AppFolio Property Manager

Our experience with Appfolio has been great! It has created efficiencies within our single-family division that didn’t exist previously. I’m optimistic that over time they will develop more features that will allow us to be even more efficient.

Vorteile

It’s robust yet easy to use, dependable, constantly evolving, their developers listen to their customer’s needs and if possible delivers, issues are handled quickly by their web based customer service team, and it’s affordable.

Nachteile

The layout of the property financial statements are subpar and difficult for our clients to understand; its not the best software choice to manage commercial or multi-family properties; it’s lack of customization

It is a tough call because the product is good. We migrated from Yardi and don't regret it BUT if I knew how weak the support team and the nightmare that we would have (for 7 months we couldn't reconcile bank accounts and the "boarding team" simply vanished) I would most likely have stayed with Yardi.

Vorteile

The software is definetly the right product. It is intuitive and very easy to use. Having used Yardi for 10+ years this product is simply outstanding. It is definitely not even close to what you can do in Yardi, but for 90% of what most of us do, it is allot easier and quicker then Yardi.

Nachteile

The company is suffering from a very bad support team. When they sell you the product it almost seems that these guys mastered the art of eSupport and you can solve problems with a click. This couldn't further from the truth. For most of the "how to" problems they are quick to respond and usually send you a quick article on how to. The problem becomes when you have a real problem, like late fees simply not posting the correct amounts at the wrong dates, or bank account balances don't add up...in general bigger problems call for a "we will put our head in the sand and hope it goes away" mentality.

My overall experience has been generally positive however I wish they would offer the same features and services to all of their clients regardless of their portfolio size. If you already have the technology available and a cost structure in place to offer these services, I don't see how portfolio size matters. Overall, it's a good product but they're starting to nickel and dime customers for services previously included in the monthly subscription prices. They're also releasing a lot of cool new tools such as the artificial intelligence assistance however you should verify that you're going to be able to access all of the tools you want to before signing up as you might discover that you don't meet their minimum portfolio size to take advantage of such features.

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.

I have worked with other Property Management programs in the past. The company I worked for chose to switch to appfolio the many features it offered to our clients. In particular our Associations and Board members. I started using the software and as a new user I had many questions. Every time I have an issue to resolve or a specific question not covered in their "training videos" which are ok but only cover the basics, it takes me weeks and months to get support. Imagine not being able to answer a basic accounting question or have one of your assistant admins not being able to perform basic book keeping because Appfolio customer reps don't know how to work to program or don't know much about accounting. I have been pending and bounced back and fourth for weeks and over a month to answer basic program admin user features. This program may be able to take you to the moon and back but if support is garbage, then the software is worthless for the user. In short, it is making me look bad before my clients because I'm unable to perform tasks because Appfolio support team is deficient and don't even know how to assist the clients. Even for the easiest most basic issue, you won't get anyone, you have to start a case and wait around 3 days to get your first response.

Vorteile

It is fairly user friendly. Onboarding team was friendly.

Nachteile

1.- Customer Support is your worse nightmare. 2.- I can no longer receive over the phone payments, 3.- It has been very difficult for many of my users to login. 4.- It takes me too many steps to move from one function to the next and tabs open and accumulate making your viewing experience confusing.5.-The onboarding process and the way the information was placed made me think they had an unexperienced person doing a fill in the blank job. I don't believe they understand what they are really doing while importing the information from one software to the next.

Overall, we are extremely happy customers and plan to be Appfolio customers for life.

Vorteile

Appfolio has not only a lot of functionality, but is easy to use across our entire organization. It has become the primary backbone of our property management business and we truly view Appfolio as a Partner, not a technology service provider.

Nachteile

Our primary critique with Appfolio is that they tend not to let other good real estate tech products plug into their software via API. In other words, they like to build new products/functions in-house instead of via partnership or integration. There are pros and cons, but in general I would like to see Appfolio play nicer with other prop tech products.