Property owners often get stuck between Propertyware and Buildium when scaling their operations. While both handle the basics like rent collection and maintenance requests, their approaches to automation, reporting, and tenant communications can impact your team’s efficiency in surprisingly different ways.

This guide breaks down how these two tools stack up in both features and pricing.

We’ve also included Stessa in the comparison since many owners consider it as a better alternative for smaller portfolios. You’ll see exactly where each tool shines based on your portfolio size, management style, and growth plans.

Propertyware overview

Propertyware offers online leasing, maintenance, accounting, and risk management.

However, Propertyware software might better suit investors and property managers with large portfolios. There’s no minimum unit requirement, but the company charges a minimum monthly fee (equivalent to 250 units) plus a one-time implementation fee (2 times the monthly subscription price).

Current pricing

Propertyware offers 3 packages with pricing based on the features provided, plus additional services for an extra fee. The company also offers a limited-access free trial period:

• Basic: $1.00 per unit a month with a minimum charge of $250 a month. One-time implementation fee is 2 times the monthly subscription price or a minimum of $500.
• Plus: $1.50 per unit a month with a minimum charge of $350 a month. One-time implementation fee is 2 times the monthly subscription price or a minimum of $700.
• Premium: $2.00 per unit a month with a minimum charge of $450 a month, plus a one-time implementation fee equal to 2 times the monthly subscription price, or a minimum of $900.

Additional services

Propertyware offers the following services that can be added to any of the above pricing plans. Pricing varies based on selected services, and users must contact the company for specific pricing details:

Maintenance contact center

There is a 24/7 answering service to handle maintenance and emergency calls. It currently costs $1.10 per unit a month with a $300 setup fee.

Leasing contact center

Capture and manage every call and email with professional agents who become an extension of your staff. This currently costs $2.85 per unit a month with a $300 setup fee.

Professional websites

Get modern and professional designs that integrate with Propertyware. This currently costs $99 a month with setup fees starting at $500.

AssetProtect

This provides owners and tenants with important coverage that will keep their property safe. This currently costs $12 per policy per month with no setup fee.

Software features

Basic

• Global customization and reports
• Marketing
• Property management
• Owner portals
• Tenant portals
• Maintenance
• Accounting
• Screening
• Payments
• Unlimited support
• Unlimited storage
• Unlimited online training

Plus

Includes everything in the Basic package, plus:

• Two-way text messaging
• Digital ignatures
• Inspections

Premium

Includes all of the features in the Basic and Plus packages, plus:

• Maintenance projects
• Vendor portals

Buildium overview

Buildium is ideal for real estate investors and property managers with one to 5,000 units or more. The software can be used for all types of residential rental properties. 

Landlords may find pricing plans with Buildium more cost-effective than other options available. There are no minimum unit requirements, and the software offers a wide variety of features, including rental listings and tenant screening, online payments and maintenance requests, and property accounting.

Current residential pricing

There are 3 different Buildium pricing plans to choose from. All options include software modules for accounting, maintenance, tasks, violations, resident and board member communications, and online portals.

Essential

• Starts at $58 per month
• Basic tenant screening
• Standard reports
• Ticket customer support
• Property inspections start at $40 a month
• Digital signatures $5 per signature
• Bank account setup fee: $99 per account
• Online payment fees of $1.25 for incoming and $0.50 for outgoing electronic fund transfers (EFTs)
• Credit card fees of 2.99% per transaction

Growth

• Starts at $183 per month
• Basic and premium tenant screening
• Standard reports
• Ticket and live phone customer support
• Free property inspections
• Unlimited digital signatures
• Bank account setup fee: first 10 free, then $99 per account
• Online payments free for incoming and $0.50 per transaction for outgoing EFTs
• Credit card fees of 2.99% per transaction

Premium

• Starts at $375 per month
• Basic and premium tenant screening
• Standard reports
• Ticket, live phone, and priority customer support
• Free property inspections
• Unlimited digital signatures
• Bank account setup fee: first 15 free, then $99 per account
• Online payments free for incoming and $0.50 per transaction for outgoing EFTs
• Credit card fees of 2.99% per transaction

Software features

Accounting

• Property accounting
• Company financials
• Online payments
• Retail cash payments
• 1099 eFiling

Business operations

• Owner portal
• Property inspections
• Resident site
• Maintenance request tracking
• Analytics and insights
• Document storage
• Renters insurance
• Open application programming interface (API)

Leasing

• Rental listings
• Showings coordinator
• Rental applications
• Tenant screening
• Professional website
• Digital signature

Community Association Management

• Accounting and budgeting
• Online payments
• Maintenance request tracking
• Violations tracking
• Board communications
• Document management

How Propertyware and Buildium compare

Propertyware and Buildium offer a range of features. Propertyware is slightly more expensive than Buildium, but both Propertyware and Buildium offer free trials.

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of essential features that many landlords use.

Listings

Propertyware can help you find prospective tenants by automatically sending your listings to its network of free distribution partners. After creating and publishing a listing on your Propertyware website, it will be distributed to high-traffic partner sites, such as Apartment List, Trulia, Zillow, and Zumper.

Buildium’s free website feature is included with every pricing plan. Posting a vacant listing to the owner’s website automatically syndicates and markets the listing through various online listing sites, including Apartment List, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, PadMapper, the entire Zillow Rental Network, and Zumper.

Tenant screening

Propertyware charges a per-transaction fee for each tenant screening service provided. Credit reports cost $7.95, criminal records cost $8.95, and evictions cost $4.45. For all 3 reports (credit, criminal, and eviction), the fee is $16.95. The company also offers advanced screening services that include state, county, and local records, as well as state sex offender registry records, for $29.95 per screen.

Buildium offers basic and premium tenant screening. Basic tenant screening provides an applicant’s credit and criminal history, while premium tenant screening provides credit, criminal, and eviction history. An applicant is charged $30 for basic tenant screening, or landlords may choose to pay for the tenant screening with a discounted fee of $15. Premium tenant screening is $18 per screening. Prior to using premium screening, landlords must be accredited by proving they are a secure and legitimate business.

Leasing

With the Propertyware Plus and Premium plans, you can use MailMerge to automatically populate applicant data when creating a lease. This saves you time by preventing duplicate entries. The DocuSign digital signature feature also makes it easy for applicants to sign the lease while keeping all files and records safe and secure in one place.

Buildium digital signatures help simplify the lease process by allowing landlords to collect applicant signatures, application fees, and security deposits online from any device. With lease templates, landlords can have leases and addendums digitally signed and securely stored online for easy access anytime and anywhere.

Online rent collection

Propertyware currently charges tenants who pay through their tenant portal $1.95 for each Automated Clearing House (ACH) transaction, 2.99% for credit and debit card payments (with a minimum fee of $3.00), and $3.75 when tenants pay cash at a participating retailer.

Buildium EFT transaction fees vary, but currently range from $0 to $1.99 depending on the pricing plan, while credit card fees are 2.99% of the transaction amount.

Financial reporting and tax management

The reports tab in Propertyware offers a range of customizable reports that you can export to different formats, publish to owner portals, and email once or on a recurring basis. While there is no profit and loss (P&L) report available in Propertyware, several reports provide similar information, including income and expense, standard income statement, and IRS Schedule E.

Buildium’s online bill payments and automatic entry of recurring expenses make managing rental property accounting easier. Comprehensive accounting reports with just a few clicks include monthly P&L, income statements, cash flows, bank reconciliations, real estate balance sheets, and IRS Schedule E preparation.

Stessa vs. Propertyware and Buildium

Both Propertyware and Buildium provide a range of powerful features. However, both companies also charge a monthly fee that may not be cost-effective for landlords with a small number of properties. That’s why Stessa developed a rental property financial management system that’s free.

Stessa, a Roofstock company, was designed specifically for real estate investors. It is easy to track rental property performance, manage finances, generate reports, prepare taxes, and create the necessary records real estate investors need. More than 200,000 investors already use Stessa to track their properties. 

Stessa is free with optional paid plans for owners who need more robust features. Stessa offers: 

• Automated income and expense tracking: Organize and categorize transactions automatically from connected bank, lender, credit card, and property management accounts with no extra fee or add-on required. 
• Financial reporting: Generate income statements, net cash flow reports, balance sheets (with the paid Stessa Pro plan), and more, all within the platform.
• Real-time performance metrics: Get 24/7 visibility into your portfolio’s performance with no third-party software required.
• Property management integration: Connect to some property management software platforms for a complete portfolio summary.
• Online rent collection: Automate your rent collection process, including payment reminders and late fees, reducing the likelihood of missed or late payments.
• Advertise vacancies: Publishing a vacancy for rent and syndicate your listing out to a variety of websites for maximum exposure to high quality tenants.
• Rental applications: Manage tenant applications efficiently and effectively by streamlining the process of publishing vacancies and collecting and reviewing applications.
• Landlord banking: Open FDIC-insured bank accounts and enjoy a more efficient way to manage your property-related finances. You can earn more than 10x the national average interest rate on every dollar deposited.*
• Tenant screening: Use a proprietary approach with RentPrep for comprehensive tenant checks, including a full credit report, background check, and more. Landlords can also add screening for income verification or of judgment and liens, increasing the odds of selecting reliable tenants.
• Unlimited properties: Add as many single-family homes, short-term vacation rentals, or multifamily units as you like.
• Tax center: Tax time is a cinch thanks to the Stessa Tax Package feature. It helps aggregate your transactions and sends you personalized tax reports via email with digital copies of all of your receipts packaged into a single ZIP file.
• eSigning (partnered with DocuSign): With the Stessa Pro plan, you can upload up to five documents monthly, mark them for electronic signatures, and send them to tenants, vendors, and partners. 
• Smart receipt scanning: Add expense receipts to your transactions ledger quickly and accurately via mobile scans and email forwarding, reducing the risk of losing or misplacing vital receipts.

Get started with a free Stessa account here.

Final verdict

If you’re looking for a free and cloud-based financial reporting solution, then Stessa might be the perfect choice for you. Although it doesn’t presently offer features like tenant screening or lease preparation, plenty of good options are available online, so there’s no need to pay a subscription fee.

Alternatively, if you’re looking for a complete set of property management tools, then either Buildium or Propertyware could be ideal for you. Both companies have different pricing plans and features and offer a short free trial period.

*Stessa is not a bank. Stessa is a financial technology company. Terms and conditions, features and pricing are subject to change. This article, and the Stessa Blog in general, is intended for informational and educational purposes only, and is not investment, tax, financial planning, financial, legal, or real estate advice.