Best way to collect income for a 24 unit apartment building

10 Replies

Hello, we are under contract on a 24 unit apartment building. We are open to suggestions on the best way to collect rent for a building this size?

What apps/programs-software do you guys suggest?

Thanks!!! or or a dozen other software providers that allow for online payments. The two named have been discussed a thousand times, they are very inexpensive, and people say very good things about them. Just sign up for one and start using it. After you've got a year of experience, then you can investigate whether there's a better product out there for your personal needs.

@Clayton Cerer for 24 units you may want to consider Buildium. I would switch to it but am not at the unit level yet where it makes sense. It's not free like the other programs mentioned but for larger scale management I know a lot of people who like it. I currently have 9 units and use It's ok, I am not in love with it but it gets the job done. 

@Nathan G. Thank you for the info! We currently use Cozy for our triplex but would like to have a more all-encompassing software that can help with paying vendors, creating leases, tracking income and expenses, etc.

We have Stessa integrated with Cozy right now and it’s awesome for three units! I just think it will be a headache for 27 units

Originally posted by @Clayton Cerer :

@Michael Doherty this is what we have been looking into heavily. We have a call/tutorial with them tomorrow afternoon. I have a feeling they will be our choice.

 We have been using Propertyware to manage 300+ units but we'll likely switch to Appfolio as we can use that to manage our investors as well.

I'm inclined to agree with @Michael Doherty on this; there are definitely a lot of helpful tools out there. It is a good idea to consider an option which allows you to collect rent much quicker than those others but still provides other rental management tools you might find valuable (again, not to knock Cozy or these other tools like it because I know a lot of people love them), but since you have 24 units it may come down to the pricing (all depends upon what you want to accomplish). Others above have mentioned Buildium which can be good for that number of units but there's still some flexibility though because managing 24 units isn't the same as 50 or even 100+ (and those other software solutions happen to be priced for those with more units). Still, there are other options out there though where you can easily collect rent and keep track of payments and even process payments faster. I will say, it could be worth considering a shot at an actual software solution built for DIY landlords (1 - 25 units) that helps you to automate your own rental process (ie. compared to other tools, one that helps you to actually build a single listing and syndicates it to 10+ major listing sites, allows you to schedule showings, provides you with super thorough tenant screening options, online digital leases which can be customized and help you by breaking out those fees, automated maintenance tracking, and fast rent collection which also offers your tenants the ability to report their positive on-time payments to the major credit bureaus; just another positive reinforcement/added incentive to get them to make those payments on time). I'm hoping all goes well with your decision! Exciting times @Clayton Cerer .

Buildium is probably the best bet for that number of units. It's a full property management lifecycle platform, so it does a lot more than just collect rent electronically.