Best Property Management Software
Property management software streamlines and automates the day-to-day responsibilities of landlords and property owners or managers. The core functionality of property management software revolves around the management of real estate, either in terms of physical space, tenants, leasing, or accounting. The best property management software supports a variety of residential and commercial property types and can scale up or down, depending on property portfolio size.
Property management software can range from simple point solutions to a comprehensive enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform. Consequently, the capabilities of a property management solution can be amplified when integrated with rental payment software, lease administration software or lease accounting software, or community association management software.
Real estate activities management software or brokerage management software can be useful to real estate agents or an agency for back-office operations management while facility management software helps users manage the operations and physical assets of industrial-specific properties.
Products in the property management category must tailor their functionality to one or more of the following sectors: commercial, industrial, retail, or mixed-use, residential, or multifamily. Commercial property management facilitates the management of any income-producing properties and commercial spaces. Industrial, retail, or mixed-use property management supports a specific subset of commercial property management—industrial (manufacturing, warehouses, etc.), retail, or mixed use. Residential property management facilitates the management of any property used for residential purposes, including single-family homes, multifamily properties, or both. Multifamily property management supports a specific subset of residential property management—residential buildings that have more than one housing unit and tenant.
To qualify for inclusion in the Property Management category, a product must:
Featured Property Management Software At A Glance
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Run your entire portfolio on one powerful platform. AppFolio’s intuitive and user-friendly experience gives your property management team the tools they need to provide excellent service to residents
6,405 Twitter followers
Entrata® is a leading operating system for multifamily communities worldwide. Setting the bar for innovation in property management software since 2003, Entrata offers solutions for every step of the
6,806 Twitter followers
Innago is a type of property management software solution designed to help landlords efficiently manage their rental properties. This user-friendly platform caters to property owners of all sizes, pro
1,340 Twitter followers
Streamline your property marketing, leasing, accounting and operations with Yardi Breeze. Your entire portfolio can be managed with one solution for residential, commercial, affordable housing, manufa
11,583 Twitter followers
ResMan stands as the unrivaled choice in the multifamily and affordable housing real estate marketplace, embraced by owners, operators, and investors. Our platform is thoughtfully designed to provide
ResMan is a software platform used for managing apartment operations, including leasing, resident communication, and reporting. Reviewers like the user-friendly and intuitive interface of ResMan, its detailed resident profiles, flexible work order management, and the ability to send bulk messages to residents, which improves communication and workflow efficiency. Reviewers experienced issues with ResMan's inability to create one work order for multiple units, leading to time-consuming individual work order creation, and some found the new software layout less user-friendly and the system sometimes slow, which could be due to updates.
Unify all your leasing, property management, facilities, and finance operations with MRI’s AI-powered property management software. More than 45,000 clients worldwide trust MRI Software’s solutions
MRI Property Management is a software platform designed to streamline property management tasks such as leasing, accounting, and reporting. Reviewers frequently mention the platform's intuitive interface, comprehensive features, and outstanding technical support, as well as the valuable training resources available through the Training Academy. Reviewers noted some limitations in functionality, particularly in central security and tables databases, and difficulties in navigating to certain data, as well as occasional system lag and challenges in creating reports without full training.
2,774 Twitter followers
Fill your vacancies fast and collect rent easily with one of the largest all-in-one property management software platforms servicing independent landlords in the US
214 Twitter followers
DoorLoop is a property management software solution designed to assist mid-sized and large property managers in effectively managing their rental portfolios. This comprehensive platform streamlines va
670 Twitter followers
Mygate is an all-in-one community ERP built to simplify and automate every aspect of society management. The platform's expertise lies in accounting, billing, invoicing, vendor management, helpdesk, a
Rent Manager is award-winning property management software built for residential, commercial, manufactured-housing, associations, and short-term-stay portfolios of any size. The program’s fully custom
1,579 Twitter followers
TurboTenant is a property management software company based in Fort Collins, Colorado. Founded in 2015, TurboTenant has grown to support over 775,000 landlords across the U.S., primarily catering to i
1,212 Twitter followers
Why is Building Engines ranked as a leader in commercial real estate (CRE) for property management software? Building Engines, a JLL company, improves net operating income and performance across th
TenantCloud transforms property management by centralizing rent collection, tenant screening, and professional accounting in one seamless interface. Available to try for free, it’s the intuitive, high
13,820 Twitter followers
Yardi Voyager is an end-to-end enterprise management system designed specifically for property owners, managers, and investors. Clients around the world use Voyager’s powerful automation and AI-power
11,583 Twitter followers
Rentvine is the fastest-growing property management software in the single-family rentals industry. Built for property managers that want to scale with confidence and clarity, we deliver the best trus
Learn More About Property Management Software
What is Property Management Software?
Property management software is a boon for overworked property managers and owners. The front office and back office responsibilities of property owners, property managers, and landlords are varied, exhaustive, and, in many cases, manual. Some of those responsibilities include: communicating with residents and tenants, managing lease applications, keeping track of on-time and delinquent rent payments, managing maintenance requests, and maintaining and updating accurate property listings.
There is some overlap between facility management and property management; the main difference comes from the purpose of managing the building as well as the tenants. While the goal of facility management is more focused on the productivity of tenants and maintenance of the building, property management is more about managing the property for the sake of residents and tenants and ultimately increasing the value of a property. Facility management is concerned with maintenance and inspections for tenants while property management has features pertaining to financial management. There is also some overlap between hotel property management software and real estate property management software—specifically in the realms of operational efficiency, room resource allocation, and overall facility management capabilities.
Real estate property management software is designed to work for a variety of residential, industrial, and commercial property types and business sizes. Property management software enables the operational management of real estate portfolios, not the nurturing and development of real estate investments.
Key Benefits of Property Management Software
- Automate day-to-day tasks and daily business operations
- Improve tenant experience and communication
- Ensure property ledgers are accurate and up to date
Why Use Property Management Software?
Property management software is designed to efficiently and centrally manage the exhaustive list of responsibilities of property managers and owners. Property management software helps property managers and owners do away with their previously manual system of spreadsheets, email, and document filing. The software centralizes and unifies the tools necessary for an efficient and productive business.
Instead of relying on disparate, web-based, and paper-based tools, property managers and owners can depend on a single platform that offers seamless integration to supplemental third-party software.
Financial management — Property management software allows users to monitor the financial health of their properties. Property managers and owners use the software to simplify or automate their accounting and bookkeeping tasks as well as prepare property portfolio reports for investment activities.
Facility management — Managing real estate properties, regardless of property type, requires the property owner to effectively oversee every aspect of their facilities. Property management software ensures that property owners are enabled to keep track of all maintenance requests from tenants. The software also ensures that property owners pay vendors on time as well as set up recurring work orders.
Reporting — An effective property management tool helps users maintain accurate and compliant property records, understand and predict occupancy rates, better conduct tenant screenings, and streamline the leasing process.
Tenant or resident communication — Tenant and owner portals of property management software improves communication between both parties. This simplifies rent collection and helps in better tracking. Tenants can easily submit maintenance requests through the software. Property owners can have a more unified overview of potential and existing tenants, which results in the added benefit of resident loyalty and reputation management.
Who Uses Property Management Software?
Property management software impacts back office activities, but its tenant-facing features are wielded by both tenants and service contractors. While property management software is distinct from real estate investment management software, real estate asset managers leverage property management software for reporting.
Property managers and owners — Property owners of any type of rental utilize property management software to optimize their tasks and activities. Whether they manage short-term or long-term rentals, apartments, student housing, condominiums, single-family housing, commercial spaces, or gated communities—all these properties will benefit from software that automates or streamlines operations.
Tenants — Tenants leverage property management software via a tenant portal when submitting maintenance requests, receiving notifications about building updates or incoming packages, and communicating with property managers.
Asset managers — Real estate asset managers who are involved on the property level of investment portfolio management leverage property management software to enhance the financial performance of income-producing properties.
Kinds of Property Management Software
Aside from cloud-based and on-premises versions of property management software, these tools are also differentiated according to property type. Although all-in-one or end-to-end property management solutions exist and fulfill the business needs of some real estate businesses, users need to align their chosen software to their property type. Commercial and residential real estate are the two types of real estate, based on which users need to choose the right property management software suited to their requirements.
Commercial — Commercial real estate is real estate property that is used for business activities that generate income. Some examples of commercial properties include office buildings, medical buildings, sports facilities, hotels, restaurants, and retail stores. Industrial real estate falls within commercial real estate and can include warehouses, laboratories, and distribution centers.
Residential — Residential real estate is real estate property that is used to house tenants, either for rent or for home ownership. Some examples of residential properties include student housing, single-family homes (homes built on a single lot), condominiums (a community or large building comprised of multiple single units), townhomes (a condominium or single-family home hybrid), cooperative (community-owned building that comprises individual units), and multifamily homes (a single-family home that has been split up into multiple units).
Property Management Software Features
There are a wide range of features traditionally offered by property management solutions. Property management software fulfills the business needs of a variety of property types and real estate business sizes, hence, the features may vary. Common property management software features include a mix of the following:
Accounting — Property management software offers built-in accounting functionality or streamlined integrations with third-party accounting solutions to enable the financial monitoring and management of properties.
Rental payment — The software provides rental collection and processing functionality as a built-in feature or designed to integrate with specific third-party rental payment solutions.
Lease management — Lease management features of property management software provides customizable lease templates or a workflow to streamline the lease contract management workflow. It enables the creation, duplication, and storing of rental applications.
Maintenance management — Property management software allows the management of maintenance and service requests, the scheduling of service contractors and providers, and communication between tenants and property owner about upcoming maintenance activities.
Rental listing — This type of software provides built-in rental listing management, integrations with multiple listing services (MLS) or real estate websites, or both to advertise vacancies or upcoming available units.
Tenant portal — Property management software provides a portal for tenants to communicate with property managers, pay rent, and submit service requests.
Additional Property Management Software Features
Tenant screening — This feature facilitates the screening of prospective tenants, either before or after the submission of lease or rental applications. It may also provide a contact database for existing tenant or prospective real estate leads.
Space management — Space management feature streamlines resource allocation, monitors and reports of space and material utilization, and enables the better management of physical properties.
Insurance management — The software provides features to simplify compliance with and access to relevant real estate insurance policies.
Other Features of Property Management Software: Commercial Capabilities, Industrial / Retail / Mixed-Use Capabilities, Multifamily Capabilities, Residential Capabilities
Potential Issues with Property Management Software
Property type — While some property management software vendors are very clear on the type of property they support, proper research is still important. Without due diligence, for example, a residential property manager can purchase a property management solution that’s better designed for commercial properties. Buyers of the software must pay close attention to the property type that the solution can support, so they don’t spend time investing in a platform that may not fit their needs.
Scale and scope — A property manager who is in charge of a handful of properties will have different requirements and budgets than a property manager who is in charge of multiple units in multiple buildings. Some property management solutions are designed to scale with the portfolio while some are not. In such situations, some vendors provide customer support while others may not. Buyers must determine what aspects of property management is important, to avoid purchasing a solution that is either too comprehensive or too limiting, in terms of property growth.
Property management experience — Property managers are just as wide-ranging as property owners. Brand new property managers who are in charge of a single property don’t necessarily have the same pain points as more experienced property managers who have nurtured their property portfolio and must navigate a variety of local compliances and regulations. Property management software can either address a single pain point or provide users with an expansive, end-to-end solution.
