12 min readManaging rental properties is a proven path for passive income. It just takes some know-how to achieve the “passive” part. There are many bases to cover even if you have a single property. But thankfully, technology made landlord life much simpler than it used to be.
Gone are the days of digging through email chains, searching spreadsheets, and juggling apps. Rental property management removes these headaches of the past, making passive income attainable regardless of your portfolio size.
Property management is big business. There are nearly 326,000 property management firms in the US alone. Up to 10 million people own rental properties, with 51% choosing to hire a property manager.
Property management software has become a must-have whether it’s the landlord or a property manager taking care of duties. Managing tenants, properties, and finances is a full-time job without it.
You stand to save time, reduce hassle, and make more profit with the best rental property management software.
What is rental property management software?
Rental property management software offers multiple features to help property owners keep tenants happy, maintain properties, and maximize profits. It’s typically used by landlords, property managers, and property investors. However, tenants also use it to pay invoices sent from the platform and view the portals.
An all-in-one property management tool frees you from the “old way” of working. Jumping between apps, spreadsheets, and paperwork didn’t give you visibility. It took time to figure out where you stood. And the more properties you had, the longer it took.
The best rental property management software offers real-time visibility and dashboard overviews. That means you can get instant summaries on finances, communication, and maintenance updates in seconds. Plus, online portals and mobile apps make it easy to manage properties on the go.
Rental property management software helps you manage:
- Communication: The best rental property management tools integrate with your email provider and track activities (rent payments, maintenance reports, etc.) keeping everything in a portal for all parties to monitor.
- Rent collection: Streamline payments with convenient online invoices and automatic reminders for late payments.
- Tenant screening: Most rental property management tools integrate with commonly used services. So you can run credit/background checks and look up rental history from your software.
- Lease management: Create, sign, renew, and manage all aspects of the lease digitally.
- Maintenance management: Track tenants’ maintenance requests, repairs, and records of all projects completed on your properties.
- Accounting: Track all property income and expenses, create finance reports, and get help with budgeting and forecasting.
- Marketing: List vacancies across multiple rental websites (such as Zillow and Apartments), manage campaigns, and track activity to monitor performance.
- Document management: Upload and organize leases, reports, and finance information in one place so it’s easy to find.
- Online portals: Create portals that give all parties quick and convenient space to view relevant information.
Who uses rental property management software?
Landlords, property managers, real estate investors, community associations, and stakeholders use rental property management software. They’ll use management features such as collecting rent, managing maintenance requests, etc.
Tenants, contractors, and other ad-hoc parties use the customer-facing parts of the app to pay rent, submit maintenance requests, and access documents through the rental property management software.
Top 5 Rental Property Management Software in 2024
1. Buildium
Buildium is an all-in-one property management software. It’s built to help you with business operations, leasing, accounts & payments, marketing, and overall business performance.
It reached the top of our list as its interface is easy on the eye and easy to use. It’s highly scalable too, suitable for managing one property or 1000. One of our favorite features is the customizable dashboards. They make it easy to quickly get the answers you need without clicking through multiple screens.
Buildium also has an impressive commitment to training and support. You’ll likely use more features as your portfolio grows. It also gives you all of the educational resources you could ask for should you need help down the line.
Commonly used by:
- Landlords
- Property management companies
- Real estate investors
- Condo and homeowner associations (HOAs)
- Student housing providers
Suitable for:
- Single-family
- Small multifamily
- Residential properties
- Community associations
- Commercial properties
- Affordable housing
- Student housing
2. DoorLoop
DoorLoop is an all-in-one property management tool that helps you reduce admin work, save time, and stay organized. It’s easy to navigate between accounting, leasing, product, and property management features.
It also has excellent customer support. Users have rated DoorLoop’s support remarkably well, and they have a super quick response time too. There’s no limit to the support time either, with training offered by phone or Zoom.
Commonly used by:
- Property managers
- Landlords
- Real estate investors
- Real estate agencies
- Condominium and HOAs
- Property management companies
Suitable for:
- Residential properties
- Commercial properties
- Affordable housing
- HOAs
3. AppFolio
AppFolio is a property management tool suitable for those with 50 units or more. Its clean user interface and straightforward navigation simplify managing a large portfolio. Make better decisions with real-time data, customizable reports, and portals for residents, homeowners, vendors, and association homeowners to view important information and make payments.
One of AppFolio’s stand-out features was its customizable workflows. You can create multiple different workflows based on property types. AppFolio Stack also gives you a great level of customization.
Commonly used by:
- Property managers
- Commercial property managers
- Real estate property management companies
- Landlords and property managers
- Real estate investment firms
- Student housing managers
- HOAs and condo associations
Suitable for:
- Single-family
- Multifamily
- Affordable housing
- Community associations
- Student housing
- Commercial
- Investment management
4. Avail
Avail is commonly voted as the best rental property management software for do-it-yourself landlords. It’s easy to get to grips with. And we found that Avail had an impressive education center too. It features plenty of helpful guides, articles, e-books, and industry news. All the resources are there to help you, regardless of where you are in your journey.
Commonly used by:
- Landlords
Suitable for:
- Single-family homes
- Multi-family units
- Condominiums
- Townhomes
- Small apartment buildings
5. Condo Control
Condo Control is made specifically for condominium communities and HOAs. It has extensive niched features for maintenance and repairs, security and safety, community management, etc. Once joining, Condo Control also offers a dedicated support specialist to help you get up to speed.
Commonly used by:
- Property managers
- Boards
- Developers
- Residents
Suitable for:
- Condos & co-ops
- HOAs & communities
- Management companies
- Security management
- Facility management
How a live answering service can integrate with rental property management software?
Using any of the best rental property management software in this list will help you streamline tasks and maximize profits. But landlords and property managers can still find themselves spending too many hours on the phone.
A live property management answering service supports clients and tenants around the clock. So you can save goodbye to voicemails for good. Well-trained virtual receptionists – with property industry experience – can answer calls 24/7 or within select hours only.
The benefits of a live answering service:
- Capture & qualify more leads 24/7.
- Support tenants 24/7 (after-hours emergencies, appointment scheduling, etc.).
- Reach a wider audience with a bilingual service.
- Never miss an important call again with live call transfers.
- Stay in the loop with real-time notifications.
- Automate tedious tasks to end manual data entry and data conflicts.
What should I look for before choosing a rental property management software?
You don’t want to migrate data and start learning how to use a different tool unless necessary. Ensure you pick the right software for your needs. There are many factors to consider:
- User experience (UX): UX is more than just looking good. It impacts productivity too. A good UX makes it easy to click around software and feel comfortable getting stuck into its features. After all, you’re going to be spending many hours using it. Whether you enjoy using it or not is a big factor.
- Customer support: Customer support plays a giant role since you’ll likely need new features as your portfolio grows. You may run into some problems so you want a trustworthy team to help you.
- Integrations: For the “all-in-one” part of the platform to work, it needs to be compatible with the tools you already use.
- Security and data protection: Check that you’re happy with the level of protection before committing to a platform. We recommend asking a representative to walk you through their processes.
- Testimonials & reviews: Look for happy customers and positive reviews on software review websites such as Trustpilot, Capterra, and G2.
- Company values: View software providers’ “about” pages to check whether their company values are aligned with yours.
How to choose the best rental property management software for your needs?
The best rental property management software rental should offer free trials. You can quickly become dependent on the software and become a paying user. So, you want to be sure you’ve picked software you’re going to be happy with for years to come.
How to choose the best rental property management software for you:
- Write down your immediate needs: What are you looking for help with? Rent collection? Financial reports? Make a list of everything you need.
- Write down your future needs: It’s wise to anticipate where you could be in 24 months. What features do you see yourself needing?
- Compare features: Create a shortlist of tools you’re considering and go through the features to make sure they tick your needs. You can watch YouTube walkthroughs of the tools in action to see how to perform certain tasks if you’re curious.
- Start a free trial: The majority of software offers free 30-day trials. Take advantage of them and try executing some common tasks to get a feel for the tools.
- Rate the experience for each one: We’re all different. If you don’t rate the “best rental property management software” that your peers keep shouting about, it’s not for you. You’re the one who needs to feel confident using it.
- Assess pricing: Weigh up the pros and cons of the best rental property management software and make a decision. Try not to let price be the deciding factor. If one is significantly easier to use or you found the customer service helpful, that matters. Money is important but so is your productivity and patience.
- Request features/help if you need it: The best rental property management software companies love feedback. It helps them improve. So, if there’s a feature you would like to see or you have a suggestion – get in touch. They may take your feedback on board and release the features you want.
See how SignMore can help landlords and property management companies support clients and tenants around the clock. Book your free 15-minute consultation.
