Property Management Software Features: What Small Landlords Actually Need
Most small landlords need six property management software features: online rent collection, applications with screening, e-signed leases, automatic late fees, maintenance requests and bookkeeping you can hand to a tax preparer. Owner portals, trust accounting and AI assistants matter once you manage for others or pass about 20 units. Here's how to judge each feature, and how the tools compare, before you pick from the best property management software for small landlords.
By LandlordTested editorial teamLast reviewed
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The six features that do most of the work
Online rent collection
This is the feature you’ll use most, so look past the headline. Check three numbers: what the tenant pays per ACH payment, what they pay by card, and how long the money takes to reach your bank.
Across the tools we track, tenant ACH runs from $0 (Hemlane Basic, TurboTenant Pro, Avail Unlimited Plus) to $2.50 (Avail’s free plan). Card fees sit around 3% to 3.5%. On a $1,650 rent, a 3.49% card fee is about $57.59, so most landlords push tenants toward ACH. Also look for autopay, partial payment controls and automatic reminders before the due date.
Applications and tenant screening
The applicant should enter their own details and consent to the check, and the report should land next to the application. Screening prices vary a lot: TurboTenant charges $55 on its free plan, Avail $55 for a bundle or $30 for one report, RentRedi $39.99, and Buildium $17 if you pay or $35 if the applicant pays.
Check what the report includes. Credit, criminal and eviction history is the usual bundle. Income verification is often extra: $10 on Innago, or included on TurboTenant Pro.
E-signed leases
A lease you can send, sign and store online saves a trip and gives you a dated record. Check the limits. Avail includes state-specific leases with e-sign on its free plan. Stessa charges $15 per state lease on its free plan and has no e-sign, with 1 e-signature a month on Manage and 7 on Pro. TurboTenant’s unlimited e-sign starts on Essentials. A state-specific template is a starting point, not legal advice, so read it against your state’s rules.
Automatic late fees
Useful, as long as you can set it correctly. You need control over the grace period, a flat or percentage amount, and ideally a cap. Many states regulate this. New York allows the lesser of $50 or 5% of monthly rent, and only once rent is more than 5 days late. Colorado allows the greater of $50 or 5% of the past-due rent, and only once rent is at least 7 days late. If the software can’t match your state’s rule, turn the automation off and add fees by hand.
Maintenance requests
Tenants should be able to submit a request with photos from their phone, and you should see a timeline of when it came in and when it was fixed. That record helps in deposit disputes and habitability complaints. Repair coordination by real people is a service, not a feature: Hemlane’s Essential plan adds 24/7 coordination for a $28 platform fee plus $20 per unit a month.
Bookkeeping for tax time
At minimum, you want income and expenses tracked by property, with categories that line up with Schedule E. Better tools pull bank transactions in automatically and let you attach receipts. Stessa does this free for unlimited properties, with the Schedule E report on its $12-a-month Manage plan. Baselane’s free Core plan combines banking with property-level tracking and Schedule E.
Features that matter once you’re bigger
- Owner portal and owner statements. Only if you manage for others or have partners. Buildium, DoorLoop and TenantCloud Pro include one.
- Trust accounting. Required in many states when you hold other people’s money as a manager. Buildium supports it, and Rentec Direct includes it on its Rentec PM plan.
- Multiple users with permissions. Matters once you have a partner, an assistant or a regular handyman. Check how many users each plan allows.
- Bank reconciliation. Matching your books to bank statements month by month. TenantCloud puts it on Pro. Buildium includes double-entry accounting on Essential.
- API and integrations. Most landlords under 20 units never touch these.
Features you can usually skip
AI assistants, company websites and leasing CRMs show up on higher tiers of several products. For a landlord with a few units, they rarely change how much time the job takes. Listing syndication is nice, but most free plans include it anyway.
Questions to ask during a free trial
- What does a tenant pay for each ACH and card payment, and can I cover it?
- How many business days does rent take to reach my bank?
- Can I set a grace period, a percentage late fee and a cap?
- How many e-signed leases do I get each month on this plan?
- How many bank accounts can I connect, and does it cost extra?
- Can I export a rent roll, tenant ledgers and a profit-and-loss report?
- What happens to my data if I cancel?
If the answers are hard to find during a trial, expect them to be hard to find when you need them too.
How the tools compare on key features
Based on vendor pages checked 2026-10-18. “Partial” means plan-gated or limited.
| Tool | E-sign leases | Auto late fees | Accounting | Bank sync | Owner portal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TurboTenant | Paid plans | Yes | Partial (full on Pro) | Pro only | No |
| Avail | Yes | Yes | Income and expense tracking | Not confirmed | No |
| Innago | Yes | Yes | Partial | No | No dedicated portal |
| RentRedi | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed | No |
| TenantCloud | Yes | Yes | Yes | Reconciliation on Pro | Pro and up |
| Stessa | Paid plans, capped | Not confirmed | Yes | Yes | No |
| Buildium | Yes | Yes | Yes (double-entry) | Not confirmed | Yes |
| DoorLoop | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed | Yes |
Matching features to your size
One to four units. The six core features, free. TurboTenant, Avail or Innago for tenants, Stessa or Baselane for the books.
Five to twenty units. The same six, with more weight on late fee rules, maintenance tracking and bank sync, because volume is what eats your evenings. A flat-price plan like RentRedi at $12 a month billed annually starts to beat per-payment tenant fees.
Twenty units and up, or managing for others. Add double-entry accounting, owner statements and bank reconciliation. Buildium’s Essential plan at $62 a month is where most landlords at this size land.
Step by step
- 1
Write down your unit count and the jobs that eat your time
Count doors, not buildings. Then list the three jobs you most want off your plate, such as chasing rent, scheduling repairs or sorting receipts for taxes.
- 2
Rule out tools priced for a different size
Monthly minimums decide a lot. DoorLoop's $199 minimum and AppFolio's 50-unit minimum rule them out for most small portfolios before features even come up.
- 3
Test the six core features in a free plan or trial
List a unit, send yourself an application, draft a lease and set up a rent charge with a late fee. Note anything that's missing or locked behind a higher tier.
- 4
Price the plan you'd actually need
Add the subscription, what tenants pay per payment, screening costs and any per-lease or per-bank-account fees. Compare totals at your unit count, not headline prices.
Questions landlords ask
The questions we get most, each answered in a paragraph.
What features should property management software have?
For 1 to 20 units: online rent collection with automatic reminders and late fees, online applications with tenant screening, leases you can sign electronically, maintenance requests tenants can submit with photos, and income and expense tracking by property for Schedule E. Messaging inside the app and a tenant portal are close behind. Everything else depends on your size and whether you manage for others.
Do I need an owner portal?
Only if you manage property for someone else, or you co-own with partners who want their own view of the numbers. An owner portal lets owners see statements and documents without asking you. Buildium, DoorLoop and TenantCloud's Pro plan include one. TurboTenant, RentRedi and Avail don't, which is fine for landlords managing their own units.
What's the difference between single-entry and double-entry accounting in landlord software?
Single-entry tracks money in and money out by property, like a well-organized checkbook. Double-entry records every transaction in two accounts so the books balance, which gives you a real balance sheet and makes reconciliation possible. For a few rentals you own yourself, single-entry is usually enough. If you manage for others or your accountant asks for it, use double-entry software like Buildium or DoorLoop.
Is bank sync worth paying for?
If you have more than a handful of transactions a month, yes. Bank sync pulls transactions in so you only categorize them, instead of typing each one. Stessa and Baselane include bank feeds free. TurboTenant adds automatic import on Pro. Expect some maintenance: reviewers of Stessa mention connections that need refreshing.
Can software enforce my state's late fee rules?
It can apply whatever rule you set, but it doesn't know your state's law for you. You'll need to enter the grace period and the cap yourself. Maine allows no more than 4% of a month's rent and only after rent is more than 15 days late, for example, while Tennessee allows up to 10% after a 5-day grace period.