What are the best apps for property managers? This blog will explore the top apps for small and large property management companies.
The best apps for property managers have to have a few elements. First, they should be easy to use and provide immediate information. Second, they should allow you to upload files, such as photos of an apartment or a building that needs repair. Finally, they should provide internal messaging so you can give instructions to your employees.
One app that meets these criteria is [app name]. It allows you to see rental data for individual properties or for all properties, and it enables you to upload photos and send messages. In addition, it allows you to easily track maintenance requests, send out notices and reminders, and much more.
Best Apps For Property Managers
You can’t run a successful small business these days without the right technology. Whether we like it or not, rental property management apps are an integral part of a landlord’s toolbelt. Knowing which tools to keep, and which ones to leave at home, is a constant balance between practicality and efficiency.
There are many top-rated rental property management apps that landlords should consider adding to their toolbox. These tools include tenant management, financial dashboard, listing, and screening apps. All of these tech tools help us be better and more efficient business owners. And as landlords, we are certainly small business owners.
Here are the top apps all landlords should consider using.
- Stessa (5 stars / 1,300 reviews)
Stessa is a digital platform for property investors to manage, monitor, and communicate the performance of real estate assets. Created by real estate investors, Stessa allows users to easily keep track of property performance, finances, and the paper trail that comes with real estate investing—in one central place.
Stessa will track income, expenses, and provide investors with dozens of critical investing metrics and tax-ready documentation.
stessa
Simplify your rental property reporting
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Beyond the fact that it’s free, Stessa also offers a number of innovative solutions for landlords who want a tool that moves beyond simple accounting inputs and outputs. For instance, Stessa recently added real-time receipt scanning with automatic tax-ready real estate categorization to the Stessa mobile apps for iOS and Android.
All receipts and invoices that are scanned with the Stessa app are also available on the online platform and vice-versa, so you always have a complete picture of your property expenses. Stessa’s machine learning and OCR technologies parse all the details and then organizes the information. All transaction details are stored in the cloud with the industry’s best security, so everything is always accessible and available during tax time or for audit purposes.
Further, Stessa has a document storage feature that allows landlords and investors to capture all of their critical financial and accounting documents in one centralized database.
Other cool features from the Stessa accounting software app includes rental reports and a mortgage portal for those looking to explore their financing options.
PROS:
Stessa lets you know exactly how much money your rentals are making you in real time
Stessa automates 90% of the bookkeeping and accounting work so you can spend your time on what matters
Stessa makes tax time a breeze with tax-ready reports
CONS:
Stessa focuses on getting the financials perfect, so the property management features you may need like tenant management and rent collection aren’t included. Stessa does integrate seamlessly with popular property management apps like Appfolio and Propertyware, however, so you can have the best of both worlds.
- Landlordy (5 stars / 1,200 reviews)
Landlordy is a companion app for landlords and property managers. This app is built for the smartphone world and integrates with the iPhone/iPad camera, email, and messaging features. Some of the key features of Landlordy include full and partial rent payment tracking, expense log, receipt scanner and PDF storage, a photo library, and safety and maintenance checklists. - Landlord Studio (5 stars / 288 reviews)
Landlord Studio is a property management app built by landlords. It can help you keep track of rent payments and expenses, generate reports for accounting, automate reminders, and invoice tenants.
Through the Landlord Studio dashboard, you can also get an overview of your investing metrics such as cash flow and expenses, as well as store critical documents with their cloud storage service. This app also supports tenant screening, which is becoming much more important these days.
- Zillow Rental Manager (4.5 stars / 9,200 reviews)
Zillow Rental Manager is all about filing vacancy. This rental property management app is less about the overall management and more about finding renters for and leasing your vacant properties. Once you find a renter, Zillow Rental Manager can help you screen them and collect rent.
Other key features include pricing, rental photos, rent inquiry notifications, rental application tracking and submission, income and credit verification tools, and online rental collections.
- Buildium (4.5 stars / 664 reviews)
Buildium is a powerful full-service software for property managers. It has an impressive amount of features, and is therefore expensive and built for investors with larger portfolios.
Buildium does offer some cool features such as an app, payment tracking, robust accounting, and more. Buildium also includes some in-app calculators and an e-filing tool when it comes to tax time.
Bottom line
Keep in mind that an overloaded toolbelt will weigh you down. Test out the above tools, see if they work for your business, and keep them if they do. We are moving more and more toward technology-driven real estate investing, so the quicker you get accustomed to the current top rental property management apps, the better.
best apps for landlords to collect rent
In 2021, there are countless apps landlords can use to help them manage their property business.
The real question is: which of those apps are worth their salt?
Which apps will make a real difference in how you manage the day-to-day?
Which apps can help streamline your property management efforts so you can do more with less hassle?
When you look at it that way, there is a lot of fluff out there.
Not necessarily bad, per se, just not all that useful.
The truth is, you can’t run your business constantly flipping between a dozen different apps for various functions.
A few useful tools are fine, but after that, you’re just bogged down in tech, and you’ve missed the point.
So, to help you cut through the clutter, find the apps that can genuinely help you streamline your property management efforts, and help your business run more effectively, we crafted the ultimate list of property management apps.
The 11 Best Apps for Landlords and Property Managers
Below are 11 of the best apps for landlords and property managers.
Some help in a small way, like helping make inspections easier, while others offer the all-in-one package.
To help navigate, we’ve separated the apps into four categories:
Listing and renting properties
Prepping units and properties
Rent tracking apps
And all-in-one property management apps
Let’s get started.
Apps for Listing and renting properties
Here are three apps for landlords and property managers that will help make listing and renting properties easier:
ShowingHero
ShowingHero
The first app on our list, ShowingHero, is designed to automate the showing process for your units and properties.
If you’ve found setting up showings to be a pain or simply time-consuming, this is a tool that could save you both time and stress.
The app is essentially a communications management tool, including several valuable features such as:
Streamline all call and email communications
Manage appointments from within the app
Screen leads
And easily follow up with applicants
Every day that goes by without a unit being filled is costing you money. If that’s a problem you’re facing, or you find the process of managing showings to be a pain, ShowingHero could be worth trying out.
Rentberry
Rentberry
Similar to ShowingHero, Rentberry helps streamline the process of bringing in new tenants.
However, where ShowingHero focuses on managing showings, Rentberry focuses more on managing applications and applicant communications.
If you feel you have the showing aspect down (or simply prefer managing applications), this might be the better fit.
This is one of the apps for landlords and property managers that offers various features, including:
Tenant screening
Tour scheduling
Have prospective tenants sign and complete applications from within the app
Ask a Lawyer
Ask a Lawyer
We’re cheating a bit on this one as it’s not technically an app. However, it has a great mobile site with an easy-to-use chat function that’s smooth on mobile (and an invaluable tool).
As a landlord or property manager, you know there are books full of laws and regulations attached to the sale, renting, and managing your properties.
Managing all of this is generally pretty straightforward, particularly if you have an attorney who handles everything.
However, there are times when you might not want to pay $100 to talk to your attorney for five minutes, and you need some quick advice.
That’s why Ask a Lawyer made this list. Ask a Lawyer is one of the only apps for landlords and property managers that allows you to get inexpensive legal advice fast without any strings attached.
The service makes its money from memberships. However, the trial fee is just $5 to get an answer from an actual practicing attorney, which you can then cancel immediately.
Apps for Prepping units and properties
Moving on to our next section, these are tools that are useful for prepping units for showings to maximize your number of applications and save you time:
Tap Inspect
Tap Inspect
Tap Inspect is an invaluable tool, and not just because it saves you time.
If you find you’re not great at documenting and storing inspection records, Tap Inspect can make the whole process around getting inspections done easier.
Plus, it makes sure you have clear and thorough inspection records in one particular location. That makes retrieving them easier and covers you, just in case.
The app is simple, but it does its job well. Plus, you can try it for free and see if it’s useful for you before paying for regular membership.
Room Planner App
Room Planner App
Considering how vital interior design is to influencing prospective tenants and buyers when they visit your property, this one offers a ton of value.
Room Planner is one of the more unique apps for landlords and property managers. It boasts a snazzy 3D floor plan app that works on virtually every smart device imaginable, from iPhones to iPads and any Android.
With Room Planner, you can create realistic-looking floorplans that will ultimately impress your prospective tenants and buyers, whether it’s a spacious two-floor house or a small studio apartment.
The app has a pretty smooth UI, and there are hundreds of different elements to choose from to design your floorplan.
You may not be able to choose the exact furniture item you have to place inside your unit. However, there are enough choices that you can generally fill the room with the exact style you’re going for to get a good idea of how the room can and should look with similar items.
Apps for Tracking Rent
Now that you’ve got them in, it’s time to make sure you’re tracking rent payments effectively. That’s where these following apps come in.
Here are some great apps for making tracking rent simple and straightforward:
Rentmoji
Rentmoji
Rentmoji is a rent-tracking mobile app with a pretty clean and straightforward design.
There are things the app doesn’t do, but if you’re looking for a simple solution that gets the job done, this will help you track your rent payments more efficiently.
Plus, the app offers many integrations that make it easy to use with other tools to do certain things you can’t do with the app.
The app includes features such as:
Accept automatic rent payments
Communicate with tenants from the app
Lots of integrations
About the only negative is that Rentmoji is on the steeper side when it comes to price. You’ll have to contact Rentmoji’s sales team to get set up and learn more about pricing.
Landlordy
Landlordy
Landlordy is an iOS and Android app that allows you to manage rent payments.
The app is unique in that it offers a free version. However, you’re pretty limited in terms of features.
With the paid version, you can manage rent payments and get access to basic accounting features and reminders.
The free version applies to accounts with one property and tenant lease, while their most basic plan starts at $14.99 per month and offers additional features such as data backup.
Landlord Studio
Landlord Studio
Landlord Studio is an iOS and Android app that offers a few more features than Landlordy, though it comes with a more complex pricing structure.
However, while Landlordy has a bit of a clunky UI, Landlord Studio is more intuitive and easier to use.
Other features include:
Expense tracking
Tenant screening
And account reports
However, keep in mind that while it offers more features than Landlordy, its feature set is thin compared to more complete property management apps for landlords (like those in the next section).
All-in-one Property Management Apps
More robust than simple-rent tracking apps, all-in-one property management landlord apps offer the whole package.
They often provide features that allow you to streamline and, in some cases, even automate many of the tasks involved in managing your properties.
If you:
Manage a large number of properties
Are tired of wasting your time with minor administrative tasks like collecting rent, or
You need more time to focus on what matters (i.e., building your portfolio)
Then these solutions are for you.
DoorLoop
doorloop app for landlords
Our very own DoorLoop offers both a cloud version and smartphone app, making it easy to access from both your desktop and mobile device.
Compared to the rent tracking app options mentioned above, DoorLoop offers a complete list of features, allowing it to be an all-in-one solution for your property business.
Features like:
A complete set of accounting features, including payment management, multiple payment methods including credit card and ACH, expense tracking, and a full chart of accounts
Convenient tenant portal, where you can automatically collect rent payments and even communicate directly with tenants from in the app
Maintenance order management system that allows you to assign and track jobs, edit work orders, and more from directly within the app
And many more valuable features
Typically, complete feature sets like this can come at a greater cost.
However, you can try DoorLoop 50% off your first two months with a 30-day money back guarantee. Prices start as low as $49/month (billed annually) for your first 20 units.
Rentec Direct
Rentec Direct
Rentec Direct is an all-in-one property management solution that offers features such as a cloud/desktop version in addition to a mobile app, lease tracking, and tenant portal.
Rentec Direct’s pricing is somewhat unique, as you can choose which features you’d like to pay for.
However, that can be both a benefit and a con, depending on what you’re looking for.
If you’re looking for something simpler, Rentec Direct will function more similarly to the basic rent tracking apps in the previous section with a few extra features, though considerably more expensive.
If you choose to opt for those additional features, such as the Basic Screening Package, they’ll cost you extra (starting at $7 additional per month).
Property Matrix
Property Matrix
Property Matrix is our last all-in-one tool, and it offers a similar feature set along with an intuitive UI that’s easy to navigate.
If you’re looking for more customization and accounting options such as customizable reports and in-app document signing, this may be a good fit.
However, keep in mind that this is a full enterprise software, as their basic plan starts at $400 a month.
Their basic plan covers up to 250 units, with additional units being $1.50 per unit per month.
What is the best app for landlords?
If you’ve read through the above list, at this point, you might be wondering which of these is best for your property business.
Should you start with something simple?
Do you need something more robust?
Are you looking for a specific feature?
Ultimately, we’d suggest trying out many of the apps on this list to find which are helpful to you. Many have unique features that could either be super useful or not so much.
In terms of good property management software, though, we suggest every landlord and property manager use one to automate their process and give them more time for high-value tasks.
Things like putting up listings, screening tenants, and processing rent payments are all things that bog you down.
You shouldn’t have to handle them– and you don’t, with a good property management tool.
Which one that is is up to you. We provided three great options above, and all of them are great.
We think DoorLoop is the best property management tool on the market, with every feature of the big competitors and some even they don’t have.
We’re a little biased, but we think you’ll love it too if you give it a try. 🙂
Ultimately, make sure you’re using the power of the latest software tech to automate simple tasks.
That way, you can focus more on what really matters: building your portfolio and driving your business forward.
Conclusion
Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
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