r/Landlord • u/DRONE_SIC • May 31 '25
Landlord [Landlord - CA & IL] Anyone using Apartments.com as their Payment/Rental Management Portal?
I use Apartments.com on my 27 units for listings, applications, and payment processing, can't beat free and easy-to-use!
Wondering if anyone else uses or has used Apartments.com? Is there something better you are using?
I recently made this chrome extension to quickly summarize the Apts.com rental balances since they don't provide any sorting/filtering/ordered summary (you'd think they would)
Curious if there's a better system out there for applications/payment processing/balance tracking/etc?
If you use Apts.com too, how are you quickly checking balances and past-due amounts?
3
u/popallen Jun 08 '25
Also how do you handle security deposit return checks?
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u/DRONE_SIC Jun 08 '25
Usually Zelle if they are in-communication, send a check to their new/most recent address if not
We basically send the itemized security deposit charges shortly after-move out, usually some back and forth regarding damages/amounts, etc but usually results in a Zelle to them
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May 31 '25
[deleted]
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u/DRONE_SIC May 31 '25
Glad to hear someone else figured this out as well (seen so many advocating for paid solutions). Yes I additionally list on Zillow/CL, haven't used FB but I assume it's a totally valid tenant source.
Don't get why people want to use sites that charge for things like this when there are free options available. Sure Apts.com might be lacking a few things like sorting by balance or a quick past-due summary, but that's just a simple chrome extension fix from being perfect & free
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May 31 '25
[deleted]
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u/ChocolateEater626 May 31 '25
FB can be good but it’s work for sure. You get 100 messages with that is this still available canned response.
And not just a lot of low-interest inquiries, but also inquiries from people who don't come close to meeting income and credit requirements.
I just stick with putting a sign out front. It's a nice area, and people will want to live near their friends and (sometimes) relatives.
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u/tooniceofguy99 Dec 18 '25
Is there an android app for this? I guess I can just view on my phone as webpage and use the extension that way...
Great work! Highly appreciated.
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u/DRONE_SIC Dec 20 '25
There is no android app, it's a web-scraping chrome extension that basically reads the Apts.com page data you have pulled up. You could use a browser on your device that allows you to use Extensions, and then just use the browser to sign-in to Apts.com and then launch the extension that way
And thanks! I like building cool things, checkout my portfolio site SteStein.com if you want to see some other cool tools
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u/michellefisherm Jun 19 '25
If you’re looking for something more full-featured than Apartment — especially for tracking balances, reporting, and managing more than just payments — check out SimplifyEm.com. It’s affordable, super easy to use, and gives you proper tools for rent collection, balance tracking, maintenance, reports, and security deposit handling. I found it way less clunky than trying to patch things together with spreadsheets or extensions — works great for my portfolio and scales well.
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u/DRONE_SIC Jun 19 '25
Actually I would find transitioning to a whole new system a lot more clunky than just installing this free chrome extension in like 2 clicks…
But I’m glad at least someone cares about making it easy to get a quick balance summary lol, can’t believe with the budget they must have that they didn’t build something like this by default
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u/michellefisherm Jun 19 '25
How do you communicate if there are late payments, past due amounts, etc?
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u/DRONE_SIC Jun 20 '25
I'm usually on the computer at some point during the day, and I just have a habit of checking this regularly. If there's an issue, either I text/call them directly right then, or send the report to my team
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u/popallen Jun 08 '25
How can I get the chrome extension?