I'm thinking about starting a property management system that doesn't suck and would like to hear from you
**Im thinking about building a property management system that doesn't suck. If you find it challenging managing your properties would like to invite you to DOMUS (private Beta)** [**https://airtable.com/shrFggf3GdqotqC8x**](https://airtable.com/shrFggf3GdqotqC8x)

I work for a company in the prop-tech space as a software engineer. I interact with some of the biggest property management systems in the industry, Yardi, Real Page, Entrata, MRI to name a few. The reality is that using these property management systems is **painful**.

Most of these PMS are built on top of old technology, are bloated with unuseful features, complex UI and not the best customer service. If you look at some of the images of the PMS out there it seems like Windows 98 back in the day.

We are thinking about building **DOMUS,** a property management system for landlords. A PMS that solves your problems. We would like you to invite you to our private Beta by completing this form:

[**https://airtable.com/shrFggf3GdqotqC8x**](https://airtable.com/shrFggf3GdqotqC8x)

If you would like to jump on a video call, phone call please send me a DM and would love to hear what we can build to solve your problems. We are building this PMS from scratch, so the focus of our MVP is to be of value to you. Help us build a solution for you.
[{"id": "ii7avle", "text": "How exciting! Best of luck! \n\nThe problem coming up with the perfect system is - there are many different opinions of what makes a perfect system. What is the focus? Some users put emphasis on financials. Some reporting. Some ease of use. Others want the work order system to be top notch. Others want a system to be easy to integrate with so they can build their own value add rather than rely on the base system only. \n\nEach of the big systems have their areas of specialty but none of them suit all needs. It\u2019s really hard to build one from the ground up that is easy to use, and great at everything.\n\nI think you need to decide what your \u201cthing\u201d is. If it\u2019s building a system that doesn\u2019t suck, then I understand that to be one that\u2019s easy to use. \n\nMaybe that\u2019s your niche, but you won\u2019t be able to satisfy everyone.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ii7fcz8", "text": "Having worked in the commercial property management for many years in various roles ( from operations, technology implementation etc) I am well aware about what's out there in this space and how the business works.\n\nMost of the companies founded by tech guys or inexperienced real estate professionals do not understand the business of property management. They think that by copying another solution will reinvent the wheel.\n\nThere is no question that there is a ton of software that was developed 10-20 years ago and looks &amp;runs like windows 95.\nThat's the reason why most of the companies struggle to integrate older systems via APIs (applications sitting on top of other applications).\n\nAs an user experience this is like putting a Tesla battery in an old gas car and thinking that you drive a Tesla.\n\n\nProperty management as a business is not complicated if you understand how it works and how the data flows in a company.\n\n\nAnother important consideration where some people fail is that they do  not see /understand the difference between the 2 main aspects of a property management business: Operations and Accounting.\nTo properly run a company you only need these 2 different systems and that's it.\n\nAlso, understanding the differences between the needs of people managing different types of properties (commercial, residential , condos ) is important. \n\nFor example there are only 2-3 companies who deliver good Operations solutions for commercial property management but a ton of companies for residential or mixed portfolios.\n\nTherefore developing a software for PM can be a complicated equation.", "replies": [{"id": "ii8991i", "text": "All truth here", "replies": [{"id": "iij76u4", "text": "Yardi Vojager is an accounting software and that's it. Yardi does have some software for operations ...Yardi Facilities but it's very poor when it comes to functionalities, user interface etc.\n\nOn top of that , all Yardi licensing fees are extremally high for that they offer.\n\nThey will promise a lot during the sale process but in reality they should stick with the accounting side of the business.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}, {"id": "iia2y18", "text": "What are the 2-3 companies that deliver good operational solutions?", "replies": [{"id": "iicuvdn", "text": "Yardi Voyager is currently the best in my opinion.  Reason being is that a ton of companies use it such as CBRE, Colliers etc and when you purchase properties from them, they can easily import the data from the other system into yours.", "replies": [{"id": "iij7jgr", "text": "I agree - for accounting purposes Yardi does a good job for medium/large size portfolios. \n\nCompared to other real estate accounting applications such as JDE, Yardi is better.\n\nFrom an operations perspective - there are better solutions to manage commercial portfolios than Yardi FM.", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}, {"id": "iijajhj", "text": "1. Building Engines - [www.buildingengines.com](https://www.buildingengines.com) is a good platform for Operations.\n\nIt has a lot of functionalities to be able to manage any size of commercial portfolios.\n\nJLL bough Building Engines about 1 year ago with the goal to make it better. So far they have not improved it to much . Also the licensing &amp; implementation fees are higher.\n\nBeing under a big company now I am also not confident about how the data  from their users is being used and if JLL gets access to it.\n\n2) eProp - [www.goeprop.com](https://www.goeprop.com) is a platform that was designed 100% for commercial property management. The team behind the platform consists of  commercial property managers and real estate professionals so they understand how the business works and how the buildings are managed . They also add new features and improvements quite often.\n\nCompared to Building Engines , eProp offers more features, better pricing and the implementation time is very small. Also their support team will provide assistance on how to set up maintenance plans for your buildings if needed, manage and track assets and a lot of technical support from a property management perspective.\n\n3) Angus Anywhere - was recently bought by MRI, which is a major player in the industry. The platform is extremely old, it lacks a lot of features, their user interface is poor but because they've been around for many years it's still being used by many companies.\n\nThey have similar pricing with Building Engines.\n\nAll these 3 platforms are being used for Operations , they are not accounting software.\n\nThere might be other platforms out there who might claim various things but I have not come across one that's worth mentioning.\n\nhopefully this helps...", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ii80bf0", "text": "You've made a valid argument about the older systems, but what makes yours special? Is it just the UI?", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "iih7my5", "text": "Appfolio was my preferred system software. I found it very simple and stream line yet effective. I have used Yardi, AMSI, Appfolio and Tenant Tech.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]