Need Help with Maintenance on your Single Family Rental and Multifamily Properties?

Following the Great Recession, institutional ownership of single family homes became a thing in the US. So naturally, a cluster of proptech startups emerged to cater to landlords of single family rental (SFR) portfolios. In part 3 of this 3-part series about contractor marketplaces and property maintenance solutions, I do a deep dive into proptech maintenance solutions specifically for SFR and Multifamily buildings. So if you’re a residential landlord, this article is just for you.

While the large incumbent contractor marketplaces of part 1 covers the vast majority of the US market, part 2 showed that there’s room for niches and alternate strategies. Although the bricks and sticks generally behave the same, landlords of SFRs and multifamily buildings operate very differently from homeowners.

When it comes to maintenance, SFR landlords are more experienced and savvy than your average homeowner. You guys are dealing with problems on a regular, almost predictable basis. And there’s an uncomfortable spot, probably between 2-10 homes, where you can’t afford a full time employee to handle maintenance. That’s where the proptech companies highlighted here shine.

But if you’re a large multifamily landlord, your buildings typically have enough cash flow to cover in-house maintenance staff. You probably have a contract with a property management company that manages thousands of units. So preventative maintenance and small fixes are all covered. But the large and infrequent renovations and repairs still require third party assistance. So of course there are proptech companies out there specifically for you too.

As usual, I’m not playing favorites here. These are in alphabetical order.

All Better (formerly ChoreRelief)

Website: allbetterapp.com

Founded in 2021, All Better is one of the rare mostly-bootstrapped companies that grew organically, which I’m tend to be a huge fan of. They’re a contractor marketplace for single family homes. And you can find contractors for cleaning, repairs, ongoing maintenance, plumbing, electrical work, moving services, furniture assembly, roofing, painting​, and more.

Pricing: Landlords (or homeowners) set their budget and negotiate directly with contractors. Payment is only processed once the job is completed to the homeowner’s satisfaction.

Bosscat (formerly Punchlist)

Website: https://bosscathome.com/

Originally founded in 2018 as PunchListUSA, the company rebranded to BossCat in 2023. (I personally like the original name better). They’ve served over 100,000 single family home owners, but built up a lot of their business with institutional SFR landlords. Their services include repairs, renovations, and ongoing preventative maintenance​. Home improvement projects including plumbing, HVAC, roofing, remodeling, exterior repairs, electrical work, painting, and window replacement.

Pricing: The maintenance program starts at $550/year, offering quarterly service visits. The quarterly maintenance is based on seasonality (like heating/AC tuneups), and could go a long way in preventing emergency repairs. All other repairs and renovations require a (free) custom estimate.

Breezeway

Website: https://www.breezeway.io/

Breezeway, founded in 2015, is actually not a contractor marketplace, but rather a property management platform with two main functions: operations and communications. It’s designed for owners of SFR’s and vacation home rentals. The ops platform helps you manage workflows, schedules, and finances. And the communications platform centralizes communication with your staff and guests.

Pricing: Breezeway’s operations platform and guest messaging app are both priced on a per property basis billed monthly. For hosts/managers with 4 or fewer units, Breezeway is $19.99 per property per month, but increases depending on what options you add.

Eden

Website: https://edenapp.com/

Eden, founded in 2015, deserved a special spot on this list because it’s a contractor marketplace that focuses strictly on lawncare and snow removal. You can find contractors for both one-off service calls and ongoing subscription based maintenance. They currently service Boston, Toronto, Minneapolis, Hamilton, Philly, Cleveland, Ottawa, Miami, and Chicago.

Pricing: Eden prices are based on a median norm for your region. It’s free to get a quote.

Lessen

Website: https://www.lessen.com/

Lessen is one of the younger companies on this list, but it’s by far the largest and most robust solutions. Like Breezeway, it’s a property management and maintenance platform, but designed for more than just SFR. They also service multifamily residential, retail, education, healthcare, and other asset classes. It really does do everything in the space of property maintenance, from helping you find contractors to tracking and managing workflows, and communicating with all your stakeholders.

Pricing: It’s hard to peg pricing down for anything they offer because it’s quite bespoke. They even offer advisory services and ESG compliance. So you’ll have to schedule a call to get pricing based on what you need.

Lula

Website: https://lula.life/

Lula, founded in 2020, is a contractor marketplace and software platform to help SFR and Multifamily property managers manage maintenance. They have vetted contractors in over 40 markets, and help you streamline communications through their software integrations. Meaning you don’t have to handle coordination on a separate app experience outside of software like Appfolio, Tenant Cloud, or Buildium.

Pricing: Pricing is hidding behind a “Get Started” button, which you’ll know is a pet peeve of mine if you read my stuff regularly.

Stellar

Website: www.mystellar.com

Stellar, founded in 2016, can service smaller landlords, but a large part of their customer base is institutional property managers and REITs. They operate in 11 cities, mostly in the South and Southeastern US. Unlike most contractor marketplaces, it isn’t designed for one-off transactions. It’s more like a partnership to help you find contractors on an ongoing basis for your portfolio.

Pricing: You need to fill out a form to discuss pricing structure with them.

You might think that the multifamily and SFR maintenance solution category is pretty niche, but there’s actually over 100 companies around the world that focus on this!

Derek Hsiang

Derek is the founder of The Proptech Scout, as well as an NYC landlord and real estate developer. In a former career, he bootstrapped and exited an e-commerce business while side hustling as a strategy consultant.

www.theproptechscout.com