Rentec Direct Review: An All-In-One Property Management Platform

Managing your real estate portfolio using text messages, emails, and Google Drive is no problem until you have more than one or two properties to manage. 

At some point, keeping track of leases, tenant applications, maintenance requests, and accounting becomes a huge administrative headache. One option is to outsource this burden to professional property managers. 

But Rentec Direct offers a lower-cost alternative. It's a software app designed to help landlords and property managers keep an eye on their portfolios while saving time and money. 

What Is Rentec Direct?

Founded in 2007, Rentec Direct is a US-based software company dedicated to helping small and mid-sized landlords operate their real estate portfolios more efficiently. The company offers professional quality tools at prices that smaller real estate investors can afford.

While it began as a free tenant application service, the company has grown to offer rent collection, accounting, work order tracking, and many more features.

What Does It Offer?

Rentec Direct offers property management software for landlords and property managers who oversee multiple properties. While you can use Rentec for a single property, the cost may be too high for house hackers or people managing just two or three properties. The ideal customers are landlords who have anywhere from 10 to 100 properties, more than they can reasonably manage via text or email. 

Streamlined Accounting

One of Rentec Direct’s core features is unit-level accounting software. You can track income, expenses, cash flow, and more for your entire portfolio or for each individual unit. The app makes it easy to attach receipts to specific work orders and to match payments to the work orders, making tax preparation a breeze. It also allows you to figure out whether a unit is profitable or if it’s sinking your returns.

Tracks Maintenance Requests

When you're getting started in real estate, you can easily handle maintenance requests via text message. In fact, you may be the person who responds to calls about air conditioning outages, leaky toilets, and burnt-out overhead lights. But at a certain point, responding to all these maintenance calls becomes untenable.

With Rentec Direct, tenants can submit maintenance requests (and even send texts about urgent problems), and you can fulfill these requests on your schedule. For a non-urgent problem, you can send a maintenance person in a few days. Rentec Direct allows you to track all non-fulfilled work orders and even attach invoices and receipts to the requests (to make accounting easier).

Simplifies Tenant Screening

Rentec Direct's tenant screening feature includes credit history, criminal, and eviction records for a cost of $18 per applicant. You can include add-ons like bankruptcy and lien history for an additional $12 per applicant. As a landlord, you can eat these costs or require prospective tenants to pay an application fee that covers the cost of screening.

Market Vacant Properties

With Rentec Direct you can market vacant properties through your own listing, and the listing will be syndicated through top listing sites like Apartments.com and Realtor.com. As an owner (or property manager), you only need to set up your listing once.

Each time it becomes vacant, you can list the property again with no changes to pictures, descriptions, or other features. Just update the amount you expect to collect for rent and get your property listed. Listing properties is time consuming, so anything you can do to cut that down can offer significant savings. 

Collect Payments Online

Whether you have a handful of properties or hundreds, collecting rent is always a challenge. Online payment portals make getting paid easier for you (and it makes paying you easier for your tenants).

Rentec Direct includes payment processing. If you choose to accept debit or credit payments, you’ll pay an additional 2.95% fee for each payment. ACH payments have no additional costs.

Are There Any Fees?

Rentec Pro (the software designed for DIY landlords) starts at $45 per month for a single unit. The price goes up to $55 per month when you manage 11-25 units and increases from there. If you’re managing 2,500 units, you’ll pay $2,750 per month. On top of this fee, you’ll pay $18 for tenant screening and 2.95% for each credit or debit payment you collect.

Rentec PM is designed for property managers who work with multiple landlords. This software starts at $55 per month for 1-10 units. The price increases to $60 for 11-25 units and continues to increase depending on the number of units you manage. The price for 2,500 units is $3,000 per month.

How Does Rentec Direct Compare? 

Rentec Direct's modest startup costs (starting at just $45 per month for landlords with 10 or fewer properties) make it a software that you can grow with. 

The accounting, work order tracking, and marketing features are especially attractive for DIY landlords who aren’t paying professional property management fees. Remember $45 per month is much less than the 6-10% you might expect to pay for professional management.

But Rentect Direct isn’t free. If you have just a few properties, free services like Baselane and Avail may be better options for collecting rent and managing your expenses.

Rentec Direct is a good step up for property owners who aspire to own a dozen or more properties. If you’re hoping to build up a large portfolio you should also consider Tenant Cloud which has a lower pricing structure than Rentec Direct.

Rentec Direct offers a more seamless user experience, but many landlords would prefer to save money. Tenant Cloud starts at just $12 per month which is just over a quarter of the cost of Rentec Direct’s pricing.

How Do I Open a Rentec Direct Account?

Rentec Direct offers a two-week free trial for anyone who wants to use the platform. To start, use the sign-up link and provide your first name, last name, email address, phone number, and company name. 

You’ll select whether you’re a landlord, property manager (or a renter), and you’ll get provisioned with the correct software. After two weeks you’ll need to pay to continue to access the app or software.

Is It Safe And Secure?

One of Rentec Direct’s excellent features is that it keeps your information and your tenant’s information safe and secure. It dramatically reduces the risk of identity theft for you and your tenants. No more storing leases and tenant applications on your personal Google Drive. The company also secures payments, so you can be assured that you will collect rent (assuming your tenant sends it).

There are always risks with using online software. Rentec Pro allows you to set up unlimited user accounts. But it’s up to you to ensure that your team has the correct access. Offering too much access could be a major security risk.

In addition, all cloud-based software has some risk of a breach. While Rentec Direct hasn’t had a public data breach, you and your tenants could potentially be hacked. Rentec Direct has lots of security features (encryption, privacy protections, and more) to minimize this risk.

How Do I Contact Rentec Direct?

Rentec Direct is an Oregon-based company, and its headquarters is located at 231 SW I Street, Grants Pass, OR 97526. Rentec Direct’s phone lines are open from 6:00 AM-5:00 PM Pacific Time. You can reach the company directly by calling 541-216-6000.

The company’s email addresses are [email protected] to learn more about the product or [email protected] for product support. Current customers can also ask questions using the help feature when they log in to the site or app.

Is It Worth It?

Rentec Direct is a great option for landlords with a growing real estate portfolio. It offers excellent functionality at a reasonable price. While it’s more expensive than free or low-cost tools, it offers an intuitive user interface, great features, and excellent customer service.

If you’re growing a real estate portfolio, this is software that makes a ton of sense to consider. It’s especially valuable for landlords with properties in multiple cities or states.

Check out Rentec Direct here >>