AppFolio Property Manager – Bewertungsseite 3

Vorteile

Appfolio is probably one of the cheapest but most reliable and efficient - you get your money's far more worth than what you paid for. One thing I liked the most is the ease of use - we can customize reports and export them as needed which makes everything organized and easy. Everything is overall great for us!

Nachteile

Maybe as to how the tenant's invoice is designed. It looked a bit too simple and vague to me but that can be easily improved! Nothing that affects service :)

Vorteile

I love that I've been able to stop paying separately for postage machines, for label makers, credit and background checking, and a few others.. This one program has taken the place of 5 programs I've had to use in the past. And it's so much cheaper then paying for 5 others and their monthly fees..

Nachteile

I haven't found any cons about this program. I really can't say enough good things about it. Don't stay on the fence about this one, you'll be so glad you tried it out

Vorteile

1.It's very affordable2.It's easy to get started3. offers a good range of features for most users4.The right choice for you will depend on your specific needs and budget.

Nachteile

1. One con is that it can be difficult to use2.it doesn't offer as many features as some of the other options on the market.

Vorteile

I like the ease of use, and the easy access for tenants. I love the dashboard, and unit turn. It would be nice to see some tweeks on the dashboard to make it more personable. Texting feature is by far our favorite.

Nachteile

The way deposits are processed. We run ours in/out of that account. I don't like that it meshes into the owners account and makes their reports really sloppy and full of info they don't want to be bothered with. I wish the owners reports were easier, P & L version is the ones my owners like, but they are really difficult in appfolio, becuase they are 1-31st of the month only.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Yardi Voyager

Warum AppFolio Property Manager gewählt wurde

We had the really old version of yardi and did alot of our stuff with paper trails. It was time to update and get on cloud

Gründe für den Wechsel zu AppFolio Property Manager

I liked the online signature option, and the texting

Vorteile

After using the same software for 13 years we jumped feet first and made the switch to Appfolio and don't regret it! The ease of the software and ability to maneuver throughout the system makes learning the software so helpful. They are constantly updating the program to help us and the available message boards for users are great for ideas and problem solving.

Nachteile

We all have room for improvement, but Appfolio DOES listen and try to constantly improve the program. I am not going to lie the conversion was rough. So many things we were used to doing the program did for us so we were constantly rewriting OUR procedures as well. Change is difficult for us all but NOT always a bad thing. We went into it saying let's give it 4 months and see what we think. Thank goodness we did and stuck with it!

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Buildium

Warum AppFolio Property Manager gewählt wurde

We had outgrown the program and with no upgrades on the horizon it was time to make the switch.

Vorteile

Online rent payments, online maintenance requests, customizable reports, robust accounting features, dedicated support team, software is constantly evolving.

Nachteile

eCheck payments being returned as NSF when they shouldn't be, credit card payments are able to be cancelled months later after we've already given the money to the owner, owners aren't able to sign leases through their portal, steep learning curve.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Yardi Voyager und Buildium

Warum AppFolio Property Manager gewählt wurde

We used QuickBooks prior to getting AppFolio. As a property database, QuickBooks was highly limited. The accounting features in QuickBooks are fine, but we were overwhelmed with the amount of rent checks we had to handle every month. And QuickBooks does not help at all with keeping track of work orders. As the size of our staff and the size of our portfolio both started to grow, it soon became evident that we needed a software solution that was specifically designed for property managers, rather than a generalized business software like QuickBooks.

Zuvor genutzte Software

QuickBooks Online

Gründe für den Wechsel zu AppFolio Property Manager

I read a lot of reviews for various property management software solutions, and most of them pointed to AppFolio as being the best one. It might not be the cheapest one, but in my opinion it is well-worth the investment.

Vorteile

The software was easy to use. I started using it without any training but because I was familiar with several pother software programs was able to navigate through pretty easily. It's intuitive and user friendly. The self help articles are also very handy and most of the time answer my questions.

Nachteile

There is a minimum number of units we had to maintain in oder to begin using AppFolio. And a minimum monthly amount to spend. For serval years we had to pay for more than we needed to meet this minimum amount monthly. Because we bill our properties back per unit, our company had to incur the additional expense until we were large enough.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Yardi Voyager

Warum AppFolio Property Manager gewählt wurde

AppFolio offered more reporting and features and property owners we were pursuing as clients were already familiar with AppFolio.

Gründe für den Wechsel zu AppFolio Property Manager

The pricing was better. Also, RealPage does not allow you to directly send ACH payments to owners. You have to download an ACH file and send it to your bank. This requires additional work for us.

Vorteile

The program is super user friendly and quality life changes are being made regularly to make the software better. Between adding features and their support system makes workflow with AppFolio easier than ever. They take suggestions made from customers/users and do their best to implement them. Training new employees to use AppFolio has gone from taking months to get someone able to use to just a few weeks.

Nachteile

They do make changes behind the scenes that sometimes effects the way you have something set up and you don't know it until it gets brought to someones attention.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Yardi Voyager und Buildium

Warum AppFolio Property Manager gewählt wurde

The program was not user friendly at all.

Gründe für den Wechsel zu AppFolio Property Manager

AppFolio had the best price at the time for the features they provided.

Vorteile

I really like that tenants can set up their own portals for payments, maintenance requests, etc. I like that it streamlines almost everything we need into one software.

Nachteile

The accounting portion is very difficult to use and make corrections to anything, and when you need customer service it is too often very hard to get, or get someone that can actually help you. It takes days sometimes to even get help, or they don't get back at all. The price has went up a lot since we first signed up but the customer service has dramatically went down. Due to this I would no longer recommend Appfolio.

Vorteile

All the modules, (maintenance, accounting, applications etc.) work together seamlessly. The automation processed for converting applicants to tenants, work order flow, marketing and the tenant portal are all incredible.

Nachteile

There is a step learning curve. The tutorials are great, but it takes awhile to get the feel of the system. Sometimes, AppFolio is a little too efficient and doesn't give you a chance to correct an entry error before it posts. It would be great if we could have an offline AppFolio where we could try different processes and procedures without it impacting our live database.

Vorteile

Lisa is a great new feature, helps with leasing; nice to have electronic records/systems

Nachteile

Can't use the lease function at all (certain elements required by our state statutes that are not accommodated by AppFolio); hate that we cannot have more than one version of an application; [SENSITIVE CONTENT], while great, still needs substantial improvements; interface is outdated

Vorteile

AppFolio is so easy to use - team members who are "green" or have not used the software are able to catch on quickly with the incredible amount of training videos that are available. AppFolio is constantly rolling out updates/improvements too. We were so excited when the MFR import tool and option to bulk assign unit types were released. Features like this truly streamline the property setup process - it's great!

Nachteile

A feature that could use improvement is the inspection tool. Currently, it is missing the option to make a template that does not require tying it to a unit beforehand. Though I'm sure AppFolio has this in the works!

Vorteile

I value that unlike many other Property Management programs, Appfolio does not integrate with many 3rd party platforms.
3rd party platforms can adversely affect the overall user experience of your clients; furthermore, the service Company with whom you signed the contract, can't control the quality of service of the 3rd party. So basically, your software company might be selling you a service that they have little control over.

Invoice payment is great. It has saved us a lot of time from our previous program.
I also really like the communications function.

Nachteile

Customer Service. Once you are enrolled, you are on your own.
Although Appfolio claims that have great online training videos, we all know these are too generic, and real life situations are not generic.
It is also impossible to get reliable over the phone support. It takes a support agent about 2 days to get back with you (if they ever do) Once you have them on the phone, they are not sufficiently trained to answer many questions regarding anything from reporting to accounting to program usage. This is a BIG con. We also don't like the fact that we are unable to receive over the phone payments

Vorteile

Easy to use; lots of reporting options and communication tools; functional mobile app; helpful shortcuts like delinquent payment reports.

Nachteile

The lack of customization across multiple users, as it relates to certain accounting preferences. For example, if one manager likes late fees immediately added to a tenant's balance on a certain date, but other managers prefer to do that manually, the system doesn't allow for individual customization from manager to manager.

Vorteile

Appfolio is a very straight forward property management software program. It is very user friendly. It can be customized to fit your property or portfolio management needs. It covers all areas of property management from advertising, applications, screening, leases, work orders, A/R, A/P, vendors, tenants, reports, surveys, and so much more. It is easy to integrate your old system to Appfolio.

Nachteile

I don't have really anything to bad to say about Appfolio. I do wish that once Appfolio assigns a deposit number to a bank deposit that it doesn't allow that number to be assigned to another use in the company before the deposit is completed. Clicking on complete deposit button is the last step in making my deposits. So if there are any mistakes it is easier and there are less steps involved to correct it.

Vorteile

The ease of use. AppFolio makes every process seem simple. All of the information within AppFolio is easily searchable and our users don't need to be super tech savvy to use AppFolio with confidence.

Nachteile

We'd love to see AppFolio make a concerted effort to improve or add features for commercial properties like sales tracking/percentage rent billing. Even though the commercial property features aren't as robust as the residential features, I have no doubts that I will see these features in the future. AppFolio regularly releases new and improved features. They also maintain a robust user community wherein they take suggestions and let us know what suggestions are in the works.

Vorteile

I love the integration for all of our departments within our company. Development/Property Management-Commercial & Residential/Accounting/Marketing/Maintenance/Resident & Owner Portals. It's almost a complete one stop shop for all the data each department needs, reports, billing, etc.

Nachteile

I wish there is a "manual" that can guide you as you are learning this software. There are very basic - how to's", however, there isn't explainations of triggers for processes. In particular, there is no explaination on when Appfolio triggers availabilities. It is difficult to set up our processes when we don't know the "why" to how the program works.
There have been some issues regarding running maintenance reports without all "notes" being able to be seen as well.

Vorteile

We thought it was user friendly, we liked the app, and through the demo process (8-10 sessions) along with we sent an organizational structure, a list of requirements and priorities. Those sessions led us to believe your software would fit our needs.

We were told you were making investments at the organizational level and executive and development levels specifically with the Association product. We are committed to you but need you to be committed to us and provide some extensive help.

Nachteile

Many, Many, Many. Would value a productive meeting to lay out what we are missing on our end. We are a Condo Association which consist of 634 units and & high rises. I believe many of our issues are easily fixed but have not had any luck with most of them. Example: In roles under maintenance tech we need the tech to be able to take assign a work order to a vendor and have the ability to view architectural reviews.

We elevated the techs to maintenance cords which allows them to now close a work order and bill which we do not want them to have that ability. Per your team they can not hide that option.

The Association Profile is complicated because it is obvousily designed for apartment rentals and not Association. I believe the bones of the software are good and the Association piece can be developed but
we were led to believe the software was further along on the Association profile.

Vorteile

The software has sped up and increased efficiencies in our staff and processes. There's been quite a bit of streamlining.

Nachteile

There's significant room for improvement in the reporting and work order area. The ability to also charge tenants on the recurring basis prior to their lease start is a large inconvenience for our company, where students payment dates begin 2 months prior to their occupancy. Going through and adding charges to every account we set up is inconvenient, and leaves a large room for human error.

Vorteile

I am not going to go on and on. I came on board when the product was just coming out. 1st or 2nd year of business. The modules rolled out individually. As it grew the customer service for my small company had disappeared. I feel invisible at times because I am under 200 units. I keep using it with hopes my company will recover from COVID. The PREMIUM leads that are not PREMIUM at 10 a pop killed me this rental season and my units are still vacant. :(

Nachteile

I wrote it all above, sorry I am terrible at directions..at times/.

Vorteile

One of my favorite things about this software is that I feel like Appfolio is growing with my company. The software has come so far in the last couple years with lots of new features. There have been multiple occasions where I have a problem and then in a couple days I get notified that Appfolio has created a solution to my problem. It is actually very weird but I don't believe in coincidences so I just right it off as a great partnership.

Nachteile

I wish that I could change the bank accounts that the properties use currently to a new one without having to work with someone at Appfolio.

Vorteile

I love how you can tie everything in from property to owner to tenant. You can click on the amount in any report to review a transaction. Attaching PDFs to the statements are fantastic. Communication is wonderful.

Nachteile

The finer accounting pieces. I would love to be able to run the balance sheet and click on Operating Cash to see what the balance of each bank account that makes up the Operating cash, then if I want to see by property, I could click on that total.

Vorteile

This product is so wonderful for our company and super easy to use! I love that AppFolio is constantly making upgrades and improvements to the product that simplifies our job and helps to do our job easily and expedient!! Thank you for all that you do! ...Lisa Grimes, Pegasus Property Management

Nachteile

I am not sure what would be missing in the product. I do know that I would like an additional insurance feature for the boat insurance. We have to have homeowner insurance and boat insurance with our properties that we manage.

Vorteile

Ease of use and able to work in the field.

Nachteile

Inspection templates are a MESS-check the forums-these need attention NOW. NEED a Code Order status in work orders so they STAY at the top of the list until copleted.

Vorteile

AppFolio's user interface is the best in the business. They're short development cycle offers continued platform improvements. The software does every we need as a small owner/operator.

Nachteile

The lack of an open API. Support not as responsive as it was.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Yardi Voyager und Buildium

Warum AppFolio Property Manager gewählt wurde

Better user interface and price point.

Zuvor genutzte Software

Yardi Voyager

Gründe für den Wechsel zu AppFolio Property Manager

Best in class, elegant user interface, responsive design, early to market (we made decision eight years ago).

Vorteile

I like the customization of this software. It is ideal if you manage a variety of portfolios. The dashboard and tasks menu are placed well and easy to navigate. The software uses a tab feature that allows to easily work with different tasks at a time. Excellent reporting features. Great mobile app

Nachteile

HORRIBLE customer service. The software is extremely robust, which will normally be a good thing. However, with that comes a lot of questions. Unfortunately only 1 out of 5 agents can help you. Most issues will have to be advanced to a senior agent . Once that happens you will have to EMAIL what your issue is or wait anywhere from 3-7 days for a scheduled phone call. So if your issue is time sensitive you are simply out of luck. I am seasoned property management professional, and I have worked with many softwares. Appfolio, by far is one of the most difficult I have worked with. There is countless steps to complete
everything. Of course that allows for a lot of customization, but understand it takes a long time to learn it.

Additionally there are promised features that don't work well. For example text messaging. You can text within the software, but there is no push notification. So if you are not inside the software or checking you email constantly, you won't know someone sent a text. So Pointless!!!. That is just one of many.
There is reason there is no free trial and they bound you to a one year contract.

Vorteile

The ease of use and mobile app make this software very useful for property managers. For leasing, the application and lease signing process is pretty seamless once set-up. The Online Portal is also great as it helps cut down on unnecessary emails or calls to the office. Residents can pay rent, submit requests for maintenance, and sign lease renewals all through their Online Portal. The lease renewal interface is one of my favorite features as it has really cuts down on the amount of time I spend drafting and preparing renewals. This software offers a lot and they are always pushing out updates and new features which is great.

Nachteile

The biggest problem is customer support. Some requests take days or weeks to hear back from someone and in property management, we typically don't have days or weeks to wait for a fix to a problem we are experiencing. However, when someone does help, they tend to always be able to resolve our problems. I would also like to see more customization to the software. Little things like being able to add my own "reasons for move-out" to the drop down when selecting a reason for a move-out. Also adding the option for management to select "preferred/available times" when entering a maintenance request for a resident. Residents have this option when submitting via the online portal, but management does not if they are entering a request on behalf of a resident. The work around is just writing it in the access notes, but that seems disconnected since user submitted requests will show the preferred times in a different section so maintenance staff may overlook it since it will be in a different spot than usual.

Vorteile

We love the ease of use, flow of the interface, and the online integration, the cost is inline with other comparable software, so you definitely get what you pay for. We wish we could make use of all of the features the software has to offer, as there is so much to choose from. Their customer services is upstanding, and we make good use of the 24 hour tenant maintenance support line. We've used Appfolio for 6 years now, and so far we've had a good experience.

Nachteile

The cons while important are minimal. We face underlying program issues, such as with rent charges. The system is set up for 1st of the month rent charges ONLY, but we have different rent due dates ranging from the 1st to the 15th. This causes havoc for us as some tenants with due dates other than the 1st get charged twice in the longer months. We have to pay them back and it can be very frustrating for them as they have to wait days for their funds. As well the tenant's online portal doesn't always show the correct amount owed as it automatically includes charges for the upcoming month, which confuses most tenants. The ease of use is also a double edged sword since if not careful, as with a lot of programs, you can make system changes, and data or journal entry mistakes that can be difficult to fix. While the customer support is helpful they are not always the end all, so you might be expected to fix your own problems if needed. In some cases customer service can only take you so far. If the issue is long lasting they may start to wane on their responses to you with assistance or be unable to help you. But this is explained when you begin orientation so you should take the responsibility of educating yourself on the system before using it.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Buildium

Warum AppFolio Property Manager gewählt wurde

Yardi was sufficient in the past, pre-2008, but somewhere along the line they changed the format to be more complicated, to add they didn't even include online capabilities. So when we "upgraded" to Yardi Genesis it proved to be less user friendly than it's predecessor. The functions were clunky and just not intuitive, our accountant had to take class after class and read the entire manual over and over again to finally get it. Simple things such as charging late fees, rent receipts and even just looking up a tenant or owner statement was a process. The data back up was also a hassle, being that we had to have onsite servers holding the data. They finally rolled out their online solution which was a third party software company and it was very lacking, not to mention an added cost.

Gründe für den Wechsel zu AppFolio Property Manager

Besides being seemingly overall better than the others, they were the best at describing the data migration process, as this was one of our main concern at the time. Some other software systems had trouble migrating data from Yardi, and Appfolio specialized in it, which made us feel much more comfortable. They also have a lot of features we needed, such as report generation controls, online systems, and ease of use. Again at that time the data migration was a big issue as we were having problems with our current software company concerning our data.

Vorteile

The system-wide search feature, ability to change dates & descriptions of items most of the time & expiration date on recurring JEs. So far, customer support has been great for me - very friendly & helpful.

Nachteile

-Reporting is awful. Columns can be added but report pdf process does not auto-adjust size to page, which means converting to Excel to adjust. There are reports that do not have totals so have to convert those, too.-The financial reports were inadequate, so had to "upgrade" Excel to use Connect Tool just to make the reports look like the ones in the old software.-Rent Roll does not show correct occupancy rate (based upon SF not units, obviously).-Tenants cannot choose what to pay via online portal which causes time-consuming reapps.-The Smart Scan feature disregards recurring invoices, which are at least 60% of invoices paid.-Credits are auto-applied so have to unapply those to provide tenants a stmt that shows the credit, which should be a setting option NOT default.-Modified Cash Basis is not an acctg method choice. -We were not allowed to choose how to set-up cash accounts & must have AF's assistance when transferring banks.-Basic fields are not programmed into the tenant's page. There should be a lease abstract form for comm tenants. We should have option to choose what type of tenant to pull up apropos fields (res, comm, ind, etc.) &/or choose fields to add to the tenant's page.-Items rvsd from tenant's account disappear. We should have option to show rvsd items, as with the GL. Instead, items have to be manually credited & limited to one credit per g/l code per date. So much time wasted w/all the credits required for hurricane dest, esp since AF auto-applies credits.

Vorteile

I love how easy it is to use and that it's got everything integrated from inspections to maintenance to accounting to contract management. It also posts my listings to a bunch of websites automatically.

Nachteile

It was initially a perfect fit for our company. We wanted our website and property management software integrated and we loved the features such as the tenant portal etc. In the past couple of years, it seems that they are gearing themselves more toward large companies (1000+ units) as they are only making certain features available to their larger clients (i.e. Lisa AI / artificial intelligence secretary) despite having the technology already to accommodate all clients regardless of company size. Additionally, we paid a lofty website setup fee when we originally enrolled in the software in 2014. They charge anywhere from $1000-5000 to redesign the website and as of March 2021, they are forcing everyone to migrate their website over to a new design and imposing a monthly fee to host the website in addition the the regular monthly fee.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Yardi Voyager und Buildium

Warum AppFolio Property Manager gewählt wurde

We wanted something more integrated and that allowed more than one user at a time.

Gründe für den Wechsel zu AppFolio Property Manager

Because it was a better value for the money and seemed more user-friendly.

Vorteile

Search function and integration with most online posting services is good. Staff is nice and try hard to answer your questions and navigate around limitations of the software. Unfortunately, they are overworked and the issues with the software (e.g. reporting and accounting primarily) make it very difficult for them to service their customers effectively. Mobile app is good (considering the accounting and reporting issues).

Nachteile

Accounting features are limited. Examples: Management Fees for non rent items (e.g. parking, storage, commercial rent) are deducted from income rather than calculated as an expense. It makes it look like you are hiding fees from owners. Option is to enter a series of JE's each month to correct.

Reporting capability is very poor: You can not set up batch reports that update monthly. You can set up owner reports, but, they do not necessarily update (e.g. prior month and YTD rolling). Extremely limited in formating reports. GL's for year are over 400 pages due to spacing and limited control on what to report. Example: P&L Options are only "Detail" or "Summary". Summary lumps all utilities into one line items and Detail prints "Non Posting" items.

Increased application fee cost within first year by 30% with virtually no notice and no options. Response was to "pass it on to your customers". I just received another notice 14 months after conversion that my web services fee was increasing 98%. Again, virtually no notice and no options.

Unfortunately, the staff is stretched so thin, I can not get a response to an issue logged over a week ago. I call daily, text and email. The response is: "We will expedite and prioritize. I will notify your case worker." Unfortunately, no call or email follows to help. I had to hire CPA's to force my financials to be accurate in order to get reports to my Federal Investor. Still waiting on that expedited call.....

Vorteile

First and foremost, the value of the product. You get everything you need for cheaper than most of the other products out there. For my company, we transitioned from Buildium to AppFolio and instantly reaped the rewards. AppFolio provided us with an inexpensive company website, a quick and easy tool to post our vacancies to multiple websites, and great assistance during set-up.

Nachteile

I know some of the more expensive options offer more competitive pricing tools and a little more automation. Also, AppFolio had a few issues (like maintenance personnel not being able to see pictures on work orders using their mobile devices) that took AppFolio a while to start addressing.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Yardi Voyager

Warum AppFolio Property Manager gewählt wurde

Cost was a factor, but mostly not having good advertising with Buildium.

Zuvor genutzte Software

Buildium

Gründe für den Wechsel zu AppFolio Property Manager

Cost vs. benefits. We are a medium size company (750 multifamily/single-family units) and did not need as many bells and whistles.

Vorteile

We were on a somewhat antiquated system, so improvement was easy to recognize. AppFolio does a lot of things well. It improved connection with residents AND our ability to have better records both for tenants and for staff (liability support/reduction), and much easier for staff to know what is happening across the board with any one resident or prospect. We are still learning! The transition was fast and friendly. Loved their tenant liability option.

Nachteile

1) OnBoarding was very tech-oriented and a challenge to adapt easily because staff is working on a calendar. I have some a-ha moments that i just couldn't get the OnBoarding team to understand (even though they were very capable folks) because in this tech world, it's either a or b, there is no c option. Well, later I'm finding the c option IS available.
2) They make frequent updates, and communicate them well. The challenge is working them into your schedule to understand so you can stay on top of them because your team will do the same---someone needs to know them.
3) Other updates seem to be in holding status for way too long, when they'd help users so much.
4) Our biggest complaint is AppFolio's unwillingness to work with other software integrations. They really cripple my ability by being so protective of.....whatever it is. Most other softwares integrate fine. They do so much so well, I feel like it's time to stop being so proprietary. That would change any element of dissatisfaction that I encounter. It appears so flexible, but it's not. The larger companies don't all want their screening or leases....so I still am running other programs which is a pain. Their system doesn't work for me (having a one stop shop for 'everyone' isn't realistic) in all areas as it seemed to in the beginning. So modify your expectations. I would have still purchased, but been happier with where i landed.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Buildium

Warum AppFolio Property Manager gewählt wurde

It was time to update and engage and embrace a switch. Our product was becoming antiquated and while we loved it, we desired the upgrades and a tech company bought our old one and wasn't going to update our product so they could bring in their competitive options.

Gründe für den Wechsel zu AppFolio Property Manager

Two easy reasons (I'd spent time prior reviewing): 1) A close colleague was using and really liked it AppFolio. 2) Buildium hasn't been as user friendly as other options.

Vorteile

I love how easy it is to advertise our vacancies. Then the interested parties can schedule viewings and apply for the property right from our web site. Once we select a tenant, we can transfer all of their information from their application over to make them our active tenant with the click of a button. I love how easy it is for tenants to pay their rent online or at pay stations and it goes directly into our bank account and calculates the management fees.

Nachteile

The reports could be a little better. On multiple units, the reports don't break down the expenses by unit number very well. So, the owners aren't able to tell on their reports what a management fee charge was for because the charge isn't broken down by unit number. As a result, we get calls from upset owners and our accounting department has to create reports outside of the software to make sure the owners are satisfied. This takes extra time when the software could easily break down these expenses if it was programmed to do so. Our accounting department said that the bookkeeping side of the software could be better.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Yardi Voyager

Warum AppFolio Property Manager gewählt wurde

Appfolio had more features and was more user friendly.

Zuvor genutzte Software

Buildium

Gründe für den Wechsel zu AppFolio Property Manager

It seemed to be much more user friendly and had more features that would work best for us.

Vorteile

This software keeps me organized and on top of managing a large inventory of properties and clients.
-It has a strong financial reporting side that encompasses everything necessary to operate and deliver to owners as well as tenants.
-We receive great feedback from the tenants as this software provides a very seamless experience from application process all the way through move outs.
-User friendly, easy to navigate.
-Reports to Experian credit bureau and now RentBureau.
-I also love that on the property page, tenant page, owner page we can add activity reminders.
-The options of reports are great and the customization of them are endless.
-Owners, tenants, vendors all have portals to work in giving them access to their information/accounts.
-AppFolio is always working to improve features and add new services that could benefit property management companies.
-Newer feature is an app for tenants to use to pay online and schedule maintenance. Love it!
Many pros. You won't be disappointed.

Nachteile

Overall, I don't have many cons and really had to think up what our biggest frustrations are with the software. Not bad if this is all I could come up with. We work around it because overall we are very satisfied with the product.
-Small improvements that need to be made based on user experiences are seemingly overlooked as not important. Example, you can now email tenants/owners from their page. If the email does not go through there is no notification so we are unaware that tenants/owners did not receive our communication. So for now, I do not use that feature if it is something I need to be certain is received by other party.
-There is also a sensitivity with the new showings feature that if a booked party does not reply exactly with CONFIRM, then the booking will automatically cancel. It creates many headaches daily. Cannot reply with YES, CONFIRMED, OK, I'LL BE THERE, etc.
-Owners would like real time details in their owner portal, not just past monthly reports to review.
All of these items have been suggested to AppFolio to review for tweaking by many users.

Vorteile

I love AppFolio, it does everything all together in one place, no need to have multiple programs because AppFolio has everything you need to be organized and professional. You can basically go paperless using this software. It is very easy to learn, there is self help that walks you through things if you forget or need to learn how to do something. They are always adding new things and making AppFolio better. Our company is actually one of there testers so we get the new updates to try before they are even released. AppFolio takes you through the leasing process from start to finish and takes care of everything in between. Your company can upload all the forms you could possibly need as templates (applications, leases, notices, letters, renewals, terminations and you can also make your own letters to add as templates.) All forms auto populate and give you the ability to edit as needed to fit the tenant(s) you are sending to. Everything between you and the tenant can be completed online such as applications, leases, changes in terms, addendums, lease assumptions and more. Tenants and managers are able to sign forms digitally which is great. When everyone has completed signing it automatically send a copy of the signed document to each resident and the property manager. Rent can be paid online, maintenance requests are done online. Keeps all your records in one place. I have never used a better software product and I have been in this business for 22+ years.

Nachteile

This is a hard one because AppFolio since it started has listened to its users and just about everything we've asked for to make our jobs more efficient and easier they have made happen. There is literally one thing that comes to mind that I wish was different. When you print something from AppFolio you click to print to PDF then it opens a PDF copy of what you are trying to print, then on the PDF you go to file, print, then your printer opens up and you hit print again. to me its a lot of steps just to print something. But if you look at all the pros in this software having to click 4 times to print something is really nothing! (me being lazy or in a hurry) Who knows, one of these days I might come to work and they'll have changed it and it will print with one click!

Vorteile

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.

Nachteile

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.

Vorteile

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.

Nachteile

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.

Vorteile

The UI is simple and easy for new staff members to learn. The features are 'simple' and provide entry level functionality to get tasks done.

Nachteile

Since signing up with Appfolio in 2010, they've lost their consumer focus - and replaced it with what can best be described as 'Wall Street Arrogance':
- selling 'value add' services to our clients without our prior consent
- adding a maintenance call center that is a joke and an embarrassment
- their suppressed fees feature is a nightmare to use, requiring hours of extra labor to ensure it works
- coming out with simple versions of software 'improvements' that don't compare or compete with online alternatives

That last point is why I am actively searching to leave Appfolio.

Instead of letting me connect Appfolio to Docusign, they develop their own lousy lease writer which noone likes or uses.

Instead of letting me connect Appfolio to TenantTurner or other showing softwares, they insist on making us wait for their 'simple' (less powerful) version to come out.

Instead of letting me connect my Appfolio to SalesForce or Hubspot or Infusionsoft, they say 'who needs a CRM anyways'? Mind you they use Salesforce to grow Appfolio... but we can manually add new clients versus importing them from our CRM

Instead of letting me connect my Appfolio to Podio or Asana or another workflow management software, they say 'use paper checklists, or maintain a dual database' if you want to get your work done with the latest cutting edge software tech. Folks - THIS MATTERS, and means you will spend TONS of extra hours doing labor that could easily be automated otherwise.

Instead of letting me connect my Appfolio to Survey Monkey, they make us use a dual data base, and miss the chance to survey our clients. Appfolio surveys us all the time, but apparently we don't deserve to use an integrated survey feature.

Instead of letting me connect my Appfolio to PropertyMeld, they want me to use their Model 'T' version of a workorder system. So I went with PropertyMeld, and deactivated the Appfolio maintenance portal so I could replace it with PropertyMeld's portal. We now run far more efficiently - no thanks to Appfolio.

I recently used a competing call center to answer our maintenance lines, and received a 'cease and desist' style letter from Appfolio?! They said that 'for the safety of my data', I was to no longer use any 3rd party services!? I shook the tree long and hard and they retracted that statement. A thinly veiled attempt to shut down a competitor. Shameful actually.

When Appfolio went public, I told my Stock Broker 'you should buy it, cuz I know it will go up'. Their share price tripled over the past two years, but I refused to buy their stock. Why? I HATE that Wall Street Greed and Arrogance has entered our industry, and refuse to support them.

An open source API solves all of the above 'connection' issues, and is what's best for the customer. But Appfolio will not release their API. So folks, before considering moving forward with Appfolio, remember that the folks who play God with your data will decide WHAT improvements to bestow upon us at THEIR leisure. They'll decide what products to sell to our clients WITHOUT our knowledge or consent.

I'll leave you with a closing thought - why would Appfolio decide to shut down live support while their share values triple? One would think that escalating share values means they could afford to give us excellent live support... apparently the shareholder is now more important than the customer at Appfolio.

Vorteile

The product itself is great and very intuitive. The mobile app is very helpful for the entire staff.

Nachteile

Support is really lacking. I would like to just call and get support, rather than submitting a request and waiting for an answer. I've submitted a request once and was told that what I was requesting was not supported and that I should make a suggestion. I feel that I'm already communicating with Appfolio, why do I have to re-communicate to Appfolio? The support person should have said that the feature I was looking for will be passed on to the appropriate department. I get the impression that the suggestion board is mainly a feel good function and not something that Appfolio takes seriously. I base this on the fact that there are suggestions that have several votes, have been on the board for several months and not getting a response. As an example there is as suggestion for lease expiration notice which has 1,231 votes and was suggested May 2015. It was not responded to until February 2016 and we still don't have this function. What's really funny about this particular function is that before I went to Appfolio 5 years ago I had this function on my website that I designed and had developed. This is just proof that Appfolio doesn't listen to it's clients

Vorteile

The updates and the "what's new" feature are great, this software keeps evolving along with our business.
Ability to mass-email or mass-text a property is great, and all the recording-keeping is great for peace of mind.
Can't possibly imagine doing business without the organization of AppFolio.
Universal Search is great, fast, and efficient.
The mobile app is great.

Nachteile

The customer support can take a while, as in, there is no direct call option. Submitting a support request and waiting is fine most of the time, but having an "emergency" option would be great.

Lack of specific rules for rent controlled areas. For example, Oakland and Berkeley have different rules for rent control and we have to constantly edit the auto-populate letter. It would be fantastic to have the option to have the option to have a different auto-populate letter for each property. Each City requires different things to be referenced.

Charges are often auto-generated in the middle of the night when you manually onboard new tenants. For good record keeping, it's helpful to record when a rent charge started so we know accurate historical data and another way to know when tenants are eligible for a rent increases. But when we do this the system creates a charge for the current month in the middle of the night, which has to be manually reversed. The flow from application to move-in is very impressive, but AppFolio isn't as smooth when you take over management of a property that already has tenants, which is almost always the case.

We've received some negative feedback from the call center, including a time where a tenant called to complain about the door being on the wrong side on a new fridge. The tenant said a female employee laughed at him. Personally I think this is hilarious, and there is a part of me that is glad she laughed at him, but it just made matters worse. Also the occasional complaint about not being able to get through to someone.

There are requested features that seem reasonable and have a lot of support in the online community, but they don't happen, or at least not right away. I suppose you don't want to spoil us, but things like "weekly recurring work orders" and being able to toggle "payments required in full" for individual tenants seem like things that happen. Ultimately these are good things b/c I assume they will happen, but almost having the feature is painful.

Electronic Payment requires a cell phone. This is kind of strange and would love to be able to just submit payment without the phone.

Vorteile

The support staff is amazing. Responses are within 12 to 24 hrs and solutions are found or suggestions for the future improvements. Over the past 7 years I have watched with admiration as this program has blossomed, filling the needs of multiple users in detailed ways. I use AppFolio in two different accounting venues, one with a large property management company servicing over 1600 home rentals, the other with one owner handling his 325 apartment units. This program provides excellent adaptable reports for both aspects of a property management company and for one owner with multiple apartment complexes in all phases of financial accounting, rental reports and maintenance. AppFolio encourages all discussions between all users and the staff of AppFolio resulting in ongoing improvements and additional options within the program. To be quite honest, since my specialty is the accounting department, there are many parts of AppFolio that I have not had the privilege of really working with, but those that I have come across look to be as detailed and helpful as the accounting processes. The Help & Training section within the program is also evolving and very detailed in explaining how things work.

Nachteile

If I had to find something I didn't like it would be the constant change that requires me to think and be constantly attentive to the processes in the program. It seems that almost every week there is a subtle or large change that rocks me for a moment. It is frustrating at times to stop and relearn a process. But then to my amazement I am once again loving this program even more and all that it does to make my job easier. You can't use this program out of habit. It is always evolving for the better.

Vorteile

Online rent pay, online Leasing, integrated accounting, integrated website, the ability to broadcast to multiple third party websites during Leasing, automatic applicant and tenant notifications when scheduling a showing.

Nachteile

Need customizable project management checklists. We systematize everything. We create workflows and procedures for everything so we do things the same way every time. A perfect example for this would be during move in / move out. There are 20 steps that must be completed every time a tenant moves in and moves out. We have these steps written down in Excel. But Excel checklist is not a shared list so we have no idea when things are completed. We work in different locations. We would have better communication if there was a live custom checklist that we could create and use under a couple different workflows in af. It would be ideal to have "add custom workflow" as a drop down during certain processes. For example during the "initiate move out" process. On page 1 of the move out process, we could then choose which checklist to use. Better yet in the checklist it would ask if you want that to be included every time one of the following processes occur. That's perfect. Then the users have no choice but to complete each task in the workflow. That checklist would be integrated with the pertinent users desktop as open activities. you can have 5 different users are assigned to specific tasks in the checklist and the ability to set deadlines per task. And when there are multiple users, each user only has authority to check off the tasks they were assigned to. Then it would date and time stamp each completed tasks in the checklist ss completed. Of course we would need the ability to assign tasks between users in the event a user is out or an available at this time. Examples of some recurring tasks that we do during every move out are: post home for online install for rent sign, clean carpets, Janitorial, etc. AF should add custom user titles per property or per Property Group. This way you can click to assign who's the maintenance supervisor, maintenance tech, property manager, on-site manager, janitor. That information would then be accessible in letters and in this case when assigning tasks. For example clean carpets always goes to that user title, etc. As the move in move out deadline approaches, everyone involved in the checklist workflow can view exactly what stage the progress is at. And alerts could go out if someone misses their deadline. One other nice feature would be that if we make a task required then the subsequent task cannot be checked off until the preceding task has been checked off. So move in move out is one example where this would come in handy. Eviction would be another time. And this would be extremely helpful for remodeling... perfect example is never install flooring before the interior is painted.

Inspections need help as well. We don't use inspections in af because of this. Once an inspection is completed any user can delete it. It needs to be non-modifiable once completed. Also, we should have multiple types of inspections. In particular, one for move in move out that would have two columns one for move-in condition and one column for move out condition. Then we can compare condition when the tenant moves out against the info they completed when they moved in. Further, this should be integrated into the tenant portal so the tenant can complete the inspection themselves as they walk through the home. A copy can go to the property manager who can then agree or disagree with each of the findings. Then a copy of the inspection would be made available in a PDF format for the tenant in there tenant portal just like a copy of the lease is available. Lastly, currently we can only add photos to an inspection when an item needs repair. That's not the case. Just because damage exists does not mean that we will make repairs but we do need to document the condition in most cases. An example would be scratches on a stainless steel refrigerator door. We may note that they exist just so that we know the new tenant is not responsible for the damage but the scratches aren't bad enough to Warrant purchasing a new refrigerator.

It would be nice to have a box to check to automatically send digital birthday cards to all tenants, vendors, etc. And if people want to go old school, you could make this a profit Center for AF. Where you have a subsidiary or partner printing company that will send holiday cards and birthday cards at the appropriate times if we enable that feature period then all the data is pulled directly from the tenant profiles so they get their birthday cards on time.

Vorteile

It is easy to use for sure and support and on boarding was great.

Nachteile

The product is too slanted toward rentals or property management with one association. If you had 60 associations in a portfolio you have all your GL Accounts, Bank Accounts, Vendors all together. This is just good design from a functional stand point making customers name things to know the difference. You should keep things separated by Association. Weak design from a data structure point of view making it fit the small companies but not good for the larger portfolios.

Vorteile

That the software is intuitive, user friendly and the support and training are outstanding. I am truly impressed with ongoing emphasis to improve the software based on customer input and trends in the industry. The company's farsighted mentality gives us comfort this solution will continue to serve us well in the years to come, and the solid reputation and business model provides a sense of security only previously matched by one other software product, and AppFolio has grow to become an industry standard.

Nachteile

That the Guest Card widget cannot operate independent of the listing. We do not always have a listing, then we are forced to manually record guest cards. If there was a widget just for the Guest Card then we could embed this as a link on our website and prospects can feed data directly into a guest card which we can then utilize the tools such as waitlist or sending a application, etc. Some of the seemingly simplest and easiest product suggestions seem never to gain any traction with the programmers. Like asking to add make and model to the fixed asset report filters.

Vorteile

See above

Nachteile

See above

Vorteile

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.

Nachteile

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.

Vorteile

There are numerous features I like about the software. The one that stands out is the tenant portal. I usually dreaded Mondays, knowing I would be swamped with calls regarding tenant repair requests, reasons why the rent was late, or why a check had not cleared. With the Tenant Portal. The ball is placed in the tenants' had and they have the capability to locate their rental payment history, send me a message, and request and implement a work order request. This saves time and a lot of callbacks.

Nachteile

The accounting feature at first was a bit scary to me. Once I understand the process it was easy going, especially knowing customer service was available to assist me if I had an issue.

Vorteile

The product is good. The tech is good and many of the features are helpful.

Nachteile

The service from the company. The sites that are most popular (Zillow and Apartments.com) are switching to paid models so all of the advertising services benefits are now gone. They should have negotiated with those 2 companies and then charged us slightly more per month.

Vorteile

It’s ease of use and clear reporting! Diagnostics literally leads you to imbalanced GLs handing you the answers so you can quickly address and move on with your day! No other software I’ve worked with simplifies it like this!

Nachteile

Nothing that I can think of! It’s great and easy to use! Very seamless transition for me!