Managing Maintenance on Rental Property: The Best Software for 2022

Update: This post has been updated with new scoring and winners based on changes or upgrades to some of the products and services. We have also included new products that have come to our attention since the last update. Read on to see our winners for the best landlord software to manage maintenance on rental property for 2022:

One of the most important – and dreaded! – aspects of being a landlord is the management of maintenance on rental property, especially tracking everything that needs to be completed. Maintenance that isn’t taken care of can lead to further damage to a property (such as the problems a dripping sink drain can cause) and a building falling into disrepair. Unattractive, poorly kept buildings lead to dissatisfied tenants and difficulty finding desirable applicants. Fewer options in applicants often results in tenants who don’t take care of your property. It’s a vicious downward spiral.

Costs are a big factor for landlords no matter the size of their portfolio. Read our in-depth article on how much each of these products will cost.

One of many benefits to using a property management software tool is that many offer valuable features meant to help you handle the maintenance of your property. The best allow you to create a calendar, where you schedule routine events such as cleaning the moss off your building’s roof. (I’m tipping my hand here that I’m in the Pacific Northwest!) We also love any product that streamlines the process of fielding a repair requests from a tenant and coordinating the solution with the appropriate service provider.

In this article we’ll look at the best property management software tools out there and evaluate how they will help you manage the maintenance of your properties.

The Best Property Management Software for Managing Maintenance on Rental Property

Here are our winners for the software that is best for managing maintenance on rental property:

SERVICE	DESCRIPTION	RATING	MORE
BEST OVERALL	RentRedi RentRedi is an all-inclusive landlord-tenant app. Manage vacancies, screening, and rent collection from wherever you are, on any device. Strength: Complete Solution	50.0	Read Review Sign Up Here
24/7 COORDINATION	Hemlane Hemlane is a next-gen property management tool that helps property owners manage their rentals. More than simply property management software, Hemlane is a platform that bridges the gap between DIY and full service property management. Strength: Hybrid Full-Service Mgmt	48.0	Read Review Sign Up Here
PROPERTY MANAGEMENT	Marble Marble presents a happy medium between DIY management and hiring a professional property manager. For a reasonable flat fee Marble fills vacancies, executes leases, coordinates maintenance, and facilitates electronic rent collection. Strength: Hybrid Full-Service Mgmt	49.0	Read Review Sign Up Here

Best Overall

RentRedi has partnered with the property maintenance services company Latchel. With a subscription to both RentRedi and Latchel, your maintenance needs are seamlessly integrated with your property management software platform.

Tenants can submit maintenance requests to a dedicated maintenance support line. Latchel screens and troubleshoots maintenance requests before sending a contractor where necessary. You can set the rules around the price of repairs and are kept informed through every step of the process.

RentRedi handles all your middle-of-the-night maintenance emergencies, and you spend less time coordinating repairs. This makes RentRedi our best overall software for managing maintenance on rental property.

Learn More

RentRedi is an all-inclusive landlord-tenant app. Manage vacancies, screening, and rent collection from wherever you are, on any device.
Strength: Complete Solution

Read Review Sign Up Here

Best 24/7 Maintenance Coordination

Hemlane offers a robust software platform for leasing and managing your rental properties. But the 24/7 repair coordination services are where they really shine. Not only will you receive all the standard features such as rental advertising, application and tenant screening, online rent collection, and more, you have access to a 24/7 repair coordinator to be your front line against middle-of-the-night emergencies.

The coordinator will diagnose and troubleshoot requests, schedule dispatch and coordination with your service professionals and tenants, 24/7. You still retain full visibility and control of your rentals and maintenance projects, while sleeping through the night, at an affordable price.

Learn More

Hemlane is a next-gen property management tool that helps property owners manage their rentals. More than simply property management software, Hemlane is a platform that bridges the gap between DIY and full service property management.
Strength: Hybrid Full-Service Mgmt

Read Review Sign Up Here

Best Alternative to a Property Manager

Traditionally, if you needed to delegate maintenance coordination and repair tasks, you would often hire a property manager. The property manager would then be responsible for answering calls for maintenance requests and emergencies, along with finding and screening tenants, scheduling showings, among other tasks. Of course, all this comes with a fee, or in many cases, several fees that all add up to a good chunk of your income. However, with Marble, you can get end-to-end property management for a flat fee of $50/unit per month.

This includes 24/7 maintenance troubleshooting and coordination, without any markups.

Learn More

Marble presents a happy medium between DIY management and hiring a professional property manager. For a reasonable flat fee Marble fills vacancies, executes leases, coordinates maintenance, and facilitates electronic rent collection.
Strength: Hybrid Full-Service Mgmt

Read Review Sign Up Here

Our Contenders:

We considered the following rental property management software products for the best that manage maintenance on rental property:

Avail

Advertise your property, find and screen tenants, sign leases, collect rent, and e-sign custom local leases, with tools built specifically for DIY landlords. Read Review >

Buildium

Whether you manage five doors or five thousand, Buildium provides a simple but sophisticated property management platform to help you grow and improve your business. Read Review >

DoorLoop

DoorLoop property management software’s powerful functionality and ease of use make it stand out from other options on the market. Read Review >

Hemlane

Hemlane is a next-gen property management tool that helps property owners manage their rentals. More than simply property management software, Hemlane is a platform that bridges the gap between DIY and full service property management. Read Review >

Marble

Marble offers landlords a simple, secure, and cost-effective way to strike a happy medium between DIY management and hiring a professional property manager. Read Review >

Rentec Direct

Designed to address the needs of DIY landlords as well as property management companies, Rentec Direct includes all the tools necessary to manage and rent your properties. Read Review >

RentRedi

RentRedi is an all-inclusive landlord-tenant app. Manage vacancies, screening, and rent collection from wherever you are, on any device. Read Review >

TenantCloud

End-to-end property management solution. Receive payments online, advertise properties and screen potential tenants. Robust accounting and maintenance features. Read Review >

The Best Software for Maintenance on Rental Property Criteria & Scores

We graded each of the software providers on five key features, on a 10-point scale. We also included two bonus features as well. Here are the factors we examined in considering which company offers the best solutions for managing maintenance on rental property:

Coordination – How easy is it to communicate with all necessary parties? Does the software platform bring you together with the tenant and your chosen service provider (plumber, handyman, etc) in one place so information & scheduling without a lot of back & forth?
Photos & Videos – Does the service allow users to share photos and/or videos to make it easy for everyone to know what’s going on? Which users – tenants, managers, landlords, vendors – can upload and view files?
Calendar – How does the service help landlords set reminders for routine maintenance, or just schedule a repair that’s not time-sensitive? Is there some kind of maintenance dashboard that’s meant to help managers track outstanding and completed work?
Accounting – Can landlords create work orders and track expenses associated with a repair? Can expenses be assigned to individual units and/or tenants so it’s easy to tell where you’re earning vs losing money? Does the service pull together repair bills, other expenses, and rent (ideally received electronically) so that landlords can run meaningful financial reports and complete taxes easily?
Vendor Integration – Can you bring your service providers into the system in order to speed up communication? Are there features that let landlords create work orders, receive bids, and pay vendors all from within the platform?
Extra Credit – Service provides a mobile app so you can track progress on the go.
Extra Credit – Built-in inspection tools to document damages or other issues.

CRITERIA
Coordination	9	9	9	10	10	9	10	10
Photo/Video	8	9	9	9	10	8	10	9
Calendar	8	9	9	9	10	9	10	10
Accounting	8	10	9	9	8	10	9	9
Vendors	8	10	9	10	10	9	10	10
Bonus: App	-	+1	+1	-	+1	+1	+1	+1
Bonus: Inspections	-	+1	-	+1	-	+1	-	-
TOTAL	41	49	46	48	49	47	50	49

All the communication associated with receiving repair requests, asking for clarification, arranging follow-up, and getting service providers up to speed and scheduled is very time consuming. We find this process tedious and slow, and when we have separate communication threads with different people we’ve had misunderstandings. We favor property maintenance management software that puts all this correspondence in one place, so it’s easy for everyone to follow. Another great feature is the ability for tenants and service providers to talk and schedule directly. Making communication easy and clear helps any landlord charged with managing maintenance on rental property.

Avail – score 9/10:

Communication between landlords and tenants, and also service providers if desired, can all be done by in-app messaging through the maintenance tracking portal. Expenses and receipts can be logged as well, and everything is recorded in your account for future reference.

Buildium – score 9/10:

Residents, owners, management employees, and service providers can all participate in communications around a maintenance issue. Buildium’s app is an added value here, as all this coordination can happen on the move, speeding up the process of getting repairs completed. All parties can get updates by phone, tablet, or desktop, and landlords can track the performance of vendors over time.

DoorLoop – score 9/10:

Tenants can submit a maintenance request through their tenant portal. Once it’s received, landlords are notified and can hire a vendor and manage the status directly through DoorLoop. Your tenants will automatically receive updates so they know you’re on top of it.

Hemlane – score 10/10:

With the Basic subscription plan, landlords can track repairs through the platform and receive alerts for maintenance requests. You can also communicate with service professionals and tenants directly through the platform. Additionally, if you subscribe to one of the premium plans, Hemlane will coordinate the maintenance for you, including communications with tenants and assignment of maintenance to your preferred service professionals.

Marble – score 0/10:

Marble handles all maintenance requests and calls from your tenants, 24/7. Emergencies are dealt with promptly to protect your property. Marble will then coordinate maintenance requests with service providers and schedule appointments and property access directly with your tenants.

Rentec Direct – score 9/10:

RentecDirect provides great tools for landlords and property managers with portfolios of all sizes. Tenants report maintenance issues through their tenant portal, and landlords receive requests and track work orders through completion. The work order platform allows users to assign vendors, attach photos, contact owners, and include bids for approval. The system also allows managers to assign a designated maintenance manager to each property and elect to have tenant requests routed directly to that contact.

RentRedi – score 10/10:

Maintenance coordination through RentRedi requires a separate, optional subscription with property services company, Latchel. With this program, you are handing off managing calls and texts from tenants, finding a service professional to come to the house, and scheduling the repair. Someone will manage calls from your tenants on your behalf, troubleshoot the issue (which solves around 20% of all calls right off the bat!), find a service professional from your list of providers or a highly rated pro sourced and vetted by Latchel, schedule access and repairs, and follow-up to make sure everything is working.

TenantCloud – score 10/10:

TenantCloud boasts a very slick and user-friendly maintenance dashboard. Tenants select the category of repair needed and add detail, and attach useful photos and/or videos. They can also indicate availability, indicate if there are any pets on the property, and grant permission for landlords and service providers to enter the unit. Tenants and service providers can often communicate directly, making a landlord’s life easy. Tenants can see the status of the maintenance task from their portal.

Landlords can set rules around the price of repairs and are kept informed every step of the way.

When it comes to communicating about repairs, every bit of information a landlord has helps him deal with the problem most effectively. There are differences in the way our services handle the sharing of photos and videos. We’ve looked at who makes it easiest for tenants, landlords, service providers, and – potentially – owners to get on the same page using these tools. Here’s how each service gives you visual tools to help manage maintenance on rental properties:

Avail – score 8/10:

Tenants can upload photos with their service requests, but it doesn’t appear that they can share video.

Buildium – score 9/10:

The platform makes it easy for tenants, landlords, and service providers to share photos, videos, and other relevant documents. Again, having these resources available via Buildium’s app is very useful.

DoorLoop – 9/10

Unclear, but it seems that both photo and video are supporting. They say they can also store any file including images and video.

Hemlane – score 9/10:

Yes, photo and video documentation is supported through the platform.

Marble – score 10/10:

This is unclear, but Marble will deep-dive with your tenant over the phone to begin the resolution process. They can work with your tenant directly if additional photos and video are necessary to help troubleshoot.

Rentec Direct – score 8/10:

Tenants can share photos when they make repair requests on the system, however it doesn’t appear that they can share videos. It’s possible to attach documents to the maintenance file, however this seems to be mostly for the purpose of tracking invoices, receipts, and notes.

RentRedi – score 10/10:

Tenants will troubleshoot directly with Latchel’s team so you are not woken up in the middle of the night. RentRedi/Latchel even offers proactive video troubleshooting to help resolve problems on the spot without waiting for additional help or allowing urgent problems to continue unresolved.

TenantCloud – score 9/10:

Photos, video, and text messages are visible to everyone involved. TenantCloud also has an app, giving all parties access to relevant information wherever they are. We really like how attractive and intuitive TenantCloud’s interface is, as we believe it makes it easy for tenants, service providers, and landlords to do their part.

Remembering all of the current repair requests, on top of all routine maintenance events and inspections, is more than most landlords can manage. Delaying or missing fixes results in unhappy tenants, and missed routine maintenance can result in damage to the building. Property management software helps bring all of those tasks to one place so that managers can stay on top of important tasks, track progress, and store related notes and documents. A dashboard that shows all maintenance items in one place is invaluable. Here’s how our contenders help track and schedule maintenance on rental property.

Avail – score 8/10:

Avail does give landlords the ability to track notes and costs associated with maintenance tickets, however there is no calendar or dashboard function to help schedule and track tasks.

Buildium – score 9/10:

One of Buildium’s strengths is that maintenance tasks can be handled from a desktop or mobile device. Priority level, due dates, and more are documented and shared with the appropriate parties. Routine events are easy to enter in the system so you always remember to have the lawn mowed or the gutters cleaned. Landlords can schedule recurring tasks to help stay on top of them and keep vendors updated as well.

DoorLoop – 9/10

Instead of keeping up with calls, emails, and texts, landlords can stay on top of all maintenance requests through DoorLoop’s tenant portal. Create work orders for your vendors, determine urgency levels, and track their progress in just a few clicks. You can save time and keep tenants happy by auto-assigning maintenance requests to your team as they come in. You will also receive status updates from vendors as jobs are completed.

Hemlane – score 9/10:

The maintenance dashboard allows you to view and track all open and closed maintenance requests.

Marble – score 10/10:

Marble’s software tracks maintenance coordination in real-time. Landlords have access to an online portal and will receive email notifications throughout the process so you will always know the status of a maintenance request.

Rentec Direct – score 9/10:

Features are particularly valuable to professional property managers or owners with larger portfolios. A work order for each repair is created, and assigned to the appropriate property. A maintenance manager can be assigned to a task, or forwarded to them automatically if desired. While we see no function to schedule routine events, we believe this feature is included.

RentRedi – score 10/10:

RentRedi/Latchel will document every resident call and every work order placed. View all your work orders and their status in your Latchel dashboard. They provide full visibility into what work orders need your attention so that you can rest easy and focus on your other property management tasks.

TenantCloud – score 10/10:

We’re big fans of TenantCloud’s maintenance dashboard. Landlords can manage all communication and scheduling in one place, and there is a handy widget that shows all tasks: new, in-progress, resolved, and deferred. Each repair is assigned a priority level so that it’s clear at a glance what needs to be done first. At the $12/mo subscription level TenantCloud makes it possible to sync maintenance tasks to their Google calendar. All this is available from anywhere on your mobile device.

Tax time is an unpleasant time in any case, but it’s definitely worse if you’re scrambling around trying to find paper receipts and piece-together rental income. Property management software makes it easy to upload invoices and receipts to individual maintenance tasks. Assuming you’re also collecting rent online, it’s quick and painless to run reports showing income and expenses. The best property maintenance management software helps landlords track maintenance on rental property by recording costs at each building and unit.

Avail – score 8/10:

Avail has updated their software with an entire new suite of accounting features. Existing payments and maintenance costs logged through the Avail platform will automatically sync to the owner’s dashboard where you can see an overview of each transaction. Landlords can also upload receipts or invoices to specific transactions for future reference come tax time.

Buildium – score 10/10:

Because Buildium is built so that it can be used to manage medium-to-large portfolios, the financial features they offer are thorough. Landlords can track vendor efficiency by reviewing the history of jobs performed and considering the completion speed and cost. Requests are converted to work orders, work orders converted to bills, and payments are issued (via ACH) – all through the maintenance portal. When we write about financial features each of these software providers offers (next week) we’ll talk more about accounting, reporting, tax support, and payments.

DoorLoop – 9/10

Print checks and pay your vendors directly from the DoorLoop platform. DoorLoop will sync with your bank account to track any expense coming from your property.

Hemlane – score 10/10:

Any transaction paid through Hemlane’s system is automatically recorded to reduce manual entry. Additionally, Hemlane tracks income and expenses from both online payments and manual entries. You can also upload documents and receipts for any transaction, and it will be integrated into your P&L reporting automatically.

Marble – score 8/10:

With Marble’s app, you can track all rental income and bills directly, but no other accounting and reporting features are built-in as of now.

Rentec Direct – score 10/10:

Rentec Direct helps managers and landlords manage maintenance on rental properties by giving them the ability to track expenses and document bids & invoices. Landlords can customize income and expense reports come tax time. All financial data is assigned by building and unit. Owners can also review and approve work orders, improving a property manager’s efficiency in clearing maintenance and repairs. Common area maintenance (CAM) charges can be automated so each tenant pays their share as needed.

RentRedi – score 9/10:

Automatically sync properties and charges from your RentRedi account. You can link your bank and credit card accounts electronically for easy, automatic importing of transaction amounts and details. Use RentRedi’s matching rules and payment templates to track income & expenses. View your profit & loss or cash flow by property, balance sheets, schedule E’s, and more.

TenantCloud – score 9/10:

When a tenant submits a service request the landlord assigns that job to one of the service professionals they’ve entered in the system (entering a new pro is easy), and materials and labor are logged. Landlords pay vendors directly through the platform and can bill tenants for any expenses they’re responsible for. All this financial data is tracked by property and unit, making it easy to run tax reports and analyze how a property is doing. Note that landlords need to subscribe to one of the premium plans to pay vendors, access the advanced reporting features, and sync transactions to QuickBooks.

Service providers are one of the three parties commonly involved in the maintenance process and the more they are integrated into the process of managing requests from tenants the easier it’s going to be on property owners or managers. Here’s how each product helps embed vendors in the maintenance on rental property.

Avail – score 8/10:

Landlords enter their favorite service providers into the system and bring them into the conversation with tenants as they see fit. While there is no curated list of vetted vendors, it is easy to add your own preferred vendors into the system. Unfortunately, there is no way to pay vendors directly through the platform.

Buildium – score 10/10:

Preferred service providers can be assigned to specific properties and it’s easy to involve them in when fielding repair requests from tenants. As mentioned above in the accounting discussion, vendors develop a record in the system that allows landlords to evaluate their performance. Payments are made directly through the system, by ACH transfer from bank account to bank account.

DoorLoop – 9/10

Create work orders for your vendors, determine urgency levels, and track their progress in just a few clicks. Save time and keep tenants happy by auto-assigning maintenance requests to your team as they come in. With unlimited custom user accounts and roles, you can create DoorLoop accounts for as many vendors as you’d like, and you can decide exactly what information you want your vendors to access and see.

Hemlane – score 10/10:

Hemlane manages your local professionals in one place, including contact information. When maintenance is requested, service professionals are assigned with all necessary information, and directly updates tenants on the status. And if you are on a premium plan, Hemlane coordinates with a US-based call center, where specialists know your thresholds and preferred professionals. You always maintain full visibility and control of your properties.

Marble – score 10/10:

When a maintenance issue comes up that requires service, Marble will find contractors for you, either by dispatching a verified service provider or your own preferred vendors.

Rentec Direct – score 9/10:

Many property management companies have maintenance people on staff, or standing contracts with chosen partners. Rentec Direct is tailored to shepherding work orders through to completion. This includes the ability to assign maintenance staff to particular buildings, and tools to record bids, invoices, and photos. Owners can approve work through their portal. It does not, however, appear to be possible to pay service providers via ACH from the software platform, though checks can be printed for offline mailing.

RentRedi – score 10/10:

Usually, Latchel has vetted vendor relationships. However, if they don’t already have a vendor in your location, they will find vendors in that area when a maintenance request comes through. Additionally, if you have your own preferred contractors, you can add them into Latchel’s system so they are notified of maintenance requests.

TenantCloud – score 10/10:

Landlords bring their service providers into the system, allowing them to involve them directly with tenants in resolving any maintenance issues. Payments are made directly to vendors by ACH transfer through the system.

Being able to retrieve and record information on the fly is great when it comes to efficiency and organization. Communicating with tenants and service providers on the fly keeps keep the maintenance ball rolling. We give extra points to the services that let you take property management on the road.

Buildium: +1

DoorLoop: +1

Marble: +1

Rentec Direct: +1

RentRedi: +1

TenantCloud: +1

Conducting routine inspections, whether quarterly, yearly, or at turnover, is vital to staying on top of property maintenance – and it also helps you detect tenants who are abusing your investment before things get too bad. Electronic property inspection tools – which integrate photos and video – are helpful in documenting how tenants leave their units as well as other maintenance, repair, landscaping, or cleaning issues you see on inspection. Products that have this feature built-in get an extra thumbs up from us.

Buildium +1:

Buildium has partnered with HappyCo to provide inspection features.

Hemlane: +1

With a subscription to Hemlane’s top-end plan, Hemlane will connect owners with a local team on the ground for inspections, turnover coordination, showings, and more.

Rentec Direct: +1

ZInspector powers Rentec Direct’s inspection features.

Also Read: Save money on turnovers with a tenant move-in checklist

Managing Maintenance on Rental Properties: The Bottom Line

We’re strongly in favor of any resource that makes managing maintenance on rental property easy, fast, and cost-effective. The software providers here all have a lot to offer when it comes to coordinating all the people involved in repairs, tracking the progress, and recording results and costs. Therefore, we encourage you take a close look at our winners – RentRedi, Hemlane, and Marble – for the best software that will help you manage maintenance on rental property. You can also see our complete product overviews to help decide which is right for you.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any input or questions! info@landlordgurus.com

Rental Property Maintenance: Video Extra

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Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links and Landlord Gurus may earn a commission. Our mission remains to provide valuable resources and information that helps landlords manage their rental properties efficiently and profitably. We link to these companies and their products because of their quality, not because of the commission.

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The Best Property Management Software for Managing Maintenance on Rental Property

Best Overall

Best 24/7 Maintenance Coordination

Best Alternative to a Property Manager

Our Contenders:

The Best Software for Maintenance on Rental Property Criteria & Scores

Avail – score 9/10:

Buildium – score 9/10:

DoorLoop – score 9/10:

Hemlane – score 10/10:

Marble – score 0/10:

Rentec Direct – score 9/10:

RentRedi – score 10/10:

TenantCloud – score 10/10:

Avail – score 8/10:

Buildium – score 9/10:

DoorLoop – 9/10

Hemlane – score 9/10:

Marble – score 10/10:

Rentec Direct – score 8/10:

RentRedi – score 10/10:

TenantCloud – score 9/10:

Avail – score 8/10:

Buildium – score 9/10:

DoorLoop – 9/10

Hemlane – score 9/10:

Marble – score 10/10:

Rentec Direct – score 9/10:

RentRedi – score 10/10:

TenantCloud – score 10/10:

Avail – score 8/10:

Buildium – score 10/10:

DoorLoop – 9/10

Hemlane – score 10/10:

Marble – score 8/10:

Rentec Direct – score 10/10:

RentRedi – score 9/10:

TenantCloud – score 9/10:

Avail – score 8/10:

Buildium – score 10/10:

DoorLoop – 9/10

Hemlane – score 10/10:

Marble – score 10/10:

Rentec Direct – score 9/10:

RentRedi – score 10/10:

TenantCloud – score 10/10:

Buildium: +1

DoorLoop: +1

Marble: +1

Rentec Direct: +1

RentRedi: +1

TenantCloud: +1

Buildium +1:

Hemlane: +1

Rentec Direct: +1

Managing Maintenance on Rental Properties: The Bottom Line

Rental Property Maintenance: Video Extra

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