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 of seasonal commissions, the occasional Great Recession, and market disruption by institutional players and AI, 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, but I’ve focused on single-family solutions.

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!

The Contenders

BEST FOR DIY LANDLORDS

BEST FOR SMALL TO MID-SIZE MANAGERS

BEST FOR LARGE MANAGEMENT COMPANIES

OTHERS

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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 Professional 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 Your Rental?

Rentals aren’t often advertised on the MLS. So they don’t rely on the MLS’s syndication tools.

Some property management tools have syndication programs. Yardi has RentCafe, for example.

Rently is a popular choice for institutional landlords. It has self-showing capabilities, but also is an easy way to syndicate a rental to dozens of sites. But it is not a practical solution for most third-party property managers.

Zillow is the most visited real estate site in America. If you could only advertise in one place, that would probably be where you would want to start.

I recommend NOT advertising on Facebook or Craigslist. These tend to be populated by scammers. In my experience, reputable property managers are eschewing these advertising destinations.

To MLS or not to MLS

Whether you put your home on the MLS depends on your local market and services.

If chaperoned tours is a prominent feature you offer your owners, charging more to add the home to the MLS may be worthwhile.

Or, if leasing agents are prominent in your area, it may be wise to offer leasing commissions.

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 in your market.

Conclusion

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!

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