DoorLoop vs. ExactEstate: An Affordable Housing Comparison

Affordable housing is a critical but complicated market. The managers who undertake these properties have far more administrative upkeep than traditional property management companies. When it comes to property management software (PMS), affordable housing isn’t going to fit neatly into the framework of just any PMS. 

At the end of the day, affordable housing and traditional housing are two entirely different animals. Most property management software companies don’t acknowledge or adapt to that simple fact.

PMS companies will often market themselves as a solution for affordable housing while changing almost nothing about their system to support that market. 

For example, popular systems like DoorLoop lack key functionalities that are essential for managing subsidized units efficiently. By contrast, ExactEstate offers a comprehensive set of capabilities specifically designed to meet the needs of property managers in affordable housing. 

We’ll take a closer look at how these two platforms compare when it comes to affordable housing capabilities.

Capability #1: Voucher Payment Tracking

The collection and tracking of subsidies is one of the chief challenges of the affordable housing market. PMs need to know that if the software can’t split a lease into subsidized and tenant rent, then it can’t truly handle affordable housing. 

What ExactEstate Offers:

• Easy Voucher Payment Tracking: ExactEstate integrates with HUD TRACS, enabling property managers (PMs) to go through and see which voucher payments clients have received. Any subsidized payment in ExactEstate’s system is locked as an external payment and tracked as a payment made for that lease. However, ExactEstate does not generate or validate vouchers. 
• Ledger Automation: After receiving payment, by uploading the deposit form to the platform, ExactEstate updates each resident's ledger, reconciling tenant and subsidized rent automatically, saving PMs tons of time and effort. 

What DoorLoop Offers:

• Manual Voucher Payment Tracking and No Ledger Automation: DoorLoop does not offer a HUD TRACS integration and they do not handle vouchers. You can collect payments from the government and assign them to a tenant manually, without any of the useful ledger automation ExactEstate offers. You would have to manually designate “Section 8” or “Government” as a “tenant” in the system and set its fixed contribution to be able to pull reports on it. You also cannot submit for the voucher within DoorLoop. 
• Basic Payments: Like any normal property management software, DoorLoop allows you to see the upcoming, due, and past-due payments for your units. This, however, is standard and not customized for affordable housing.

Capability #2: Income Certification

Another distinguishing feature of affordable housing is the income certification process, ensuring tenants meet the income requirements to justify government support. While DoorLoop claims to support subsidized units, it is not set up to currently provide the necessary tools to manage income certification efficiently.

What ExactEstate Offers:

• HUD TRACS Integration: ExactEstate integrates with HUD TRACS to automate the process of tracking income certification, allowing property managers to certify income in a single click. 
  
• Form Generation: PMs can generate and fill out TIC forms with all necessary tenant information, like wages and asset data, simplifying the process of submitting these forms to the government. 

What DoorLoop Offers:

• No HUD TRACS Integration: DoorLoop doesn’t integrate with the department that partially makes affordable housing possible. This increases the manual workload for property managers around income certification.
• No Form Generation: DoorLoop does not offer any capabilities for generating income certification documents. Property Managers using DoorLoop must manually upload and fill these documents in their system, which can be time-consuming and error-prone.
• Basic Storage: At most, you can simply store a pre-filled income certification doc in DoorLoop’s system.

Capability #3: Compliance Tools

Property managers need to maintain compliance with federal regulations, but there must be a degree of flexibility in how that compliance is achieved under the hood. Different software systems take different approaches to compliance that can help or hinder a company in its day-to-day operations.

What ExactEstate Offers:

• Flexible Compliance: ExactEstate gives clients all of the tools necessary to be compliant within their affordable housing property. However, they don’t rigidly enforce compliance. Strict compliance measures are one of the biggest pain points for PMs that use certain other software. These competitors do enforce compliance. This can lead to platform unusability, preventing the property managers from doing their job. 

A customer who had previously utilized another affordable housing software provider expressed concern that this compliance configuration would require their entire system to be locked unless an administrator manually closed out the books at the end of each day.

With ExactEstate, you can close your books whenever you want. They believe in customization and flexibility, with the tools to enable compliance with your terms as you collect voucher payments.

What DoorLoop Offers:

• No Compliance Tools: While ExactEstate gives you the tools you need to be compliant on your terms, DoorLoop does not offer tools that facilitate compliance at all. There is no reporting back to the government with their system.

Capability #4: Customization

Every property has nuances that make them a little bit different from each other. That’s why customization plays a vital role in property management software, allowing PMs to tailor the system to their specific needs and requirements. 

While both DoorLoop and ExactEstate offer some level of customization, there are notable differences in the extent and functionality of their customization capabilities.

What ExactEstate Offers:

• Client-Requested Features: ExactEstate prioritizes the creation of new features that benefit all users in the system. For example, they quickly implemented mass resident email functionality in response to a client request.
• Templating System: ExactEstate features a robust templating system that allows property managers to generate customized documents quickly and easily. They can fill out dynamic leases and forms with whichever resident information they choose. This capability was also created in response to a client request, who needed this capability to prefill documents based on tenant data. 
• AI Assistance: ExactEstate utilizes AI to assist property managers in various tasks, like writing custom emails or generating email templates. This AI-powered assistance streamlines communication processes and improves productivity.

What DoorLoop Offers:

• Application Customization: DoorLoop allows property managers to customize application questions and fees, providing flexibility in screening potential tenants.
• Tenant Portal Customization: DoorLoop offers some level of customization for tenant portals, allowing PMs to tailor the portal experience to their specific requirements.
• AI Assistance: DoorLoop also offers AI assistance with syndicating listings.

Ultimately, property managers who handle affordable housing need to be cognizant of the fact that property management companies will tell them they can handle this market, even though they can’t. 

Managers and operations professionals have to be discerning and inquisitive in demos with software salespeople, asking targeted questions about how the platform supports this market segment. 

ExactEstate is proud to be one of the few property management systems that was built for affordable housing. You can learn more about ExactEstate by requesting a demo.

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