LandlordZone Landlord Manager Review

Visionbase Software Limited has been producing property management software since 1993, the landlord products being a development from their original professional agency range. Landlord-Manager (www.landlordmanager.co.uk) includes a range of software products, from the entry level Pro version, through the Premium version to the full-featured Enterprise version, and with a soon to be announce Sage compatible version. All three new versions are now truly feature-rich with the Premium and Enterprise able to export data direct to Sage and Excel, ideal for sending year-end reports to your accountant, and can sync with Microsoft Outlook.

With all these products your data is safely stored on your own machine (no on-line data) and the Enterprise version can work on a local area network. Also, an agency module can manage unlimited landlords and properties in the Enterprise version. All the products carry a 30 day money-back guarantee.

Firing-up the program brings up “dashboard” style gauges and pie charts giving an instant over-view of your portfolio’s performance and your budgets and forecasts. Demonstration data is available to show exactly how the system operates once it is populated with data, a very useful feature for beginners as you can see exactly how it should work and you can do “what if” exercises by manipulating the example data.  In addition, the Landlord-Manager web site has comprehensive videos on the “Tours” section which clearly show the capabilities of each product.

The Microsoft Office 2007 style interface is modern looking, gives an easy intuitive feel to the program and all main sections are easily identified through the illustrated tabs and sub tabs. This type of software is now a truly comprehensive property management system, not just an accounting program: it stores all property details, marketing details with photos, checkin and out lists, full inventories, maintenance reminders, contacts data-base and refurbishment projects, diary, calendar with notes and alerts, including SMS—the list seems endless.

For me the key tests for any piece of management software are: ease of use, reliability, back-up and service from the manufacturer, a value for money price, and a progressive set of features which give truly comprehensive property management capabilities.

In my view this new range of Landlord-Manager Property Management software meets all of these criteria.

An impressive system.

Tom Entwistle

www.landlordzone.co.uk

September 2009