Real estate companies of all sizes face the challenge of increasing profitability by streamlining procedures, saving expenses, and speeding up lead generation. Technology is a critical answer, propelling the growth of property management systems (PMSs) and real estate management software such as Buildium. Echoinnovate IT, one of the leading custom software development firms in the USA, specializes in developing complex property management solutions. We specialize in designing software like Buildium, which provides all of the critical features required for modern organizations to maintain a competitive advantage. Buildium, a premier property management software, is trusted by thousands of property managers to manage their residential portfolios efficiently.
What Is Buildium?
Since most businesses needed to cut their costs to remain profitable during the economic crisis, they were compelled to find more cost-effective ways to fulfil the requirements of their consumers. Equally important, this is where the need to develop property management software like Buildium comes into play.
Buildium is a property management software that thousands of property managers use to manage their residential and commercial real estate portfolios. Additionally, this software is used to manage various portfolio types, including residential properties, community associations, student housing, and affordable housing. Again, it incorporates automated listing syndication, marketing websites, electronic leases, tenant & owner communication tools, maintenance management tools, and more to assist in optimizing and automating the most crucial aspects of property management.
Must-Have Features To Develop Property Management Software Like Buildium
We will go through the most critical aspects of developing property management software like Buildium and how they may assist you in managing your property.
Features of Accounting
Buildium includes an accounting module that you may use to handle your business’s financial aspects better. This is a rundown of the many accounting tools included in the platform.
Accounting
Track financial indicators in the firm financials module. It shows cash, outstanding debts, and net income. It also displays the usage of money.
General Ledger
This ledger automatically updates as you give or receive money. Filtering and searching help organize and discover statements.
Billing
Property management software development has an accounting feature that lets you monitor bills. However, Buildium lets you see paid, due, and overdue invoices and pay vendors directly. Buildium permits bill markups. You may apply a global markup policy to all invoices in a given account.
Auto-reconciliations
Buildium’s automated bank reconciliation tool matches banking and transaction data. This helps you detect and fix issues quickly.
1099 eFilling
Buildium allows 1099 e-filing. It verifies tax numbers, tracks receivers with missing tax details, confirms that 1099s were received and tracks summary forms. Besides, Buildium lets you transmit property owner and vendor paperwork through USPS.
Shortcuts
You can quickly Write checks, Deposit money, Manage fees, Pay income management accounts, Pay bills, etc. Buildium’s toolbar has a drop-down menu with shortcuts.
Features of Business Operations
Buildium’s technologies assist property managers in improving their everyday business operations and boosting productivity. Buildium offers a resident centre, communication module, maintenance management tools, and an inspection app.
Owner Website
The property owner portal lets owners monitor corporate financials and track property performance. Owners, like tenants, may access their accounts on any device.
Communicate
Buildium lets you interact with renters, owners, and suppliers. Buildium stores email and text message conversation records. You may also send mass emails and SMS messages to 10 people simultaneously. Buildium offers customizable communication templates. Buildium prints, stuffs, and mails one-page papers for $0.80.
Maintenance
Buildium’s maintenance module manages suppliers and repair orders. This module lets you assign jobs, set deadlines, monitor progress, and connect with suppliers. Vendors may have restricted Buildium access. This enables suppliers to amend jobs, comment, and connect with renters.
Property Inspection
Buildium and HappyCo created a property inspection app. This program makes checklists, takes notes, and captures photographs & videos.
Features of Leasing
Buildium’s electronic payments let you make and receive money instantly. Payments are handled in 1 to 2 business days, quicker than many property management systems.
Application customization
Buildium lets you construct online rental apps. Templates contain personal, rental, and work information. You may add sections and fields. Applications submitted to Buildium or associated listing sites are instantly posted.
Module Applicant
Buildium lets you compare candidates to locate the ideal renter. You may categorize applications by unit and applicant and access contact information in the applicant’s area. After selecting the best candidate, you may add them to the tenant management system.
Tenant website
Buildium’s tenant site allows rent payments, recurring payments, and maintenance requests. The tenant portal may be accessed through the Buildium website or app.
Receivables
Buidium’s ePay function collects rent and payments. Online tenant portal tenants may submit one-time or monthly payments. Payments are direct. Nonetheless, Multiple bank accounts may be used to categorize payments.
Tenant-screening
Buildium’s partner, TransUnion, offers tenant credit and background checks. Buildium auto-updates screening findings.
E-leasing
Buildium lets you submit electronic leases to renters. Applicants may sign leases online. Buildium stores and manages all leases. Buildium’s lease templates autofill tenant application data.
Payables
Pay owners and sellers via ePay. All issued and received payments are automatically logged.
Steps To Develop Property Management Software Like Buildium
In reality, the criteria to develop property management software are identical to those for any other management software: data must be kept in a database, users must be able to do various activities through a dashboard, the platform must enable safe invoicing and give in-depth analytics, etc. Therefore, to develop property management software like Buildium, the stages are identical to those of any enterprise-grade software:
The discovery stage:
You, the business consultant, and the product owner will discuss the project’s needs here. If necessary, a project manager and team leaders might join the process. Be that as it may, this phase produces a preliminary work scope and an initial project plan.
Wireframing/prototyping:
At this stage, you get interactive prototypes of every screen in your future app to test user stories and refine your concepts.
UI/UX design:
This is where you can see the final design and evaluate the usefulness of the required features. Then again, the offshore software development team finalizes the tech stack choices based on your comments, and you may establish your entire project estimates.
Development
Property management software development team provides your mobile and/or web application and implements the required frontend and backend capabilities during this phase.
Release and ongoing assistance: Here, the product goes through the testing and releasing phase. You may also sign a long-term support agreement for continuing platform maintenance and upgrades.
As a consequence of this procedure, you have property management software that is specifically tailored to your requirements and company objectives. However, this is only achievable if the property management software development team meets its commitments. Above all at Echoinnovate IT, we have employed software development experts that leave no space for dissatisfaction.
Cost To Develop Property Management Software
Buildium-like property management software development costs are contingent on several things. Among these are the app’s complexity, the size of the development team, the location of the contracted development firm, etc.
If the property search app would also run the same set of features as those described above and the same set of the technological stack, then the cost to develop software like Buildium would be between $83,000 and $1,000. Before investing to create software like Buildium, designing and evaluating a minimum viable product must be done to ensure that you are on the correct track.
Alternative Property Management Software Like Buildium
Here is a list of property management software development like Buildium:
Rent Manager:
Rent Manager is the primary real estate property management software. Although this may be true, it is a user-friendly alternative to Buildium. Rent Manager’s customized platform manages large property portfolios. The program lets users manage portfolios with configurable dashboards that include financial and tenant data.
TOPS Professional:
This real estate software is for managers of condo and HomeOwners Association (HOA). TOPS [ONE] is a web-based property management software development that provides KPI dashboards. The user may receive a better financial picture without manually entering invoicing or rental data using the software’s automated financial statements. TOPS [ONE] also offers a customer relationship management (CRM) application for managing communities, properties, and banks.
MRI Software:
This software comes in commercial and residential versions. The user may pick commercial or residential property. This software’s lease management capability is essential. MRI software manages commercial and residential leases. The software’s dashboard shows unoccupied properties, and rent received and pending.
Rentec Direct:
Rentec Direct focuses on financial and operational issues, including 1099-MISC e-filing, work order administration, lead monitoring, and automatically syndicating openings. The software now accepts credit card and ACH payments from renters. Rentec Direct’s Ratio Utility Billing (RUBS) lets the user input the tenant’s percentage or fixed allotment. The tenant is charged this ratio.
Propertyware:
This software helps fee, REO, and asset managers handle financial reporting and renters. Propertyware’s Owner portal gives an overview of the current transactions between the bank account and the tenant’s bank account. In the Owner portal, the user may examine and manage rent paid, lease amount, and maintenance charges. Propertyware’s Reporting tool generates audit-compliant reports.
Property Matrix:
This software customizes property management to the company’s requirements to boost productivity and save costs via automation, reporting, accounting, and marketing. Tenants may pay by ACH, Visa, and MasterCard using the free program. This eliminates per-payment fees. MICR-supported bank accounts can scan and print checks. Property Matrix’s Enterprise Class Accounting automates regular transactions, manages leases, and generates statements.
AppFolio:
AppFolio Property Manager (AppFolio) manages commercial, HOA, residential, and student housing portfolios. AppFolio’s internet portal lets users see reports, make online payments, and change application passwords. The Owner’s Portal allows owners to text renters for free. AppFolio synchronizes property data, such as rent and vacancies, on your website with software to improve marketing, social media, and blogging.
Conclusion
Endlessly, the rental industry seeks to optimize and standardize operations. They can monitor and automate back-office operations, property-related functions, and finances using property management software development. A bespoke solution enables firms to grow and develop unique designs and functionalities. If you understand the benefits of creating one, Echoinnovate IT developers will gladly assist you. Our software professionals and graphic designers will construct cutting-edge solutions, while our QA experts will guarantee superior quality.
FAQs
How much does an MVP cost to develop property management software like Buildium?
On average, it takes three to four months to create and deploy a minimum viable product. However, the duration may be longer or shorter depending on the features you want to incorporate into your property management MVP.
Should I outsource the property management software development?
Certainly, if your organization lacks in-house property management software development competence. In addition to reducing your development time and expense, outsourcing gives you access to qualified people.
Why should I pick Echoinnovate IT as my software development company for property management?
When you decide to design software for apartment property management, you will need a company with experience and expertise in the sector. Echoinnovate IT collaborates with customers as partners to produce the most innovative and dependable apps to meet all of your development requirements.