Buildium vs MRI Software

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Our analysts compared Buildium vs MRI Software based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Property Management Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

MRI Software Software Tool

Product Basics

Buildium is a cloud-based software that helps approve lease applications, manage payments, update financial records, create bulk emails and announcements and resolve maintenance issues on the go. Users can manage portfolios that include community associations, student housing, affordable housing and residential properties.

It offers accounting, vendor management, maintenance management, analytics and insights, leasing, community association management and more. The vendor also provides a dedicated onboarding team, 24x7 customer support and a 14-day free trial.
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MRI is a real estate management suite consisting of four offerings: Platform X, Application Gateway, Analytix, and Secure Sign. Platform X helps integrate with third-party applications, create a centralized management environment and access information online. Application Gateway provides a single point of entry for Platform X, data integrations, cross-functional workflows and access to the MyMRI support portal.

Analytix includes reporting, data visualization, portfolio analysis, ad hoc querying and interactive dashboards. Secure Sign securely manages e-signatures, sets workflows for document management and streamlines transaction and contracts processes.
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$55 Monthly
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Tailored to your specific needs
$55 Monthly
Get a free price quote
Tailored to your specific needs
Small 
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Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile

Product Assistance

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Work From One Place: Bring every marketing, accounting and management workflow together in a centralized platform. Monitor operations from the unified dashboard. Receive real-time alerts, notifications and updates on potential disruptions. 
  • Streamline Communications: Ensure easy year-end auditing by maintaining transparent communication via role-based portals and recording interactions and documents. 
  • Consolidate Marketing Efforts: Advertise portfolio on multiple channels, personal website and social media. Manage every listing, track prospect information and coordinate showings from the dashboard. 
  • Expedite Turnovers: Keep properties ready-to-rent with on-time rent clearances, maintenance activities and vacancy tasks. Assign associates for each task, track progress and issue work orders to external vendors. 
  • Identify Opportunities: Perform comparative analysis and design business-specific data visualizations to identify threats and drill down on opportunities. 
  • Easy Integrations: Integrate business-specific external software and create unique stacks by leveraging an open API. 
  • Secure Data Storage: All the data is TLS-encrypted with a 2048-bit certificate, signed with SHA-256 and stored in a physical warehouse monitored by Amazon Web Services. 
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  • Reduce TCO: Save time and resources spent on software maintenance and IT infrastructure by hosting the platform on the vendor’s server. Ensure fast performance with tier 1 ISP and use Gartner Magic Quadrant for data center networking. 
  • Ensure Accuracy: Eliminate manual error by automating administrative tasks, ensuring accurate data entry across all fronts, including leasing, accounting, work order, invoicing and more. 
  • Streamline Accounting: Mitigate risks and capitalize on opportunities using the accounting module that supports AP automation, vendor invoicing, property and tenant-specific ledgers, budgeting, forecasting, and more. 
  • Custom Integrations: Connect with over 150 partnered third-party software to add unique functionalities like rent analysis, ILS channels, marketing suite, payment processors and more. 
  • Centralize Management: Avoid working on disparate platforms and use unified software to manage marketing, maintenance and accounting of the entire portfolio. 
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  • Accounting: Track and share owner, vendor and residential accounts and maintain accurate books. 
    • Property Accounting: Record transactions, convert work orders into bills and pay in bulk, automate bank reconciliations, identify discrepancies, and share customized reports. 
    • Company Financials: Capture financial overviews by tracking property-specific transactions alongside miscellaneous income and expenses. 
    • Online Payments: Accept rent, set up recurring transactions, pay bills and automate bookkeeping. Residents can add bank accounts or credit cards through individual portals. 
    • Retail Cash Payments: Leverage partnership with PayNearMe to allow residents to pay rent, dues and other fees in cash at multiple convenience stores like 7-Eleven, Casey’s General Store and more. Automatically update payments on respective ledgers and deposit them into bank accounts within a week. 
    • 1099 eFiling: E-file 1099-MISCs and 1099-NECs forms, mail paper copies to owners and vendors, and automate tax calculation based on year-round incomes. 
  • Business Operations: Streamline communication with owners, vendors and residents from a centralized platform. 
    • Resident Center: Residents can pay rent, set up recurring payments, submit maintenance requests coupled with photos and access important documents via mobile-responsive portals. Offers an announcement board to highlight updates, notifications and alerts from managers. 
    • Owner Portal: Owners can access property-specific financial documents and reports. Managers can control access levels for each owner portal. 
    • Document Storage: Securely store property-related documents, including leases, addendums, expense reports, vendor invoices and more and share with a few clicks. Offers unlimited storage space. 
    • Maintenance Tracking: Track maintenance requests, create work orders, assign preferred vendors and automate recurring maintenance activities. 
    • Property Inspection: Perform inspections on the go using an app powered by Happy Inspector. Choose from several templates to customize reports. Make a to-do list, take notes, and capture pictures and videos. 
    • Renters Insurance: Provide tenants with a fully integrated renter’s insurance solution powered by MSI. Document enrollment information and manage each policy till maturity from the dashboard. 
    • Analytics: Monitor real-time data visualizations, customize reports, compare data with localized industry benchmarks and share analysis with clients and board members. 
  • Marketing and Leasing: Increase digital visibility of the entire portfolio, shortlist suitable prospects and design custom leases. 
    • Rental Listings: Create and syndicate custom property listings on multiple channels, including Apartment List, HotPads, Lovely, MyNewPlace, Trulia, Zillow and Yahoo. 
    • Professional Website: Own and design a personalized property website for prospects to apply for listings. Upload important documents like residents rulebook, floor plans and model leases to create a secure self-service hub for prospects, tenants and owners. 
    • Rental Applications: Choose the best applicants based on personalized parameters through a customizable online rental application form that integrates with the website. Accept any related application fees online. 
    • Showings Coordinator: Leverage the module powered by TenantTurner to automate tour schedules according to set rules. Communicate with prospects via email, texts and SMS. 
    • Tenant Screening: Set custom credit score requirements, run background checks and receive credit score information from TransUnion. 
    • Leasing: Design custom lease templates and autofill data to expedite the process. Prospective tenants can digitally sign documents from remote locations. 
  • Homeowner Association Management: Log, track and report property violations remotely. Automate penalties and consequent bookkeeping. Offers a unified inbox for communication among board members, homeowners and vendors. 
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  • Property Management: Manage residential and commercial properties under a comprehensive system and control the entire business lifecycle. Scale and adapt to strategic shifts with a customizable open API solution. 
  • Property Accounting: Centralize data, streamline accounting, comply with new lease regulations and automate payables from a unified dashboard. Additional capabilities can be added through integration with Partner Connect, giving access to third-party tools for accounts receivable automation, electronic payments, debt collection and more. 
  • Risk Management: Choose suitable residents, eliminate rental fraud and protect the community with the following tools: 
    • Identity Verification: Mitigate risks and prevent fraudulent parties from entering the property by verifying IDs before tours or showings. Leasing agents can perform unlimited scans to verify passports, driving licenses and more, and receive instant results. 
    • Resident Screening: Maximize financial performance and reduce delinquencies with a customizable screening process using a proprietary AccuScore analytical model. Tailor the process for all housing types, including conventional, affordable, public, military, student and senior housing. 
    • Multifamily Insurance: Include resident insurance as part of a lease to reduce liability. Protect properties, residents and owners in case of disasters and easily manage active policies and claims. 
  • Asset Management: Analyze investment opportunities, identify risks and manage assets at both the investment and property levels with the following: 
    • Investment Central: Monitor data from a central repository to manage investments and drill down on opportunities with a better-informed portfolio view and strategies. 
    • Asset Modeling: Monitor, analyze and forecast the current and future state of portfolio assets. Leverage sensitivity scenarios to anticipate market and tendency changes, and reduce risk exposure. 
    • Analytix Portal: Gain actionable insights and clean data with the flexible BI module. Visualize data, maximize performance, optimize profitability, analyze geospatial data and more. 
  • Debt Modeling: Model multiple contract debt scenarios for optimal deal structure and improve decision making with centralized storage of all data, an arrears calculation engine and comprehensive forecasting and reporting. 
  • Lease Abstraction: Save time and error by extracting data from leases using AI. Review leases with a proprietary Optical Character Recognition (OCR) engine, converting them into machine-readable text. Each extracted data point is linked with the source material to maintain a complete audit trail. 
  • Lease Management: Access a single source for all data points for managing lease contracts, including start and end dates, security deposits, personalized clauses, lease terms, documentation and more. 
  • Lease Accounting: Maintain compliance with core accounting regulations, including ASC 840 and the new FASB ASC 842, IASB IFRS 16 and GASB 87 standards. Automate calculations, save time, reduce errors and maintain an accurate audit trail by capturing data at the source, eliminating multiple entries. 
  • Facility Management: Ensure on-time maintenance and provide improved services to tenants while decreasing costs and overheads with the following modules: 
    • Workspeed: Manage, view and create work orders and maintain accurate records. Leverage the industry’s best practices and standards to perform preventive maintenance and extend assets’ life spans. Provide managers, owners, tenants and vendors with a common messaging platform via the web-based mobile communication hub. 
    • Visitor Management: Provide building security personnel with an intuitive interface to register and check-in visitors and verify identification. Managers can access accurate, real-time lobby data, and residents can electronically pre-register guests. 
  • Space Management: Increase efficiency and reduce costs with better utilization of real estate space. Plan department allocation, CAD floor layouts, seating charts, personnel moves, space chargebacks and more. Streamline HR, IT and security team processes on a centralized platform. 
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Product Ranking

#4

among all
Property Management Software

#30

among all
Property Management Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

86
86
93
90
84
84
69
71
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Platform Capabilities
Leasing
Accounting & Financial Management
Platform Capabilities
Accounting & Financial Management
Leasing
Maintenance

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

Buildium
MRI Software
+ Add Product + Add Product
Accounting & Financial Management Business Operations Dashboards And Reporting Leasing Maintenance Marketing Platform Capabilities 93 84 69 98 70 60 99 90 84 71 90 85 83 98 0 25 50 75 100
96%
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4%
81%
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19%
86%
0%
14%
86%
0%
14%
71%
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29%
71%
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29%
100%
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88%
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12%
71%
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29%
86%
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14%
33%
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67%
83%
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17%
93%
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7%
93%
0%
7%

Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

63%
0%
37%
50%
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50%

User Sentiment Summary

Excellent User Sentiment 1604 reviews
Great User Sentiment 79 reviews
90%
of users recommend this product

Buildium has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 90% when considering 1604 user reviews from 2 recognized software review sites.

87%
of users recommend this product

MRI Software has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 87% when considering 79 user reviews from 3 recognized software review sites.

n/a
4.8 (4)
4.4 (112)
3.9 (9)
4.5 (1492)
4.4 (66)

Awards

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Buildium and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Leasing and Platform Capabilities. Buildium stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award
Leasing Award
Platform Capabilities Award

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Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

End-to-End Software: Buildium is a comprehensive solution that can handle marketing, leasing, maintenance and management workflows of a property management business, according to 88% of users reviewing its features
Accounting: It offers robust and intuitive accounting features, according to 90% of reviews on this aspect.
Resident Experience: All the users who mentioned this element said that the software enhances overall tenant experience via individual communication portals, digital work orders and electronic rent payment.
Intuitive Interface: It has a simple and easy-to-use user interface, according to 80% of reviews on this aspect.
Customer Support: According to 90% of users who reviewed support services, the vendor offers responsive and agile customer support.
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Streamlined Accounting: MRI's capabilities simplify complex accounting tasks, such as managing multiple bank accounts and generating financial reports. The software also offers features like automated invoicing and online payment processing, which can save property managers time and effort.
Comprehensive Tenant Management: MRI provides tools for managing tenant information, including lease agreements, maintenance requests, and communication history. This can help property managers stay organized and efficient, and it can also improve communication and relationships with tenants.
Efficient Maintenance Management: MRI offers features for tracking maintenance requests, scheduling repairs, and managing vendor relationships. This can help property managers ensure that maintenance issues are addressed promptly and efficiently, which can improve tenant satisfaction and protect the value of the property.
Improved Reporting and Analytics: MRI provides a variety of reporting and analytics tools that can help property managers track key performance indicators, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions. This information can be used to improve operations, reduce costs, and increase profitability.
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Commercial Property Management: The software lacks nuanced features for commercial property management, according to 100% reviews on this aspect.
Leasing: Insufficient in-depth leasing customizations are an issue, according to 85% of users who reviewed this element.
Automation: Accounting and maintenance management, according to 100% of reviews on this element.
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Steep Learning Curve: Users report that MRI is not intuitive and requires extensive training to use effectively. The interface can be overwhelming for new users, and the software's complexity can lead to frustration and inefficiency.
Customization Challenges: While MRI offers customization options, users find the process to be cumbersome and time-consuming. Implementing custom features often requires assistance from MRI's support team or third-party consultants, which can be costly and inconvenient.
Reporting Limitations: Generating reports in MRI can be challenging due to the software's complex data structure and limited reporting capabilities. Users often need to export data to external tools for further analysis, which adds complexity to the reporting process.
Integration Issues: Integrating MRI with other software systems can be difficult due to compatibility issues and data mapping challenges. This can hinder data flow and create inefficiencies in workflows that involve multiple systems.
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Buildium helps property owners and managers digitize and streamline every property management workflow. Users prefer the solution because of its end-to-end property management features, ease of use and responsive support suite. Reviewers also mention that residents are fond of the platform’s mobility and prefer paying rent and issuing maintenance requests digitally. However, reviews note that the platform is mainly built for residential properties and lacks nuanced features like complicated lease structures, automatic utility tracking, in-depth CC&R and violation tracking for commercial, student and community properties. Users also have to manually match transactions to bank entries and can’t issue work orders automatically. Considering everything, buildium can get confusing for larger portfolios but is perfect for single landlords and managers to organize and monitor operations from a unified dashboard.

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MRI Software has established itself as a leading contender in the property management software arena, boasting a comprehensive suite of features that cater to diverse needs within the real estate sector. Users frequently highlight its adaptability and scalability, enabling it to seamlessly accommodate the complexities of managing various property types, from residential complexes to commercial properties. The software's capacity to streamline essential tasks, such as lease administration, rent collection, and maintenance management, has garnered significant praise for its ability to enhance operational efficiency and optimize workflows. However, some users have noted that MRI Software's extensive functionality can lead to a steeper learning curve, particularly for those transitioning from simpler platforms. Additionally, while the software offers integration capabilities, some users have expressed a desire for more seamless connectivity with third-party applications to further enhance data synchronization and process automation. Despite these considerations, MRI Software's robust feature set, coupled with its adaptability and scalability, positions it as an ideal solution for property management companies, real estate investors, and businesses seeking a comprehensive platform to effectively manage their property portfolios.

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