Overall, my experience has been fantastic. I took my time onboarding over a period of about 3 months, then I ran the software concurrent to QuickBooks for 2 months, cutting Quickbooks off on Jan 1 and using Buildium exclusively.
Pros
Residents having 24/7 access to their account to make payments and submit requests is a huge time saver. Requests go to the right place automatically and payments are deposited into the proper account. Accounting is a breeze since it is all done online - reconciliations take no time at all!
Cons
I wish it were easier to add residents to leases that have already been signed and to assign leases mid-lease.
Rating breakdown
Likelihood to recommend: 10/10
Overall Buildium is a really good platform to use especially if you want things to be automatically done or updated. I like that customize dashboard that lets you know when leases are expiring and need to be renewed. They also allow you to auto list properties for rent. This is extremely helpful for us. One down side of this platform is the inability to send debts to collection like other platforms have. Overall, I would recommend Buildium as long as they were made aware of the extra charges and services they continue to try and promote to tenants.
Pros
The thing I like the post is that it automatically applies late fees to accounts. It also auto notifies tenants once they make a payment on their account. I like that you can email every tenant using one email instead of trying to email them individually. The site is very user friendly with a customizable dashboard to help you get a quick snap shot of your rentals.
Cons
I don't like some of the auto emails that get sent to tenants to help sell some of the products Buildium is promoting. For instance, they want all tenants to have insurance and will continually email them to get them to purchase insurance that Buildium gets a cut of. They also are encouraging tenants to set up ACH payments, which if you don't have the top account level, charges the owner to use the service. I feel like Buildium continues to try and do add ons from both the tenants and the owners which is frustrating considering the amount of money we pay for the software.
Rating breakdown
Likelihood to recommend: 7/10
Pros
This software is extremely easy to use. In addition to using this program now for my personal rental properties, I also used this when I was previously employed as a Rental Property Mgr. I managed 60 properties. It save me a tremendous amount of time and assisted me in organizing what I needed to do on a daily basis. I absolutely love this software and highly recommend using Buildium for managing a rental property portfolio of ay size.
Cons
The only thing I can think of that I did not care for was the constant reminder to the tenants about their insurance. When it went into effect, all tenants received the notice. I don't recall recall or seeing an opt out to manage this. It was difficult time-wise to update all of the tenants at one time.
Also you have to update each tenant. It would be nice if you could combine the tenants. I required additional type of coverages, ie. adding mgmt co/owner as an additional interested party and water back-up coverage. I recommend adding a field to show so you know if the tenant's policy is updated or not.
Rating breakdown
Likelihood to recommend: 10/10
We've been using Buildium for about 2 years, long enough to get a good feel for its strengths and weaknesses. My overall impression is that this is a good product for small to medium size residential property management firms (10-100 units). If you have fewer than 10, this product is overkill. If more than 100, you'll probably find it too simplistic. The product is geared to residential properties and residential associations. Managing commercial portfolios with it can be difficult. The Good: Accounting functionality is pretty strong. GL, AR, AP, budgets and property ledgers are handled seamlessly. Very easy to use even for beginners. I like the global search functionality. You can pretty much find anything using it without navigating through the menus. Pricing is relatively inexpensive. It's cloud-based, so you don't have to maintain any software on your own computers. You can access it anywhere with a web browser. Some people see this as a negative, but we've not had any issues with Buildium being down unexpectedly. The scheduled maintenance times are generally late at night. Support is good if you're having problems with the standard functionality. In general I would say the support staff understands their product well. And you can get them on the phone to explain things. That's becoming less common with companies today. Document management is hit & miss. I love that I can post a PDF receipt for every expense right there in the ledger. However, documents at the property- or owner level are less helpful. It's just one big bucket per property or owner. Having a folder structure would be a big help. (Not there today.) Buildium offers tenant bill-pay through an online portal for rent payments, and also outbound electronic payments to property owners. It's done through a 3rd party vendor and at additional cost. This is a double-edged sword. Very convenient; it makes the bookkeeping entries for you automatically. But if you're doing outbound payments, make sure to treat it just like an online banking account (long passwords, be careful of who in your office has access to it, etc.) Allowing for extra security questions or letting users limit the IP addresses that have this outbound payment functionality would be helpful. The Bad: As noted, you'll get frustrated if you're trying to use this for commercial properties. The designers make assumptions that you're doing residential. CRM functionality is practically non-existent. This is an accounting package. They do have some decent (and customizable) postal-mail templates and can do mail-merge so you can send notices to tenants and owners. But this does not extend to email. You'll need another product to do CRM and do double data entry between systems. There is no integration layer or API, so no chance of integrating this with your CRM system or generating custom reports. The reports, while nice-looking, are as-is and not customizable in any way. You're stuck with what they give you. They make some odd design decisions sometimes. For example, you can't generate an association owner invoice for an owner who lives someplace other than the managed property. The invoice is always addressed to the managed property, even if you entered a different mailing address for the owner, as if an association owner would never rent out the property. These types of oddities abound, and the product support folks will never acknowledge it as a problem. They'll tell you to fill out an enhancement request, which may be considered for implementation someday, or may not. You'll never know. Providing a way to customize reports or providing an API would help in this area. In Summary: Buildium is good at what it does, but what it does is pretty limited. You will likely be happy if you're in their demographic sweet spot (10-100 residential units). It's cheap enough to sign up and try it out to see if it's right for you. If you manage commercial properties, have a very large or complex portfolio, or need integrated CRM capabilities, it's probably not for you.
Rating breakdown
Pros
Easy to use once you have found your way. Do downtime always up and any device or platform works very well. Staff are very nice and knowledgeable.
Cons
We own and manage all properties. Coming from 5 companies in QuickBooks tor 15 years, it is a little challenging on the initial workflow but each month is smoother and easier.
Rating breakdown
Likelihood to recommend: 9/10
Plans start at just $50/month.
Being a property manager involves more than just collecting rent at the end of each month. When they’re doing their jobs correctly, property managers are responsible for advertising vacancies, screening tenants, managing maintenance requests, and reporting to rental owners. Unfortunately, these tasks can become overwhelming when property managers oversee more than just a handful of single family or multi family homes. Buildium has designed a solution to streamline these tasks.
A cloud-based property management platform with time- and money-saving features, Buildium can be used to manage anywhere from 10 to 10,000 rental units. With automated tools for the serious property manager, Buildium enables its users to create custom online rental applications, syndicate rental vacancies, run credit and background checks, collect rent online, and run all the reports that you need for your property owners.
Buildium is a property management platform that helps its users grow their businesses. As an all-in-one solution, Buildium’s software includes every feature a property manager could require, including accounting, leasing, and business management tools.
Using Buildium streamlines the way property managers handle things like advertising vacancies, tracking payments, and accepting maintenance requests. These typical property management chores are handled automatically through the cloud-based system, allowing managers to see the big picture and quickly determine which properties are their top performers.
Buildium also offers tools to decrease instances of vacancies or late payments. By giving tenants a way to access their own data and collecting monthly payments electronically, property managers can cut down on the number of unnecessary calls made to their offices.
Buildium users can create their own marketing websites using the software’s DIY tools. These marketing websites serve as a property’s home on the web, and they provide managers with a way to list their properties, accept applications, and communicate with tenants and owners.
Customize your marketing website by adding your own logo and images. Within minutes, your website will be live and anyone who is interested can browse your listings directly through your new website. You also have the option to accept online rental applications and provide helpful community-specific resources (such as school information or maps to nearby parks) to potential tenants. Your tenants and rental owners can also log into their Buildium portals straight from the marketing website.
As the number of properties being managed increases, the challenges of tracking things like leases, deposits, and monthly payments go up, as well. With Buildium, managers can track leases and tenants easily. Glancing quickly at the online dashboard, managers are able to see which leases will be expiring in the next 30 to 90 days.
Tracking leases through Buildium is an effective way to reduce vacancy rates. Get reminders before your leases expire and follow up with tenants to find out their plans. If tenants are planning to leave, then you can take steps to maximize cash flow and make sure their properties are in good condition before they walk out the door. You can also track homeowner’s agreements through Buildium.
Buildium is unique in that it enables both property managers and owners to generate their own detailed reports. Managers can run reports to see which tenants have paid and which have balances due. They can also get a bird’s eye view of their properties and compare budgets on a property-by-property basis.
Using the Reports module, you can monitor such things like the status of paper and electronic payments so you can stay on top of outstanding balances on a global scale.
Buildium’s tools aren’t just for property managers. The platform’s tenant and rental owner portals are designed to give tenants and owners access to their own data. This cuts down on the number of unnecessary calls coming into the manager’s office.
Tenants who access their portals can see previous payments, make online payments electronically, submit and track maintenance requests, and access documents like leases and move in/out reports. Portals are also a place where you can share information like the names of preferred vendors or municipal information with your tenants.
Although Buildium does not integrate with QuickBooks, users can export data from Buildium into QuickBooks using Excel as an intermediary.
Users can also integrate their existing websites with their Buildium public websites.
Buildium works on a subscription-pricing model with a 15-day free trial. Standard pricing for Buildium starts at $50 per month, for up to 40 units, with incremental increases for each tier above that. Buildium’s most expensive tier listed is $460 per month for up to 5,000 units. Managers with more than 5,000 units can contact Buildium directly for custom prices.
Australia (English)
Canada (English)
Deutschland (Deutsch)
United Arab Emirates (English)
España (español)
France (français)
Ireland (English)
México (español)
Nederland (Nederlands)
New Zealand (English)
Österreich (Deutsch)
Portugual (Português)
Singapore (English)
South Africa (English)
United Kingdom (English)