AppFolio

Avantages

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

Inconvénients

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

Avantages

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

Inconvénients

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

Avantages

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

Inconvénients

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

Avantages

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.

Inconvénients

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.

Avantages

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.

Inconvénients

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.