We want to understand where Moderan is winning and losing in this comparison and what the CRE niche really needs, to help CRE property managers feel more confident in choosing us.
Real Estate management checklist:
- space changes, unlike residential real estate, commercial spaces are often rebuilt and the space size changes.
- Deadlines, there are always lease deadlines, indexation windows, notice periods, insurance requirements, etc.
- Utility calculations, they need to reflect all the vacancies, exceptions and tenant and space changes.
Keeping track of all these factors with spreadsheets is complicated even with the simplest portfolios. While Excel does what it’s meant to do really well, it certainly has its limits. The lease information is not centralised & automated, which wastes time and causes often costly errors in the data.
Differences between commercial and residential property management
When choosing the best portfolio management software, you’ll notice that they fall into two categories: commercial and residential. There are major differences between the two.
A lease for a residential property is usually short term and pretty standard and easy to renew. In contrast, commercial tenants leases are complex and feature a variety of exceptions and extension options. Only a commercial property manager is likely to understand such leases, know how to manage all the different indexation terms and track various CPI types and periods. Or be able to help, if the tenant wants to end the contract early, which is often costly and will depend on various lock-in and termination clauses.
Proptech – Increasing need for CRE management innovation
Recent hunger for technology is driven by 2 pressures:
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How can property managers evaluate the real estate management tools?
Proptech is a hot topic in the commercial real estate industry now, but many questions remain about which products are viable and where proptech can deliver the highest return on investment.
Main development is emerging with property management business process automation, in order to move away from Excel. However spreadsheets are still today used as a primary tool for many key processes in commercial real estate: such as leasing, budgeting, and reporting.
Key points for making decisions, that CRE managers must look at are:
- Features : document management, lease administration, operational data etc.
- Usability : easy or difficult.
- Pricing : starting price point, flexibility of adding users or features etc
- Integrations/ compatibility with other management tools – reports, accounting, utility readings – calculations, invoicing, accounting consolidation, alerts/ reminders.
- Customer support : Email/Help Desk, Knowledge Base, Phone Support.
- Training – In Person, Live Online, Webinars, Documentation, Videos
- Value for Money
The top listed CRE proptech solutions comparison comparable to us:
| Moderan | Yardi Breeze | AppFolio | Buildium | VTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CRE | Residential / CRE | Residential / CRE | Residential / CRE | CRE |
| Starting from 48 per month / per user | Starting from 100 per month/ per feature | Starting from 280 per month/ per feature | Starting from 50 per month / per feature | Starting from 20 000 per year / not provided |
| 1-500 users | 1-50 users | 1-500 users | 1-1000 users | 1000+ users |
| Support | Support | Support | Support | Support |
| Email/Help Desk FAQs/Forum Knowledge-Base Phone Support Chat | Email/Help Desk FAQs/Forum Phone Support Chat | Email/Help Desk FAQs/Forum Knowledge-Base Phone Support Chat | Email/Help Desk FAQs/Forum Knowledge-Base Phone Support Chat | Email/Help Desk FAQs/Forum Knowledge-Base Chat |
| Training | Training | Training | Training | Training |
| In Person Live Online Webinars Documentation Videos | Live Online Webinars Documentation Videos | In Person Live Online Webinars Documentation Videos | Live Online Webinars Documentation Videos | In Person Live Online Webinars Documentation Videos |
source: capterra.com
| Portfolio / Spaces Management | Contact / Lease contracts Management | Utilities calculations & Exceptions |
| Critical Date Alerts | Reminders | Tenant Tracking |
| Cash Flow Analysis | Document Management | Vacancy Management |
| Activity Dashboard | Commercial Property Management | Ad hoc Reporting, integration with accounting & many more |
Moderan online property management software works best for commercial leases and mixed use portfolios with various types of commercial rental spaces. For the Commercial property owners, commercial property managers, mixed use property portfolio managers, asset managers. Pricing: from 48 per month / per user.
Yardi Breeze Property Management Features
| Credit Check | Tenant Portal | Property Management |
| Online Payments | Tenant Tracking | Residential Properties |
| Tax Management | Vacancy Management | Portfolio Management |
| Accounting | Billing & Invoicing | Cash Flow Analysis & many more |
source: capterra.com
Yardi Breeze is property management software built exclusively for small to midsize businesses. Yardi Breeze offers features such as autocomplete address lookups, data import utility, home screen dashboard, drill-down reporting. Pricing: from 100 per month/ per feature.
AppFolio Property Management Features
| Credit Check | Document Management | Commercial Leases |
| Online Payments | Tenant Tracking | Commercial Property Management |
| Tax Management | Vacancy Management | Billing & Invoicing |
| Accounting | Deal Management | Cash Flow Analysis & many more |
source: capterra.com
AppFolio is a self-service online owner and renter portals, online applications and leases, online payments, built-in screening, maintenance requests, mobile inspections, bulk text messaging, accounting and reporting, and a seamless mobile app experience. Focus on apartments, residential, commercial, council and student property managers. Pricing: from 280 per month/ per feature.
Buildium Property Management Features
| Billing & Invoicing | Commercial Property Management | Maintenance Management |
| Credit Check | Contact Management | Owner Portal |
| Financial Management | Late Fee Calculation | Portfolio Management |
| Insurance Management | Lease Management | Payment Processing & many more |
source: capterra.com
Buildium is a cloud-based property management software that enables managers of residential and association properties to take control of every aspect of their business, whether in the office or fully remote, including online rent. The software covers community associations, student housing, affordable housing and residential properties. Pricing: from 50 per month / per feature.
VTS Property Management Features
| Commercial Property Management | Portfolio Management | Alerts/Notifications |
| Contact Management | Property Database | Cash Flow Analysis |
| Lease Management | Rent Tracking | Vacancy Management |
| Maintenance Management | Tenant Tracking | Document Management & many more |
source: capterra.com
VTS is a CRE leasing and asset management platform. VTS specializes in centralizing critical data and workflows in one place, VTS empowers landlords, property managers, and brokers to better attract, convert and retain their most valuable assets and tenants. Pricing: from 20 000 per year.
If you are still using Excel for CRE management – then the closest answer for an upgrade is clearly Moderan.
We can see there are many property management software options to choose from: some are for scale and pricey, some have robust basics but meant for smaller scale portfolios, some try to cover both sides of the real estate segment, commercial and residential property management and some try to do many things at once.
Moderan has the best benefits for CRE management and we want it to be the best in this one thing – to be the best online management software for commercial real estate portfolio managers. This is one of the most important differences compared to many universal real estate management platforms.
Moderan pricing is user based and not units based, which gives you better value for money. You can start small with a pilot including just one property and scale it, when you see the value to extend it to the full portfolio.
Moderan have been in the market 5 years and as of today over €2 billion worth of assets, more than 1.5 million m² of leasable space – 650+ buildings and 8 500+ tenants managed with Moderan Property Management Software.
Reach out to our team or book your free personal demo, to get a full overview for making decisions if it’s matching your property management needs. Link to our meeting calendar you can find here BOOK A MEETING. We speak 6 languages.
