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AppFolio Property Manager

AppFolio Property Manager

Overview

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,…

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

AppFolio has proven to be a valuable tool for property management, leasing, accounting, and maintenance operations. Users find the …
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AppFolio Limitations

4 out of 10
October 21, 2022
We started using AppFolio when our previous property management software stopped doing updates. They were bought out and destroyed by a …
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Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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Community Associations

$0.85

Cloud
per unit/per month

Plus - Community Associations

$0.85

Cloud
per unit/per month

Student Housing

$1.25

Cloud
per unit/per month

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.appfolio.com/pricing

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Details

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.

AppFolio Property Manager Screenshots

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AppFolio Property Manager Competitors

AppFolio Property Manager Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationApple iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, Mobile Web
Supported CountriesUnited States
Supported LanguagesEnglish

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

Yardi Voyager and Buildium are common alternatives for AppFolio Property Manager.

Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 1.

The most common users of AppFolio Property Manager are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(48)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

AppFolio has proven to be a valuable tool for property management, leasing, accounting, and maintenance operations. Users find the program's layout easy to follow and appreciate its pleasing visual design. With AppFolio, users can easily track vendors, owners, tenants, and billing/invoicing, allowing them to streamline their operations effectively. Customer support is quick with a fast turnaround time, and the staff is knowledgeable and helpful. One of the standout features of AppFolio is its commitment to customer feedback, as it welcomes suggestions and implements updates to improve the software's efficiency. Maintenance orders are made more efficient with integrated vendor and billing information. Additionally, users find it easy to advertise with AppFolio as it reaches multiple locations and websites. The software also integrates seamlessly with company websites to save time in making updates and ensure accurate information. It simplifies the rental application process, including background checks and online rent and deposit payments. Users also benefit from its integration with the investor management portal, which enables property performance assessment. Additionally, AppFolio acts as a portal for residents to make rental payments and access resident files conveniently. The software helps with organizing tasks such as scheduling tours, preparing for move-ins, generating reports, and providing valuable analytics and data insights for market rent and budgeting. One of the key advantages of using AppFolio is its ability to handle multiple entities in one system with a single login. Overall, AppFolio has been praised for improving leasing processes, increasing online availability, tracking vacancies, rent, expenses, work orders, financial statements for multiple rental properties effectively. Moreover, it extends its functionality to managing HOAs by providing a digital platform for all aspects of HOA management. The software offers deep and complex functions for property management tasks and reporting that have been highly beneficial across corporate offices for accounting functions and investment management.

However, some users have noted a decline in customer service quality over time, particularly in the online chat support system. Despite this, AppFolio remains widely used for its communication and collaboration features, addressing the business problem of streamlining communication and avoiding miscommunication between property managers and asset managers. Overall, AppFolio has proven to be a reliable solution for property management businesses, allowing them to efficiently organize their operations and streamline communication between various stakeholders.

Clear Overview of Work Orders: Many users have praised AppFolio Property Manager for providing a clear overview of work orders, allowing them to easily track the progress of maintenance tasks. This feature has been particularly helpful in keeping the maintenance side of their business organized and efficient.

Efficient Tracking of Tenant Payments: Several reviewers appreciate how AppFolio Property Manager makes it easy to track tenant payments and categorize charges and credits efficiently on ledgers. They can quickly see if tenants owe various charges such as water/sewer fees, pet fees, late fees, etc. The system's chronological order organization further enhances usability.

Useful Reports and Letters Section: A number of users frequently utilize AppFolio Property Manager's Reports and Letters section. They find it helpful to have a uniform format that maintains professionalism and consistency when generating reports or sending selective letters to tenants without including everyone. The user also notes that the formatting in this section has improved over the past two years.

Difficult to Use: Several users have found the system difficult to use, particularly for non-technical individuals. They have expressed frustration with navigating through the software and understanding its features.

Issues with Parking Tracking and Reporting: Users have mentioned issues with parking tracking and generating reports that contain all the necessary information for their company's vehicles. This has caused inconvenience and hindered their ability to effectively manage their parking operations.

Challenging Pricing Structure: Some users have complained about the pricing structure, especially for large multi-unit buildings with parking. They feel that the costs are not reasonable or transparent, which has led to dissatisfaction among customers.

The recommendations from users are as follows:

  • Take advantage of the training videos offered for free with the program.
  • Balance accounts before transitioning to the AppFolio accounting system.
  • Avoid using the software for larger properties with many regulations.
  • Switch to AppFolio+.
  • Ask questions and request a hands-on demo when meeting with the AppFolio team.
  • Utilize the help offered by the support team.

Users highly recommend:

  • Making the switch to AppFolio for property management needs.
  • Taking advantage of all the helpful trainings and features.
  • Asking for help from the community of experts for quick and personalized service.

Users find AppFolio:

  • Easy to learn and navigate with responsive support staff.
  • A great value for property management software.
  • Immensely helpful for property management.
  • Great for simplifying accounting processes and improving efficiency.

Users recommend:

  • Using AppFolio for larger companies or those managing different types of properties.
  • Researching the right software before making a decision.
  • Testing the system and not being afraid to explore it.
  • Tracking and updating home inspections for better reporting.

Some users suggest:

  • Creating more opportunities for user customization and improving usability.
  • Using AppFolio despite higher costs, as it has been a huge success for their business.

Users highly recommend using AppFolio:

  • For managing complexes remotely, as it gives their business an advantage over competitors.

They believe that using AppFolio:

  • Is a great product with a great team that listens to feedback.

Users highly recommend taking advantage of all of AppFolio's features. They also find it to be:

  • Great software with an affordable price.

They praise:

  • The ease of use, mobility, and customer service of AppFolio.

Overall, users think that AppFolio:

  • Is constantly evolving and highly recommend it.

They suggest using the online help center for quick answers to any questions.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-7 of 7)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
January 22, 2024

Don't bother

Xander Brennan | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We set this up to use with a variety of properties we manage and to handle our investments.
  • Maintenance Requests
  • Work Flows
  • 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)
I think if you wanted something to work with your Google accounts and never had any support request. This might be a fit. If you need something robust for anything bigger than a mom & pop out fit - in my opinion, look elsewhere. I think if you want something closer to enterprise level, flee from AppFolio Property Manager.
Maura Crawford | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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
  • track rent charges and tenant receipts
  • resident work orders
  • marketing of properties
  • 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
The AppFolio Property Manager App is user friendly and easy to use. The receipt and recording of rents is apt as is the work order flow. When we signed up for AppFolio Property Manager we communicated to every point of contact from the sales agent to the implementation team, that our revenue model stems from marking up bills and services 10%. Everyone told us repeatedly that this was EASILY accomplished through AppFolio Property Manager. Once we spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours on implementation, we now realize that those representations were, in my opinion, false. In our old software, markups could be accomplished at the bill level (click a button for markup or discount and input the percentage). In my experience in AppFolio Property Manager, to mark up a bill or service, numerous steps are required. First you must create a work order where detailed information must be input (who creates a work order for a home-depot bill?); close the work order and then go to the work order page, select the work order and "create bill" from the work order; enter all the same detailed information plus additional information; mark up the bill and save; then go to payables, insert bank account and vendor to find the bill - then pay the bill. In my experience when entering 100 home-depot charges on the other software, we would go to vendor, select "mark up" and the percentage, then enter the 100 charges by property; save the bill and then pay it. This might take 20 minutes. In our experience in AppFolio Property Manager, for us to make our profit which enables us to stay in business and pay our AppFolio Property Manager fees, rent, payroll etc., we have to spend ALL DAY creating work orders for every separate home-depot charge and then hop through all of the other hoops and do it 99 other times. My entire office is so frustrated and we cannot focus on marketing, leasing, work orders or getting new business because we are spending all day jumping through all of these hoops to achieve our mark up. In our experience, we reach out to customer service again and again and are only answered by bots. The bots are no help so our issue escalates to a real person. The person is no help and escalates the issue. Ive been told 10 times that i will receive an emailed answer to my question - but no email has arrived and our issue remains unaddressed. In our experience, we are then pointed to "suggestion boards" where there is nothing but dissatisfied AppFolio Property Manager customers who are not receiving answers to their issues. To say that we have buyers remorse is an understatement
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
  • 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
  • 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
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.
May 26, 2021

AppFolio Review

Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our entire company uses AppFolio Property Manager - [it's] predominantly used as a portal for our residents. AppFolio Property Manager is the most common way we receive rental payments.
  • 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.
  • 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.
AppFolio Property Manager for our residents is phenomenal. It serves us and our residents very well as far as them having access to their portal. I find the program difficult to use from a data entry standpoint. There are many features on our end that make usage for us much more difficult.
Heather Urban | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
This is our MAIN program in the office; therefore, I use it every single day. It's always open on one of my Internet tabs on Mozilla. The actual layout of the homepage, including the color scheme of the program, is easy to follow, read, understand, and pleasing to the eye (soft blue hues). You can easily keep track of vendors, owners, tenants, and billing/invoicing. I think it's a quick program to learn even though there are so many features I don't personally use - I know several other people in our office use them. If we ever have an issue we can contact them and the turn around time is super fast. They call us the same day and are always helpful and knowledgeable and even follow up with emails after the calls. AppFolio welcomes suggestions from clients and actually follows through with implementing the updates! They are always evolving and making things easier and more efficient.

Maintenance orders are a breeze with our system. Vendors are integrated with billing and we have all the information in one place. We also find it very easy to advertise with this program and it goes out to several locations and websites. Our website is also powered through AppFolio so it saves us an additional step when making updates and getting the most accurate information out there. I'd definitely recommend this program 10/10!
  • It helps us to keep the Maintenance side of the business very organized. Anyone from our organization can go in and know exactly where a work order is in process (new, waiting, assigned, completed). We know if a work order has been printed and if the tenants are still having an issue we know to contact the Maintenance team. We can build on existing work orders by adding a "-2" or "-3" work order and keep track of the history when managing ongoing issues.
  • AppFolio makes it easy to see exactly what tenants owe and categorizes charges/credits efficiently on their ledgers. We can tell if there are water/sewer charges, pet fees, electricity allocations, late fees, security deposits, etc... It's all easy to follow and understand and it set up in chronological order.
  • I also utilize the Reports and Letters section of this software program quite often. It's great to have a uniform format which helps us maintain the professional element by remaining consistent and accurate. It's easy to run a report with tenant information at a certain property for maintenance and send select tenants letters at a large property without everyone being included. It's very intuitive and the formatting has definitely improved over the past two years I've been using the program.
  • Only a few very technical items that wouldn't necessarily make sense to non-users and I haven't even cared enough to submit requests on the issues. It'd be nice if parking was easier to keep track of on the system. Right now, if you run a report it doesn't show all the information our company requires for the vehicles and therefore we have to keep track of it elsewhere.
  • Another obstacle we've encountered is that the program charges "by door" so if you have multiple units and properties you can really rack up pricing. That's especially true for large multi-unit buildings with parking.
AppFolio Property Manager is great for small to medium-sized businesses (managing 300 - 1,000 units). I don't know if it would be as useful for extremely large organizations or extremely small organizations. There are so many features that we don't use (we don't currently have a need for) but I can't imagine a smaller business owner needing half of the features this software offers. As I haven't worked for a large organization that utilizes this program, I'm not sure if it would be beneficial or if it would meet all the needs of an extremely large organization (10,000+ units); therefore, I'm unable to speak on that portion.
December 05, 2017

The best there Is

Robin Quick, CPM®, HCCP | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use AppFolio for all our leasing and management operations. The software is linked to our website (AppFolio is the creator and administrator) so vacancies post immediately. Everything property management is done through AppFolio such as reports, paying vendors and owners, paying management fees, collections of rents and other charges, tenant general liability insurance, sending text and emails to tenants/residents.
  • Support is phenomenal. Response time is great and results are immediate.
  • By far the easiest property management software I have ever used. If mistakes are made, making corrections is extremely easy and does not clutter up reports, ledgers or other areas of the account.
  • Posting directly to the website and other internet sites is so simple and quick. No more do I spend time inputting data in my software then again to the website and yet again to internet advertisements. Data is entered once and moved to all of these locations at the click of a button.
  • The calendar needs a lot of improvement. Currently it will sync with Google calendar but I would like to see it sync directly with my Outlook calendar.
  • It would be extremely beneficial if lease expiration dates would post to the calendar OR if AppFolio would notify me in advance that a lease expiration is upcoming.
  • I would like some sort of notification when an on-line payment is made.
  • The ability to send group text messages and emails would be an added luxury.
  • I would like to have the ability to add or take away from the Dashboard.
I can only speak for the types of properties I am currently managing, which are single-family, multi-family and small retail. AppFolio is well suited for property management of each of these. As my business grows I will be better able to determine if AppFolio will be suited for other types of property management. I feel very confident that if I have a situation arise that doesn't appear to work well with AppFolio that their development team will work to correct the problem(s).
Christy Bertani | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
At present, AppFolio manages about 87 rental properties (single & multi-unit) throughout the US for a client. It tracks vacancies, rent, expenses, work orders, tenants (might as well throw in the kitchen sink) through to financial statements. Honestly, I do not believe these many properties could be properly tracked w/o AppFolio. My client simply loves the product. I do find that the traditional accounting section is quite a bit dated.
  • Tracking work orders per property.
  • Tracking vacancies
  • Tracking rent due/paid
  • Although, AppFolio has made some recent improvements to the financial statements (yeah), more flexibility and options are still needed.
  • I know a number of peers shy away from AppFolio because the accounting section operates like accounting software in the late 80's, early 90's.
  • Sometimes, it takes a great amount of sleuthing to find an original transaction, or retrieve more detail.
If you have only 1-5 properties to manage, AppFolio might be overkill. But once you get over 10, it becomes more valuable. If you, also, have mult-unit properties, this only increases AppFolio's value. The property management side is so detailed and complete that it is well worth dealing with an antiquated accounting system.
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