Buildium vs. CoStar Real Estate Manager

For larger communities, Buildium doesn’t have the accounting capabilities you need. Anything up to 100 units is easily managed and works well.

Incentivized

Gen-Y and younger will have no problem learning how to use CoStar but its not very intuitive for the older generations (they have to hunt and peck for what they are looking for and have no idea how to manipulate the reporting features)

Incentivized

• We use the task flow to ensure good communication with tenants and owners.
• The accounting matches our standards for certifications.
• Tenant portal allows them to set up auto pay and sends payment reminders.

Incentivized

• Nothing
• Charging my card
• Nothing

• Buildium has done a great job over the last decade of developing software to keep pace with industry standards.
• Buildium has room for improvement with the use of artificial intelligence to make repetitive processes more automated.

Incentivized

• In our market (Portland, OR), not enough users implement the tools that could make CoStar so much better. For example, I specialize in medical but brokers and owners don't take the time to mark medical as an approved use in their buildings so I have to search much longer and cross-reference the data by contacting the brokers directly.
• I find it really annoying that when I download documents CoStar doesn't use smart technology to automatically name my files. It is especially irritating since every piece of marketing we post to CoStar has a relevant file name yet when we download the same file we have to rename it.

Incentivized

I have used three property management softwares and know of others who have used additional softwares for managing properties. Buildium seems to be the best of all of them

Incentivized

Once trained, I find that its usability is quite easy and comprehensive. If working on something I am less familiar with, I find that I can usually find the solution pretty quickly

Incentivized

I have been able to get through to support immediately and they have been awesome in quickly resolving issues. More importantly, their communication when there is an issue which might take some time to resolve surfaces. Getting updates and resolution are critical.

Incentivized

I cannot rate this since I was not part of that process

Incentivized

Appfolio is my favorite software, and they are constantly making improvements. Buildium is great if you don’t have a ton of property but is not as manageable for advanced accounting and resident information tracking. There are workarounds, but they do need to work on their ease of use for owners.

Incentivized

There is literally not one good thing that I can say about CoStar. They charge my card $450/month because I signed a one-year contract. They provide very little data and properties and most of the time it is inaccurate. Their customer service is atrocious. They overpromise, underdeliver. STAY away from using Costar!

• Eliminates processing paperwork, resulting in less paper and staff time and effort.
• Eliminates payments via check, and the need to go to the bank along with processing fees.
• Payments are more prompt due to options and communications.

Incentivized

• Since CoStar has linked with LoopNet we have had fewer bad data calls. By which I mean old data from LoopNet that was available to the general public is now more regularly updated through CoStar so we have less confusion with our clients.

Incentivized