PropsManager: The Future of Your Rental Business

By PropsManager Team · Software Comparison · Jul 01, 2024

I remember the exact moment I knew something had to change. It was 11 PM on a Tuesday. I had three spreadsheets open, a stack of paper lease agreements on my desk, and a voicemail from a tenant about a leaking faucet that had been sitting in my inbox for two days. My rent tracking sheet didn't match my bank deposits, I'd missed a lease renewal deadline, and I was pretty sure one of my tenants had been paying $50 short for the last three months without me noticing.

Sound familiar?

That chaos is exactly why PropsManager exists. Not because we thought the world needed another software platform—but because we were landlords ourselves, drowning in the same mess, and nothing on the market actually fixed the whole problem.

Why Most Landlords Are Still Running Their Business Like It's 2005

Here's the dirty truth about rental property management: the vast majority of independent landlords are still cobbling together a patchwork of tools that don't talk to each other. A spreadsheet for rent tracking. A filing cabinet for leases. Zillow for listings. Venmo or paper checks for payments. A notepad on the fridge for maintenance requests.

According to the National Association of Realtors, roughly 72% of rental properties in the U.S. are owned by individual investors—not big corporations. And most of those investors are managing properties the same way they did a decade ago.

The problem isn't laziness. It's that until recently, real property management software was built for companies managing 500+ units with dedicated staff. The pricing reflected that—$200, $300, sometimes $500 per month for platforms that required a full-time admin to operate. For someone with 4 rental doors bringing in $5,200 a month? That math doesn't work.

So landlords did what landlords do. They improvised. They white-knuckled it. And they lost money they didn't even realize they were losing.

The Hidden Cost of "Getting By"

Let me put some real numbers on this. Say you own 8 units and you're managing everything manually:

• Late rent you don't catch immediately: $200–$600/month in delayed cash flow
• Vacancy days from slow listing turnaround: 10 extra days × $50/day = $500 per turnover
• Missed lease renewals leading to month-to-month gaps: potential $1,200+ in below-market rent annually
• Maintenance requests that fall through the cracks: one ignored water leak can turn into a $4,000 remediation bill
• Tax prep chaos from poor record-keeping: $500–$1,500 in extra CPA fees or missed deductions

Add it up. You're easily leaving $5,000–$10,000 on the table every year. Not because you're bad at your job—because your tools are.

What PropsManager Actually Does (And Why It's Different)

PropsManager isn't a feature checklist we slapped together to look good on a comparison page. Every piece of the platform was built to solve a specific, real problem that landlords deal with weekly—sometimes daily. Let me walk you through it.

Marketing and Listing Syndication

When a unit goes vacant, every single day it sits empty costs you money. If your three-bedroom rents for $1,800/month, that's $60/day you're not collecting. So speed matters.

With PropsManager, you create your listing once—photos, description, pricing, availability date—and syndicate it to the top rental sites with one click. We're talking Zillow, Apartments.com, Zumper, Facebook Marketplace, and more. No logging into five different platforms. No copy-pasting the same description. No forgetting to update one site when you change the price.

Our users report cutting their average vacancy period by 8–12 days compared to manual listing. On an $1,800/month unit, that's $480–$720 saved per turnover. Do that across a few units per year and you've already paid for the software multiple times over.

Tenant Screening That Actually Protects You

Bad tenant selection is the single most expensive mistake a landlord can make. I've seen one bad placement cost an owner $15,000 between unpaid rent, legal fees, and property damage. Fifteen thousand dollars from one decision.

PropsManager's integrated screening pulls credit reports, background checks, eviction history, and income verification into one dashboard. You don't need to sign up for a separate screening service, email links back and forth, or try to interpret raw credit data on your own.

The platform gives you a clear recommendation score based on the criteria you set—minimum credit score, income-to-rent ratio, rental history—so you're making consistent, fair housing-compliant decisions every time. No gut feelings. No bias risk. Just data.

Digital Lease Signing

Paper leases are a liability. They get lost. They get altered. They create he-said-she-said disputes that end up in small claims court.

PropsManager's digital lease signing lets you send, sign, and store lease agreements entirely online. Both parties get a timestamped, tamper-proof copy. You can use our templates or upload your own. Addendums, pet agreements, parking addendums—everything lives in one place.

One of our users told me she used to spend an entire Saturday driving lease packets around to new tenants. Now she sends them from her phone while waiting in line at the grocery store. That's not a hypothetical. That's a real Tuesday afternoon.

For more on why digital leases matter, check out our post on why you need a digital lease agreement.

Online Rent Collection

This is the one that changes everything for most landlords. Truly.

Before PropsManager, collecting rent meant waiting for checks in the mail, chasing down Venmo payments, keeping track of who paid and who didn't, and manually reconciling everything against your bank account. It's tedious, error-prone, and it makes confronting late payers awkward because you're never 100% sure of your own records.

With PropsManager's rent collection, tenants pay online through ACH, credit card, or debit card. Payments are tracked automatically. Late fees are assessed automatically based on your lease terms. You get notified instantly when a payment comes in—or doesn't.

No more "I sent the check last week" conversations. No more wondering if your deposit matched your ledger. No more spending Sunday afternoons updating spreadsheets.

We've seen landlords using PropsManager reduce their late payment rate by up to 40% simply because tenants have an easy, modern way to pay and automatic reminders nudging them before the due date. That's not magic—that's just removing friction.

Read more about how automation transforms rent collection in our guide to automating rent collection.

Maintenance Tracking

Here's a scenario every landlord knows: a tenant texts you about a problem. You make a mental note. Life happens. Three weeks later, the tenant is furious, the problem has gotten worse, and you're scrambling to find a contractor on short notice.

PropsManager gives tenants a portal to submit maintenance requests with photos and descriptions. You see them immediately, assign them to vendors, track progress, and close them out—all with a full audit trail. No more lost texts. No more "I told you about this two months ago" disputes.

You can even categorize requests by priority, track costs against each property, and identify recurring issues that might signal a bigger problem. That $150 plumbing call showing up every quarter? Probably time for a $600 repipe that saves you $4,000 over the next five years.

Automated Financial Reports

Come tax season, do you dread pulling together your rental income and expense reports? You're not alone. A survey by Buildium found that 62% of landlords spend more than 10 hours per year on rental property bookkeeping, and nearly a quarter spend over 25 hours.

PropsManager generates profit-and-loss statements, expense reports, and rent rolls automatically. Every payment, every maintenance expense, every fee—it's all tracked and categorized in real time. When your CPA asks for your Schedule E documentation, you export it in two clicks.

No more shoebox of receipts. No more frantic January spreadsheet marathons.

PropsManager vs. The Old Way: A Side-by-Side Comparison

Built for Growth: From 1 Unit to 1,000

One of the biggest mistakes I see landlords make is choosing tools based on where they are today instead of where they want to be in three years. You start with a duplex, and a spreadsheet works fine. Then you pick up a fourplex. Then a small apartment building. Suddenly your "system" is a tangled mess of files, folders, and memory—and you're spending more time managing your management process than actually managing properties.

PropsManager scales with you. The interface works the same whether you have 1 unit or 100. The workflows, the automation, the reporting—it all grows as your portfolio grows. You don't outgrow the platform. You don't migrate. You just keep going.

We've watched users go from 3 units to 30 in two years without ever needing to change their process. That kind of operational consistency is what separates landlords who build wealth from landlords who burn out.

Check out our pricing page to see plans that fit portfolios of every size.

What Real Landlords Are Saying

We don't need to sell you on PropsManager with marketing copy. Our users do it for us.

"I managed 12 units with a Google Sheet for four years. Switching to PropsManager was like going from a flip phone to a smartphone. I can't believe I waited so long." — David, Portland, OR

"The maintenance tracking alone saved my sanity. I used to lose sleep worrying I'd forgotten about a repair request. Now everything's in one place." — Maria, Austin, TX

"My late payment rate dropped from about 20% to under 5% in the first three months. Tenants actually prefer paying online. Who knew?" — James, Charlotte, NC

The Landlord's Growth Checklist

Not sure if you're ready to upgrade your operations? Here's a quick checklist. If you check off three or more, it's time:

• You're tracking rent payments in a spreadsheet or notebook
• You've missed a lease renewal date in the past year
• Tenants contact you about maintenance via text or phone call
• You spend more than 2 hours per month on bookkeeping for your rentals
• You post to listing sites one at a time when a unit goes vacant
• You've had a dispute with a tenant over payment history
• You can't pull a profit-and-loss statement for a specific property in under 5 minutes
• You're managing more than 3 units and still doing everything manually

If that list stung a little, don't worry. You're in good company. And the fix is simpler than you think.

Security and Compliance: The Stuff You Don't Think About Until It's Too Late

Managing rental properties means handling sensitive data. Social security numbers from screening applications. Bank account information from rent payments. Personal details in lease agreements. If that data gets compromised because it's sitting in an email attachment or an unencrypted spreadsheet, you're the one on the hook.

PropsManager uses bank-level 256-bit encryption, secure cloud storage, and role-based access controls. Your data—and your tenants' data—is protected by the same standards that financial institutions use. That's not a nice-to-have anymore. In an age of increasing data privacy regulations, it's a necessity.

Getting Started Is Easier Than You Think

Switching to new software sounds like a project, right? Another thing on the to-do list. Another learning curve.

Here's the truth: most PropsManager users are fully set up in under an hour. You add your properties, invite your tenants, upload existing leases if you have them, and you're off. The interface is designed for landlords who'd rather be fixing a fence than reading a user manual.

And if you need help? Our support team—actual humans who understand property management—will walk you through every step. We're not going to point you at a knowledge base and wish you luck.

Want to see it in action? Request a demo and we'll show you exactly how PropsManager fits your portfolio.

Explore More PropsManager Resources

Looking for the right property management software? Check out our in-depth guides:

• Compare Property Management Software — See how PropsManager stacks up against Buildium, AppFolio, Rent Manager, and Propertyware.
• Software for Small Landlords — Built for landlords managing 1–50 units without the enterprise price tag.
• AI-Powered Property Management — Discover how automation can save you 5–10 hours per week.
• Solutions for Property Managers — Scale from 50 to 500+ units without scaling your costs.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does PropsManager cost?

PropsManager offers tiered plans based on the number of units you manage, starting at a price point that makes sense even for landlords with just a couple of doors. Every plan includes core features like rent collection, maintenance tracking, and financial reporting. Visit our pricing page for current rates and to find the plan that fits your portfolio.

Can I switch to PropsManager if I already have tenants mid-lease?

Absolutely. You don't need to wait for a lease cycle to roll over. You can import your existing properties and lease details, invite current tenants to the platform, and start using PropsManager immediately. Most landlords complete the transition in a single afternoon without disrupting their tenants at all.

Is PropsManager only for large landlords?

Not even close. We built PropsManager specifically because the market was ignoring independent landlords. Whether you own a single rental condo or a portfolio of 50 units, the platform works the same way. In fact, the majority of our users manage between 1 and 20 units. The automation and time savings are arguably even more valuable for smaller operators who don't have staff to delegate to.

Does PropsManager handle Section 8 or subsidized housing payments?

Yes. PropsManager supports tracking payments from multiple sources per unit, so you can record housing authority payments alongside tenant portions. The system keeps everything organized and generates reports that distinguish between payment sources—which is exactly what you need for compliance and record-keeping. For more background, see our guide on Section 8 housing for private landlords.

What happens to my data if I cancel?

Your data belongs to you—period. If you ever decide to leave PropsManager, you can export all of your property records, financial reports, lease documents, and tenant information before closing your account. We don't hold your data hostage or charge export fees. We'd rather earn your business every month than trap you into staying.

Stop Managing Chaos. Start Managing Properties.

Every hour you spend updating spreadsheets, chasing rent checks, or digging through emails for a maintenance request is an hour you're not spending on what actually matters: growing your portfolio, improving your properties, and building long-term wealth.

PropsManager replaces the duct-tape-and-spreadsheet approach with a single, purpose-built platform that handles marketing, screening, leasing, rent collection, maintenance, and accounting—all in one place.

The landlords who thrive in the next decade won't be the ones working the hardest. They'll be the ones working the smartest. And smart starts with the right tools.

Get started with PropsManager today or schedule a personalized demo to see how it fits your rental business. Your spreadsheet days are numbered.