Rentec Direct

Come for the website capabilities, stay for the value

Vorteile:

I switched to this software from another, $10/month cheaper software. Rentec's software is really easy to use. You don't need accounting or business knowledge to operate this software. It is really easy to use. I switched to Rentec so I could have my listings automatically populate on my website (tired of manually entering them on website by Wix). Tenants can also apply electronically from website, and log in to view their tenant or owners portal. The features for the tenants are quite nice, and make my company look professional and modern. The accounting features are great, and paying property owners is a breeze. I had little accounting knowledge when I migrated to this property, and everything makes sense. The auto syndication features are amazing, straight to Zillow and its affiliates overnight.

Nachteile:

I have to be honest, I'm complaining about a free feature, but my least favorite part of the software is the website in which I migrated to Rentec for. If I try to edit my website and add items that are not on the template, my website has major HTML coding issues and will not publish properly. The visual appearance of my website thru Rentec is subpar considering what I had before. That said, I could not get the functionality I needed from my old website, and I will sacrifice appearance for functionality. I actually learned HTML coding so I could add a contact us field on my website, but I couldn't save the website with HTML coding. Another item I dislike, although it's more a feature I don't use as opposed to an issue with Rentec, is there are so many redundancies when it comes to the tenant. I plug in their email and name, and that should be all for my purposes. But I have to manually go in and authorize them to receive emails from me. And then authorize them access to the tenants portal. And authorize them to make partial payments, and so on.

Great value

Kommentare: Overall, this is a really great program. Cost is low, customer service is responsive, and there are a lot of capabilities. So far, it seems they continue to add new features and improve, which is a great sign for future growth. I would definitely recommend them, and I'm happy so far.

Vorteile:

Easy to set up and pretty easy to use. Most likely, the confusion sometimes has more to do with my accounting abilities than the software itself. Customer service is very quick to respond, which is great, although not the friendliest. They seem to work to continue improving, which is important. They recently added a co-renter option for portal access, which is fantastic, and I'm so happy they added that. We have only had the service a month or two, but so far, we are pleased.

Nachteile:

Like I said, customer service is responsive and quick, but not the friendliest, but they get the job done & that's most important. I feel like there are some functionalities that I feel would be pretty standard, yet Rentec doesn't have the feature. For instance, you have to do a work around for multiple property owners, but it doesn't really help much. Reporting functionality is lacking. There are a good bit of reports, but some that should be standard are not available. I also do not like the way ACH is reported, because you have to do a little digging to find out if payments went through or just trust it's working. However, technology, as we know, does not always work properly, and I hate to just leave it to chance. Although, this is probably more of an issue with Forte, who processes the payments, than Rentec. However, Rentec did partner with this company, so it's basically lumped in together.

good for the money. A good starter software

Kommentare: It's mixed. I think it is a good product but sometimes it feels like they fired their engineer who built it and the people left dont know how to fix major problems.

Vorteile:

The price is good and it works....just not smoothly. It is like working on an AS400 from the 90's

Nachteile:

For years I was promised fixes, now they have rolled out a new version that has it own set of glitches on top of the old ones. Support is always delayed, phone is never answered. (In five years no one has ever answered the phone) You have to text or email, response time can be an hour to a day. Sometimes i feel like they dont here my issue and send responses based on keywords they heard

Simple and Easy

Kommentare: If it wasn't so much work and if payments from tenants processed quicker, I would switch back. I preferred the ease and simplicity of Rentec over AppFolio which I am using now.

Vorteile:

Very user friendly No learning curve Reports are easy to read Information is formatted in a way that most would understand Price is great and this is good for those with only a couple rentals or if you have 100's

Nachteile:

When I used this product, it didn't offer all the bells and whistles that others did like an app for your phone The ACH process was too slow when I used it and it could take too many days to get money and send money

Perfect for beginers

Kommentare: I would recommend this to anyone with less than 100 properties.

Vorteile:

We used this product for a few years when our property management company was just starting to grow. It was great in the beginning because it got everything out of excel and quick books and onto a property-oriented platform. The reports were excellent. The program was extremely user-friendly.

Nachteile:

We ended up changing to another program when we grew out of Rentec Direct. The program only allowed you to deposit ACH payments into one account and that was an issue for us.

Save yourself. Try anything else.

Kommentare: I would rather stick something sharp in my eye.

Vorteile:

The last version was half way decent. New version was convincingly bad and didn't solve any of the old issues.

Nachteile:

Everything since the "update". They improved on WORSE.

Awesome help

Vorteile:

This software is very easy to use, and it offers all that I need to make managing our properties easy. The customer service and tech support is amazing. The support team has been very helpful several times in guiding me through some of the technical aspects of the software that have made things run more efficiently for our daily flow. I felt very capable of using this software after having the training provided over the phone.

Nachteile:

There are a couple of things that I would like to see Rentec Direct offer in the future. However, I love how it has a suggestion area which lets me know that some improvements or upgrades are in the works or are being considered.

Great program! Needs some work but all in all a great program!

Kommentare: Some of the things that need work are:
Docusign - it needs to be where we can assign signature fields for the tenant so they know where to sign.
Reconciling - It needs to be a little less confusing when reconciling the ACH transactions. it would also be better if you could sort out the transactions by check number/ACH or by date.
Scrolling - when you go into a tenants account to make changes the page scrolls back to the top when you come out. It needs to stay where you went into the tenants account so that if you are making multiple changes in an account you dont have to search for it again when you make the first change.
Owner disbursements - It would be great if the program would automatically send an email to the owners when an owner disbursement is made.

Vorteile:

It makes life a lot easier in the rental managing world. This program helps keep up with tenant payments and owner disbursements.

Blows our old platform away !

Kommentare: Overall positive, still needs a little tweaking.

Vorteile:

Built in marketing tools (website). Right-priced screening tools. Accounting features.

Nachteile:

1. Asking someone to "Apply now" (from just the pictures) is a bit intimidating for many prospective tenants. There should be button for "request more information, and maybe "for a faster response answer these questions". Basically looking to have them fill out a brief questionnaire before actually applying with social security numbers, kids names, etc. So for now I'm using the "apply now" button as a questionnaire, and still have tenants completing paper (full) applications (after viewing property). Would love to be able to do BOTH online. 2. It was not immediately clear that we needed to set a fee for credit cards. In our first month a bunch of tenants saw no fee for the credit card, so we got charged a bunch of fees we did not intend to pay! 3. In addition to rentals, we do some fix/flips and some fix to hold. It would be awesome if there was a way to track ONLY capital expenses for a property

An outstanding management tool!

Kommentare: I was on RentPost previously. From that experience, I learned the hard way that while a website may make boasts of great software, if there is no Customer Support or strong Development group behind it, the user experience can be time-consuming and difficult. Converting to Rentec Direct allowed me to free up a lot of time that I formerly spent trying to fix issues caused by the software. I am so pleased with the quality of Rentec's Customer Support and Development teams.

Vorteile:

1. Customer Support is excellent. There is great help on the Chat window and when that isn't available, phone support is great. 2. Easy to use. Once I got familiar with the system, it became a slam-dunk to manage monthly rent collection and on-time lease renewals. Training was great so I got up to speed quickly. 3. Tenants like it. Ease of use applies to tenants also. Rent reminders and late notices are clear and tenants have no problem working with the system. Rentec takes that burden off my desk. And tenants love the ACH and credit card options. 4. Software works as advertised. The Development team has built a solid product.

Nachteile:

It would be nice to have a reporting tool that allowed me to create my own reports. Owner reporting is not very elegant as it is today.

Rentech mostly behaves the way you would expect the software to behave and is functional.

Kommentare: Ease of use and I went through my first accounting review with the results

Vorteile:

It was relatively easy to learn and behave the way you expected it to. It was easy to find the controls for changing what little you could change in the functionality. The reports are what you expect them to be, income/expense, income, expense. The rent-roll was reasonable. Everything is exportable. The bank accounts acted like bank accounts and were thus easy to understand. Entering the data didn't take an excessive number of steps

Nachteile:

Going from one screen to another sometimes took an excessive amount of time. Some archiving of data locally to the users browser would probably enhance the user experience significantly. Use of an input worksheet for income and expenses would make these tasks much more effective and efficient.

Rentec Direct great value for the price and functionality

Kommentare: I am a small startup (still getting my systems in place and don't have any other owners yet) in Montana. I researched Rentec Direct, Buildium, Rent Manager and Appfolio. One of my main concerns was taking on a monthly financial commitment when so young as a company. When all was said and done, I really appreciated that RD was created by a property manager who saw a need for this niche in 2007. The sales rep admitted that their first client is an owner-operator, not a property manager, but said they have made quite a few improvements toward serving the professional PM as well. It has been relatively easy to learn. I also like that the software comes with a tenant and owner login. How these components perform is yet to be seen, but I suspect it will work well. I also like that I did not have to commit for one year (Rent Manager, Appfolio) and that the price point was very reasonable with no extra charges for this or that and a very easy-to-understand pricing equation.

Vorteile:

Reasonable price for a small startup, easy to learn, good accounting piece, website is included, customer service is very responsive to inquiries.

Nachteile:

On-line application limited to 5 custom fields, included website could use a bit more functionality, nothing more at this time.

Great program that meets expectations

Kommentare: Working through Rentec Direct to meet our property management needs has been a wonderful experience.

Vorteile:

Ease of use and customer service/knowledge base.

Nachteile:

Needs a main email location to check emails that were sent to everyone - tenants and vendors.

Terrific software, outstanding customer service!

Vorteile:

I had done an obscene amount of research on software options for my small landlord operation (18 units so far) since I was outgrowing the excel spreadsheets that had at one point kept me somewhat organized. Honestly, I thought my mind was made up on Buildium, but once I did an overview with Kathryn over the phone, I was hooked. I told her exactly what I wanted from the software and where my trouble spots were with my current "system", and she walked me through the very features that Rentec Direct would provide. I got a free 30 day trial to play around with the system and within a week, I had made my decision. I also looked at Simplifyem along with Buildium and Rentec won hands down for the features and the price. Since then, I have had a million questions, and all of them were answered within minutes either through email or over the phone (I am kind of a Luddite and need a lot of hand-holding...) Thank the heavens for Kathryn-- the most patient person in the world. The customer service is beyond phenomenal, people.

Nachteile:

I wish that when filing out a work order, it could be an SMS notification, rather than just an email.

Tested this service - Report that came back did not have the misdemeanors that I already knew about

Vorteile:

Great idea. I wish it worked. Unfortunately, my one time test use of it proves the reports they provide may be inaccurate .

Nachteile:

It is not accurate. I tested this service with info on a person I know has misdemeanors. (He admits to them and the local police department in Indiana provided a report detailing the offenses). The "nationwide" report that came back to me after I provided SSN and other requested info, showed no criminal history at all. So, clearly the nationwide background check claim is not accurate

Full Service rental software A++++

Vorteile:

I love how easy the product is to use and the support you get when you have a question. The software has helped our business grow so much and get our apartment listings in front of people we never would of normally see our local ads. It has great accounting functionality built into it that allows us to reconcile with our bank accounts in a very easy and effective way.

Nachteile:

I do not have any complaints at this time when we first started using it 5 years ago there were a few things but they have been updating and adding features all the time and now there are no missing features or problems that are unresolved.

Non-Existent Support

Kommentare: We began using Rentec because the user interface was simplistic, but this is were it stopped. The software isn't customizable or easy to integrate into a preexisting website. When they sent an inspector out for the credit check the inspector had no idea why he was there or what for, and had to come out a second time. When notifying Rentec of cancelling and requesting an owed refund they simply ignored the 5 emails, and refused to acknowledge any emails.

Vorteile:

The user interface The price of the software

Nachteile:

Customizations and lack thereof. Customer Support Responsiveness

Awesome Inexpensive Product

Vorteile:

After purchasing my second two unit, I decided I needed a program to keep track of everything and started searching online for something to use. Rentec Direct was free to use, so I tried it. It is an awesome program! I have too many units for the free program, however, I have no problem paying to use it as it is that good. What I like best is that Rentec Direct continues to make changes resulting in a better product.

Nachteile:

My only suggestion is that under the payment type drop down window, direct deposit needs to be added.

Kommentare: I have used the Rentech Direct Property Management system for six months now. With a small number of properties, my biggest concern was cost. This system met that criterion. Secondly, I wanted a system where my data was kept safely on a seperate computer than my laptop or desktop, and could be accessed from anywhere. Rentech met that. This product also had the additional feature of allowing tenants to book work orders and check their account status on-line in a secure manner. The third necessity was that the support side of the product be responsive and easily understood. I have been very pleased with their live help. Usually call, leave message and get contacted back all in the same day. Their on-line support could use some tweaking, however. There are several videos and written resolution on specific cases, and the training videos were helpful, but there are always issues that lie just a step or two beyond what is offered. A phone call resolves that. I am now at the end of year reporting stage and will need to go in and tweak some entries that wound up in wrong categories/accounts. I appreciate how much easier this has made my one man operation and look forward to finding even more efficiencies as I continue to use it.

Great software, and service!

Kommentare: I have greatly appreciated the checking in and assisting with all the additional account set up items. You guys are top notch with contact and follow up.
Professionally I've worked with large software companies like Yardi and Onesite as well as smaller groups like manage America. Rentec was my choice after reviewing and working with others. It had what I wanted and needed in a scalable platform that can grow with my portfolio.

Vorteile:

Online payments Online apps Syndication of marketing Resident/owner portal .

Nachteile:

Wished for better website templates so I didn't have to use another service. Maybe add advanced website at additional flat fee. I ended up using zoho.

Couldn't ask for a better solution for our business.

Kommentare: I'm consistently impressed with Rentec Direct's support and products. When we signed up it was to just do one tenant screen, but we found out they also have a complete software solution for managing our portfolio of properties. I used to use Quickbooks but after using Rentec's accounting tools for just a week I was sold because Rentec is so much easier. The other things that I really liked about this company is they tell it like it is. Their pricing is straight forward and they don't hide anything with hidden fees. Every time I contact their support, they are always friendly and very helpful too. I've called a few times now getting setup and I always get an English speaking rep who really knows their stuff.

Vorteile:

Better support than I've ever experienced with any company, EVER! The software was really easy to learn. No term contracts, I like that.

The Program and Support

Kommentare: I cannot begin to tell you how much we like this program. I have never worked in Property Management before this job and therefore, never used this type of program. Rentec is very easy to use and understand. The support that they offer is top notch. I tell people that I have my own personal support person, Kathryn!! She is the BEST, she knows the program inside and out and even when I call with a crazy questions that is out of the norm, she finds a solution. They are constantly improving and adding new updates. They ask for your input and listen and make changes or additions. Not only WOULD I recommend Rentec to others, we already have!

Vorteile:

The Support is the BEST, always available and very personable and helpful!!! The monthly fee is worth every penny.

Nachteile:

I really don't have any complaints.

Everything I need and things keep coming I didn't know I need.

Vorteile:

I like that everything is right there. The price is very reasonable and this application includes all of the items the very expensive programs include. The customer support has been incredible these last six years and they keep adding things that really help.

Nachteile:

Strictly operator error, I forget my log in from time to time. Seriously, I haven't found anything I'm unhappy with.

Customer service is adequate but can be improved

Kommentare: I love the software it has simplified my business, but I think a thorough training of how the software operates would be extremely helpful

Vorteile:

The customer is courteous and responsive once you actually talk to the right person. When I set up my account I scheduled a time for someone to walk me through the process of how the software operates.

Nachteile:

The person that walked me through my software training was a substitute for the lady that was assigned to assist me and she was booked for that particular day and time. The substitute did an adequate job explaining the software, but my partner and I would have preferred to wait for the main software trainer.

Rentec Direct- Changing the Way to Manage your Property

Vorteile:

Rentec Direct is an intuitive and easy software that allows laypeople to keep track of all income and expenses related to one or many properties with multiple tenants to manage. If you need to speak with someone when one of those 'irregular' situations with your properties, Rentec is always there at the phone ready to walk you right through to a solution. Rentec Direct updates and adds more features that will automatically load into your existing software. And at the end of the year when it's time to pay your taxes, Rentec Direct will print out the reports it used to take you over a week to sort out.

Nachteile:

What's not to like?