#1 single-family residential PM software

Our experience with Appfolio has been great! It has created efficiencies within our single-family division that didn’t exist previously. I’m optimistic that over time they will develop more features that will allow us to be even more efficient.

Pros

It’s robust yet easy to use, dependable, constantly evolving, their developers listen to their customer’s needs and if possible delivers, issues are handled quickly by their web based customer service team, and it’s affordable.

Cons

The layout of the property financial statements are subpar and difficult for our clients to understand; its not the best software choice to manage commercial or multi-family properties; it’s lack of customization

Great product and really terrible support

It is a tough call because the product is good. We migrated from Yardi and don't regret it BUT if I knew how weak the support team and the nightmare that we would have (for 7 months we couldn't reconcile bank accounts and the "boarding team" simply vanished) I would most likely have stayed with Yardi.

Pros

The software is definetly the right product. It is intuitive and very easy to use. Having used Yardi for 10+ years this product is simply outstanding. It is definitely not even close to what you can do in Yardi, but for 90% of what most of us do, it is allot easier and quicker then Yardi.

Cons

The company is suffering from a very bad support team. When they sell you the product it almost seems that these guys mastered the art of eSupport and you can solve problems with a click. This couldn't further from the truth. For most of the "how to" problems they are quick to respond and usually send you a quick article on how to. The problem becomes when you have a real problem, like late fees simply not posting the correct amounts at the wrong dates, or bank account balances don't add up...in general bigger problems call for a "we will put our head in the sand and hope it goes away" mentality.

A must for property managment

Great

Pros

Saves time, is accurate, superb tracking cash, tenants, owners

Cons

The cash reports such as balance sheet and income statement are not laid out well. The last companywe used, Yardi, had that well done.

Sad to be looking elsewhere.

Initially, I was thrilled with Appfolio. They had live support, and same day follow up calls when submitting tickets. Suggestions on the user forum were implemented, or at the very least, were updated by Appfolio so we knew they were aware and cared. None of that anymore, but we are regularly being innundated with value added junk that we can pay for if we want it or obscure improvements that seem pretty specialized/not broadly impactful. Meetups, etc. are heavily geared toward sales/recruitment and have virtually no value for current clients. I was fine with shrugging my shoulders as this is often how things go with growing companies, but looking completely unprofessional to my tenants/owners due to unreliable email/text, suppressed fee accounting/commingling problems (that are legit problems, not user error), and confusing owner statements have me in talks to switch. Property managers are dealing with stigma to start with - I don’t need my management software making my company look unreliable/unprofessional/untrustworthy on top of it. Not to mention - I dread having to explain during a state audit why income is “suppressed” from owner reporting.

Pros

Extremely easy to navigate/train employees to use, tenant rent payment/owner contributions are free with ACH, application-move in flow is smooth, mobile app works well, available property postings look great on my website.

Cons

Suppressed fees amount to commingling, and that is so bad. It could easily be resolved and the idea has lots of votes in the forum yet it remains unaddressed. Not to mention, suppressed application fees can be passed on to an owner before you need to refund the fee depending on the timing and that leads to a nightmare of accounting, and having to explain to an owner why you are unprofessionally having to withhold the money in the next month. I tried to get help from support to no avail (it was repeatedly blown off as user error) so then I started going to their live meetups when they came to town begging for help from support in person to make it clear it is not user error. That led to more dissmissal from user support as being due to user error, so I finally said I wasn’t taking no for an answer. After talking to tons of people, I finally got a support person who understood what I was saying, and all they could offer was a VERY time consuming work-around. The integrated email/text feature often fails and does not notify you that it failed causing huge problems. Notification emails when a lead inquires have started being unreliable. If tenants wait too long to respond to an email I sent via appfolio, they are told the thread has expired. Since every email sent from appfolio is sent from a different spammy looking email address, I get frustrated tenants asking which of the 15 email addresses they should use to reach me. Owner statements are confusing to owners.

Only one complaint

I love the software, I hate how much it cost me. Please adjust for the small end user

Pros

Easse of use and how everything is tied in from advertising the unit to renting it, leasing and collecting the rent then finally moving them out :)

Cons

Cost, I think it is too expensive. I do not understand why when you have more and more users my bill keeps going up. for God's sake scottie send this small business owner a line..we are drowning in the cost but can't compete without the software....so I pay..