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Choosing rental property management software is not an easy task, especially when there are so many to choose from.
Utilizing this kind of rental property software can completely transform how a property management company operates. The right one can easily streamline your entire business, making your day-to-day operations very much easier.
But the question still stands: which software should you choose?
Your goal is to find the most reliable and effective tool to optimize your property management company as much as possible. It should be able to meet all of your business's needs and, most importantly, be affordable.
In this guide, we will be reviewing three very powerful property management software:
- DoorLoop
- Appfolio
- Rent Manager
Each software does its job pretty well and they deliver a set of features that can definitely transform any real estate business. Also, they fit well for any mixed-portfolio property managers, making each one a valid choice.
However, if you want to find out which one is best between Appfolio property manager vs. Rent Manager vs. DoorLoop, continue reading this property management software review to find out.
How to Find the Best Property Management Software
The hard part about this process isn't finding the best property management software, it's finding the best one for you.
In this guide, we have broken down each software into the features that they offer as well as the pricing.
It is very important that you read through every section to make sure that you make the best decision possible.
At the end, we will also be presenting our pick for the best one out of the three, so make sure to read until the end.
To begin, let's go over the features that each one offers.
Accounting
Each software provides a set of accounting tools that is meant to replace any third-party software. Although they may be difficult to figure out at first, many companies offer online webinars, documentation videos, and trainings to help you learn everything.
Appfolio
Appfolio has a robust set of property management tools and accounting features including online rent payments, multiple payment methods, billing, and invoicing.
One feature that they offer that some software don't is a late fee calculator.
Rent Manager
Like Appfolio, Rent Manager also has a great set of property management services like rent collection, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and automatic payments. Manufactured by London Computer Systems, this accounting suite is great for automating important payments so that you can be sure none of them will be late.
DoorLoop
DoorLoop offers a comprehensive suite of accounting tools and even integrates with popular software like QuickBooks to ease the lives of rental property owners and managers.
Some features include the ability to collect rent online via the tenant portal, ACH payments, bank reconciliations, and a complete chart of accounts. These features help users track every aspect of your business and be able to get rid of any other property management software.
Tenant Portal
A tenant portal is an extremely useful feature that allows property managers to streamline rent collection and tenant communication.
Appfolio
Appfolio includes full access to its tenant portal feature where tenants can make online payments and communicate directly with their Appfolio property manager.
Rent Manager
Similar to Appfolio, Rent Manager also provides a tenant portal where tenants can make automatic rent payments and quickly manage their lease.
DoorLoop
DoorLoop offers a very convenient tenant portal where the property manager can do anything from collect online rent payments and fees, manage maintenance requests, communicate with the tenants, perform tenant screening, and many more features. All of this is done from a single user-friendly platform and contains even more features.
Communications
One of the most useful features that are often provided by property management software is the ability to seamlessly communicate with the tenants. This feature is very useful because communication is essential to foster a healthy relationship between the tenant and the property manager.
Appfolio
Appfolio contains features that allow you to communicate with tenants on things like maintenance requests. They also have unique association features such as calendar and event management.
Rent Manager
Rent Manager's features also allow for seamless communication between the property manager and the tenant through their tenant portal.
DoorLoop
With DoorLoop, you can easily communicate with tenants on anything from rent to maintenance requests.
You can do this either by email or by sending them an SMS text message. This means that you have multiple ways that you can communicate with your tenants.
Maintenance
Maintenance management is a feature that allows property managers to streamline maintenance requests in one place. They can accept requests and assign them to vendors, and even update the progress on any request.
Appfolio
Appfolio allows you to communicate with tenants on maintenance orders, create work orders, and assign them to vendors. Through this feature, you can even pay the vendor.
Rent Manager
Rent Manager has a very similar system where you can accept requests and transfer them over to a vendor. All of this is done from one single place.
DoorLoop
With DoorLoop, tenants are able to submit maintenance requests straight from the iPhone mobile app. Then, the property manager assigns this request to a vendor to perform service and then pays the vendor. All of this can be done from DoorLoop's free application or website.
Owner Portal
An owner portal allows for seamless communication among owners. You can often generate reports, track online leases, find owner statements, perform credit checks, and even do training.
Appfolio
With Appfolio's owner portal, you can do things like generate reports and print checks for property owners.
Rent Manager
Similar to Appfolio where you can generate various reports for property owners and retrieve any necessary information.
DoorLoop
With DoorLoop, you can grant owners access to a variety of reports as well as print checks directly from the app.
Pricing
When searching for property management software, one of the most important aspects is the price. Ideally, you would choose the most cost-effective one that doesn't lack features.
So, let's dig into each of these company's pricing models to find the best one.
Appfolio Pricing
Appfolio uses a standard per-unit pricing model that makes it easy to know exactly how much you will invest. The one unique aspect of their pricing model is that it is based on the property type.
The different types on Appfolio include:
- Residential Properties
- Commercial Properties
- Or Community Associations
Their basic residential plan starts at $1.40 per unit per month, with their Plus plan starting at $3 per unit per month. Their commercial and association plans range from $0.80 to $1.50 per unit per month.
Although they may not seem too pricey, they have a minimum monthly fee of $280 for the basic plan and $1,500 for the Plus plan. So, if you do not have more than 200 properties, this may not be the best option for you.
Rent Manager Pricing
Rent Manager is also very straightforward with their pricing. Their software is split into three plans, Rent Manager Basic, Rent Manager Plus, and Rent Manager Premium.
Their first plan, the Rent Manager Basic, is priced at $1.00 per unit, per month. The next plan, Rent Manager Plus, is priced at $1.50 per unit, per month. And the final plan, Rent Manager Premium, is priced at $2.25 per unit, per month.
However, like Appfolio, all of these plans carry a minimum of $200, $300, and $450, respectively. This means that the fewer units you have, the more Rent Manager is going to cost you.
DoorLoop
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DoorLoop's starter plan starts at $59 per month for up to units, which is a little higher than Appfolio and Rent Manager. This supports various property types like student housing, commercial and residential properties, and many more. However, for the Pro and Premium Plans, you get a whole lot more features than most property management software in the market for a smaller price.
DoorLoop's Pro Plan comes in at $119 per month for up to 20 units and includes competitive features like:
- dOwner Portal
- Bank Reconciliations
- Custome Websites
The Premium plan comes in at just $169 for up to 20 units and includes features such as:
- Gmail and Outlook add-on
- API access
- And website portal integration
With these features, you can keep track of every aspect of your business and more effectively market your properties to reduce vacancy.
Our Pick
Although all of these choices have their strengths and weaknesses, only one could be chosen as the best all-around pick.
The pick comes with a plethora of features, including:
- Stellar ease-of-use
- Responsive customer support
- Affordable pricing
- Positive user reviews
- And the best option for getting started and trying out the software before committing
Available on any web-based desktop (Windows desktop, Mac desktop, etc.) DoorLoop has all the accessibility that you can ever ask for in property management software.
And the best part is that you can get full access to DoorLoop's features for $49 per month.
Check out how DoorLoop can revolutionize your property management and schedule a free demo today!
Want to compare more property management software systems? Download this free whitepaper to get the inside scoop on the most popular picks!
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