Looking to find the best commercial property management software? You may be overwhelmed by the myriad of choices available to property managers.
Sure, there are a lot of great solutions for residential property managers, but which software solutions are geared for commercial property management?
A commercial property manager may need different feature sets than a residential property manager would. We sought out to see which property management software had the best features. The following solutions are our favorite out of the bunch:
AppFolio is an all-in-one software solution for property management companies. AppFolio is primarily used for multi-family, single family, or commercial & retail properties.
AppFolio is popular all around software for property managers. AppFolio is designed for ownership, marketing tasks, and best of all, it is cloud-based.
It includes tenant liability insurance and allows your business to operate with a paperless workflow. It can also help you attract new business by adding a list to Craigslist and has an available iPhone app to use on the go!
Owners (Find new Owners and Investors to Grow your business)
Online Owner Portal
Owner & Vendor eCheck
Owner Contributions
Document Sharing
Texting to Owners
Marketing (Get your properties rented!)
Professional Websites (though many companies choose to have their own custom websites)
Marketing Campaigns
Real-time Vacancy Dashboard
Advertise vacancies for rent per square foot
Tenants and Leasing (Using automation to streamline the leasing process)
Online Tenant Portal
Texting to Renters
Track Important Lease Activities
Schedule Rent Increases
Maintenance (respond quickly and efficiently to maintenance requests)
Online Maintenance Requests
Maintenance Contact Center
Work Orders
Mobile Inspections
Accounting (accounting features and custom reports)*
Commercial Oriented Reporting
Online Rent Payments
Common Area Maintenance (CAM) Tracking & Reconciliation
AP Approval Process
A commercial property manager may have many software tools in their tool belt. Each software has specific functionality, geared for different business aspects.
Where AppFolio may be an All-in-One solution, QuickBooks is a tried and trusted accounting software for a variety of businesses, including property management. In fact, QuickBooks Desktop (I.e QuickBooks Pro) allows you access to certain features that you can use to manage your property management business.
Oftentimes, property managers will use an “all-in-one” property management software in conjunction with QuickBooks Desktop Online.
Note, that you will not get all these features using QuickBooks online. But with QuickBooks Desktop Pro, you can manage the financial side of your business with these great features:
QuickBooks Features:
Manage Property Owners (Set up property owners as customers)
Manage Tenants (Set up tenants as jobs)
Manage vendors and subcontractors
Create billable services
Manage and set up the properties that you manage
Accounting specific features of QuickBooks: Property management tasks:
Paying the property owners
Receiving payments for rent or other charges
Pay your property management company (for investors)
Use billing statements for customer charges
Record rents and other fees
Assess late fees
Track and handle security deposits
Pass costs over to a tenant
Write checks for all your property expenses
Account for any property management company money
For more information and instruction on setting up QuickBooks Desktop to use with your property management business, click here.
QuickBooks is perfect for the property manager who may find themselves dealing with the accounting aspect more than making negotiations with investors.
And many property managers may find themselves using multiple software solutions. For example, some property managers may use AppFolio and QuickBooks to manage their entire business.
QuickBooks also gives you the benefit of offering reports that are customized for your commercial property management business. Each item is calculated with rent increases and displays a quick Excel Spreadsheet overview.
It also provides step-by-step instructions to allow you to record your expenses and maintain improvements.
Quicken Rental Property Manager Software assists the property manager by maintaining their tenant information, income and track expenses suitable for all business sizes. Also features credit checks, tax manager, and expense management.
Quicken Rental Property Manager:
Categorize Transactions: with quicken rental property manager you can manage all your rental property transactions
Reporting: Get a snapshot of how your business is doing with custom reporting. For example, you can get reporting on cash flow and profit/loss projections.
Expenses and deductions: Quicken rental property manager help track your expenses and maximize your business deductions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlRBw4Wblhc
RealPage, like AppFolio, has a wide variety of solutions for all types of property managers (commercial, residential, etc).
RealPage offers small and medium property management the same, if not more, access than the larger businesses have. It’s a breathtaking moment to have a property management software that can do all the work for you.
RealPage generates a unique way to manage your rental properties. It’s capable of letting you know exactly where your assets are and reports to stakeholders which will enable you to make better business decisions.
It also gives you the flexibility to keep the employees you have and not to hire anyone else because all the information you need is right at your fingertips.
RealPage Features:
Accounting
Budgeting
Compliance Monitoring
Document management
Facilities management
Spend management
Vendor Credentialing
Learning management (LMS for training employees)
Onsite leasing & Rents
Total Management Software is a commercial property management software solution with integrated accounting tools. Total management is geared for commercial, retail, office, and industrial properties.
Total Management is complete with scheduling, appointments, updating lease information, and can import data within days instead of months. It gives the property manager time to focus on maintenance issues or making deals with stakeholders.
It tackles accounting tasks and tracks notifications, tax and insurance reconciliations, manages work orders, etc. This software can be a great tool for any rental owner, investor or property management company.
Along with being a fairly easy to use software, the total Management Software team has a strong support system that returns calls promptly and is easy to speak with. Their support team is eager to assist you with your software questions.
total management Features:
Training and onboarding
Rent tracking resources
Tenant screening
Tenant portal
Common area maintenance (cam) & tax reconciliation
Comprehensive accounting
Easy navigation with increased multitasking
Data & security
Online marketing
MRI Commercial Management software is able to integrate almost any other software or application that your business may use. Its capability is phenomenal.
It can be accessed from anywhere on multiple devices. It’s easy to make payments and can create reports efficiently so that your employees won’t have to spend hours inputting data into an excel spreadsheet, it’s all done for you. MRI software can also feed data onto your website
MRI Features:
Reporting and Analytics
Lease Administration
Advanced Retail Management
Anytime, anywhere access
Property Management software LandlordTracks is an excellent software for property managers. It’s available for long and short-term rentals, such as vacation homes, corporate rentals, residential & commercial property management.
It’s taken a lead in the property management estate industry with interactive services. Accounting suite, calendars, online reservations, automated invoicing and generates the late fees as well. It can also receive automatic payments to the property manager via their bank account or credit card.
LandlordTracks Features:
Automated Accounting Tools
List Vacancies Automatically
Automate Rent Collection & Owner Disbursements
Run Instant Background Checks
Painlessly Master Accounting
We chose Appfolio for our commercial property management company. Though there is no perfect software out there, we felt that Appfolio had the best mix of features and ease of use for our operations.
Keep in mind that no two property management companies have the same needs. Some property management companies my focus on residential and commercial management, whereas others may only focus on commercial property management. Others will do manage everything under the sun.
Though all of these software solutions for property management are very robust and thorough, everyone’s needs differ. So one software provider may work great for one company where another software is great for another company.
Your best bet for finding the best commercial property management software is to utilize any free trials, compare the costs, compare features on the site, and ask a lot of questions to their sales reps or support team. Just be sure that you have a good idea of your own needs so you can ask the right questions!