Whether you’re managing your own properties or growing a portfolio of loyal clients, you know that succeeding as a small-business property manager means playing to your strengths and giving each of your properties the kind of attention that larger management companies might not be able to offer.
But running your own small business also means being judicious about how you invest your time and resources. You’ve got to make every hour and every dollar count.
Luckily, we’ve compared some of the top property management software available in 2023 to find the most valuable, time-saving solutions that meet the specific needs of small business, while also giving you the tools to grow your company over time.
Why Use Property Management Software for Small Business?
Put simply, effective property management software is all about efficiency and making it possible to provide personalized service that you can build your brand and reputation around. Software can help you achieve that through more convenient ways to communicate with tenants, collaborate with owners, and complete the plethora of tasks on your daily to-do list.
The right software also gives you a clear view of your business as a whole, with insights into every lease, work order, and request from owners and tenants. This big-picture perspective can help you spot any red flags early on and find the best opportunities to grow your team, portfolio, or service offerings.
Our Method for Choosing the Best Property Management Software for Small Business
When selecting the software to include in this list, we looked at solutions that can provide all the tools you’ll need as a property management company, while still being easy to use, so that you can get started quickly. Some of our criteria include:
A robust set of features that can help you with every aspect of property management, making day-to-day tasks easier, while also giving you the tools to create a growth strategy. These include features such as lead-to-lease management, tenant and owner communication, maintenance and repair tracking, accounting and reporting tools, listing syndication, marketing resources, and business analytics and performance monitoring.
Time-saving capabilities such as automation for repetitive tasks, auto-notifications for tenants, templates for everything from listings to bookkeeping, and a centralized platform that lets you store and find the details you need quickly.
Ease-of-use through an intuitive user interface that you can get familiar with quickly, support to help you get onboarded faster, simple yet effective communication tools that your team, clients, and tenants can access, with user-friendly design that carries over to the mobile app experience as well.
What’s the Best Small Business Property Management Software? Our Top Picks
Keeping these benefits and features in mind, let’s jump right into our list of the best property management software for small businesses.
We’ve picked options that are suited for different business needs, including comprehensive software, specialized tools for different portfolio types, along with a few basic offerings with simple yet effective features.
#1. Buildium: Great All-in-One Property Management Software
Buildium® is a comprehensive property management software that’s well-suited for property management businesses, with all the capabilities that even large-scale property management companies need, making it ideal for growing your business, as well.
Buildium’s platform can help you manage a variety of portfolio types, including single-family and multifamily rental properties, as well as community associations. It can even handle commercial properties, student housing, and affordable housing.
Features
Buildium’s simple-to-use features help you handle more than just the day-to-day. These features are designed with specialized property management workflows in mind, including accounting, lead-to-lease, and maintenance tracking.
Standout features include:
- Automated electronic payments and accounting, as well as 1099 eFiling
- Maintenance ticketing, tracking, and communication through the resident portal and the property management dashboard
- Lead-to-lease tools that take your prospective tenants from application to tenant screening to signed lease
- Online marketing through a free website, performance metrics, and listing syndication
- Business performance metrics via a suite of reporting tools, as well as Analytics & Insights
- A mobile app that allows you, your tenants, and your owners to text, pay, and work on the go
Buildium’s Analytics Hub gives property managers powerful reporting and insights into their business to report back to owners and plan their own growth strategy.
Beyond this suite of features, Buildium also includes an extensive and ever-growing list of Marketplace partners. Buildium Marketplace is an ecosystem of tried-and-tested technology that integrates seamlessly with Buildium in just a few clicks—no coding required.
With the Premium plan, Buildium even includes an Open API that allows you to integrate Buildium with other apps you use to help run your business.
Pricing
Buildium offers three tiers of pricing. All plans include:
- Accounting
- Maintenance
- Task Management
- Violations
- Online Portals
- Resident & Board Member Communications
The three tiers are customized to meet the needs of property management businesses in different phases of growth:
- Essential: Starting at $55/month, Essential includes Buildium’s core features and is geared toward property management companies who are looking for accounting and task management tools.
- Growth: Starting at $174/month, Growth is the plan for property managers looking to grow without worrying about scaling costs. It includes reduced incoming EFT, unlimited eSignatures, and actionable insights in Analytics Hub.
- Premium: Starting at $375/month, this plan is meant for property management firms who want to build more automation into their workflows and increase efficiencies even further. It includes everything in Growth, unlimited incoming EFT (fees waived), plus access to Buildium’s Open API and Priority Support.
#2. LeadSimple: Excellent Software for Managing Customer Relationships
LeadSimple® software includes powerful tools for customer relationship management (CRM) that also lets you onboard operations, sales, and important workflows all in one place.
Through automation that’s already built into several features, the software speeds up daily tasks and stores a digital record you can use as a single source of truth for sales, outreach to owners, and creating customer profiles for your existing clients.
The unified platform also makes for faster new hire onboarding and ensures that your business doesn’t miss a beat whenever you encounter unexpected changes to your team.
LeadSimple integrates with Buildium, so you can sync your data automatically between the two platforms and access Buildium’s simple-to-use software experience for all your property management operations.
Features
LeadSimple’s mobile app lets you access sales tasks, lead details and workflows from anywhere.
With the app installed, you’ll be able to:
- Access and manage lead information on the fly from your lead dashboard
- Create new leads and search for existing ones on the go
- Created tracked communication, including texts, calls, and emails
- Record detailed notes for each meetings and calls
- Create, view, and complete tasks for you and your team
- Enable automatic syncing between your phone and desktop app
Pricing
LeadSimple offers two pricing plans: Growth / CRM and Operations.
The Growth/CRM Plan is designed specifically for sales functions. You can add up to two users and one sales pipeline for $99 per month. Adding an additional pipeline or user costs an additional $30 each.
It also costs $4 per month per registered phone number 5¢ per call minute (with 250 minutes included) and 2.5¢ per text. With the plan, you’ll be able to access all of LeadSimple’s lead captures, sales workflow, and communication features.
The Operations plan goes beyond sales with features for your whole business and is priced based on your door count at $1.35 per door. In addition to the features included in the Growth plan, you’ll also have access to operational workflows, reporting, and integrations with other software, such as Buildium.
Both plans include specific features you can compare in detail here.
#3. TenantCloud: Good Property Management Software for Landlords
TenantCloud’s® do-it-yourself approach is well-suited for landlords, so if your portfolio consists mainly of your own properties, it’s a solution that may be worth exploring.
Features
TenantCloud offers a standard set of features, including accounting, reporting, online applications and screening, online rent payments, and maintenance tracking.
They also include some unique capabilities:
- Roommates: Screen, approve, and generate a lease for each roommate. Once they’re moved in, you can accept payments for each roommate’s portion of the rent.
- Rentability Report: Compare listings similar to yours and view rent trends in their market to determine just how much they should charge to stay competitive.
- Maintenance Bidding: Send a maintenance request through TenantCloud and receive bids on the fix.
Pricing
TenantCloud is free for the first 75 properties. You’ll be able to access tenant application and listing tools, rent payment (including autopay for tenants, maintenance, and a vendor network).
For larger portfolios, TenantCloud has three pricing tiers: Starter, Growth, and Business.
Starter is $12/month and includes features such as premium lead gen and lead tracking, tax reporting, e-signature, and Google calendar sync.
The Growth plan costs $40 per month and includes more sophisticated tools for creating and storing leases and other landlord forms, syncing with QuickBooks®, and access to owner portals and property message boards.
Finally, the Business plan fee is customized to meet each client’s needs and includes team and task management tools, and auto-refresh for listings.
It’s worth noting that even though the free plan includes online payments, landlords can only accept payments via credit or debit card. To set up ACH payments, you’ll have to upgrade.
The free plan doesn’t include any lead texting, while the next two plans allow 10 and 15 per month, respectively. TenantCloud’s more expensive plan includes a custom number of text at “volume pricing.”
The level of support also increases for more expensive plans. Ticketing support is available for the free plan, but general tech support begins at the Starter plan and phone support kicks in with the Growth plan.
#4. TurboTenant: Property Management Software for Small Businesses Just Getting Started
TurboTenant® is a solution that focuses on a few key areas of property management: advertising, the application process, rent payments, and accounting. Because of this, the software is best suited for property managers just starting out, with a portfolio that’s either self-managed—or small enough to devote the time to managing—without the help of a more comprehensive set of tools.
Features
With TurboTenant, you’ll have access to:
- Tenant screening, powered by TransUnion® that includes a credit report, criminal history, past evictions, and a soft inquiry that does not impact applicants’ credit scores
- Document management that can be used for managing forms for expense tracking, rent estimates, standard leasing documentation, maintenance invoices, and insurance
- A rent payment system for secure rent tracking, payment history and receipt documentation, autopay and automatic late fees, and rent reporting
- Online applications with document upload capabilities, customizable fields, and shareable links that applicants and your team can access on the go
- A professional listing page and syndication tools across leading rental websites
Pricing
TurboTenant offers a free option and a Premium plan that’s priced at $8.25 per month.
The free plan includes rental advertising features, lead management, applications and screenings, rent payments and rent reporting, document management and expense tracking, chat support, and basic maintenance and messaging capabilities.
The premium plan adds on applicant income insights, expedited rent payouts, documentation add-ons such as lease addendums, e-signatures and state-specific lease agreements (these are available for an additional charge with the free plan), waived ACH fees for renters, and phone support.
#5. RentRedi: Mobile-Focused Property Management Software
RentRedi® offers several leasing features in a package that’s designed for mobile access. The platform offers a Tenant app and Owners app that allow property managers to field applications, collect rent, sign and manage leases, purchase renter’s insurance, and fulfill maintenance requests.
Features
RentRedi’s software is built around standard leasing and rent payments features. These include:
- Payment capabilities such as auto-pay to collect mobile payments on-time, flexible payment plans, and unlimited payment account connections & reports
- Maintenance request and coordination
- Basic listing and marketing tools to find tenants
- Screening and applications
- Teammate accounts and tenant push notifications
Mobile access to these features can be useful for on-the-go property managers, but if you’re looking for more comprehensive communication portals or an accounting system to manage your entire business, another solution may be a better fit.
Pricing
RentRedi offers several pricing plans. That includes a monthly pay-as-you-go option for $19.95 per month, a recurring 6-month plan costing $15 a month, or a more cost-effective annual plan for $9 a month.
#6. SimplifyEm: Simplified Software for Day-to-Day Property Management
If you’re looking to make some quick gains in efficiency without diving into the more growth-focused features of other software on this list, SimplifyEm® can help you with the day-to-day tasks that come with running your business.
Features
SimplifyEm covers the basics when it comes to what property managers expect from their property management software, including:
- Tenant applications and screening
- Performance and financial reporting
- Maintenance requests and tracking
- Portals for tenants, owners, and vendors
- The ability to export data to QuickBooks and Excel
A feature to note is their vendor portal, which allows property managers to assign vendors to maintenance requests and projects. Vendors can use the portal to log in, see their work orders and log updates.
Pricing
SimplifyEM charges by door count using an eight-tiered pricing system. Tier 1 (called P10) begins at fewer than 10 doors for $25 per month while Tier 8 (P2000) can accommodate 2,000 doors at $1620 per month.
The higher your door count, the more features available to you. Property managers with fewer than 30 doors have to add on features such as communication history, managing bank accounts and payment automation. Keep that in mind if you only have a handful of properties, as you won’t be able to access the platform’s more expansive list of features.
#7. ManageCasa: Flexible, À La Carte Property Management Software
ManageCasa® helps property managers for a variety of property types. They divide their services into those for landlords, small to medium businesses, and enterprise-level property management businesses. This flexibility for smaller portfolios, while leaving some options open for future growth.
Features
ManageCasa offers a suite of tools that cover a wide range of property management tasks, including accounting, maintenance, lead-to-lease, owner and tenant portals, digital rent payment, and listing syndication.
Property managers can set up unlimited user accounts for their team, giving them access to specific owner and property details in-platform.
You can also customize and automate accounting workflows to record payments and manage your books more easily. The accounting capabilities allow you to set budgets and create forecasts for the properties you manage.
Pricing
ManageCasa pricing includes a Base plan, which costs 70 cents per unit, or $15 per month.
You can also opt for ManageCasa’s Base Plus Add-Ons option. This à la carte-style pricing plan lets property managers add features that include perks like additional banking integration and software support.
#8. Rentroom: Small Business Property Management Software for Rent Payments
Rentroom® is a simple software solution focused on rent collection and accounting with some additional features for property management operations.
Features
Rentroom enables property managers to collect rent, fees, and security deposits through a tenant portal. Tenants can set up autopay through multiple forms of payments (including Plaid® and Chime®). You can also send reminders and charge late fees through the platform.
On top of its payment capabilities, the Rentroom app has a chat feature to communicate directly with tenants. There’s a message board where tenants can create a community and communicate with each other to buy and sell items or offer advice.
Additionally, Rentroom has some simple accounting and reporting features, along with maintenance management capabilities to cover your basic needs.
Pricing
The Starter Plan begins at $49.99 per month, where you can host up to 15 tenants. You’ll be able to access online payments, maintenance tracking, rental listing, tenant screening, reporting, vendor management, and the ability to print and send checks.
The Basic Plan starts at $74.99 per month, which includes the features in the Starter Plan, plus unlimited properties, tenants, and users.
The Growth Plan starts at $149.99 per month, and includes additional features such as a communication center, custom rental applications, and eLeasing.
The Max Plan is the highest tier and starts at $249.99 per month. Along with the features in the previous plans, you’ll also have access to advanced accounting tools (including a QuickBooks Online integration), and a dedicated account manager for technical support.
#9. Smoobu: Great Short-Term and Vacation Property Management Software for Small Businesses
If your portfolio includes mainly short-term rental or vacation properties, Smoobu® offers specialized software to find guests, manage bookings, and complete tasks in between stays.
Because of its short-term rental features, Smoobu can also give you insights into how to improve the guest experience and better market your properties.
Features
Smoobu’s features cover your bases from your initial listing and booking to check out. Highlights include:
- Rates synchronization
- A free website
- Reservation and booking systems
- An availability calendar
- Online check-in
- Guest communication, guides, and a review tool
- Automated templates
- Statistics and KPI capabilities
Pricing
Smoobu has three pricing options: Basic, Professional, and Team.
The Basic option is free with a stripped-down set of features that includes a reservation system, a free website, basic performance statistics, and self setup.
The Professional plan costs $28.16 per month and includes the basic plan’s features plus availabilities and rates synchronization of booking portals, bookings connection to both Stripe® and PayPal®, automated communication, a guest guide, online check-in, financial reports, email and phone support, and access to Smoobu’s API, marketplace, and integrations.
The Team plan costs $193/24 per month and includes even more features, such as domain setup, unlimited read-only and write-access accounts, the ability to customize your bookings system, and prioritized customer support.
Which Property Management Software Should You Choose for Your Business?
Because every property manager has their own approach to doing business, you’ll have to take a look at your current situation and identify the areas where you could use support. Like any investment, you should ask how the software you’re considering can benefit you long term.
Software with a more complete set of features and a strong partner network can give you the best of both worlds—the specific tools you need today and more advanced capabilities that you make the most of as your business grows.
Comprehensive property management software such as Buildium gives you the added benefit of keeping all your important business data in one place, connecting details such as payment history, past communication, and work orders in a unified view for each property in your portfolio. That holistic approach can help you run your business more effectively.
Ultimately, there’s no better way to know if software is the right fit than to test it out for yourself. Buildium offers a free 14-day trial, no credit card required. You can also explore our full list of features and Marketplace partners to learn more.
