Propertyware Review

Propertyware does make our day to day processes go smoothly, it makes it easier on our tenants and owners on paying rents and collecting monthly income through the tenant and owner portals.

Pros

Propertyware is a software with vast capabilities. We have used the majority of these options in our business. We are pleased in general with the software and continue to learn more about the software on a daily basis. We would recommend Propertyware to other real estate property management companies.

Cons

The support team is very helpful, but we have had a few issues that were not resolved in a timely manner. We have had issues with the maintenance application that was updated in February 2019 and we received notification from the support team on May 24, 2019 that the issue had finally been resolved. This issue caused us a lot of frustration and extra work when we feel that the update on the app should not have been done until it had been completely tested and debugged properly. We encourage Propertyware to notify its clients as frequently as possible on upcoming changes and to take into consideration all of their clients before making drastic changes to the software. In the past, we had issues with the check scanner not being compatible with our firm's policy of the collection of funds and move-in procedures. This caused issues for about a month and half before we had to stop using the check scanner through Propertyware.

Propertyware is complex and challenging, but provides nearly comprehensive functionality.

Our property management company, Royal Rose Properties, literally could not function without it.

Pros

Their "custom fields" option allows you to record just about whatever information you want or need onto every (unit/building/portfolio/contact/work order/lease/vendor/etc./etc.). On top of that, the system is robust enough to then allow you to create reports that provide, filter by, sort by, and otherwise use that custom data, which means it's useful for tracking just about everything. Which is HUGE for a big, complex mess like property management.

Also, while their support system is occasionally (not always or even often!) slow, they do always follow through, and they're tenacious about getting to the bottom of problems. Also, they do actually pay attention to and actually (occasionally) implement new-feature requests, which is really rare in my experience and alone makes them awesome.

Cons

It looks like it's from 1990...and it *acts* like it's from 1990. Which is to say there are lots of small, annoying inconsistencies in the way things are treated that add up to a significant headache without ever actually making you feel like any one thing is enough to make you switch services. For example, you can right-click on a link to any property, lease, or contact and open it in a new tab -- but you can't do that for Work Orders; for whatever reason, they're called through Javascript instead of through a URL, *despite HAVING a unique URL* that you can easily link to. So why is that one thing alone unable to be right-click opened?

For another example, you can set a pop-up message to show up whenever you view a property/contact/etc, and that works just fine IF you get to that page by clicking a link to the page. But if you've already been to that page and you use the Back button to get to it, the software deposits you at whatever point in the page you were at when you left...and the pop-up is still way back up at the top of the page, so you have to scroll all the way up to close it, then scroll all the way back down to where you actually want to read (because it greys out the whole page when the pop-up pops up.)

ACH EPay Trigger 5th Day (False Info)

Solution: PW needs to place in their tool a trigger that if Bank does NOT reply within the 5th business day with Funds Transmitted, then Transaction is DECLINED. Currently there is no such trigger. PM BEWARE !!

Pros

This product has the basic typical platform that most PM Tools provide. Input information into a database is alright.

Cons

To All BeWare !!

Problem: Out PM Company was seeing that when a Tenant pays rent via the Tenant Portal ACH Payment (EPay Status: Pending, PW Cycle: Approved, Processed, Originated) the Epay Status would go from Settled one day to Returned the next. Heven forbid the PM Company paid their Owners based upon this FALSE information (EPay Status: Settled, PW Cycle: Pending, No Reply from Bank).

Property Ware (PW) Process is Tenant submits a payment via Tenant Portal EPay (PM sees in PW Tool: Pending). PW goes through many cycles (PW Cycles: Approved, Processed, Originated, but still the PM sees in PW Tool: Pending). PW states that it can take up to 3 to 5 business days to process the payment (FALSE Info). Within 3-5 business days if PW does not hear back from Bank that Tenant funds are approved, then PW on its own will change the status to Settled (PM see in PW Tool: Settled, PW Cycle: Settled (False Info)).

You as the PM Company pay your Owners based upon this PW Status: Settled (False Info).

Solution: PW needs to place in their tool a trigger that if Bank does NOT reply within the 5th business day with Funds Transmitted, then Transaction is DECLINED. Currently, there is no such trigger. PM BEWARE !!

It would be nice to have a PW Tool that was looking out for the USERs best interest (PM User) vs the Tenant's best interest (False Info).

Is Propertyware a fit for everyone?

This is my first time using propertyware, and I was not an employee with the company when the decision was made to utilize the software. To my understanding it went something like this: "Oh this one looks good, lets get it" I think Propertyware is very well organized program when used properly, and utilized to its full potential. I also think its a fantastic program for multi family properties, where all units are located at one address. But as our company does all off site management, pre leasing, student housing, HOA's, and residential homes; the software is not quite designed for that. Therefore, I am left to manipulate it to the best of my ability. There are also specific requests from my employers that need to be met, and can be, but with way too many individual edits to be made. It becomes more time consuming than what the job at hand should take. I cannot give much of a review from when the company first began using the software, because I was not with the company at that time, but was told that the transfer of information from Quickbooks to Propertyware was a breeze. This alone can be a game changer if your property consists of 300+ units. All in all, I think Propertyware is a great software, but I do strongly believe there needs to be more training available to potential clients, so they can have a better understanding of how the entire system works. Each tab is a piece of the pie, but explaining that to tenants and owners can be a bit tricky at times.

Pros

The tenant/owner online accessibility is great!! They can view their ledgers and access their accounts at anytime. I also like how mistakes can be corrected, maybe not always easily, but that is solely based on my experience and how the software was presented to me as I joined the company. I enjoy how easily you can search for a lease or owner in the global search bar, and how in the left hand column it lists the recent places you were for easier access. Move ins and Move outs are seamless, granted the correct information is input into the software. The amount of reports that can be ran is endless, and feel as though I could have this software for years and still never have ran each report with all its options/filters. The management tab is designed (ideally) to create owner draws all at once, and for a multifamily property this is fantastic. With each tab, when creating something new, there are important details included. When used properly, it can make your reports a dream!!

Cons

Tenant/Owner ledgers are not very user friendly (in my experience) They reflect very much of an accountants bookkeeping, and not all tenants/owners are "CPAs" so at times it can become difficult to explain debits/credits or income/expenses. On only a few occasions have I had to call customer service and they did not have an answer for me, or a resolution. In their defense, these requests were quite specific and not something that was frequently asked. Sometimes the amount of options for reports can be a bit overkill. Owner draws were started with custom date ranges, and generated individually, which in turn makes it a bit more time consuming for me to create them. In addition, because of the custom date ranges, the owner statements are very time sensitive and if a mistake is made and not corrected with the same dates, it creates confusion for the owners when they review their statements at the end of the year.

Propertyware is a good, but it's an expensive and flawed option.

Pros

We are a property management company with 150 doors and have been using Propertyware for over three years. Propertyware will do an excellent job of property management, but there are numerous problems. And it is very expensive.

Cons

They have a lot of great ideas, but they only implement them to about 90%. We are so angry and frustrated with the problems in PW that we have made the difficult and costly decision to cancel service and move to another software platform.

Propertyware does have many positives, but you can research those for yourself on their website or in other reviews. You need to know its shortcomings before making a decision:

1. PW is fond of saying something new is coming. Be prepared to wait. We have been waiting three years for them to release an Android app. The iPhone app has been out that long, and is already in version 2. Their tech keeps saying the Android app is coming, but it's still not here.

2. PW launched apps for both Android and iPhone for mobile inspections. I was even a part of the beta development. The beta was a whirlwind of development over two weeks. I was amazed at how quickly the tech department was writing code and updating the software to fix problems and make it better. PW launched the apps immediately after the two-week beta, and then, no more updates! The apps are flawed to the point that they are unstable and unusable in the field. Six months later, PW has done nothing.

3. Mobile from a tenant’s perspective. PW is not compatible with web browsers on mobile phones. More and more applicants want to apply online using their smartphones. Some people have a smartphone but no computer. PW will not accept a payment for an application or for paying rent on a mobile phone. We have complained to tech support, but they have not done anything to address the problem.

4. If you pay extra, PW can host your website. This is necessary to integrate rental listings, ePayments, portals, and online applications. In theory, this would be a good thing. However, the provided templates are awful. I regularly have to explain to people how to find the online application. I have asked PW to redesign the Apply Online tab to make it more visible. No luck in three years of asking. And PW really needs to hire a graphic designer. Not just for the web templates, but also for the graphic interface of the software and the automatically generated print brochures.

5. PW is confusing and poorly laid out overall. The main tabs should be better organized for one thing. There are four tabs for accounting across the top: Money In, Money Out, Banking, and Management. Under each tab are additional functions. You might think that is good, but it's confusing. It takes a significant amount of time to learn where to go to find the information or function that you need for any accounting work.

6. Generally speaking, PW has too many layers. It can take five or six clicks to drill down to the layer that has the information you need. Not only does this slow productivity, but it can be frustrating when you are on the phone with a tenant or owner. You have to pay careful attention to which layer you are on, especially before uploading a file. Place the file in the wrong screen, and it will be difficult to find later. Notes and Documents can be posted at every level. That means you have to open multiple levels to make sure you find the documents you need.

7. The search box is supposed to be universal, meaning that you can search for any information within PW very quickly. Just not vendors. If you need to find vendor information, don’t go to search, and don’t go to Contacts. That would be too easy. You have to go to Money Out, and scroll down the long list of vendors.

8. PW had a brilliant idea for training. They decided to create modules and track how far an individual completed each module. They even have tests at the end of each module to make sure the person understood what they learned. This is great for employers tracking employee training progress. The training is on a basic level in PowerPoint format. I'm not against PowerPoint, but the problem is that PW originally had an amazing and deep selection of videos and recorded webinars that explained PW’s functions clearly and extensively. They even had them grouped into categories. It was awesome! But when they launched the PowerPoint training, they removed the videos. We requested links to the videos, and even asked if the videos were on youtube. PW refused to give us any access to the videos.

9. There are no digital signatures, not even on the applications. So when getting referrals from other landlords who require a signature from the applicant, we must use Docusign as an extra step. The development team at PW is finally beginning to talk about implementing digital signature. However, they have made it clear that you will have to pay extra for that option.

10. Be prepared to pay extra for everything. It costs extra for more than 1 GB of storage for rental agreements and other documentation, inspections, or the upcoming eSignatures.

11. PW has an alert page, which we use regularly like a to-do list. Once again, it's great idea that is poorly executed. The alerts come in randomly instead of by date. We have to look very carefully to make sure we do not miss an important alert because it could have been buried in the long list. We would like to see the option to group the alerts by type or even importance into folders. Right now, it is a hodgepodge of chaos with only tiny symbols to show what type each alert is. And we would like the ability to select multiple alerts to delete at one time, instead of having to delete each one individually.

12. Move out procedure. The move out procedure could be better. It would be nice to have a move out checklist similar to other systems. Also, PW does not allow you to enter a forwarding address without doing the final accounting. We don’t want to refund a deposit until all the expenses and repair bills have come in, yet we can’t enter the forwarding address until the deposit is refunded.

Propertyware Review

I enjoy using the Propertyware system. I find it easy to use.

Pros

Propertyware system is easy to use.
Being web based, access anywhere

Cons

At first the training was difficult, we found little help in calling customer service. We had a new account Representative reach out to us, she was able to guide us to all the new training Propertyware has to offer. We are now on a better road to fully using all the tools. I know the system was build for the smaller multifamily property and has all the custom features, but this requires us to manually enter all of the information. I wish we had a training like before, come in and set up the system for us when we first started. After 7 years of using the system we are just now setting up all the Marketing settings, we have not even started using the widgets yet. To break it down, 7 years ago we didn't have the training needed to transfer to this system, now I feel we are getting the help we need.

Growing with Propertyware

Propertyware has changed a lot over the years, and I like the personal relationships that I have been able to build with the Propertyware team members. Participating in training, RealWorld, and the RoadShow has been helpful to me learning the system and feeling like I am being heard when I have concerns or ideas.

Pros

I appreciate the ability to add custom fields, which I have learned can be invaluable to housing information and pulling into reports.

I came from the multifamily industry where Onesite has detailed reporting. Propertyware follows the same professional reporting formats, which my mom and pop owners as well as seasoned investors can follow and appreciate.

Cons

I would like to see improvement to the client text messaging feature and client communication features. I would like to see the conversation housed within the client's personal page, and not a community page. For example, if I am talking to John Smith who leases a house, then I would like to see the text messages and email conversation history within his lease tab. Same with an owner. The way that messages are currently handled is cluttered and difficult to find historicals. Email history is lost.

Not terribly satisfied.

This software was chosen because they claimed to be the closest to the software I previously used: Tenant Pro. They claimed to be able to migrate a lot of my data for me. They did, but much of it was improperly done and I had to re-do most of it anyway, so the data migration was of little help. It took me nearly 3 months to be up and operational, all the while paying my monthly fees without being able to use it "live". They do have a very good support staff. Unfortunately I have to use them a lot. The program is not intuitive. It does not do many of the automatic functions that Tenant Pro did for me. I cannot get the same basic reports that I used to get from Tenant Pro. It has many bells and whistles that I don't care to use and has many issues that have no solutions so I have to find ways around them. After one year I am learning to use it, but it is a very costly software to do most of the same things I did with Tenant Pro - but not all that I used to do. Not terribly satisfied with this program.

Pros

Extremely helpful, readily available support staff. Moderately priced on line software.

Cons

Have to use the support staff frequently - program not very intuitive.
Hard to make changes -if at all - to check splits or entries once check is printed.
Little customization can be done to checks for printing. Check number extremely small and this cannot be changed
Cannot have vendor account number put on checks.
Cannot get an Income Statement with both Year to date and Month to date on same statement.
Tenant ledger statements not very helpful - not much information shows on the statement
Terminated tenants show up on Accounts Receivable list if they had any balance when they moved out. No way to remove them.

User Friendly Software

It has made us more organized and has made it easier to track our rental income and expenses. Overall, we have had a great experience

Pros

The software is pretty intuitive and doesn't need a lot of training to get started. I like that the reports are very customizable.

Cons

The look of the pages seem antiquated. I heard that a new cleaner look was coming, so I am excited to see it. I wish the reports would refresh automatically as I sometimes forget to look to see if the report is up to date.

Propertyware for residential management

Overall, this program has a lot to offer. I have learned that the more you put into it, the more you get out of it.

Pros

I like the ease of navigating between the leases, portfolios, contacts etc. Also, the ability to attach documents to leases, property, portfolio, contact and vendor pages makes accessing bills, notes and documents quick and easy. Has eliminated searching through paper files for bills and documents which is a real time saver. The tenant portal makes online payments convenient for our tenants and staff. The owner portal keeps the owners informed of maintenance and expenses in real time.

Cons

There is nothing I don't like. Learning the system is relatively easy using the online instructional videos and the help/support tab.

Propertyware is the best of the class

Propertyware makes us more efficient and gives us the ability to communicate with our clients far more easily. We run with a smaller staff needed, and provide a much better product as a result.

Pros

Unlike most software in this space, Propertyware is highly customizable, even having an open API available in its top-tier package. This makes the software flexible based upon your individual processes, rather than having to tailor your processes to work within the software, as is the case with Propertyware's competitors.

Cons

Technical support has improved over the years, but it is still not to the level I would like. No one likes calling tech support and getting someone halfway around the planet reading from a script. This is really my only complaint with Propertyware.

Propertyware Product Review

My experience has been positive with Propertyware. As a large client, it is extremely helpful to have a Platinum Support Agent connected to our account that has a relationship with our users. The support team has been extremely responsive in working with our teams and discussions about enhancements to be competitive with our products. Being included on BETA teams and development discussion is an extremely positive experience because they are learning about the industry and taking that knowledge for the product enhancements needed.

Pros

The software is built to grow with your company. With the flexibility of the system's customization, including the reporting, custom views, and custom fields, your company can record, track, and analyze business short term and long term business trends.

Cons

The system experiences glitches at times and can slow down based on usage.

Real Page seems Outdated

RealPage was decent for property management, it was just not as user friendly as I would have liked. It seems like it took more steps then needed to accomplish many of the tasks. It needs to be updated to be more use friendly.

Pros

This does most of what you need to property management and works well with affordable properties. It has a good selection of reports and is fairly easy to use. It does a good job of tracking prospects and creating tasks to manage your staff

Cons

Real Page seem a little clunky and not as easy to use if you manage multiple properties from the same office. It felt like we were always jumping in and out of properties and we could not easily move between the properties. Also the accounting portion was not well integrated with the rest of the system

Great product with NO customer support

Lukewarm. If they only had customer support, I would say absolutely yes. But be warned they don't value their clients, it least not the ones with 200 units, maybe if you have a couple of thousand?? But, that would be a risk.

Pros

It really does it all, and does a very good job. It is a well done software, that runs completely online. It integrates everything, and produces great looking reports

Cons

Customer Support.
The above problem is not the worst part. That would be the ePayments!!! For the love of God do not subscribe, as we did, for three nightmarish months. We scrambled trying to fix all of the errors it created, Our work increased ten fold, and we found out that tech support was even worse when it came to ePayments. We've long since canceled the ePayments, but still find problems to fix. It's a nightmare and Propertyware has charged us and admitted the ePayments aren't working. Their customer support is crap, but what they did with the ePayments, makes me regret the day I started using Propertyware. I probably will find someone else to use in the near future. We currently have 200 units with them, so I'm not looking forward to the hassle of transferring. If they only had customer support I would be fine with all the problems.

I was a bookkeeper and the team lead for dealing with issues on Propertyware.

Pros

The integration into rent, and ledger system. It was easy to pay vendors in bulk and they have an Owner payment system that most companies don't have.

Cons

The timetable to fix community wide issues was Very POOR!!! They would have us submit requests on a Community Board and wait for votes, supposedly the ideas with most votes would be worked on. Trouble is there were SEVERAL complaints about the same issues with 1000's of votes that sat on the system for 2 years!!! Still new people would call, complain and write ideas to no avail. It seemed the tech team or development leaders would choose the easiest tasks to fix and leave the real issues alone. They'd agree to work on a simple font or logo design but ignore the bigger issue of reports or accounting. This was a constant issue and aggravating. I had to run several reports into an Excel and merge them to get the information needed.

Property management, marketing and accounting.

I've definitely gotten a scalable solution that helps property managers to maintain the properties with automated and optimized flows work.

Pros

I like social collaboration between property managers, landlords and tenants. Digital marketing functionality is very full of digital marketing. The training process is and implementation can be done in a very short time.

Cons

The downside is that it is not aimed at commercial or large properties. The software can not be installed on computers either, it can only be done through the cloud.

Propertyware is great for tech savy users that want a powerful and custom back end solution

It has allowed us to advertise features clients love such as the ease of communication and how informed they will be about all aspects of their property. It's like cruise control for property management.

Pros

The transparency it allows our company to have. With great communication tools such as owner/tenant portals, automatic email alerts on numerous activities on a property, text messaging, email and more. Powerful reporting features allows us to satisfy the demands of large investors as well as a single property owner. Support is excellent from our local sales rep to the phone support center.

Cons

Not a very user friendly and intuitive interface. Slow to roll out new features and upgrades.

Huge learning curve

I've been using the software for at least a year and keep thinking I'll get used to it. I'm coming from other property management software so I'm familiar with the property management software features. It's almost like using an old Microsoft computer before windows. I would prefer a few buttons nice and easy and keep the data sheets in the background for the geeks.

Pros

This software seems to be very robust. Certainly it can do just about anything. It allows you to manage just about anything that rents on a monthly basis. Storage units, shampoo stations, or HOA,