CoStar offers a platform for real estate management needs.
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Entrata
Score 7.2 out of 10
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The Entrata Platform, from the company of the same name headquartered in Lehi, is a property management platform designed for leasing management of multifamily properties and tenants. The Entrata platform features a general ledger and accounting management, invoice management, as well as lead management with in-built marketing suite.
As an all-in-one solution (website, email marketing, SMS, online inventory management, leasing data, renter management), Entrata is very effective and provides solid integration with ILS (internet leasing services like Apartments.com and Zillow) for pushing out data updates. However, Entrata's website solution is turnkey, and lacks customization features standard in any generic CMS, requiring a redesign and new site template to just add new content.
I send customer communications almost exclusively through Entrata because everything ports into a customer activity log. It's simple and great for record keeping.
Invoices and payments can be handled from start to finish within Entrata. Expenses port directly into the property budget, allowing users to make informed buying decisions.
Within Entrata, a prospective customer can move from expressing initial interest to applying, signing a lease, and eventually renewing a lease. All documents and activity are housed within that customer's profile. It is the cleanest and most efficient method of leasing that I've encountered.
In our market (Portland, OR), not enough users implement the tools that could make CoStar so much better. For example, I specialize in medical but brokers and owners don't take the time to mark medical as an approved use in their buildings so I have to search much longer and cross-reference the data by contacting the brokers directly.
I find it really annoying that when I download documents CoStar doesn't use smart technology to automatically name my files. It is especially irritating since every piece of marketing we post to CoStar has a relevant file name yet when we download the same file we have to rename it.
The user interface could be much more user-friendly and intuitive. Tools are disjointed, and some reports and integrations are several click-layers deep and not as accessible as they should be.
The integration with Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager for event tracking on-site is severely limited and lacking.
I've used Entrata with three companies, all of whom have had an in-house liaison to the company. Consequently, I haven't had to work directly with Entrata support on very many occasions. However, I have personally seen feature requests added to the platform in a timely manner. That kind of service is rare in this industry.
One of our landlords requested we try VTS but we didn't continue because it was such a small portfolio it too more time to update the database than we wanted to spend
The one competitor with whom I have significant experience is OneSite. Simply put, Entrata is better at every single thing. It has a cleaner, more aesthetically pleasing interface. It is more intuitive. It functions better in more browsers. It has more property management tools and more functions available to customers.
Since CoStar has linked with LoopNet we have had fewer bad data calls. By which I mean old data from LoopNet that was available to the general public is now more regularly updated through CoStar so we have less confusion with our clients.
