AppFolio Property Manager vs. Dotloop

We have 6 apartment buildings that we manage. Every month we were having to drive to each location to collect rent checks. Since using appfolio, we only have a couple of renters that still send in a paper check, the rest pay online, so we are ensuring that our renters are paying on time. Once we have an applicant apply, the old way was to take their scanned application, review, and then pay to have a background check conducted. Now, with appfolio, we are able to have them apply, sign off on the background check, and pay their deposit all in one shot. It has allowed our property managers to focus on other property items rather than conducting background checks.

Incentivized

In Real Estate sales and property management, Dotloop will be your best friend. When you need clients or tenants to sign a lease or a contract, sending through dotloop is extremely easygoing and keeps everything organized pertaining to what you name the loop. I think I speak for my whole office when I say that without dotloop, our lives would be a disorderly mess, and we would find ourselves losing papers and becoming confused. Dotloop really helps our office like no other and has great support along the way!

Incentivized

• Multi-entity accounting management
• Checking printing: We have multiple bank accounts tied to our account and utilize blank check stock. Appfolio automatically prints the routing numbers and account numbers at the bottom of the blank checks based on which property we are paying a bill from.
• Tie-in with their Investment Management tool gives our investors a great resource while keeping our investments in sync with our accounting software.

Incentivized

• Dotloop's user interface is the best I've seen! It brings you exactly to where you need to read and sign.
• The security features were great and it makes it easy when the client doesn't need to create an account.
• Convenience is everything! Dotloop has made it easier than ever to complete multiple days of paperwork.

Incentivized

• Only a few very technical items that wouldn't necessarily make sense to non-users and I haven't even cared enough to submit requests on the issues. It'd be nice if parking was easier to keep track of on the system. Right now, if you run a report it doesn't show all the information our company requires for the vehicles and therefore we have to keep track of it elsewhere.
• Another obstacle we've encountered is that the program charges "by door" so if you have multiple units and properties you can really rack up pricing. That's especially true for large multi-unit buildings with parking.

Incentivized

• Somewhat clunky interface that can be a little dizzying at times
• Weird login protocols (at least when I was using it), making it hard to switch from the free to paid version or vice versa
• Membership limitations that make businesses buy more subscriptions than they need, or not enough

Incentivized

The system is so intuitive and easy to use. There’s almost nothing in the system that can’t be undone if you make a mistake. Important things also have their own tabs. It’s also easy to use from the resident side which is helpful for in a world where everyone is not tech-savvy.

Incentivized

The Brokers I've connected with that used Dotloop in the past have also had the same issue I had. Their relationship with "thousands" of MLS listing services is not true. No one took responsibility for not communicating this early on. Everyone just pointed the finger at other departments and did absolutely nothing to alleviate the situation.

To add insult to injury, the system crashes during peak usage, making it near impossible to submit offers promptly. If requested I am more than open to provide the video showing both when the system crashes and the aforementioned issue

In our experience, customer support consists of submitting questions to a bot. When the bot can't answer the question it repeats your question back to you. When you ask for customer support, someone says they will email you with an answer. The answer never comes and then your question is closed out. In my experience, customer service reps then direct you to go to the suggestion boards where you realize there are thousands of frustrated AppFolio Property Manager users who are receiving no help. On our particular hot-spot issue, other customers have submitted requests for help since 2015, but no help is forthcoming

Incentivized

Good support but onboard training could probably be a bit better as well as documentation. But we rarely need support as the software works flawlessly once you know how to use it. Very happy with support so far and I recommend the product.

Incentivized

Before we used AppFolio Property Manager we used Skyline. Skyline Property Management was super outdated. The tenants did not have access to that program so we had to purchase another program for them to make their payments through. We would then have to manually enter every single payment. Onboarding and transferring data to AppFolio from Skyline was a nightmare and took us several months. AppFolio is so much easier for tenant use.

Incentivized

We chose Dotloop because of how user friendly and customizable the software is. Our office is ever evolving and we needed a software that can grow with us as we advance and change the way we do things. Other software we tried was limited in this and didn't allow for minor things to be changed.

Incentivized

• Wonderful to see how much rent we are drawing in, so we can base budgets off of that. It is a great way to retain that rent and put towards future improvements.
• Wonderful way for tenants to pay their rent without us using a separate payment system or ACH payment. They can set up an account with a credit or debit card, or checking account and it drastically helps us with time management!
• The help that the AppFolio staff is willing to do, saves time on us trying to troubleshoot.

Incentivized

• Great at allowing our management to see what is going on within the office
• Great at quality and compliance with the submit for review function

Incentivized