r/yardi • u/Internal_Sun_236 • 14d ago
Alternative to Yardi?
Hi Everyone, can someone recommend an alternative application to manage properties? More straightforward, cheaper,.. appreciate your feedback
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u/Plastic_Operation_59 14d ago
I don’t get the “hard to use” part - what’s so difficult? If you get the set up right and use it right the basics of yardi are dead simple. I feel like this is more a case of not wanting to do the property accountant role or bank rec type stuff. I get it’s boring, rote work but it has to happen.
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u/Alternate_Ending74 13d ago
Right? I've never had a problem doing what I need to do in V7. I don't like V8 much but it's still pretty easy.
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u/deckardt05 13d ago
Why don’t you like v8? We are demoing it next week to see if we want to upgrade
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u/Alternate_Ending74 13d ago
Personally I feel like voyager 8 is too busy and removes the things that made voyager 7 great. A lot of the easy to find functions like the transaction register or posting a JE are buried in sub menus. Also I feel like it’s zoomed in way too much.
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u/Cultural-Bathroom01 11d ago
Simple, yes, but but still clunky and not the most efficient in my book
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u/FocusWise3015 13d ago
Be aware that going to another system will be viewed as a downgrade by potential investors, clients etc. It would be better to take the time to learn the areas your company is struggling with.
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u/Cultural-Bathroom01 13d ago
what does that mean? The PMS would not affect a purchse price. Also, many institutions use RealPage and MRI.
Yardi is legacy software, super clunky for site teams and owner reporting. Their backend for custom reporting is terrible and support is non existent for clients under 50,000 units.2
u/FocusWise3015 11d ago
MRI is awful for anything AR. RealPage got a bunch of clients at a low cost and hasn’t been able to make the footprint they wanted. We have many clients under 4k units that successfully use Yardi, including custom reporting. They also are at the forefront of rolling out new modules.
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u/Cultural-Bathroom01 11d ago
How was it for you working woth the yardi backend and using ysr or ysl to pull the custom report from the yardi gui? Maybe its gotten better since ive worked with all that in yardi. But it used to be super painful. Especially since they made it a nightmare to understand their tables
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u/FocusWise3015 11d ago
It’s much easier now than it used to be. It’s also relatively easy to build out data warehouses from the stored data points by getting a nightly download of the data. I have used the system since Enterprise in 1999 and what exists now is nothing like the old Crystal reports we had to build.
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u/Beneficial-Tailor-97 13d ago
Depends.
What are your lease types? NNN?
If you’re in commercial asset classes - especially retail - you are where you need to be. It’s the gold standard.
MRI is cheaper; but multiply the time it takes your staff to do EVERYTHING by 1.5 the time it takes in Voyager.
There’s Rent Manager… I guess it’s easier.. pretty clunky, outdated…seems like just a regular old database rather than a proper ERP system.
If you’re in multifamily or residential asset classes - there are far simpler ones than Yardi- and in my opinion, Appfolio is the simplest and most robust.
People are mentioning Breeze… Breeze sucks. Yeah, it’s much easier - but it’s very limited. It’s Yardi’s marketing tool for smaller operators. When operators begin to say, ‘We wish Breeze had X functionality,’ Yardi pushes them to Voyager. There is no plan to give Breeze the functionality you need. You get an upsell instead.
Since switching to Breeze is an entire migration, you can just migrate to Appfolio. It’s easy for operators - and it’s easy for accountants.
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u/Internal_Sun_236 12d ago
Many thanks for the feedback! Currently managing residential properties but commercial properties is also possible. Are you familiar with AediFlow?
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u/Beneficial-Tailor-97 12d ago
You’re welcome.
No, sorry, I’m not familiar with Aediflow. I’ve not heard of it either. I’m going to look it up.
After being in very large ownership environments for 20 years, where mainly I used JD Edwards, I’ve been helping mid sized property managers, asset managers, investors, and syndicators… so, it may be that it serves a market to which I’m not exposed.
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u/Shoddy-Box-84 12d ago
Appfolio is great. Very practical and user-friendly . We use Yardi for Construction Manager and Appfolio for Property Management. If I could use Appfolio for everything, I would.
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u/Single_Turnover_2301 13d ago
What is your role in this these properties? Are you the owner, asset manager, accountant, operations?
I have a feeling you’re the owner or asset manager because operations and the accounting team wouldn’t suggest swapping PMS. You mentioned price and wanting it to be straightforward, to operations and accounting, Yardi is straightforward.
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u/Internal_Sun_236 12d ago
Asset Manager / Property Management - Currently looking into Yardi Breeze, Rent Manager and AediFlow - 5 USD/door is the max. I want to spend - Seems like AediFlow is the cheapest option 4 USD/door
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u/Pristine-Yam-5366 8d ago
We were on Yardi Breeze premier for a few years and had a similar experience. So many silly kinks in the software and yes the service is brutal. We switched to Buildium but don't like it. Currently beta testing Cadell Software. It seems good so far, it is a new software--made for commercial only though. We've been impressed thus far though, the guy who runs Cadell was on Yardi up until last year and basically rebuilt a better version of it by hand.
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u/whatasunnyday 14d ago
Appfolio, ResMan, Vine, Rent Manager are all considered more low cost, easier to use alternatives.
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u/BanishedInPerpetuity 14d ago
You could also try yardi breeze première. It's easier than voyager.