How To Choose the Right Property Management Software for You

Choosing The Right Property Management Software For Your Business

If you put in the time to find the right property management software for you, it’ll save you endless time and money. With the right feature set, it can make your tenants happier too—helping you find and retain better renters with ease.

But in order to reap these benefits, you have to do some research. Not every property management software platform is the same, as each offers its own unique set of features and tools. Finding the option that fits your business’s needs is the key for landlords, property managers, and even property management assistants supporting day-to-day work.

We’ll show you how to find the right fit for you. Let’s take a look at the core features you need, some nice-to-have (and several advanced features), and how to use pricing and reviews to guide your search.

Core Features of Property Management Software

Most landlords look for a few important core features (and standard features) in a property management software:

• Online rent collection
• Document management
• Tenant screening
• Maintenance management
• Tenant communication

Your list may vary depending on your portfolio, size, location, staff, market, and business structure. But the list above is a good starting place, so let’s dive into each of these property management features.

Online Rent Collection

Rent collection is the most popular features that property management software offers. And in many ways, it’s the most effective.

Whether your properties are in town or hundreds of miles away, receiving rent digitally makes rent collection far easier. Imagine getting 45 minutes back for every hour you spend processing payment. No more running checks to the bank, chasing late fees, physically collecting from tenants, and so on. That’s a huge time saver, and it makes an immediate and direct impact on your business and payment processes.

But time saved is only part of the benefit. Electronic rent payment options also makes your tenants happier. According to tenants surveyed by Innago, 79% of tenants prefer to pay rent online. Per our survey, a top reason tenants cited for moving out was a desire for better management. Offering online payments and faster rent payments? An easily implemented and highly visible improvement.

When you’re evaluating property management software, look at how easy it is for your tenants to pay. Your tenants might not be tech savvy, so the solution you adopt needs to have a user-friendly interface, or they may not use it.

Auto Pay

Auto pay is one of the best features that you can offer your tenants. It’s great for you too, because rent money comes in on time, every time. And it’s ideal for your tenants because they don’t have to remember to drop off payments in-person. They just set up auto pay and forget it.

Renters can link bank accounts and cards and then choose the date for their payment to go through each month. It’s as easy as that. If the software you choose offers auto pay, encourage your tenants to use it!

Late Fee Collection

Software also makes late fee collection easier. Many landlords choose not to pursue missing late fees because they’re just relieved to have received rent at all—which can raise problems down the road. With property management software, late payments can be automatically assessed and enforced.

Just make sure the software you choose offers flexibility to be set up however your late fees are structured. Find out how enforces those late fees, too. Does it send reminders to the tenants? Does it allow them to pay the next month’s rent before they’ve paid the previous month and all late fees? Make sure the software follows your lease terms.

PRO TIP: Tenants should have to pay all of their rent and all late fees before they can pay the next month’s rent. This sets a precedent, but it’s also good practice in case things escalate to a legal situation down the road.

Document Management

The next big feature to look for in property management software is the ability to manage and sign documents digitally. Digital document signing and management can save you thousands of hours—completing in minutes what takes you days to do manually.

Digitizing your documents isn’t just about getting leases and other paperwork signed faster. It also allows you to get leases finalized days quicker, increasing your business’s velocity. That means fewer showings, fewer vacancies, and more time to focus on the big picture.

Tenants like the convenience of eSignatures, too. In our aforementioned Innago survey, 50% of tenants reported they prefer to sign leases online. Make sure the property management software you adopt can tailor eSignatures specifically to your leases and other rental-specific documents—pet addendums, parking agreements, storage rentals, and so on.

Look for the ability to create reusable templates. Does the software automatically duplicate key information, like lease start and end dates, and insert that information into all appropriate places? Does it have a template creator that will assist you?

Weigh it from the tenant side, too. Does it prompt tenants to insert information into the right blanks? How easy is it for your least tech-savvy tenants to use? Ideally, they should get an email, click a button, and put in their signature.

PRO TIP: Make sure the software meets all your document needs. Some platforms only handle leases, while others handle a variety of forms, addendums and agreements. Here at Innago, we also offer free templates on Innago Insight, our real estate resource and community hub.

Tenant Screening

Tenant screening is another critical feature of property management software. If you don’t screen prospective tenants correctly, you could end up with tenants you have to evict. And evictions can get very pricey very quickly. Once legal fees and turnover costs are factored in, there’s a good chance you won’t be profitable at all that month.

Screening is your first line of defense against bad tenants. Approving the wrong applicants can be stressful, time-consuming, and costly. If you frontload the work with tenant screening, you decrease the odds of a nightmare tenant.

PRO TIP: When evaluating a software’s screening process, make sure it’s simple to access and user-friendly. If applicants can’t get to it easily, they’ll move on to another property.

Make sure that the screening applications are customizable. The software should let you choose can ask the kinds of questions you need it to ask—both for your prospective tenant and for yourself. For example, if you allow pets, you may want to know the breed and weight. You may want multiple references. Are you checking for a criminal history? Make sure the software can handle this level of customization.

Income verification is another feature to look for when selecting a software tool. This provides you with accurate, real-time information about your applicants’ financial situations while protecting you from pay stub fraud.

Maintenance Management

You’re going to receive maintenance requests; it’s part of being a landlord or a property manager. The question to ask when shopping for property management software is: How can this software make maintenance requests easier—for me and my tenants?

Our survey found that 46% of landlords use a third party to perform maintenance. So the software’s maintenance requests need to be easily accessible to you, your tenants, and the appropriate vendor—plumber, electrician, locksmith, and so on.

When looking at a software’s maintenance management capabilities, ask yourself:

• How easy is it for a tenant to submit a ticket?
• Can tenants submit a ticket with their mobile device?
• How will I be notified? How quickly?
• Can I have multiple users—maintenance staff, property manager, leasing manager, etc.?
• How does a maintenance provider get notified about a ticket?

Pro Tip: It’s ideal that your software of choice allows tenants to submit pictures and videos of their maintenance issues. This helps to avoid miscommunications and allows you to actually see the scope of the problem before you act.

Tenant Communication

Having your tenants contact you through applications like WhatsApp and GroupMe is never ideal. And you certainly don’t want them contacting you via your personal phone after hours. Which is exactly why tenant communication is such a vital part of rental software.

Communication features allow you to send messages to your tenants, and for them to send messages to you. Want to let them know your leasing office will be closed for a holiday? Send a blast message to all tenants, conveniently letting everyone know at once.

Plus, if your tenants have any questions or concerns about the property outside of maintenance orders, they can let you know. Tenant communication gives both parties a secure and professional place to discuss the property.

Extra Features of Property Management Software

Some features are absolute necessities, while others go the extra mile in the property management world. Consider which of the features below your business would benefit from, depending on your rental property management goals (including HOAs and mixed portfolios).

Renter’s Insurance

An increasing number of landlords understand the importance of renter’s insurance for shielding themselves from potential liability.

If your tenants damage any part property, it’ll likely be covered by their renter’s insurance. This saves you an insurance deductible and keeps your premiums down.

But tracking who has renter’s insurance and if it’s up to date can be a hassle. The good news? Some property management software platforms (Innago included) can track when an insurance policy took effect, if it’s still in effect, and what’s covered.

Again, make sure it’s easy for your tenants to use. Uploading a copy of an existing policy should be straightforward. If they don’t have an existing policy, it should be easy for them to purchase one. Many platforms offer the ability for tenants to purchase insurance within the application itself.

Mobile App

Mobile apps offer you and your tenants greater flexibility when it comes to common property management tasks.

From your smartphone or tablet, you can send leases, screen applicants, collect rent, and communicate with tenants. Meanwhile, your tenants can more easily communicate with you, submit maintenance requests, and pay rent—all from their mobile device.

An easy-to-use mobile app with all the core features built in makes life easier for you and your tenants. Some software offer apps, but be sure to look into the quality of them. Tenants won’t be too keen on using a buggy, slow, or frustrating application.

Responsive Support

We’ve all had the experience of calling a company and either reaching an automated answering system or winding through a lengthy option menu—only to reach a customer service rep who couldn’t help.

You may not consider customer support a feature of your property management software, but it can be. Good support is worth its weight in gold. It’s especially critical when it involves the operation of your business.

Hiccups are bound to occur down the road, but you don’t want that standing in the way of your profits. The software you choose should have helpful and responsive customer support so you can clear up confusions quickly. You deserve the peace of mind that the software collecting your rental payments will be reliable, after all.

PRO TIP: Look for property management software that offers you a dedicated account representative, live chat, or help center at no additional charge. With some software, the quality of support depends on your tier or package. Dependable support shouldn’t cost a fortune, though.

Rental Advertising

Getting your properties filled quickly is vital to your profit margins. Minimizing vacancy time requires getting as many high-quality applicants as possible. This is typically done by leveraging a variety of listing sites, so your listing has the greatest chance of being seen by an interested applicant.

Creating a dozen different listings on a dozen different sites is an incredibly time-intensive process. You have to ensure consistency and clarity across every platform, and then monitor them individually. This is where listing syndication can help.

By using listing syndication, you can create a single listing within your property management software, which can be exported to all major listing sites at once. This way, you’re still maximizing your exposure without sacrificing your time or sanity. Some platforms also bundle marketing extras like a free custom website, which can be helpful if you want a simple home base for your listings.

Multiple Users

One of the most undervalued features of property management software is the ability to add multiple users and define them by customized roles—property managers, maintenance personnel, accountants, leasing agents, and others.

If the property management software allows you to define multiple users, you can add your entire team and give them access only to the features and areas they need to use to do their job. It’s another way you can stay organized and keep your employees focused on their daily tasks.

Pricing

With a solid idea of what you should and can expect from a property management software, you hopefully have a clearer idea of exactly what you’d like. (And yes—pricing can vary widely depending on your unit count, feature needs, and whether you’re an individual landlord or a team.)

The next question is, how much will it cost you?

There are a variety of pricing models for property management solutions. It’s important to become familiar with these pricing structures so you can choose the best property management software for your needs—without any surprise costs.

Unit-Based Pricing

This structure is based on how many units you own or manage. Software programs using this structure will charge you on a unit-by-unit basis, or when you reach certain thresholds (10 units, 25 units, 50+ units, and so on—sometimes up to 250 units and beyond). This type of pricing becomes more significant the larger you grow your business, with each threshold or unit bringing on more costs. Examples of companies that use this pricing structure are Yardi Breeze, Propertyware, and Appfolio.

Feature-Based Pricing

In the property management software niche, this is by far the most widely used pricing plan. This type of pricing setup requires you to pay for specific features you want to use. These features can range from online rent collection, tenant screening, lease signing, customer service, listing syndication, and other critical features. This pricing structure can be a monthly fee, an annual fee, or a one-time fee.

Unfortunately for landlords, this pricing structure is also primarily used by companies with multiple pricing models. This means that when you see this pricing structure, you are most likely going to have to pay multiple ways. Companies that use this type of pricing plan include TurboTenant, Landlord Studio, Hemlane, Tenant Cloud, and Avail.

Free

One of the least common pricing structures—but by far the best for your bottom line—is the free model. In this structure, you get complete access to the software without having to pay any monthly subscriptions, setup fees, unit fees, feature based fees, or onboarding and setup fees. You get unlimited access to the software for as long as you want it. This is the pricing model Innago uses.

How do platforms like Innago make money? In this structure, you will commonly see minimal fees spread out to tenants. These fees may include the cost of running a screening report when they apply for a rental or small convenience fees for purchasing renter’s insurance or paying rent online each month. These fees are insignificant on an individual level for most tenants, but when added up across thousands of tenants, they provide a great stream of revenue for the software provider.

Most software companies will charge for access to the software, but they hide a few more fees in the fine print. You'll want to keep an eye out for two things: onboarding & setup fees, and "freemium" structures.

Onboarding & Setup

You may come across paid onboarding and setup. With these software platforms, you pay a one-time fee to get access to the platform, as well as additional onboarding help. The company will likely assign a representative to assist you in the migration and set-up of your account.

Getting set up with property management software can be time consuming. If you aren’t tech savvy, have several units with leases that need to be uploaded, or simply value having your own account representative to help you get started, you should expect to pay these fees. A few companies that have onboarding and setup fees are Buildium, Appfolio, and TenantCloud.

Freemium

This pricing structure is widely used by many online software companies, and it’s no different for property management software. Freemium an easy way for companies to give new users a taste of what the platform is like before making them pay.

This structure can be presented in a couple different ways. The first is through a free trial, where you will get full access to the platform for a limited number of days, before being asked to pay. The other setup is through a feature-light version of the platform. In this layout, you can do basic functions like add a property or tenant for free, but not use the software in its full capacity without paying. Two companies that use this type of pricing structure are TenantCloud and Avail.

Reviews

When you are thinking about buying any kind of big-ticket item, one of the first things you do is look at the reviews, right? Shopping for property management software is no different.

Obviously, the more reviews, the better. A few glowing reviews of a product could just be the employees of the company trying to up the ratings. But when a product has one-hundred-plus of 5-star reviews, that’s a good indicator of a solid product. Try checking out software review websites like G2 and Capterra, where users must be verified to leave ratings.

But beyond the number of reviews, there are a few other considerations to keep in mind.

Review Quality

It’s easy to look at rating scores and say, “That product has a 4.5, this has a 4.9, and that other one has a 3.0. Clearly, the 4.9 is the best.” But any modern shopper knows that it isn’t so simple.

The thing to keep in mind is not just the score in a vacuum, but how the score compares to the rest of the industry. If most platforms score 4.5 or above and one scores 4.3, it may be a lot worse than the others, even though a .2 drop might not seem that bad.

Another thing to look at in terms of review quality is what reviewers have actually written. A product with less ratings may get dragged down by a single review, perhaps even left for reasons unrelated to the quality of the app.

Recent Reviews

It’s also important to look at recent reviews. A five-star review from 10 years ago is not the same as a five-star review from today. Try to sort ratings from most to least recent. If the software has been around for many years, it may have gotten better or worse over time—which the overall rating might not reflect, but the order of reviews will.

As mentioned above, somebody may have left a review a couple years ago about a serious bug that was fixed soon after. Do some research, check out the product website, and reach out to that platform to see if that’s still a bug or if it’s been fixed.

Diversity

The final item is review diversity. In other words, look at a few different review sites. Is the property management software you’re considering rated 5.0 on one site and 3.0 on another? If so, which site is more trustworthy? How detailed are the reviews?

The three big software review sites are Capterra, TrustPilot, and G2. They’re highly trusted (and contributed to) by thousands of users. Capterra and G2 are two of the hardest review platforms on which to have a review published, which is what builds trust for a lot of readers. They require reviewers to connect their LinkedIn or Gmail accounts and provide proof that they’re actually using the software they’ve reviewed.

TrustPilot makes it a little easier to get reviews published, but it’s the site Google relies on more than any other. Whichever direction Google goes, most people follow. You should also try looking on forums like Reddit to see what landlords themselves are actually recommending.

Try One of the Best: Innago

Full transparency: this is where we mention Innago, the platform we’ve built for landlords, since it’s the software we build and know best. Innago is ideal for both smaller and larger portfolios, and its large array of features offered landlords are completely free. No onboarding fees, no freemium plans, no paywalls. No surprise costs down the line, either.

Innago has 4.9/5 stars on both Capterra and G2 and hundreds of verified reviews. It’s the all-in-one platform that handles listings, rental applications, background checks, leasing processes, and even offers regular business analytics to help you grow. Innago integrates incredibly well with real estate accounting software like Ledgre and QuickBooks, allowing you to keep all of your records in one neat place with the help of accounting tools (without needing a full landlord accounting suite to get started).

Built for individual landlords with growing portfolios and seasoned real estate investors alike (including teams at large property management firms), Innago is the tool every property manger needs.

Want to give it a shot? We’d be thrilled to hear from you.

FAQs

What is the best property management software to use?

Although there are many property management software options available, Innago stands out as one of the best property management software because of its high ratings, top-notch features, responsive support team, and price point: free.

What are the 5 P's of property management?

The 5 P’s of property management (a common framework for real estate investors) are Plan, Process, People, Property, and Profit—all aspects of management that rental software works to help with.

What is the 2% rule for rental property?

The 2% rule is a common test of profitability for rental properties: the property’s gross monthly rent should be at least 2% what you bought it for.

What does the 80/20 rule mean in property management?

The 80/20 rule essentially says that a 20% of any given population (tenants, properties, maintenance issues) tends to generate 80% of the output (revenue, problems, complaints).