A "looking forward" Solution

This software has made our lives easier, and more productive. I have been able to send funds to a client who needed them desperately from the deck of a cruise ship. We are all very happy with our choice of AppFolio.

Pros

We have been using AppFolio for five years now. In that time, the features and adaptability of the software have increased significantly. When adopted the software, it really wasn't really geared toward commercial properties or owners associations. Since that time, they have really made it a great solution for us in those segments of the property management profession.

They listen. They make changes/additions to the features based on feedback from the users. They can't satisfy every individual firm's specific method of handling an issue, but they really pay attention to providing a feature for the vast majority of users.

One amazing feature they added was at a customer conference. At the beginning of the conference, they took a poll of what one feature would the users like. The overwhelming majority selected a calendaring feature. The initial roll out of that feature was released by the end of the two day conference. Since then, the calendar feature has become very robust and a great management tool.

Back-up issues are no longer a worry.

Cons

Nothing so far.

Another Pro: Another example occurred shortly after the first conference I attended. I was sitting at one of the outstanding mixers. A gentleman sat down next to me, said that he was with AppFolio. He asked if I had any suggestions as a new user. I said that as a data entry convenience (I'm an old programmer from the '60s), I was all about reducing keystrokes. I mentioned that it would be nice if you were in a date field that you could change the date by tapping the + or - keys. Turns out that he is one of the leaders of the firm, and the feature was activated in most date fields by the end of the week.

AppFolio - a well-rounded leasing and accounting software

Our property management company decided to use AppFolio when we brought all of our bookkeeping in house, taking it from a 3rd party bookkeeping company. At first, we were just looking for bookkeeping software, and AppFolio fit the bill in a reasonably priced package. We soon came to realize how many more features there were with AppFolio, at no additional cost, and how we can streamline much of our leasing process to save time and eliminate typos and duplication of effort. And we came to find out how AppFolio listens to its user and improves its product - "What's New" item pop up weekly or more often! We've made several suggestions ourselves, and now they're part of AppFolio functionality! We consider AppFolio our partner in helping us serve our investors and our tenants.

Pros

There are several things that I like about this software. I think the top of my list is that there is so much functionality related to apartment leasing/management that is all integrated - basic general ledger accounting, tenant accounts receivable, screening applicants, online leasing, attachment of invoices, statements, agreements, etc to appropriate pages in AppFolio, vendor payments, owner payments, 1099's, financial reporting, etc, and on top of that, it's an online platform available from any computer or mobile device, live and up-to-date for all users.

Cons

Currently my biggest frustration is RUBS for utilities. The feature is set up in such a manner that we are unable to use it because it allocates costs to anything considered a "unit" which for us includes non-residents who lease a parking space. I have made sure that top management and the development team at AppFolio are aware of this flaw in the functionality of this feature, so I'm hopeful there will be a resolution.

Small PM Company 20 Month Review

Pros

*Convenient user access on computer & phone.
*User friendly & comprehensive for property management operations
*Good visuals, nice looking documents & communication to customers.
*Love how you launch improvements ongoing & post "What's New"
*Sending work order links to vendors, how they can see all their w/o to stay better organized
*Paying vendors via direct deposit.
*Sharing documents to tenant & owner portals. No more mailing.
*Helps organize functions

Cons

*Expensive.
*Very complicated to manage the accounting portion. There are many hidden, connected functions, that fixing one, often doesn't fix all or messes something else up.
*Move-outs are exceptionally difficult if you have to meet a short time line & have to break the tenant refunds into 2 payments. In WA state, water/sewer companies don't put account in tenant names or read meters in between, so we have to wait up to 60 days to get final bill. We want to hold out deposit funds for that & then refund the tenant any overcharged amount.
*Customer service is friendly & knowledgeable, but have to wait for returned contact & about 25% of the time offers solutions doesn't fix all aspects or messes up something else.

Big Issue: A HUGE number of brokerages are hiring outside Appfolio experts to help manage & solve their problems, instead of relying on Appfolio customer service. A HUGE number. There is something wrong with that.

My Opinion of the Pros and Cons of Appfolio

For the most part I am very happy with Appfolio. We still are not using it to it's fullest potential. It seems that I have always had people that I train that are resistant to change. So I have to slowly change things that seem little changes at the time so that they don't realize it and are more willing participants.

Pros

I do accounts payable, plus deal with Owners and basically put out little fires that arise. Since using Appfolio I have reduced my work load or should I say the time that is necessary to do my job. By being able to do ACH's and emailing and texting. End of month statements was reduced down to a few hours from 2 days. The world we live in now does a lot of texting and emailing and that is always nice to be able to do when you are slammed. More than 50% of my Owners are retired or semi retired and are older so I find that it is important to have that conversation with them over the phone for that personal relationship that they like. I am friends with a lot of my Owners even though I have never laid eyes on them. So we need to balance things for good PR.

Cons

I don't have many, and I am at a loss right now to specifically point any particular problem. It is those times when you run into a situation that you rarely do and have problem figuring it out. The instructions are not real clear. As example off the top of my head. I have a problem right now with my Diagnostic under the Non-Zero Security Clearing Account Balances. I think that I have done it correctly after following the instructions and then I find my diagnostic with a problem that I will need help from Appfolio with. Right now I haven't had the time to contact Appfolio to help me due to my own personal issues, medical, vacation etc.

Appfolio Review

Pros

Appfolio gives us as a rental company the ability to easy sort, organize, and access information on our tenants, owners, and vendors. I love that Appfolio has helped us move to doing business online. It's so convenient for us to send out a lease and have it signed electronically and saves time for us and our tenants. They don't have to take off work to come to our office to do so.

Online payments have similar benefits. Most of our tenants pay online and it's so nice that we don't have to record each of those payments; they're automatically applied to the tenant's account.

Another feature that we use a lot is the credit and background checks. It's conveniently built into the application and helps us screen applicants efficiently.

I like that Appfolio offers texting and emailing. It makes it easy to see what was communicated and it's all on the tenant's page and I don't have to pull up multiple windows for that.

The newly-developed tenant insurance coverage feature allows me to track who has coverage and who doesn't, and to email them notifications if their insurance has expired. It also shows which policies expire in 30 days, which is great for reminding people before their policy expires so they have continuous coverage.

I appreciate how AppFolio continues to improve their product and develop new features. They allow users to make suggestions and comment on suggestions as well.

Cons

I wish that the texting line could receive pictures. This would make the application process easier; people could take pictures of documents they didn't include in the application and send it to us. While most people can take pictures and send them by email, I think it would help especially our older tenants and others who don't have email on their phones or don't have a smartphone or just aren't as technologically literate. People would also be able to send us pictures of their insurance docs and maintenance issues.

It would also be nice to be able to search for guest cards (interested parties) in the main search bar. Currently I need to search on the guest cards page and the person doesn't show up if it's been over a year from their last inquiry.

Chatel Real Estate

Overall I'm very pleased and excited every time something new rules out. I'm the operations manager for one of Chatel's locations and I'm constantly playing with the new features to see if they will be useful for my company. This software is super easy to use, it cuts down on labor-intensive data management and archiving information. Plus the fact that it allows a property manager to be mobile. There is nothing sweeter than being at a board meeting or a condo meeting and saying hey I can pull that information up on my phone. :)

Pros

I love that things are so well integrated. I have been with Chatel Real Estate for 7 years and we have been using Appfolio for the last 6 years. I appreciate all of the new features that you roll out and I'm super excited every time I see that little bubble at the top of my screen meaning something new has been added. Also, it's super nice that it's easy to use on the phone, I don't like the App. I only use it through my cell phones web browser but it works perfectly and I can get a ton of stuff done while visiting a building. I love that its a one stop shop for property management needs. I like being able to communicate with an entire building and record that information on unit owner pages. The key system is fantastic! We just started using it recently, and it has saved us so much time in addition to providing us with accurate records.

Cons

Prepayments on unit owner ledgers do not automatically apply to the next owners charge automatically. This makes the aged receivable detail look off which is annoying and clients complain about it. It's not a huge deal and its something we easily fix. I also wish the homeowner directory report had columns to add their tenant's information into it, instead of having to pull a renter directory and then an owner directory. Clients want just one spreadsheet not two! I wish you accepted AMEX for payments, I get a fair amount of compliants about it.

Good product, improvements slow to take

While the community conversations for improvements to the software is great, it's tough to know that any software engineer is listening. It seems like it would be very easy for move-outs to automatically prorate rent (where is it legal to collect full rent for a mid-month move-out?!?!?!) IF I could just talk to an engineer. It seems like it would be very easy to ask for an actual button for prorated rent rather than something that is a link everywhere on the internet. These simple things should not get lost in the community.

Pros

This is a great product for property managers and tenants. The leases are easy to issue and easy to sign. The tenants have a great portal. Customer service is mostly great- sometimes I want a quicker response, but the reps are great. It is easy to find information and easy to adjust information.

Cons

It is too easy to adjust information in some places and there are confusing breaks in logic for inputs from one section to the next. For example, the recurring charges section of the move-in process is identical to the monthly charges section of the tenant page, except that there is no option to have an end date. Move-in charges from the move-in process do not show up on the itemized rent roll. When asked about why this is, the customer service agent said that people don't want security deposits on the itemized rent roll. The answer to this is, like any other charge in the system, to hide the security deposit charges columns on the itemized rent roll. There is no need to restrict the information on a report when a report is customizable. We offer one-time concessions and, in order to get them on the rent roll, we have to use the recurring charges section. This, of course, allows for human error in having one-time concessions go on for the entire term of the lease.

Top 5 Things Tenants Don't Want You to Know About Using Appfolio and Why It Costs You.

I wouldn't manage property without it.

Pros

1. When Money is collected electronically you never have to think about who's paid and who hasn't.
- Even with a handful of units, it's time consuming to collect checks and deposit them on a regular basis. This causes sloppy book keeping and helps tenants get away with not paying timely.
2. When a computer keeps track of payments late fees are always charged.
- late fees get charged automatically. This trains tenants to pay automatically. No more not paying late fees. " It's already charged and it's part of your lease ".
3. When communicating with tenants electronically, there's a record of the conversation.
- " I didn't say it was my fault ". This is no longer an argument. Every text, email, and even notes from phone conversations are stored in the tenant profile.
4.Utility billing can become a profit center instead of a nightmare.
- When incorporating RUBS or just paying for the water bill, when done with the correct process, unpaid utilities can legally incur late fees which makes tenants pay them instead of sticking the owner with them at the end of the lease.
5. It's much easier to protect a property through liability insurance.
- By using the automatic liability insurance module, there is much less of a chance in lapsing renters insurance and the property has a better chance of recuperating losses due to " I fell asleep while the stove was on ". Yes, this has actually happened.

Cons

Appfolio is not something you plug into your current systems. To do it correctly and efficiently you'll need to rework your processes around it. This can be good or bad. Depending on if you like creating systems. When you're done, you'll have an employee that never sleeps and takes care of a ton of your management tasks.