Buildium Review: A Great Choice for Managing Properties!

If you're a landlord, you're always looking for handy ways to manage your properties. When you start with one, it's easy to keep track. But as you add doors to your portfolio of properties, managing it all can be a hassle. And paying a property management company eats away at your profits.

Enter Buildium - a property management software that helps you manage your properties easily, for a fair price.

Check out our full Buildium review and see what you think.

Who Is Buildium?

Buildium is a property management software service.

It was founded by Michael Monteiro and Dimitris Georgakopoulos in 2004. They acquired All Property Management in 2015, allowing Buildium to connect with local property owners. In June 2016, Buildium took in $65 million from investors, which was led by Sumeru Equity Partners.

Buildium is based in Boston, MA.

What Do They Offer?

Buildium is an all-in-one property management software service. They target four different types of property spaces: rentals, associations, student housing, and affordable housing.

Buildium’s feature set is divided into five main sections (features are listed below each section):

• Accounting
  • Property accounting
  • Online payments
  • 1099 e-Filing
  • Company financials
  • Retail cash payments
• Business Operations
  • Resident site
  • Document storage
  • Property inspections
  • Owner portal
  • Maintenance request tracking
  • Renters Insurance Plus
• Leasing
  • Rental listings
  • Showings coordinator
  • Professional website
  • Rental applications
  • Tenant screening
  • eLease
• Community Association Management
  • Violations tracking
  • Accounting and budgeting
  • Maintenance request tracking
  • Board communications
  • Online payments
  • Document management
• Benefits
  • Onboarding
  • Ease of use
  • Cost savings calculator
  • Award-winning support
  • Data security

As you can see, Buildium provides a ton of functionality for property managers to do everything needed for successfully running a property. As part of the service, you also receive a professional website, which allows potential tenants to apply online. Existing tenants can pay their rent bill and file maintenance requests from a tenant portal.

The accounting feature set of Buildium is designed specifically for property management. It helps property managers ensure their property is running smoothly with detailed reports, 1099 e-Filings, conversion of work orders into bills, easy creation of rent-rolls, and more.

Tenant maintenance requests become more streamlined. Tenants no longer need to call or go down to the office to report maintenance issues. They can simply take a photo of the maintenance issue and upload it with a description to their tenant portal.

Inspections are time-consuming for property managers. There’s scheduling, creating an inspection report, and there are walk-throughs, just to name a few. It certainly isn’t a task many property managers look forward to.

What if you could standardize all of your inspections while cutting your inspection time in half?

Through a partnership with HappyCo, Buildium has done just that. HappyCo’s Happy Inspector app is a mobile app that allows you to do inspections on the go. Take it with you to inspections, snap a few photos, rate rooms, add some notes, finally get a signature, and you’re done.

The inspection app will calculate repair costs and send an inspection report to your tenant. Your staff will be able to see the inspection report in Buildium and can begin scheduling repair orders.

The inspection app syncs with Buildium and works even if there is no cell service. Once you get to a location that has service, the app will sync with Buildium.

There are a number of inspection templates to choose from as well. Note that the inspection feature is only available with the PRO plan.

Are There Any Fees?

Yes. There are two plans to choose from: CORE and PRO. The price changes depending on the number of units. The following are a few examples of the monthly fee based on units:

CORE

• 1 to 20 units: $47
• 21 to 40 units: $63
• 41 to 50 units: $78

Unit prices continue going up to a maximum of 150 units at $239.

• $0.50 per EFT payment
• 2.75% per credit card transaction
• $99 setup fee per business bank account
• $5 per electronic lease document
• $15 per Basic Tenant Screening
• $99 setup + $40 per month for mobile inspections

PRO

• 1 to 50 units: $156

51 units start at $209 and go up from there.

• Free incoming EFTs
• Free setup for first five business bank accounts
• 30 free electronic lease documents
• $18 per Premium Tenant Screening
• Free mobile inspections

The CORE plan caps out at 150 units. From there, you’ll need to use the PRO plan. There are six additional services, which you can read more about on the pricing page.

• Renters insurance: $14.50 per month per tenant
• Remote check printing: $30 setup fee and $0.80 per check.
• Showings Coordinator: starts at $30 per month (varies on unit tier)
• 1099 e-Filing: $25 per batch + $3 per form
• EZMail: $0.80 per single-page mailing + $0.15 per additional page
• Retail Cash Payments: $99 setup fee per bank account

How Do I Open an Account?

You can open an account by starting with a free 15-day trial at https://www.buildium.com/free-trial/.

Is My Money Safe?

Yes — Buildium uses encryption across its website and mobile app. It stores data securely with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Is It Worth It?

For any property manager who is struggling to keep up with daily property management tasks, Buildium is a great choice. The more tasks you can digitize and automate, the more time you’ll free up while also reducing your stress.

Buildium moves property managers into a more fully digitized environment, bringing their tenants along with them. As Buildium takes in more information about your properties, its reports become more valuable, allowing you to make informed and knowledgeable decisions about your property management business.