There are many property management programs out there – with many different kinds of quality levels as well. Along with those quality levels comes a wide-range of prices.
Most of the big boys, such as AppFolio and Buildium, charge you a monthly fee. Then some of the programs tack on extra fees such as ACH transfer fees each time a renter pays online.
If you are running a profitable property management business or rental portfolio, it’s easy to chalk those fees up to additional monthly expenses.
Of course, one thing business owners are always striving to do is to cut down on monthly expenses. Every $1 that you remove from expenses is another $1 to your bottom line.
Can a Good Property Management Program Be Free?
Although it will be difficult to find a company that will give away a good program they made, we found one that seems to be pretty darn close – Tenant Cloud.
Tenant Cloud is, you guessed it, a cloud-based property management website that has portals for:
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Landlords
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Tenants
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Service Providers (contractors, etc.)
It’s actually a program that all 3 types of people can use. For the landlord, the service provides:
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Management of Up to 75 Units
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Easy-to-use Accounting
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Marketing Website
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Unlimited Tenants
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Online Communication
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Cloud Storage
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Customizable Income/Expense Reports
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Maintenance Staff Management
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Online Rental Applications
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Free Rental Payments
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Online Maintenance Requests
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Automated ACH Payments from Tenants
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Multiple Deposit Accounts
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iOS App
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Unlimited Online Support
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SEO Tools for Marketing Website
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Property Accounting
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Tenant Email Notifications
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Online Leases
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On-Demand Reports
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Tenant Screening
For the tenants:
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Create a Rental Profile
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Build Rental History
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Reusable Rental Applications
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Quicker Landlord Screenings
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Online Communication
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Cloud Storage
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Online Maintenance Requests
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Online Payments
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Store Landlord Communication
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Pay Rent With Roommates
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Your Home Office
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Account Management
The contractors will receive:
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Vendor Profile
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Upload Projects & Photos
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Ratings & Reviews
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Reputation Monitoring
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Online Maintenance Requests Management
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Cloud Storage
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Contact Management
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Business Listing
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Unlimited Leads
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Competitive Insights
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Pro Dashboard/Analytics
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Account Management
This is quite a list. What’s really amazing is that for landlords and tenants, Tenant Cloud is completely FREE.
How They Do It
It makes you wonder how Tenant Cloud can keep the lights on...
They do it by charging just the vendors. They are hoping by offering free software to the landlords and the tenants, those people will buy from their service providers. The service providers pay to have access to the landlords and tenants, and bid for their dollars.
As real estate investors, the obvious part that interests us is the landlord section. Tenant Cloud can keep track of all your rental expenses and income in its accounting software. It will also create reports you can use at tax time and for tracking the performance of your properties.
Rent collection can be done through ACH. Or you can also use existing services such as PayPal, Stripe or Dwolla.
Tenant Cloud can also screen your tenants for free including background and credit checks. The fees for these checks should be passed on to the tenants.
You will also receive a free website for your properties…
This will probably not be the most spectacular website ever made, but it will look professional and allow you to upload photos and text about the property. Prospective tenants can learn a lot about you, and it can help screen the ones that will never rent from you anyway. Tenant Cloud will also offer some SEO tips to help your property’s website become noticed in Google.
Here’s a helpful video summary of Tenant Cloud.
Although there are many property management software packages on the market today, it will be tough to beat the features of Tenant Cloud for the price they are offering. Offering the service for FREE definitely makes it worthwhile to check out.
Comments, Questions?
Tell us about your experiences with Tenant Cloud below.
Track Income and Expenses – Besides obvious tax reasons, you want to know how your properties are performing.
Cut Down on Expenses – Where are you spending your money? How can you reduce or eliminate those expenses?
Keep Searching for New Contractors – Do you have the best crews to do the work? Could you do better?
JP Moses
is a real estate investor in Memphis, TN, with experience ranging from land lording to note buying, rehabbing, and wholesaling. However, wholesaling is the area that he enjoys most and where he bring the most experience and expertise to his students.