Why 50-300 Unit Operators Keep Getting the Wrong Property Management Software
If you manage somewhere between 50 and 300 units and you've felt invisible to every property management software vendor you've looked at, you're not imagining it. For related operational guidance, review affordable housing compliance software.
Buildium's marketing talks to landlords with a handful of rentals. AppFolio and RealPage court enterprise portfolios. Yardi assumes you have an IT department. Somewhere in the middle sits the operator who's done with spreadsheets and tired of tools that can't keep up, but who isn't about to sign a six-figure contract for a platform that takes nine months to deploy.
That's the squeeze. And it's structural, not imaginary.
You've Outgrown the Starter Tools
Somewhere around 50-75 units, the tools that got you started begin to break down. The symptoms are always the same:
- Reports are rigid, generic, and miss the numbers you actually need
- Accounting is a hand-off to QuickBooks that never fully reconciles
- Compliance (if you're in affordable) is a spreadsheet bolted to the side
- Vendor invoicing is email and memory
- Bank reconciliation is manual and painful
- Support answers on business days when they feel like it
You start adding people to work around the software. That's the signal that the software has become the bottleneck. The fix is not hiring more admin staff. The fix is a platform that actually runs the operation.
Why Enterprise Isn't the Answer (And What They Don't Tell You)
Here's where most mid-market operators get sold a bridge.
The enterprise platforms — Yardi Voyager, RealPage OneSite, MRI — will happily take your money. Their salespeople are excellent. Their decks are polished. But the product behind the demo wasn't built for you. It was built for the 5,000-unit operator with a dedicated implementation team, a full-time systems admin, and the patience for a 6- to 12-month rollout.
What that means practically:
- Implementation timelines measured in quarters, not weeks. Yardi implementations are widely reported to take months. Your staff won't be productive on the system for most of that time. Check out our short guide: Switching Property Management Software in 3 Days.
- Learning curves that punish every new hire. These platforms were built in an era when users expected to attend training. Yours won't. The #1 complaint about Yardi Voyager is the learning curve — and that's from operators who eventually learned it.
- Pricing structures are built to capture as much revenue as possible. Expect per-module charges, per-user fees, add-on licenses for vendor portals, extra fees for mobile, and quotes that change depending on how the salesperson reads your portfolio. You're not buying a platform. You're buying the start of a decade of price increases.
- Feature bloat you'll never touch. Enterprise platforms ship with hundreds of modules. You'll use a dozen of them. You'll pay for all of them.
The mid-market operator doesn't need less functionality than the enterprise — you need the same core capabilities without the overhead, complexity, and pricing theater that come with them.
Why AppFolio Isn't the Answer Either
AppFolio is the one most mid-market operators end up shortlisting, and it's usually the closest fit from the legacy field. But there are a few things worth understanding before you sign.
AppFolio's pricing is per unit with monthly minimums — not as simple as it looks at first read. Their lower-priced tier is limited in what it offers, so most operators end up on Plus, which runs at a higher per-unit rate than the headline number suggests. Add-ons for screening, payments, and leasing insights stack on top. The "all-in" cost for a mid-market operator is almost always higher than what appeared in the first quote. AppFolio vs ExactEstate: A Guide to Choosing the Best PMS.
The bigger issue is depth. If you're in affordable housing, AppFolio's compliance module covers LIHTC and HUD Section 8 and not much else. No USDA/RD. No Average Income Test validation. No automated 140% rule enforcement. The TRACS integration is basic. If you manage anything more than the simplest affordable housing portfolio, you'll hit the ceiling fast.
AppFolio is a fine product. It just wasn't built to solve the problems a mid-market affordable or mixed-income operator actually has.
What the Mid-Market Actually Needs
Strip out the marketing, and the mid-market requirements list is short and specific.
- Full accounting, not a plug-in. Real double-entry GL. AP with approval workflows and check printing. Bank reconciliation that handles live bank feeds. Budgeting and variance reporting. The moment you need a second accounting system, you've introduced a reconciliation problem that will cost you more time than the software saves.
- Compliance built for the programs you actually run. If you're affordable, that means LIHTC, HOME, Section 8, USDA/RD — with automated recertification schedules, 140% rule enforcement, AIT validation where it applies, state-specific TIC forms, and TRACS integration. Not a compliance module bolted onto a market-rate platform. Get a personalized compliance scorecard across the 8 domains that matter most, for free.
- Payment processing at reasonable cost. Residents either pay online or don't pay on time. Processing fees need to be low enough that they don't eat your margins. Subsidy splits need to be automatic.
- Resident, vendor, and owner portals included. Not a premium module. Not "contact sales." Included.
- Support staffed by people who know property management. When you call about a TIC form or a TRACS submission error, you want someone who's seen one before. Not a Tier 1 tech reading a script.
- Implementation measured in days. If a vendor tells you their typical deployment takes months, they're telling you the product isn't built for you.
- Pricing that doesn't penalize growth. Which brings us to the actual structural problem with the mid-market software market.
The Pricing Problem Nobody Wants to Talk About
Here's what most mid-market operators don't realize until they're six months into a contract: the enterprise pricing model is designed to extract more money as you grow.
Per-module charges mean every new capability is a negotiation. Per-user fees mean every hire is a line item. Tiered pricing means crossing a unit threshold triggers a price jump. Custom quotes mean you're re-negotiating every renewal. And transaction fees — on payments, on vendor payouts, on every financial movement — compound with scale.
For a 50-unit operator, this is manageable. For a 250-unit operator, it's expensive. For a 500-unit operator, it's the reason they're shopping for a new platform three years from now.
Flat-rate pricing — one number per unit, all features included, every month — solves this by removing the incentive structure that makes legacy pricing adversarial. When the vendor charges the same number whether you use six modules or twenty-six, the vendor's incentive is to make you successful, not to upsell you into the next tier.
Transparent pricing also lets you model your cost as you grow. You know what 100 units cost. You know what 300 units cost. You know what 800 units cost. No surprises, no renegotiations, no "let's get on a call to discuss your expansion."
What to Evaluate (The Actual Checklist)
If you're shopping right now, here's what separates a real mid-market fit from another enterprise near-miss:
- Get the total price, not the per-unit price. Ask specifically: What does the all-in monthly cost look like at my portfolio size, with every feature I need, including payment processing? If the answer requires a follow-up call, that's the answer.
- Ask about implementation timeline in days. Not weeks. Not a "typical 4-6 week onboarding." Days. The technology to set up a property management platform quickly has existed for a decade. Learn how other property managers are getting results.
- Get on a real demo, not a slide deck. Make them actually open the platform and show you a workflow you care about — a TIC generation, a rent roll, a work order dispatch. If they pivot to slides, the product has issues they're hiding.
- Call support during your evaluation. Pick up the phone. See who answers. See how long it takes. See whether the person on the other end understands property management or is looking up your ticket in a queue.
- Ask about compliance program coverage by name. LIHTC. HOME. Section 8. USDA/RD. HOTMA readiness. If they hesitate on any of these and you run them, that'll be a problem later.
- Look at the contract, not the pitch. Check for auto-renewal language, price-increase clauses, implementation fees, and what happens when you cancel.
Where ExactEstate Fits
We built ExactEstate specifically because nobody was building for this segment with any seriousness.
Flat $3 per unit per month, with a $300 monthly minimum for portfolios under 100 units. Every feature included — full accounting, full compliance, resident portal, vendor portal, owner portal, work orders, reporting, HUD TRACS integration through our ShofCorp partnership, Payabli payment processing with lower gateway fees. U.S.-based support that answers when you call — G2 #1 in Support for five consecutive quarters and counting. Implementation in days, not months, because the product was built that way from the start.
No modules to unlock. No per-user fees. No tiered pricing that penalizes growth. What we quote is what you pay.
If you're somewhere between 50 and 300 units and you've been feeling stuck between starter tools you've outgrown and enterprise platforms you can't justify, the answer is a platform built for the operation you're actually running.
Book a demo — fifteen minutes in the product, not a slide deck. Bring the workflows you care about. We'll show you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is ExactEstate built for?
ExactEstate is designed specifically for property managers operating between 50 and 300 units – operators who've outgrown starter tools like Buildium but don't need the complexity and cost of enterprise platforms like Yardi or RealPage.
How is ExactEstate priced?
Flat $3 per unit per month, with a $300 monthly minimum for portfolios under 100 units. Every feature is included – no per-module charges, no per-user fees, and no tiered pricing that penalizes growth. What we quote is what you pay.
What's included in the platform?
Everything: full double-entry accounting with AP workflows and bank reconciliation, compliance tools for LIHTC, HOME, Section 8, and USDA/RD programs, resident/vendor/owner portals, work orders, reporting, HUD TRACS integration, and Payabli payment processing with competitive gateway fees.
Does ExactEstate support affordable housing compliance?
Yes. The platform includes automated recertification schedules, 140% rule enforcement, Average Income Test (AIT) validation, state-specific TIC forms, and HUD TRACS integration via ShofCorp. It was built for affordable and mixed-income operators — not retrofitted from a market-rate platform.
How long does implementation take?
Days, not months. If a vendor quotes you a 4–6 week onboarding, or longer, that's a signal the product wasn't designed for operators like you.
What does support look like?
U.S.-based support staffed by people who understand property management. When you call about a TIC form or a TRACS submission error, you'll reach someone who's seen one before — not a Tier 1 tech reading from a script. ExactEstate has been rated #1 in Support on G2 for five consecutive quarters.