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,…
Don't use AppFolio Property Manager for property-management software!
TrustRadius Insights
AppFolio Property Manager is a great way to manage your renters!
AppFolio Limitations
AppFolio for Self Managing Your HOA
AppFolio Review
AppFolio Provides a Mid-Tier Solution at a Reasonable Price
Great, Easy to Use, Resident-Friendly Property Management Tool
Tech support is terrible
AppFolio Property Manager: Big Systems for Property Managers
AppFolio Property Manager: The Best Way To Be Efficient as A Landlord!
User-friendly, Variety of Features, Always Improving and Great Support Services!
The best there Is
AppFolio-Friendly to all size companies
AppFolio: Easy to Use, Hard to Master
Reviewer Pros & Cons
Pricing
Community Associations
$0.85
Plus - Community Associations
$0.85
Student Housing
$1.25
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Product Details
- About
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is AppFolio Property Manager?
AppFolio Property Manager Screenshots
AppFolio Property Manager Competitors
- Yardi Voyager
- Buildium
- RealPage
AppFolio Property Manager Technical Details
Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
---|---|
Operating Systems | Unspecified |
Mobile Application | Apple iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, Mobile Web |
Supported Countries | United States |
Supported Languages | English |
Frequently Asked Questions
Comparisons
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Reviews and Ratings
(48)Community Insights
- Business Problems Solved
- Pros
- Cons
- Recommendations
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
(1-5 of 5)- 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
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.
- Application tracking
- Online rent payment
- custom reports
- 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
AppFolio Limitations
- ACH Payments to Owners
- Reports to Owners
- Maintenance Request Forms
- Customer Service
- Templates
- Handling of Rental Prepayments
- Simplifying Move Outs
- Providing Management Fee Reports
- Simplifying Rental Increases
- Explaining Templates and how to adjust them
- ACH Payments to Owners
- Reporting to Owners
- Annual 1099's
- The software doesn't provide ROI Reports
AppFolio for Self Managing Your HOA
In 2020 we made the decision to migrate back to in-house management, but [we] needed a platform that allowed us to manage all aspects of the HOA digitally.
- Accept payments
- Store documents
- Print and mail annual reports
- Difficult to email select audiences
- Can't create online applications for all user groups
- Hard to set up automatic dues for any other time period than monthly
Onboarding was very thorough and allowed us to really break down the processes and make sure that we had all of the areas of management identified.
Where we struggled was in the post launch support. You have to reach out to the support team in a forum rather than by email and phone and then wait. That piece has made it a little more difficult to smoothly launch certain features like email, setting up reoccurring fees, and things that the homeowners really should see very little stumbling in from their board.
- Collecting payments
- Storing documents
- Easily accessing member information
- Maintaining records
- Saved us over 10K annually in management costs
- Streamlined the invoicing and payment process
- Allowed us to easily store and reference owner files
AppFolio Review
- 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.
- Online payment portal for residents.
- Background checks and credit screening.
- 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.
Onboarding and transferring data to AppFolio from Skyline was a nightmare and took us several months.
AppFolio is so much easier for tenant use.
- Multi-entity accounting management
- Checking printing: We have multiple bank accounts tied to our account and utilize blank check stock. Appfolio automatically prints the routing numbers and account numbers at the bottom of the blank checks based on which property we are paying a bill from.
- Tie-in with their Investment Management tool gives our investors a great resource while keeping our investments in sync with our accounting software.
- 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.
- Check printing from multiple bank accounts.
- Syncing with their Investment management module.
- Having all of our LLCs in one system.
- We have definitely experienced a positive ROI and streamlined our accounting procedures since switching to AppFolio.
- Their bulk upload feature for journal entries has been a big time saver
- Their product is very fairly priced.
Yardi is a top-tiered product, but much more expensive than what we were looking for. I was also concerned that given the number of modules Yardi offers, we would end up spending much more in the long run with additional fees.
AppFolio's pricing is transparent and affordable for a mid-tier property management solution.