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AppFolio Property Manager

Score8.1 out of 10

57 Reviews and Ratings

What is AppFolio Property Manager?

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 mobile inspections.

Media

1 / 5

One stop shop

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use this as a one stop shop for leads, tenant management, bill pay, etc. Has our lease templates and we’re able to handle every need besides calling through AppFolio.

Pros

  • Reporting
  • Vendor Communication
  • Documents

Cons

  • Better custom reporting
  • Reporting for letters

Return on Investment

  • We do all online payments now which reduces labor cost on site level
  • All service requests are now through AF which has allowed better tenant responsibility and lowered our contractor call outs
  • All leases are now sent via AF which reduced all costs

Other Software Used

Dropbox, Grasshopper, Microsoft 365 Business Premium

Don't bother

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We set this up to use with a variety of properties we manage and to handle our investments.

Pros

  • Maintenance Requests
  • Work Flows

Cons

  • In my experience, no Office 365 support
  • Administration of users (in my experience, severely lacking)
  • Azure/Entra Sync
  • User Support (honestly, I think you would be better screaming into the wind)

Return on Investment

  • Optimized our workflows
  • Got tenants to pay via app

Don't use AppFolio Property Manager for property-management software!

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use AppFolio Property Manager in all aspects of our property management business. From advertising properties, keeping track of prospects, running applications, executing leases, collecting rent and receiving communication from residents, submission, assigning and tracking of work orders, entry and payment of bills, accounting to residents, vendors and property owners, income statements to owners

Pros

  • track rent charges and tenant receipts
  • resident work orders
  • marketing of properties

Cons

  • accounting is not in line with other property-management software
  • tasks are not streamlined - numerous steps required for simple tasks
  • In our experience, customer service is nonexistent
  • In my opinion, user interface sub-par

Return on Investment

  • our profitability has decreased
  • poor user interface requires many more man hours in office to achieve profit

Alternatives Considered

Propertyware and RealPage Investment Management

AppFolio Property Manager is a great way to manage your renters!

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

It has streamlined our application process for our rental units. It has also streamlined the background checks and has allowed for online payment of their rent and deposit. It has made everything easier to search for information. It has shortened the time it takes for an applicant to apply for a rental unit and get accepted since everything is in a one stop shop with appfolio. We are able to connect it to the investor management appfolio portal, which has allowed us to see how successful our properties are with our investors.

Pros

  • Easy to use application process
  • Easy for our renters to pay their rent online
  • Easy to connect to our investors who have invested in these properties

Cons

  • Being able to integrate our old system into appfolio in a more streamline easier way
  • Be able to seperate some "owners" from the investment management and property management
  • Allow for additional customization based on how our organization operates

Most Important Features

  • Application tracking
  • Online rent payment
  • custom reports

Return on Investment

  • Saves time for the property manager so they can work on big picture items
  • Ensure compliance with state and federal requirements in the rental industry
  • We have a higher rent collection rate as well as most renters paying on time

Alternatives Considered

Yardi Breeze

Other Software Used

QuickBooks Commerce, Microsoft 365, Adobe Acrobat

AppFolio Review

Pros

  • 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.

Cons

  • We work with mostly college students. As you can imagine there is a lot of roommate drama which brings lease changes. Or perhaps tenants forget to renew their lease agreement and new residents sign and we have to move people around to different addresses. There is NO feature that will allow you to delete a tenant. There is not way to make changes of address once someone is entered. And the "tenant transfer" feature is not useful for us.
  • We have some issues using the email feature on AppFolio Property Manager. The "letters" feature will allow you to send out an email/ letter and will attach it to everyone's account. If I want to send a personalized email- I have to send it to one resident and BCC the other tenants and their guarantors, anyone blind copied will not have the email attach to their account. So this feature becomes almost unusable for us because of that.
  • Sometimes it's difficult to receive customer support. The chat feature is helpful but, most of the time the question we have is not easily answered and we are passed off to several other people.

Most Important Features

  • Online payment portal for residents.
  • Background checks and credit screening.

Return on Investment

  • AppFolio Property Manager increases efficiency for our Account's Dept. With fewer check/cash/money order payments coming in and the majority of payments being made through AppFolio Property Manager this takes saves them a significant amount of time.
  • Entering in leases/ residents takes far longer than it should. I feel as though many of the steps are unneeded and slow the process way down.

Other Software Used

PandaDoc