AppFolio Property Manager

Appfolio has world class customer service with extremely quick response time. Implementing the software was as easy as it could have been. It still takes time and effort, but it is certainly worth it to be on such a streamlined software.

Vorteile

I love the ability to track collections, maintenance orders, and Tenant info/documents from my smartphone. This software gives me the option to have any staff work remote as needed and still do our jobs at 100% capacity.

Nachteile

Appfolio does a nice job at continuing to develop better features. One area that needs improvements is the ability to do inspections. It takes forever for photos to upload while at the property and uses a ton of data. Would be nice to be able to have the inspections saved locally to the phone and then upload all at once while on WiFi. This would speed up inspections drastically. Improving inspection templates is also needed.

I could have had a great customer experience with appfolio, if they had better trained staff to answer your questions in a timely manner

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.

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.

Appfolio definitely makes up for any short comings with their innovation and user friendly interface. We like their attention to detail and their progressive attitude towards the future of online property management solutions. I've used other property management systems in the past and they all have significant downsides, whether lacking in their online integration, being too complicated, overkill or some other glaring issue. We like and have grown to depend on Appfolio. Even with it's slight flaws, which are minimal, but hey, no online property management software is perfect.

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.

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.