything then it is usually quite complicated to train and maintain staff.

I'm happy to share my list with you if you feel it will help get you started. :) Just pm me your email address.

I moved to cloud based solutions for this. They are powerful, integrate with popular accounting tools and are properly backed up. I've tried QBO's receipt tool, HubDoc and Dext (formerly Receipt Bank). QBO's tool is junk compared to the others. HubDoc is the best for collecting bank statements for your book keeper, receipts are good and I like the way they organize invoice collection but their invoice collection (e.g. from utilities) integrations have been breaking more and more. Dext's receipt scanner is top notch and I have moved my invoice collection to that platform. 

So at the moment we use Dext for receipts and invoice collection. HubDoc for bank statements. Both integrate with our QBO accounts (Quick Books Online). 

I just snap the receipt, add the building it is for (I use QBO classes) and a description if it is not obvious). Then press submit and I'm done. For invoice from utilities, etc. Dext pulls it automatically and I only review them monthly to ensure charges are correct. If I get emailed receipts or invoices then I just direct them to my Dext email address.

I think it depends on how big your org is, how many units will be managed, etc.

I looked at a number of solutions and I had the added wrinkle of needing a product that was Canadian friendly (we are a bit unique here ;) ). But when it came to fundamentals, I think you are looking at any of Yardi Breeze, Yardi Voyager, Buildium, Rent Manager or AppFolio. I will warn you that that is a small list and there are literally (and I mean literally) hundreds if not thousands of solutions out there.

The other thing I would recommend is you document your process and test the solutions against what is most critical in your existing business process. I made a list and then tested the solutions and documented them against my processes. I had a favourite going in to this analysis but after doing this, I actually went with something that was not my favourite because it was frankly better for my business.

Personally I settled on Buildium as it has a robust feature set, has a strong and very active roadmap (after acquisition by Real Page) and is Canadian friendly (for the most part). I would say it is decent to at least1000 units before other solutions may look better. It is easy to use and even my more casual staff can figure it out.

Yardi Breeze was also very good but the front-end marketing and tenant onboarding is very weak in my view and I was going to make too many compromises in my processes to get Breeze to fit.

Yardi Voyager is VERY powerful but you will need dedicated staff that always spend time on it. As such it tends be for very large portfolios.

RentManager is a bit legacy in its approach even though it is cloud based. It's essentially a port of a legacy solution to virtual servers in the cloud. That said, it is amazingly flexible, has Open APIs (RESTful) and can do just about anything. But it is sufficiently complex that you would want at least one person to focus on it. Other staff that don't use it regularly will get confused.

I did not look at AppFolio as they are not Canadian friendly but I have heard good things about them.

I'm happy to share the spreadsheet I did between Buildium, Yardi Breeze and RentManager. It's a couple of years old now but may serve as a baseline and at least you can see how I documented my processes.

Hope that helps!