AppFolio Property Manager - Avis

Overall ease of use. Accounting based, online rent payments, and ability to connect all areas of property management together.

When we first started with Appfolio they were very quick to respond to our customer service needs. Now, all you get is an email that directs you to watch videos or to online chat. When you have already exhausted those options and you need to speak to ANYONE, it is impossible! I have waited over a month for someone to call me back. By the time they call I have forgotten what I needed, or the details of the transaction I needed help with. They need to hire more customer service reps. When they do call you they are very friendly and knowledgeable, but they usually give you a few minutes and if you need help with someone else while you have them on the phone they tell you to make another request. Then, it's back to the WAIT game.

Extremely easy to navigate/train employees to use, tenant rent payment/owner contributions are free with ACH, application-move in flow is smooth, mobile app works well, available property postings look great on my website.

Suppressed fees amount to commingling, and that is so bad. It could easily be resolved and the idea has lots of votes in the forum yet it remains unaddressed. Not to mention, suppressed application fees can be passed on to an owner before you need to refund the fee depending on the timing and that leads to a nightmare of accounting, and having to explain to an owner why you are unprofessionally having to withhold the money in the next month. I tried to get help from support to no avail (it was repeatedly blown off as user error) so then I started going to their live meetups when they came to town begging for help from support in person to make it clear it is not user error. That led to more dissmissal from user support as being due to user error, so I finally said I wasn’t taking no for an answer. After talking to tons of people, I finally got a support person who understood what I was saying, and all they could offer was a VERY time consuming work-around. The integrated email/text feature often fails and does not notify you that it failed causing huge problems. Notification emails when a lead inquires have started being unreliable. If tenants wait too long to respond to an email I sent via appfolio, they are told the thread has expired. Since every email sent from appfolio is sent from a different spammy looking email address, I get frustrated tenants asking which of the 15 email addresses they should use to reach me. Owner statements are confusing to owners.

The ease of use. AppFolio makes every process seem simple. All of the information within AppFolio is easily searchable and our users don't need to be super tech savvy to use AppFolio with confidence.

We'd love to see AppFolio make a concerted effort to improve or add features for commercial properties like sales tracking/percentage rent billing. Even though the commercial property features aren't as robust as the residential features, I have no doubts that I will see these features in the future. AppFolio regularly releases new and improved features. They also maintain a robust user community wherein they take suggestions and let us know what suggestions are in the works.

One of my favorite things about this software is that I feel like Appfolio is growing with my company. The software has come so far in the last couple years with lots of new features. There have been multiple occasions where I have a problem and then in a couple days I get notified that Appfolio has created a solution to my problem. It is actually very weird but I don't believe in coincidences so I just right it off as a great partnership.

I wish that I could change the bank accounts that the properties use currently to a new one without having to work with someone at Appfolio.

I love how you can tie everything in from property to owner to tenant. You can click on the amount in any report to review a transaction. Attaching PDFs to the statements are fantastic. Communication is wonderful.

The finer accounting pieces. I would love to be able to run the balance sheet and click on Operating Cash to see what the balance of each bank account that makes up the Operating cash, then if I want to see by property, I could click on that total.

It is user friendly and it makes sense! It allows you to edit and change where necessary, without a lot of headache. We all love AppFolio!

Conversions are always challenging, so that was probably the toughest part of the process when we changed from another software. Everyone was great though to work with and helping us get everything up and running.

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.

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.

The ease of applications and lease signing! I also like some parts of the reports.

The Unit Avail. doesn't show the name of the existing resident or the future one, so I have to transfer it to excel and add that for every property every 2 weeks.
I'm always concerned about notices being put in correct.
I can't print a report to show signed lease renewals by month.

The software is intuitive, user friendly and a stable platform. They a continually developing additional functionality and release updates regularly. The customer forum is great - you can collaborate with other users, seek our solutions and make recommendations that development will consider for future releases.

It does not have an open API and they are unwilling to consider this for clients. While they are routinely pushing out enhancements and are developing additional functionality, and they say the functionality is based on client feedback - it seems like development resources are not focused on this things that clients really 'need'.

Once I learned the program, Appfolio made the job easier. The owner statements were easy for my owners to understand. Love the ability to upload copy of invoices to owner statements, so they could see my deductions if there were any on the given month. This saved me time from answering calls from owners that had questions about the owner statement. The online features made it easy for Owners & Tenants to see everything related to their property.

Being a very small company it was a little more expensive than other programs out there. The learning curve was a bit tuff, but Help was always there to assist me if needed.

User friendly & intuitive. The app and online log in for tenants and owners is a game changer. The vendors and work order flow is excellent. Accounting is similar to quickbooks, everyone get it. Unlimited support (for FREE - who offers that?), an excellent online help "System" There are videos, online articles, training you attend live online and/or watch at any time on specific topics. There is a user community for help too. What other software allows you to "Vote" on things you want your software to do - and the programmers work on the request with the most votes. Amazing!! Thank you AppFolio

That I had to suffer through YARDI for so long before I found AppFolio and we switched.

I love AppFolio, it does everything all together in one place, no need to have multiple programs because AppFolio has everything you need to be organized and professional. You can basically go paperless using this software. It is very easy to learn, there is self help that walks you through things if you forget or need to learn how to do something. They are always adding new things and making AppFolio better. Our company is actually one of there testers so we get the new updates to try before they are even released. AppFolio takes you through the leasing process from start to finish and takes care of everything in between. Your company can upload all the forms you could possibly need as templates (applications, leases, notices, letters, renewals, terminations and you can also make your own letters to add as templates.) All forms auto populate and give you the ability to edit as needed to fit the tenant(s) you are sending to. Everything between you and the tenant can be completed online such as applications, leases, changes in terms, addendums, lease assumptions and more. Tenants and managers are able to sign forms digitally which is great. When everyone has completed signing it automatically send a copy of the signed document to each resident and the property manager. Rent can be paid online, maintenance requests are done online. Keeps all your records in one place. I have never used a better software product and I have been in this business for 22+ years.

This is a hard one because AppFolio since it started has listened to its users and just about everything we've asked for to make our jobs more efficient and easier they have made happen. There is literally one thing that comes to mind that I wish was different. When you print something from AppFolio you click to print to PDF then it opens a PDF copy of what you are trying to print, then on the PDF you go to file, print, then your printer opens up and you hit print again. to me its a lot of steps just to print something. But if you look at all the pros in this software having to click 4 times to print something is really nothing! (me being lazy or in a hurry) Who knows, one of these days I might come to work and they'll have changed it and it will print with one click!

Search function and integration with most online posting services is good. Staff is nice and try hard to answer your questions and navigate around limitations of the software. Unfortunately, they are overworked and the issues with the software (e.g. reporting and accounting primarily) make it very difficult for them to service their customers effectively. Mobile app is good (considering the accounting and reporting issues).

Accounting features are limited. Examples: Management Fees for non rent items (e.g. parking, storage, commercial rent) are deducted from income rather than calculated as an expense. It makes it look like you are hiding fees from owners. Option is to enter a series of JE's each month to correct.

Reporting capability is very poor: You can not set up batch reports that update monthly. You can set up owner reports, but, they do not necessarily update (e.g. prior month and YTD rolling). Extremely limited in formating reports. GL's for year are over 400 pages due to spacing and limited control on what to report. Example: P&L Options are only "Detail" or "Summary". Summary lumps all utilities into one line items and Detail prints "Non Posting" items.

Increased application fee cost within first year by 30% with virtually no notice and no options. Response was to "pass it on to your customers". I just received another notice 14 months after conversion that my web services fee was increasing 98%. Again, virtually no notice and no options.

Unfortunately, the staff is stretched so thin, I can not get a response to an issue logged over a week ago. I call daily, text and email. The response is: "We will expedite and prioritize. I will notify your case worker." Unfortunately, no call or email follows to help. I had to hire CPA's to force my financials to be accurate in order to get reports to my Federal Investor. Still waiting on that expedited call.....

Intially their handoff and onboarding seemed seemless.. All flowed OK through Web Design and initial onboarding..

I'd give them NO STARS If I COULD...
It wasn't until we started to use software and my staff needed support to inpliment and use the software day to day .. They all became frustrated when it would take days to get a call back to address their issues and move forward.. So, learning curve was slow.. Tech support doesnt schedule a call back.. They simply call you when THEY're ready.. Like staff just sits and waits for their call !

AppFolio offers an extremely user-friendly operating interface which is easily "teachable" when onboarding new team members. Their common sense, logic-based approach to property management solutions and associated accounting is refreshing in this industry. They LISTEN to their users and don't just look for the easiest solution; they seek out the most EFFICIENT and EFFECTIVE solutions when developing new enhancements to the product. Improvements are developed at a robust pace with meaningful, ongoing upgrades coming out almost daily! I could not be more impressed with AppFolio as a perfect solution for our quickly-expanding company.

Honestly, there is nothing that concerns or upsets me about AppFolio as a solution for our day-to-day property management, leasing, maintenance, or accounting operations. It has allowed the company to grow by double in the number of units under management in only 3 years without having to substantially add to staff, except for the on-site physical maintenance needs of such a fast-growing portfolio of rental townhome units; which is to be expected.

I do accounts payable, plus deal with Owners and basically put out little fires that arise. Since using Appfolio I have reduced my work load or should I say the time that is necessary to do my job. By being able to do ACH's and emailing and texting. End of month statements was reduced down to a few hours from 2 days. The world we live in now does a lot of texting and emailing and that is always nice to be able to do when you are slammed. More than 50% of my Owners are retired or semi retired and are older so I find that it is important to have that conversation with them over the phone for that personal relationship that they like. I am friends with a lot of my Owners even though I have never laid eyes on them. So we need to balance things for good PR.

I don't have many, and I am at a loss right now to specifically point any particular problem. It is those times when you run into a situation that you rarely do and have problem figuring it out. The instructions are not real clear. As example off the top of my head. I have a problem right now with my Diagnostic under the Non-Zero Security Clearing Account Balances. I think that I have done it correctly after following the instructions and then I find my diagnostic with a problem that I will need help from Appfolio with. Right now I haven't had the time to contact Appfolio to help me due to my own personal issues, medical, vacation etc.

I love that things are so well integrated. I have been with Chatel Real Estate for 7 years and we have been using Appfolio for the last 6 years. I appreciate all of the new features that you roll out and I'm super excited every time I see that little bubble at the top of my screen meaning something new has been added. Also, it's super nice that it's easy to use on the phone, I don't like the App. I only use it through my cell phones web browser but it works perfectly and I can get a ton of stuff done while visiting a building. I love that its a one stop shop for property management needs. I like being able to communicate with an entire building and record that information on unit owner pages. The key system is fantastic! We just started using it recently, and it has saved us so much time in addition to providing us with accurate records.

Prepayments on unit owner ledgers do not automatically apply to the next owners charge automatically. This makes the aged receivable detail look off which is annoying and clients complain about it. It's not a huge deal and its something we easily fix. I also wish the homeowner directory report had columns to add their tenant's information into it, instead of having to pull a renter directory and then an owner directory. Clients want just one spreadsheet not two! I wish you accepted AMEX for payments, I get a fair amount of compliants about it.