Hemlane vs. Zillow Rental Manager: Which is Best for You?

Every landlord wants a platform that allows them to run their business smoothly. This is why the property management softwares they use will need to be able to adapt to their unique situation. But with all the different platforms available, how do you determmine which platform is the right one for you?

To help you navigate through your journey of deciding on your property management software, we wanted to provide you with a comprehensive side by side comparison between the big players in this space. Whether you are just starting out with your first rental property or if you have a big portfolio of rental properties, you can use the information within these articles to make your informed decision!

In this article, we’ll compare Hemlane and Zillow Rental Manager to see which platform gives you everything you need to run your business.

Hemlane Vs. Zillow Rental Manager: A Side-by-Side

Bring Repair Coordination In-House

As with all rentals, maintenance and repairs can happen at any time of the day! If these repairs are left alone, they can result in a more expensive bill over time. Although maintenance and repairs are common, not all platforms are built with the same functionality. With Zillow’s Rental Manager, it currently does not have the capabilities to allow users to manage incoming repair requests from their tenants. Instead of having it built in with their software, they offer these types of services through a third party company which can assist with these requests.

Instead of increasing the number of companies you need to work with, wouldn’t it be nice to work with one company that knows the insides and out of your rental?

We thought it would be! This is why Hemlane can assist you with repair coordination. When a request comes through from your tenant, you can rest easy knowing our 5-star team will help right away!

With each maintenance request, our system will walk your tenant through a few simple troubleshooting measures to determine if a service call is needed. Through our years of experience, we noticed some of these repair requests can be fixed with just a quick flick of a switch! By troubleshooting first, you can save on the service call charges!

If a repair requires a service professional, our repair coordinators will connect with your service professionals or with our network of vetted service professionals to schedule appointments with your tenants. As always, our team will keep you in the loop and provide notifications for any and all updates regarding the repairs!

Easily Collect Rent and Create Financial Reports

Whether you are just starting out with your first rental or have an empire of rentals units, your software must be able to adapt to your business. One key feature of all property management softwares is the ability to collect rent online!

By collecting rent online, you'll reduce the time you would spend knocking on doors just to collect monthly rent. Instead of a 45 minute trip to the property and the banks, allow your tenants to make payments online with the press of a button so you can focus on other business projects or have a nice day off! Both Hemlane and Zillow Rental Manager provide you with a software to securely process these types of payments with the click of a button.

But while both platforms allow for these types of payments, the delivery time can vary depending on which property management software you are working with. With Zillow Rental Manager, you can expect your payments to process between 3-5 business days. While this is faster than the transaction time of some of our competitors, we think it should be much faster! This is why transactions on Hemlane typically take 2-3 business days to process.

Online transactions shouldn’t be the only seamless part of payments. Generating reports for yourself or for your clients should also be quick and easy! Instead of having to sort through countless transactions to create a financial report, Hemlane makes this easy for you by automatically creating one based on the transactions you have entered throughout the year! Not only that, if you are managing properties for a client, they would also be able to generate these reports without having to ask you. Hemlane makes it easy to create and download financial reports in the matter of minutes and you can send them over to those who need it!

At the time of writing, Zillow Rental Manager has not implemented these features on their platform but this may change over time.

Are you using other platforms like Zelle, Venmo, Paypal, or through direct deposit? These platforms have some associated risks when receiving rent payments through them. You can learn more about the risks here. Through Hemlane or Zillow Rental Manager, your tenants can securely send you payments through either a bank-to-bank transfer (ACH) or through credit or debit cards at a fee.

Find and Qualify Your Tenants Quickly!

When looking for your next tenant, we know how important it is for you to pick the best tenant you can find. This is why both platforms allow you to list your rental property and request for an online application and background check. But when you partner with Hemlane, we'll get your listing in front of more eyes while making tenant screening easy for you!

Start off by listing your rental properties to our network of 30+ listing websites with just the flip of a switch! Once the listing is active, you will be notified of any prospective tenants interested in your rental property. Hemlane organizes all these inquiries into an easy to view page and allows you to message the applicants, upload documents, and request for an application and credit check to help you make a decision!

When comparing the screening reports, Zillow’s reports will provide you with your applicant’s credit history and criminal history. But get a bigger picture of who your applicants are, Hemlane’s tenant screening report will cover the applicant's credit history, criminal record, evictions, and reported income! With this added information, you can be sure you’re selecting the right tenants out of all the incoming applicants.

Which Platform is For You?

When comparing the two platforms, we think it is clear which one provides you with the most flexibility and features to help you run your business. The gold medal for this round would go to Hemlane!

When it comes to managing your rental, you can rest easy knowing Hemlane has your back when it comes down to marketing your listing, collecting rent payments, and coordinating repairs at your rental property. Treat your rental property like the asset it is and partner with Hemlane today!

Not convinced? Try our platform for free of charge and see why our customers consistently give us 5 stars!