Property management apps can make your life as a landlord that much easier, especially if you are frequently on the move. Between family vacations, day jobs, plans with friends, and all the other activities life throws at you, it’s better to be able to landlord on the go. While there are a wide range of landlord applications available, it can be difficult to know which one to invest in to make your investment management simple and efficient. Below is a detailed list of the most popular landlord management application solutions and the key differences to help you decide which one suits your rental business best.
What Are Property Management Apps?
Property management apps are mobile applications that provide a solution to one or many of the daily administrative tasks of a landlord. Property management apps make projects such as doing your taxes, preparing a lease document, or scheduling property tours possible and efficient through your mobile device.
Without property management apps, it can be difficult to manage your properties if you’re not around stable wifi and a laptop computer. With the ease and simplicity of a mobile application, you can make sure your rental property is taken care of and, most importantly, that you’re receiving rent on time each month.
Property management apps will also allow you to maintain an open line of communication with potential or current tenants. If there is an emergency, you’ll be able to act quickly with easy access to your smartphone. Landlord application solutions can also help you be as proactive as possible about tenant communications by checking in with your tenants for you or sending them automated rent reminders.
No matter where you are or what your day-to-day looks like, having your property management solution in your pocket will elevate your rental business to an unimaginable efficiency.
The Rise of Property Management Apps
Robust property management software solutions changed the world of landlording indefinitely – making it possible for you to self-manage your rental portfolio for a small subscription fee. However, apps for property management took all of the necessary tools provided by software and made them possible on the go.
Just about everyone has a smartphone in 2023, and we typically turn to apps to help us navigate our daily challenges and responsibilities. They’re easy, user-friendly, and when they’re comprehensive, they get the job done. Both landlords and tenants alike benefit from the simple experience of a good property management app.
With the rise in apps for property management, instead of driving across town to collect rent you can have it delivered to your bank in seconds (or pay rent in seconds) – followed by a confirmation message from your smartphone. Plus, apps make it even easier for landlords to manage out-of-state properties. Who doesn’t love the opportunity to complete all your management tasks from anywhere?
Top 5 Property Management Apps in 2023
1. TurboTenant
TurboTenant is a true all-in-one property management solution created by landlords, for landlords. With TurboTenant’s mobile app, you can take the important aspects of your rental property management with you everywhere, including:
Landlords can opt-in to receive real-time updates through push notifications, from receiving a new application to rent notifications. Have a tenant message you while you’re away from your computer? TurboTenant makes it simple to communicate instantly back and forth.
Price
TurboTenant is a completely free property management app. If you find you want additional management features, you can always upgrade to their Premium subscription at just $149/year. With no limit on the amount of properties you can manage, advertise, and generate leases for, TurboTenant is a great cost effective option for your growing business.
2. Landlord Studio
Landlord Studio is a comprehensive property management solution that offers a fair amount of important features that are essential to streamline your rental management. Landlord Studio offers rental accounting, automated rent collection, tenant applications and screening, maintenance requests, and even the option to create a listing website for your property. Their main focus is tackling the challenges of tracking your financial transactions as a real estate investor.
Although Landlord Studio is a great way to keep detailed information and records on your cash flow as a landlord, Landlord Studio is not an all-in-one property management solution. If you’re looking for tenant communications, tenant management, lease agreements, a way to handle maintenance requests, and other helpful tools to manage your rental, you’ll have to invest in an additional application platform.
Pricing
Landlord Studio offers a limited free plan, as well as a Pro paid plan. For free, you can manage three units, manually track your income and expenses, collect rent, track maintenance, produce basic reports, and track mileage through GPS. However, if you find you want the full features of Landlord Studio, you’ll have to pay $15/month or $144/year for just one unit. Their pricing structure is based on the amount of units you have, totalling to $112/month for 100 units.
3. Stessa
Stessa is similar to Landlord Studio in that they tailor their app to solve the challenges of managing your real estate portfolio finances. Stessa’s app offers streamlined accounting, automated rent collection, and tenant applications and screening. Although Landlord Studio and Stessa are similar, Stessa offers even fewer property management features outside of tracking your income and expenses. Stessa landlords cannot list their property, search for tenants, or track maintenance.
Stessa is not a one-stop-shop for property management. To be able to benefit from all the other streamlined features of a great property management software, you’ll have to look elsewhere, or spend your own time and money producing leases, marketing your property, and managing tenant communications.
Pricing
Stessa has both a free and paid subscription. With their free subscription, you can take advantage of a good portion of their features, but you’ll be missing out on budgeting, project expense tracking, accelerated rent payments, eSignatures, and forms and templates. Stessa’s paid plan will cost you $20/month. Although their platform has significant limitations, Stessa can be an affordable solution for in-depth financial management.
4. Apartment List
Apartment List is a popular application used by renters nationwide. Apartment List is unique in that it includes an in-depth quiz for renters based on their lifestyle, amenities needs, location preferences, and more. Their quiz generates a tailored feed of hundreds of apartments for each renter’s search. Plus, they present available apartment matches in an easy, trendy “love it or hate it” format – mimicking the swipe right or left of popular dating apps.
Apartment List also makes it simple for renters to save apartments they’re interested in, as well as scheduling tours in just one click. The attractive user experience combined with easy tools for landlords to find leads and schedule walkthroughs makes Apartment List a great property management application. However, finding leads and coordinating tours is just about the extent of Apartment List’s capabilities, and you won’t find any financial or tenant management features.
Pricing
Apartment List’s pricing structure is confusing and vague. It appears that they charge per lease based on your specific market type. Although it is unknown what their monthly or annual rate will be, it appears that you will pay at least $10 per lease, plus a base price that sits around $400 depending on your location. With a pricing structure that is dependent on your portfolio size, it can be difficult to budget out your property management solution costs.
5. Calendly
Calendly is popular among many industries, but can offer really awesome administrative help for landlords. Calendly is an advanced scheduling app that allows you to set up meeting intervals and input your availability. Each individual has their own calendar link that they can then share with anyone. Calendly simplifies scheduling through integrations to other calendars you may already use, such as Google Calendar and Outlook.
Calendly is a great solution for property managers who want to easily book rental tours, schedule screening phone calls, or schedule a time to do a walkthrough inspection. Calendly is also unique for the fact that you can set specific parameters to your calendar, making it easy for you to have a healthy work-life balance. Clearly the only feature Calendly offers is scheduling, but it’s a great and affordable way to manage your calendar as a property manager.
Pricing
For the most part, Calendly is free. However, if you want more advanced scheduling features, or intend to use calendly for multiple partners or employees in your business, there are tiered subscriptions available. Tiered subscriptions range from $8 to $16 monthly, however if you have more than 30 employees you’ll have to contact Calendly for special pricing.
How to Choose the Best Rental Property Management App
When weighing your options for a potential rental property management app, make sure that you factor in what tools you need, as well as which platform won’t negatively impact your bottom line. If you’re looking for a way to manage only your finances while remaining cost effective, it probably is best to go for a platform like Stessa’s. If you’re looking for a platform that is affordable and is a one-stop-shop for property management, choose TurboTenant.
It might also be helpful to check your app store and read some of your peers’ reviews on potential rental property app solutions. Check out the best property management apps for iPhone by reading through the reviews on each app solution, and you can do the same for property management apps for Android. No matter what property management app you choose, it’s important to know that you’re already taking steps towards elevating and sustaining your rental property business by digitizing your property management workflow.
The Future of Property Management Apps
The best part about property management apps is that they are only becoming more popular, and in turn, more robust. Companies are quickly rolling out new and innovative features for landlords to simplify all areas of property management.
For example, TurboTenant just released an artificial intelligence property listing description feature. With their new AI tool, after just a few questions about your property, OpenAI will generate a detailed and eye-catching rental listing title and description – in just under five seconds.
Product developments such as TurboTenant’s AI feature are an exciting sign that the property management industry will only benefit as technology advances. With such a promising future for property management apps, it’s clear that now is the time to start benefiting from them.
Conclusion
With a great property management app in your pocket, you can manage your rental property efficiently, professionally, and hassle-free. Plus, the right property management app will provide you with the tools to help boost your bottom line. In 2023 it’s important to remember that if you’re not using property management apps, then your competitors probably are, and they will benefit from the multitude of awesome features available – all while creating a sustainable and efficient business. With the demand for mobile solutions only increasing, now is the time to act so your business remains attractive to potential tenants.
To streamline your rental management on the go, download TurboTenant’s mobile app today.
