Best Property Management Software for Residential Property

It’s the black sheep of residential real estate. The red-headed stepchild.

It’s not sexy, but property management is what keeps the lights on in many modern brokerages. In the world seasonal commissions, the occasional Great Recession, and uncertain future of real estate sales, property management is a survivor. Rent checks come in every month. And Silicon Valley can’t conduct quarterly inspections or show up for eviction court, yet. It’s a boots-on-the-ground business.

It’s also a tough business with slim margins. That’s why keeping your business lean and efficient is paramount. Online property management software can help you do that.

These tools are designed for single family, multi-family, and commercial real estate.

There are a few basic elements to a quality property management system. You want it to have:

• Online rent payment
• Online maintenance requests
• Rental marketing tools
• Bookkeeping

Many of the best services have additional add-ons and upsells like native tenant screening and background checks, renters insurance, and a website.

Read below about some of the best rental property management solutions!

Top Property Management Software for Residential Landlords

More Property Management Software Options

Some other real estate transaction management software options include:

• Arthur
• Lead Simple
• RRD
• Rent Manager
• Rental Beast
• Rentec Direct

Landlord vs Manager

Some of these tools target DIY landlords:

• Apartments.com
• Tenant Cloud
• Avail
• Zillow Rental Manager

Others are for professional property managers.

• Propertyware
• Appfolio
• Buildium
• Yardi

The line can be blurry at times. Professional management software will include more owner facing tools like owner portals, accounting, and reporting.

Where to Advertise?

Unlike the MLS for residential real estate sales, rentals are far less likely to be all represented on a single platform, and varies from market to market.

For example, most property managers put Austin, TX rentals on the MLS with a 25-50% leasing agent fee offered, but just 30 minutes away in Killeen, TX less than 5% of rentals make it to the MLS and leasing agents are effectively non-existent. Property managers instead rely on simply posting rentals to Zillow, Trulia, or even just their own website.

So, where you need to market your rental may depend on what is most common for your market.

Final word

There are strong web-based rental property management software solutions available for real estate business owners of any size. I recommend taking several for a test drive and which suits you and your style best!