Yardi Breeze Review: Pros & Cons
As technology continues integrating with the property market, property managers turn to software to manage everyday tasks.
Yardi Breeze is one of many property management software solutions for you to choose from. However, is it as good as they advertise?
Let’s take an unbiased look at Yardi Breeze, all it has to offer, and its pros and cons. Is Yardi Breeze the right fit for you? This Yardi Breeze review will help you tell.
What Is Rental Property Management Software?
Rental property management software helps property managers market, fill, and maintain their properties. With property management software, managers can list available units, send and receive lease agreements, collect rent, and manage the general upkeep of the property.
Standard features in property management software include:
- Resident & Lease Management: Managers can keep track of their residents and assign units to new residents. They can also create leases, send them out, and set automated renewal cycles.
- Resident Dashboards: Residents can contact the property manager from the resident dashboard, where they can leave comments, get in touch, and query maintenance issues.
- Vacancy Tracking: Property managers have a bird’s eye view of all their vacant properties and other associated data.
- Accounting: Advanced property management software collects payments, inputs them, and does the manager’s bookkeeping.
- Inspection Software: Advanced property management software provides inspection utilities to simplify stand-alone home and apartment maintenance.
Why Do Property Managers Use Software?
The property management software market was valued at USD 3 billion in 2021 and is forecast to continue growing. So, why do so many property managers need to integrate management software into their day-to-day activities?
Property managers are busy people. There is little time to address the more miscellaneous tasks between listing units, managing current residents, tracking payments, and settling new residents. It also makes growing your business harder, as there’s less time to focus on growth strategies.
Property management software automates and simplifies the most time-consuming property management tasks. It also does it more accurately than most humans could. You don’t need to spend much money hiring a management firm or team.
Instead, one piece of software will do the work for you, freeing up your time and resources for other personal and business endeavors.
Our Yardi Breeze Review: Everything You Should Know
Now that you know what property management software is and what you can expect, let’s take an unbiased look at Yardi Breeze, a popular property management software solution.
What Is Yardi Breeze?
Yardi Breeze is a cloud-based property management software solution that prides itself on being powerful but easy to use. Property owners can market their property portfolio and manage their current residents from the intuitive dashboard.
Yardi Breeze Features
Here’s an overview of the most impressive Yardi Breeze property management features.
Unit Management
Yardi Breeze’s centralized dashboard showcases your month and the tasks you must complete. It also offers a snapshot of your properties and residents along with basic data on how your properties are doing.
The dashboard is accessible from any device as long as you have the login details. You can also change the dashboard permissions and access controls to allow users in without edit access.
Marketing
Finding residents for your units can be tricky, especially if there is a dip in the market. Yardi Breeze offers a solution with built-in marketing and leasing features.
You can share your available units on popular rental sites straight from your Yardi Breeze dashboard. Applicants can text you and send their applications to your account, where you can then start the screening process.
Advanced features include a customizable website, move-in and move-out automation, and state-regulated leases.
Rent Management
Residents can access their accounts, view their balances, and pay rent straight into your account from the resident portal. Yardi Breeze is also a PayNearMe partner, which allows walk-in payment with partnered retailers.
You can also see and manage all owed and paid balances. There is the option to automate payments and rent collection notifications to save more time and effort.
Accounting
Yardi Breeze has general ledger functions, allowing you to track payments, escrow, and trust accounts for all your units. The accounting feature has built-in tax options, with a reporting function for quick budget building and tracking.
You can also manage vendors and suppliers with invoicing and payment approval options. Batch processing allows you to manage large chunks of data and save time.
Reporting & Analytics
Whether you own the properties alone or with a partner, you can create reports and use the analytics features to get an overview of your units and how they’re doing. Yardi Breeze also allows you to create custom financials, pro rata statements, and reserve amounts.
Maintenance Management
Combine your apartment maintenance checklist with Yardi Breeze’s maintenance management feature for comprehensive maintenance management.
On your dashboard, you can view and approve maintenance requests, charge residents for maintenance fees, distribute the work to contractors, and track the maintenance progress.
Yardi Breeze Advantages For Property Managers & Owners
Let’s look at some of the benefits of using Yardi Breeze.
Easy Setup With AI
One of the most talked about benefits is how easy it is to set up. The dashboard is intuitive, with clear labels. Users also have access to AI-powered chatbots that can help them navigate common setup issues. There is also a well-developed help section that is regularly updated.
Market-specific
Property management is a very broad term for many property types, all of which have specific software needs.
Yardi Breeze understands this and offers market-specific functionality for the following sectors:
- Residential Properties
- Commercial Properties
- Self-storage
- Affordable Housing
- Manufactured Housing & Associations
You can adjust the management software to take advantage of relevant features in your market.
Good Customer Support
Yardi Breeze is known for providing good customer support. You can get in touch through email, and the help desk, and Yardie Breeze’s support staff will be there to help.
Customers find it easy to quickly resolve issues between the AI Chatbots, help guides, and phone and email support.
Easy Integration
The bank account and payment features are seamless. Connecting bank accounts and receiving payments are easy to set up, and there are rarely problems with the feature.
Powerful Accounting
Yardi Breeze has a general ledger and basic accounting features. While the features won’t be able to replace a qualified accountant, it is still robust. It saves users a lot of time, especially when collecting and inputting rent data.
Disadvantages Of Yardi Breeze
Software is very rarely perfect. Here are some common issues users experience with Yardi Breeze.
Not Mobile Friendly
The software is web-based. You can access it from any device. Unfortunately, while you can access the software from your phone, it doesn’t respond well. It crashes often, and there are many glitches. Yardi Breeze isn’t the best option if you are looking for a mobile software solution.
Third-Party Integrations Are A Struggle
Integrating with third-party apps, including accounting software or inspection software you’re already using, is difficult. Even if the software does integrate, it usually comes with bugs and glitches that make it almost impossible to use.
Yardi Breeze also has no open API, which limits how much you can customize your software and integrations.
Downtime
Yardi Breeze is updated regularly. However, many users frequently struggle with bugs that cause software crashes. This downtime can be a big nuisance, especially if you manage more than a handful of units.
Yardie Breeze Alternatives
If Yardi Breeze doesn’t have the features and capabilities you want, consider the following alternatives.
RentCheck
RentCheck is property inspection software that empowers residents by letting them manage inspections themselves. It’s a powerful inspection platform that saves owners and managers time, money, and stress. It also revolutionized how managers go about building maintenance.
Besides the inspection aspect of the software, it also has many other features, including one-step scheduling, customized inspections, automated inspection reminders, timestamped reports, and easy import and integration.
Buildium
Buildium is a property management software that was developed in 2004. Like Yardi Breeze, it offers leasing features, accounting and payment options, and access to marketing platforms.
If you want to learn more, we have an in-depth review of Buildium property management software, where we investigate and compare all its features.
Rent Manager
Rent Manager is another older property management software option with a long history. It was built to manage residential, commercial, and short-term/holiday properties with accounting, maintenance management, and marketing features.
Where it differs from Yardi Breeze is its customizability. Rent Manager has open API and other customization features allowing easy integration with third-party software.
Improve Your Bottom Line With Software
Property management software offers property managers and owners powerful features that simplify property management, free up resources, and save time. But finding the right management software can be a struggle.
Yardi is a popular software option. Hopefully, this Yardi Breeze review showed you everything you need to know about the software, the good and the bad. Use this review to guide you to the software option best for you.
Speaking of the best: if you want the best inspection software, then you need to try RentCheck. View a demo today to see RentCheck in action. We make inspections easier so that you can save time and increase profits.
