User-friendly, Variety of Features, Always Improving and Great Support Services!
Updated September 13, 2019
User-friendly, Variety of Features, Always Improving and Great Support Services!
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with AppFolio Property Manager
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.
- 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.
AppFolio Property Manager Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved No escalation required Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response | None |
Yes - As I previously stated, all of our urgent/important issues are addressed very timely and promptly. However, the inconvenient issues seem to take longer to be resolved and sometimes don't get resolved. I have followed up with them before and they are always good about letting us know when they close an issue to make sure we're on the same page and I do appreciate that.
Yes, one time I reached out to them regarding an urgent situation because we kept getting calls for this unit that was no longer available. They responded within 30 minutes, had the ad taken down within an hour and we stopped getting calls by the end of the day. They are quick moving and very helpful in getting issues resolved.
Using AppFolio Property Manager
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- Letters - creating uniform, consistent, accurate letters to send out to tenants or owners
- Reports - creating tenant directories, owner directories, vendor ledgers, etc...
- Applications - completing, submitting, entering, screening, and contacting applicants as well as co-signers.
- Adding new tenants with future tenants already moved in - it's a major process (hiding tenants, moving tenants in, unhiding tenants, changing dates).
- How charges are calculated and how we have to keep of certain items on our end instead of the system doing what it should do automatically.
- Maintenance requests submitted by tenants are all over the place. Some work orders lack a lot of important information which ultimately creates inefficiency for our office. We end up reaching out to them to get more information but also have to wait to hear back from them instead of it being submitted with enough information the first time.
- Subletting - major flaws with the system as far as requiring change in move out/move in dates, not charging rent properly, not allowing us to move new tenants in without moving out current tenants who are staying...
Yes - It's pretty simple to use and it's set up the same way as the desktop site. I haven't used it too much as I am not required to use it on weekends or at nights, but sometimes I'll check on texts from tenants or maintenance requests and those are always easy to find. I would say 90% of the users at my office do not use the mobile program.