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Ah, technology. Love it or loathe it, technology has revolutionised our lives in so many ways. From cute cat videos to mobile banking, most of us can’t manage without some kind of daily smartphone fix.
Beyond the rabbit hole of your favourite social media sites though, smartphones can represent huge benefits in terms of productivity, if you find the right apps!
In this post we’re going to share with you some of our favourite mobile apps for landlords – app stores at the ready…
Apps for Property Management
#1. Landlord Vision
It wouldn’t be right if we didn’t mention Landlord Vision. The cloud-based app lets you manage every aspect of your property portfolio in one place. It has an open banking integration for easier finances, receipt scanning, rent collection, tenancy agreement creation and so much more. We know the app isn’t in the best shape, but we’re working on some major improvements. Also, you can use Landlord Vision from a browser to take advantage of the huge wealth of features in there. Get started today and take advantage of a discount or try it free for 14 days.
Platform: iOS and Android
Cost: Prices start at £2.40 for the Quick Start plan and increase from there depending on your plan option and number of properties managed. There’s something to suit every wallet.
#2. Guesty
While Landlord Vision has all your property management needs covered, you might need something a little different if you’re managing short-term lets and that’s where Guesty comes in. With Guesty you can manage short-term lets and the app will integrate with some of the most popular short-term let websites out there. You can manage communications, your booking calendar and listings, along with all the other things you need to monitor in any growing business.
Platform: iOS and Android
Cost: Guesty have a free trial available but after that pricing is by quotation only so if you’re sold on their sleek management software you’ll need to ask them how much it will set you back.
Apps for Finding Tenants
#3. Rightmove and Zoopla apps
Rightmove and Zoopla are two of the biggest property portals for buying and renting properties. The desktop versions of both sites are great when you’re at home, but if you spot a potential buy to let acquisition while you are out and about, check the details on the Rightmove or Zoopla apps. These apps are also useful if you want to check property prices, rent averages, etc.
Platform: iOS and Android
Cost: Free
Apps for Property Inventory Creation and Management
#4. Kaptur Inventory Pro
The Kaptur Inventory Pro app is designed to help landlords manage property inventories at the start and end of a tenancy. Download Kaptur to your tablet and take it with you when you carry out a property inventory. Take unlimited photos and store them in the cloud. The app includes an editing suite, custom reports, job lists, dictation recording, and signature capture.
Platform: iOS and Android
Cost: Different pricing tiers are available, including PAYG and a fixed monthly fee.
#5. Inventory Pro
Inventory Pro is an easy to use lightweight app for managing property inventories. You can easily record images of each room and it’s straightforward to record the condition as well. This is the perfect app for any landlord who wants a fuss free inventory solution.
Platform: iOS
Cost: There is a one off cost of £4.99 and for that you have access to all the features including the ability to produce inspection reports.
An App for Property Inspections
#6. ZInspector
This app has everything you need when it comes to conducting a property inspection. It’s mobile friendly, will store images and documents, and provides a nifty template that guides you through the inspection process room by room. You can produce reports, get them signed, invite others to the app in the case of a shared portfolio, and even get directions to any of the saved properties with a single tap. There’s a lot to love about this simple and intuitive app.
Platform: iOS and Android
Cost: There is a free limited plan which helps you get to grips with the app and has basic functionality. Paid plans range from $18 to $45 and each range comes with additional features and users.
Apps to Help with Property Investment
#7. Property Investor
If you’re looking for new properties to invest in, this is the app for you. Here you’ll find readymade investment deals, each property listed has its full potential laid out in an easy to digest way including the property ROI, income potential, documentation, and more.
Platform: iOS and Android
Cost: Free
#8. Trussle
Trussle may not strictly be an app, but their mobile friendly website means that everyone can enjoy it without having to worry about app permissions! Trussle is the site for you if you need to re-mortgage one of your properties. Trussle has a high rating on Trustpilot from many satisfied customers. It offers free mortgage advice from a team of mortgage advisors, who will search more than 12,000 mortgage deals to find one that’s right for you. Landlords can save, on average £300 per month on a buy-to-let mortgage with Trussle. If you sign up, Trussle will also let you know when you can get a better deal by switching to a new mortgage.
Platform: Web
Cost: Free
Maintenance Apps for Landlords
#9. Fixflo
Property maintenance is often a huge headache for landlords, especially if you have a lot of properties and have to deal with multiple maintenance issues at once. The Fixflo app aims to make managing maintenance issues a lot easier. The app offers guidance and tells tenants how to fix simple problems, like a blocked sink. It also produces reports for contractors, so issues are more likely to be fixed on the first visit to the property. Fixflo is ideal for helping tenants to rectify issues like blocked sinks and it also has an in-built translation tool.
Platform: iOS and Android
Cost: Free demo available. A monthly subscription is required after that.
#10. Checkatrade
Landlords often need to hire tradespeople to fix problems in their rental properties. Install the Checkatrade app on your smartphone and look for a reputable plumber, electrician, or plasterer in your area. Select a trade based on their skills, location, prices, and reviews. The Checkatrade app runs strict checks on all tradespeople listed, so you can hire people with confidence.
Platform: iOS
Cost: Free
Record-Keeping Apps for Property Management
#11. Scanbot
Scanbot is one of the best apps out there for scanning information from almost anything. It can scan your documents and turn them into PDFs and it also has the capability to scan barcodes, QR codes, and a few things besides. This app really comes into its own if you’re working digitally but also working with solicitors, mortgage lenders, or letting agents who still send you paper copies of important documents. Using this app you can scan documents, turn them into PDFs and then handle them digitally from that point on.
Platform: iOS
Cost: Free
#12.WhatsApp
Lots of tenants these days prefer to communicate on messaging apps. If you want to keep in touch with your tenants and encourage them to message you informally then WhatsApp is a handy communication tool. The app lets you keep a record of all your conversations, which is useful if you have any disputes. It’s also useful for shared properties, such as student houses, as you can set up group chats with multiple tenants. Group chats for HMOs and student tenants are useful for sharing information with all tenants at once.
Platform: iOS and Android
Cost: Free
Top Productivity Apps for Landlords
#13. Toggl Track
Toggl is a three in one tool that helps with productivity. There are three tools in the product range, Toggl track, Toggl plan, and Toggl Hire. We’re just looking at Toggl track here though as it has a great app. Toggl track allows you to track the time you spend doing any particular project. This is great if you want to figure out where your time is going or for if you work freelance. It syncs across devices and browsers so it’s easy enough to start and stop your timers when you need to. You can save clients and projects in the software so it’s easy to assign your time and there are metrics to help you visualise what you’ve spent that time on, it even allows you to do automatic billing if you pay for the service, but the free version also has plenty of features.
Platform: iOS and Android
Cost: The free plan is enough to help you monitor your time but if you want billing and a few other features as well, plans start from $10 per month.
#14. Rescue Time
Rescue time is a time management app with a difference. While Toggl is great for keeping track of the time you spend on different projects, Rescue Time automatically keeps track of the things you do throughout the day and then feeds it back to you as smart insights. The app will show you what’s stopping you from getting focused and what you’re really spending your time on. What’s more, you don’t have to start and stop the timer or fiddle about to record the time you’re spending, Rescue Time does this automatically. It also provides tips, coaching, and goal setting features as well as keeping track of your communication time and meetings. This is only scratching the surface of what this neat app does to keep you focussed and productive on anything you’re working on.
Platform: iOS and Android
Cost: There is a 2 week free trial so you can see if it’s right for you and after that plans start at $6.50 per month.
#15. Notion
Never has there been a better app for keeping everything in one place. Here at Landlord Vision we’ve been a huge fan of Trello for years and we’ve used it to organise nearly every business department. We’re a fan of keeping things simple and collaborative. But three weeks ago we discovered Notion and now some of us are converts. Notion will allow you to keep all your notes, documents, to-do lists, mood boards etc etc in one place. Easy to organise, seamless sync across devices, feature-rich – it hits all the right buttons and is a paragon of organisation. When you first start using it there is a learning curve, it took us a couple of weeks to get used to it, but when we did it was evident that the time was very very well spent. It has so many useful templates and features and while it has a simple clean interface it’s still customisable enough to make it feel like your own. You can even create your own Trello style Kanban boards, Gant charts, calendar views and so much more. If you’re drowning in to-do lists and you’re getting frustrated with Google Keep, Evernote, Google docs, or any of the millions of note-taking apps and project management tools out there, we can highly recommend giving Notion a look.
Platform: iOS and Android
Cost: The personal plan is free and you get access to a huge range of features on this plan and 5mb of storage. Personal plus which includes more storage space starts at $4 per month.
Landlord Friendly Decorating App
#16. Houzz
Houzz is a fantastic app that lets you browse design ideas for decorating, with articles on décor and decorating trends. You can find local professionals and shop for some of the home décor ideas you see in the app. If you own holiday lets or high-end rentals you’re bound to find some inspiration here to really make your properties pop. Even if you don’t own high-end properties, there’s plenty of design inspiration to create fresh and inviting spaces for all of your tenants. Some of the reviews even say it’s better than Pinterest!
Platform: iOS and Android
Cost: Free
App for Tracking Mileage
#17. Mileiq
The Mileiq app has been designed to make tracking your mileage easy and has a wealth of powerful automation features that will go as far as learning your regular journeys and classifying them for you. You can adjust the milage rates, see detailed maps of your journeys, set business hours during which time the app will automatically log your mileage, and get a suite of reports too. If you spend a lot of time travelling between your properties this will doubtlessly save you time and help you to remember to actually claim your mileage!
Platform: iOS and Android
Cost: Free for the first 40 journeys $5.99 per month after that.
Apps for Building your own Property Website
This may not be relevant to all landlords, but if you’re planning to create a property empire and you want a website of your own where tenants can enquire about vacancies or where potential investors can learn more about your business, these apps will come in handy.
#18. Wix
Wix is an intuitive website builder that will allow you to build a website without having to touch any code at all. Wix is a powerhouse with tonnes of useful features and drag and drop web building elements. They also bundle hosting and domain names in with their pricing so if you want to build a website and aren’t very tech-savvy you can still make something functional and beautiful with Wix. The fact that they have apps as well means that you can even build and maintain your site from mobile which is a win in our book.
Platform: iOS and Android
Cost: Plans cost between £3.50 and £19 depending on what you want to get out of your website.
#19. Squarespace
Squarespace is a rival to Wix. Like Wix it allows you to build a website of your own using a simple drag and drop interface. There are pros and cons to using either builder, but in our experience they are very similar. Wix has worse reviews than Squarespace overall, but really what it comes down to is finding a platform that works best for you in terms of the look, feel, functionality, and pricing. However, having the ability to build and maintain a website on your mobile is what gets these apps a space on our list.
Platform: iOS and Android
Cost: Pricing goes from £10 per month to £30 depending on what you want from your website.
Keeping up to Date with the Latest Landlord Apps
#20. Product Hunt
As we’ve already said, technology moves quickly and there’s no better app for keeping up to date with the latest innovations than Product Hunt. Not all the apps and products that you’ll find featured here are landlord-related, but this is the place to find those rarely talked about gems before they hit the mainstream. You can also search by topic to find the latest property tech.
Platform: iOS and Android
Cost: Free
App Safety
Before you go, you should make sure that you research any new apps that you plan to download first. Only download apps from the official Apple App store or Google Play. There are plenty of fraudulent and malicious apps out there and they represent a serious safety risk for you and your personal data, so make sure that you’re giving things a good check over before you download them.
Often apps request certain permissions such as access to specific data or functions of your phone. Pay attention to these permissions and ensure that you’re questioning them if you can’t see why an app would need that permission. For instance, a document scanning app may well need camera access, but an app that helps you source mortgage deals should not. If apps require permissions that don’t seem relevant or permissions you don’t want to grant then you should think twice about even downloading it at all.
If in doubt, read what other people have to say about the app, if it’s broken, buggy, or malicious you’ll find plenty of feedback to that effect.
Are there any apps missing you think we should include? Let us know by getting in touch on social media or dropping us an email.
Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase, we will earn a commission at no extra cost to you. We link these companies and their products because we rate their quality and not because of any commission we may receive. Whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you. Commission earned is what allows us to continue offering free top-quality content.
