AppFolio Property Manager is a cloud-based property management software that allows multifamily and single-family, commercial, student housing, homeowners and condo association, and mixed portfolio property managers to market, manage and grow their business. AppFolio includes accounting and property management functionality, including the ability to: provide instant access to reports & statements, post & market vacancies, apply & lease online, screen residents, streamline rent collection, and…
$0.85
per unit/per month
Dotloop
Score 6.0 out of 10
N/A
Dotloop is presented by the vendor as an all-in-one real estate transaction management solution that gives brokers and teams full visibility into their business and empowers agents to close deals. It is now a property of Zillow (acquired 2015).
We have 6 apartment buildings that we manage. Every month we were having to drive to each location to collect rent checks. Since using appfolio, we only have a couple of renters that still send in a paper check, the rest pay online, so we are ensuring that our renters are paying on time. Once we have an applicant apply, the old way was to take their scanned application, review, and then pay to have a background check conducted. Now, with appfolio, we are able to have them apply, sign off on the background check, and pay their deposit all in one shot. It has allowed our property managers to focus on other property items rather than conducting background checks.
In Real Estate sales and property management, Dotloop will be your best friend. When you need clients or tenants to sign a lease or a contract, sending through dotloop is extremely easygoing and keeps everything organized pertaining to what you name the loop. I think I speak for my whole office when I say that without dotloop, our lives would be a disorderly mess, and we would find ourselves losing papers and becoming confused. Dotloop really helps our office like no other and has great support along the way!
Prior to purchasing AppFolio Property Manager we used a texting app so we could mass text tenants. AppFolio allows us to text them by their unit along with their guarantors (if needed.) We use this feature daily. It is so convenient when we need to reach out residents quickly.
The online payment system makes it easy for our commercial and residential tenants to make rental payments. The system has also lessened the work of out Account's manager since it's all in once place now and we do not have to enter payments into a separate system.
Navigating AppFolio Property Manager is extremely easy. When we have new hire, it does take any time for them to become comfortable with the system. The main page dashboard makes it simple to get from point A to point B and beyond. The Search engine on AppFolio Property Manager is so efficient. You can search almost anything- phone number, first names, last names, addressed, license plate numbers to successfully find what you are needing.
Dotloop has a great user interface. The features that seem small but are a huge help such as automatically scrolling to where the person needs to review and sign is very creative.
It has been great to be able to pull documents from the app on a mobile device to a web browser on a desktop.
It is very easy to organize documents (add, remove, arrange, edit, etc.)
Customer support is horrendous. It can take weeks to get a live person on the phone and once you get someone, they typically will need to escalate your issue.
If you have multiple bank accounts at different banks, the bill-paying feature has trouble properly defaulting to the right bank account.
Multiple bank accounts also have issues tying incorrectly to the Cash section of the balance sheet.
The system is so intuitive and easy to use. There’s almost nothing in the system that can’t be undone if you make a mistake. Important things also have their own tabs. It’s also easy to use from the resident side which is helpful for in a world where everyone is not tech-savvy.
The Brokers I've connected with that used Dotloop in the past have also had the same issue I had. Their relationship with "thousands" of MLS listing services is not true. No one took responsibility for not communicating this early on. Everyone just pointed the finger at other departments and did absolutely nothing to alleviate the situation.
To add insult to injury, the system crashes during peak usage, making it near impossible to submit offers promptly. If requested I am more than open to provide the video showing both when the system crashes and the aforementioned issue
The few times that we have had training with AppFolio, they were SO helpful and quick to answer any questions we may have. Because of their promptness, it shows what a great product they have. If they were not able to figure something out, they would follow up with us within a few days or so, which is so important in a software program!
Good support but onboard training could probably be a bit better as well as documentation. But we rarely need support as the software works flawlessly once you know how to use it. Very happy with support so far and I recommend the product.
This was our old program and it was not user friendly and very inefficient to use. We was never able to answer a question for an owner or a tenant very easily and many times we had to ask for them to let us call them back while we research their question because it was so difficult to maneuver in the program.
I personally feel that Dotloop is much more organized and easier to use. It feels more efficient to use and I have noticed the majority of the people I work with are more aware of Dotloop and trust it more
As far as positive impact, we are much more organized as a company as far as accounting, maintenance, and managing tenant issues. We are all on the same page and know where to find notes, emails, letters, information, etc... and can be more self-sufficient and self-directed. I think this is a major plus as far as business goes, as time is money. The more efficient you can be, the more time that is saved, the more money that's saved, period.
I don't work in Accounting and I haven't had any discussions regarding negative impacts in regards to this program. However, we've been using this since 2013 and we're on our 6th year as a business and I've heard others in our organization saying how much AppFolio has improved over that short time and how it keeps getting more intuitive and better with time. At no point have our leaders considered getting rid of the program or implementing a different program.
