All Forum Posts by: Soh Tanaka

I'm not an accountant, but I have a different opinion about using Buildium as an accounting software. I used to use Bildium. While it has some accounting features, If you really want to keep track of everything (assets, depreciation, etc.), I think using another accounting software, such as Xero or QuickBooks, is better. It'll be overkill, to be honest, but it's better than using software that lacks some essential features. I've been using QuickBooks for over a decade, and having all the numbers in one place is excellent.

 @Greg Abel I think it's important to consider the long-term, as changing property management software is difficult. This is just my guess, but I'm sure someday Property Meld will be integrated with rentvine.

I never used Apfolio, but everyone says the customer service is terrible. Rentvine's excellent customer service spoils me, and I can't imagine using software with lousy customer service. 

For the rentvine, work orders can use some improvements, in my opinion. That said, I'm using Aptly to handle work orders, and I like it so far.

Northwest Indiana might be an option also. I invest there.

@Jeremy Torres I was using apartments.com since it was called Cozy. That's not enough to do the bookkeeping. 

QuickBooks is not intuitive, and it'll take some time to set it up. If you have a mortgage, it'll get a bit tricky to enter the data (principal, interest, and escrow.) It is something that most of the CPAs/accountants use, so that's what I use. 

@Mike Johnson When you say "Meld," are you referring to "Property Meld"? If so, they are different animals.

If you go to help.rentvine.com, you will see the phone number. I think it's just for text, not to talk with a live person.

One of the reasons why I switched from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online is the fact that my accountant can jump in and do the taxes with limited involvement from my end. The whole tax return package was more than 300 pages, so I had to spend a few hours reviewing them, but not even one thing needed to be changed this year. The tax return was a breeze. Of course, I was doing the bookkeeping properly throughout the year, so that helped. 

I used to use Buildium and switched to rentvine a few years ago. I have much to say about this topic, but here are some key points.

- The support is great. It'll be mostly via email. Recently they added a feature where you can text or chat.

- You can create custom fields, which is great. You can create furnace filter size, when XYZ got installed, lockbox number, etc. You can also create custom reports.

- The accounting feature is rock solid. Please know that it's not really meant for your company expenses, such as paying BiggerPockets, seminar fees, software subscriptions, etc.  

The negative is it doesn't have a mobile app (yet.) The problem with that is it'll be harder for the residents and the vendors to use the rentvine features as fewer people want to log in to a website from a smartphone.

Also, it requires a lot of clicks/scrolling/opening new pages/tabs to get to where you want. 

Overall, I'm very happy I'm with rentvine, and I have no regret switching from Buildium.

Sounds like you have to update, if necessary, the water heater/furnace to meet the demand for 3 units or buy 3 water heaters/3 furnaces, if there is enough space, so the tenants can be responsible for the water. Just my opinion, but if you only have 1 water heater/furnace, I think you should pay for it (charge higher rent to cover the cost.)

I use rentvine for managing other people's properties. It's not perfect, but it works well for my needs. 

I use TransUnion Resident Score 4.0. It's designed specifically for this industry.