Best real estate accounting software (2024)

The broader real estate industry comprises many different types of businesses, from real estate agencies and brokerages to property managers to legal professionals to property buyers and sellers themselves. Whatever function your business performs, the right accounting software can help you track every dollar received and spent, ensuring you can weather the highs and lows of the dynamic and volatile real estate world.
 
In this article comparing the best real estate accounting services, we examine two of the most widely used categories of accounting software among real estate professionals. 
 
The first category is property management software, used by real estate investors and property managers to perform the necessary functions of renting out a property, like sending and signing leases. Property management software typically has an accounting feature to track revenue from residents and expenses from property maintenance.
 
The second category is general accounting software, used by real estate agents and other professionals to track revenue and expenses, send and receive invoices, reconcile bank transactions, and perform other bookkeeping tasks. The best real estate accounting software can typically be customized for property management as well.

Our analysis found:

• AppFolio is the best property management software for real estate businesses that own or manage at least several hundred units.
• Buildium is the best property management software for real estate businesses with a smaller property portfolio.
• QuickBooks is the best all-around accounting tool suite because it comes fully stocked with the most important accounting features and can be customized to fit a variety of use cases.
• Xero is the best accounting software for real estate professionals who need powerful tools but fewer customization options.
• Wave is the best free accounting software for real estate professionals just getting started in the industry.

*Prices reflect the lowest cost of a provider’s paid plan and are current as of Oct. 2, 2024. Some users may be offered different prices, and variation should be expected.

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Best for: Real estate investors and property managers with several hundred units or more
 
Why we like AppFolio for real estate businesses: AppFolio can be considered an industry standard for businesses that focus on real estate properties as investment assets. It allows owners and property managers to efficiently track the cash flow generated from a virtually limitless number of units in their portfolio, both residential and commercial and everything in between. AppFolio combines property accounting with a platform for customer communications, maintenance, work order tracking, and leasing.

What you need to know: AppFolio is the most expensive option in this list, so it’s likely not cost-effective for real estate businesses that own or manage smaller portfolios. Additionally, AppFolio clients have complained about AppFolio’s interface’s user-friendliness, and tenants have noted transaction charges for paying rent through AppFolio’s system.
 
Price range: AppFolio no longer publicly lists its pricing, but as of July 2024, its price tiers were $1.49 per unit per month with a 50-unit minimum and a $298 minimum spend (Core plan); $3.20 per unit per month (Plus plan) or $5.00 per unit per month (Max plan) with unlisted unit and spend minimums. Additional features cost extra.
 
Standout features: 

• Property accounting for several types of real estate (including single- and multi-family homes, commercial properties, and community associations)
• Generate per-unit or per-property financial reports.
• Create and manage listings.
• Send and sign leases.
• Create work orders and track maintenance requests.
• Accept payments. 

Best for: Real estate investors and property managers with up to several hundred units
 
Why we like Buildium for real estate businesses: Buildium is property management software that can accommodate many different types of units in a real estate portfolio. It features not only property accounting, which records transactions and expenses associated with managing a building or unit, but also facilitates maintenance requests, marketing for the property, and payments. Buildium’s software comes with an app for residents to submit payments as well as maintenance requests.

What you need to know: Buildium’s costs include a variety of services and they can add up quickly. In addition to the monthly charge, Buildium requires clients to pay for features like each e-signature or online payments, and these costs can increase even more for larger portfolios of units. 

Price range: $58 per month, up to 150 units (Essential plan); $183 per month (Growth plan); $375 per month (Premium plan). Note that you should consider these costs the listed baseline for Buildium, as some necessary features will add hundreds of dollars per month. 
 
Standout features: 

• Property accounting for many types of real estate (including residential, commercial, student living, and community association buildings)
• Cash flow management and automatic bank reconciliation
• Marketing and leads generation
• Tenant screening
• Work order and property inspection management
• Accounts receivable and accounts payable
• E-signature processing

Best for: Real estate agents with consistent revenue streams who represent several properties
 
Why we like QuickBooks for real estate businesses: QuickBooks is first and foremost an accounting suite, and it’s one of the most robust options available, with feature-rich financial management tools that will be familiar to your certified public accountant (CPA). QuickBooks can perform automatic bank reconciliation, profit and loss reporting, accounts payable and receivable, and invoicing. While QuickBooks isn’t specifically built for real estate businesses, it can be customized to the needs of stakeholders at every stage of the property-buying process. For example, real estate agents can use it to forecast their income and expenses, and real estate investors can use it to track rent payments and maintenance costs. 

What you need to know: QuickBooks must be specially configured to function as property management software, and it may be otherwise light on certain real estate accounting features without setting it up this way. However, many of these features cost additional fees, potentially making QuickBooks more expensive than dedicated property accounting software.
 
Price range: $17.50 per month (Simple Start plan), $32.50 per month (Essentials plan), $49.50 per month (Plus plan), and $117.50 per month (Advanced plan). All plans include a 50% discount for three months.
 
Standout features: 

• Bill and cash flow management
• Expense and income tracking
• Vast library of integrations and the ability to connect to unlimited sales channels
• Document capture
• Mileage tracking
• Automated bookkeeping
• Inventory management
• Integration with AppFolio, Buildium, and other property management software via third-party apps 

>>MORE: The best cloud accounting software

Best for: Real estate associates and junior agents with minimal accounting needs.
 
Why we like Wave for real estate businesses: When they’re early in their careers, many real estate professionals only have a handful of transactions to record. That’s partially because the real estate business can be tricky, with even the best agents going long periods without a sale. For that reason, Wave can meet the needs of many real estate professionals, as it offers standard bookkeeping features for recording income and expenses for free. 

What you need to know: Wave is a case of “you get what you pay for” in that even at its highly affordable premium plan, it’s still not as feature-rich as more established accounting software. Its free plan doesn’t allow for automatic transaction categorization, which could create an unnecessary hassle for real estate professionals, although more junior-level associates may not need automated tools while they have relatively fewer transactions.

Price range: $0 per month (Starter plan); $16 per month (Pro plan).
 
Standout features: 

• Solid roster of bookkeeping tools, from a general ledger with unlimited transactions, invoicing and estimates, and bill management
• Accepts online payments
• Can be upgraded for more advanced features

Best for: Real estate agents with growing revenue streams who represent a handful of properties
 
Why we like Xero for real estate businesses: Xero is a comprehensive accounting software with many of the most necessary bookkeeping tools available even in its lowest price tier. Real estate professionals will be able to efficiently track their finances — rent payments and maintenance costs if you’re a property manager; commissions and agency fees if you’re a real estate agent — and Xero makes this easy by offering a robust system for integrations with other platforms. Those include over 21,000 banks and financial institutions, making using Xero’s bill pay, payroll, and accounts receivable features seamless, and an app store that facilitates third-party platform connections.

What you need to know: Xero is a dedicated accounting software, so it needs to be configured to function like property management software. If your real estate business requires more than just a general ledger and accounts payable/receivable, you’ll need to sign up for Xero-approved third-party systems, most of which incorporate their own pricing on top of Xero’s costs.
 
Price range: $15 per month (Early plan); $42 per month (Growing plan); $78 per month (Established plan).
 
Standout features: 

• Bank transaction reconciliation (bulk reconciliation in middle tier and up)
• Bill and receipt capturing and management
• Invoicing, estimates, and quotes
• Tax form management and sales tax calculation
• Per-project budgeting
• Inventory tracking

>>MORE: We also like Xero for small restaurant owners. Learn why.

For this article, we made our picks based on the software’s relevance to different players in the real estate industry.

Some real estate professionals manage vast portfolios, so they need a way to record profit and loss and perform tasks like onboarding tenants, tracking payments and 1099 documents for key vendors (such as a handyperson), and sending communications. For this category, we selected software specifically built for property management. 

Our other selections are dedicated accounting software that can be used cost-effectively by agents, brokers, and associates at different stages in their careers.

Learn more about how we generally rate and review accounting software.

Real estate accounting software is a service for recording, managing, and acting on business decisions related to buying, selling, and renting property. Much of this occurs in the form of bookkeeping functions, like cash flow management, accounts payable, accounts receivable, invoicing, and tax tracking. 

If you’re a real estate agent, you likely get paid on commission, and you’ll have expenses related to showing and listing properties. Therefore, the best accounting software for a real estate agent will need to record payments, analyze the associated income tax obligation, and track expenses to calculate against revenue or write off. 

Although real estate can wax and wane depending on the time of the year and the health of the economy, a real estate agent can still use accounting software to generate financial reports and forecast income.

Real estate agents need “an efficient way to quickly keep track of the different expenses we would have while we are on the go and a way to upload receipts from our phone,” says Judy Zhou, a licensed real estate agent based in New York. Zhou uses QuickBooks to set up her own chart of accounts, which streamlines her bookkeeping and makes tax season easier.

While revenue is relatively simple to record, according to Zhou (“we only get paid when we receive a commission!” she says), expenses can get much more complicated. Zhou has to cover transportation to and from listings and appointments; marketing costs like photography, videography, and advertising; subscriptions to productivity apps like Google One, Microsoft Office, DocuSign, and Dropbox; and subscriptions to market intelligence and data services like UrbanDigs and PropertyShark. 

Without accounting software, even the most savvy real estate agent could lose track of all these figures.

Some real estate professionals have different needs from their accounting software. A full suite of property management tools can assist owners, investors, and property managers in placing listings, onboarding residents, collecting rent and fees, and facilitating maintenance requests. 

As described above, two of the best property management systems (AppFolio and Buildium) also contain accounting software that could rival the options specialized for accounting. Regardless of which option real estate professionals use, they’ll need to be able to customize their tools to track finances at the level of the individual unit or tenant.

If you’re buying a home, accounting software can help you cost out what you can afford so you don’t overspend and predict expenses like mortgage payments, closing costs, repairs and construction, and homeowners insurance. Accounting software can help you categorize each expense and use of tax benefits, like the mortgage interest tax deduction or the state and local tax (SALT) deduction.

Accounting software can also help assess your profit and losses if you’re selling a home. You’ll need to calculate such figures as home equity, appreciation, or depreciation and how much proceeds you can put toward your next home. Tax considerations, like whether you’ll need to pay the capital gains tax, are also something you can use real estate accounting software for.

Finally, if you’re renting your home, you could use accounting software to ensure you’re not overpaying on housing. That means carefully monitoring your income and everyday expenses and comparing them against your monthly rent. You probably won’t need a full-service suite of tools for this purpose — accounting software that contains a general ledger and solid bank reconciliation tools should be more than enough.

Real estate accounting services are highly variable in their pricing, from totally free to thousands of dollars per month, depending on your needs. The prices tend to scale with the size of your business: a property manager with several hundred units in their portfolio will likely pay several hundred dollars per month at a minimum, but a real estate associate contracted to a larger agency can probably meet all their needs with a free or low-cost service. 

The best accounting software for a real estate company depends on what the company does. If you’re a large brokerage, your accounting needs are much more complex because you’re not just tracking revenue and expenses but also payroll for an indefinite number of employees and agents. Many large real estate businesses will find QuickBooks to be their best option because it can be scaled to reach this magnitude. (Learn more about QuickBooks Payroll.)
 
Individuals, like real estate agents and associates, who represent buyers, sellers, and renters will have less complex accounting needs. They may benefit more from an affordable, full-featured option like Xero, especially because they’ll need fewer features like invoicing.
 
The best accounting software for a real estate investor is property management software like Buildium. We selected Buildium because it has virtually identical features as AppFolio but at a lower and more transparent price point.

There are two main accounting methods: cash-basis accounting and accrual-basis accounting. Cash-basis accounting records transactions only when money changes hands (revenue is reported when you receive cash, and expenses are recorded when you pay them), while accrual-basis accounting records transactions as they’re incurred.
 
Real estate agents can use either method, but many prefer accrual-basis accounting because of the length of time that the property-buying process takes. Transactions may occur both before the process begins (such as paying to market a property) and after it’s completed (the payment of a commission or a brokerage fee), and these transactions are not often predictable. 

QuickBooks can be used for real estate, but it may require a substantial amount of time to properly set it up for your specific real estate business’s needs. Before deciding on whether or not to use QuickBooks, assess what kinds of cash flow you’re seeing and from whom, and whether accounting software built specifically for real estate businesses could be simpler to set up.

Looking for other specialized accounting software? Check out our other in-depth guides: