App builder

Run every door from one property management app
that knows who owes rent today.

Tell the agent about your buildings, units and leases, and it builds a web app where rent status, renewals and repairs sit together — with a live preview and code you own.

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Starter prompt

Build a property management web app for a manager with 60 units across nine buildings. Record each unit with its building, unit number, market rent, owner and status. Record leases with the tenants, start and end dates, monthly rent, deposit held and the signed lease file. Post a rent charge per lease each month and log payments against it, keeping the tenant’s share separate from any housing authority payment. Let tenants sign in to see their balance and report a repair with a photo. Show a rent roll, an open-balance list and leases ending in the next 120 days.

Build it in Netiva Paste the prompt into a new workspace and adjust it to your business.
Overview

Who this property management app is for

A manager’s week is scattered across four places: lease PDFs in a shared drive, rent in the bank app, a text thread about a leaking water heater and a sticky note about the tenancy that ends in June. When an owner calls to ask why 3B is empty, the answer takes 20 minutes to assemble. A property management app built with Netiva holds units, leases, rent charges and work orders together, so the rent roll, the open-balance list and every unfinished repair read from the same records.

Key features

What your property management app can do

  • Leases, tenants and renewals

    Every lease carries its unit, tenants, dates, rent and deposit, with the signed PDF and addenda attached. Tenancies ending soon collect on their own list months before anyone has to decide.

    • Expirations list for the next 60, 90 and 120 days
    • Renewal status: offer sent, renewed, notice to vacate
    • Signed lease, addenda and disclosures on the lease record
    • Tenancies flagged as month-to-month once the term runs out

  • A rent roll that stays current

    A rent charge posts against each lease every month — rent, a late fee, a utility chargeback — and each payment is logged against it, so the roll shows what was billed, what has arrived and what is still open.

    • Open balances with the count of days past the due date
    • A payment log on each charge: date, amount and who sent it
    • The tenant’s share and a housing authority’s deposit on separate lines
    • Saved views for one building or one owner’s units

  • Repairs with photos and vendors

    A tenant reports a problem from their phone with a photo, and it becomes a work order on the unit with a priority, a vendor and an entry note. The tech updates the same record standing in the kitchen.

    • Priority, vendor and the visit window agreed with the tenant
    • Permission to enter recorded on the job, not left in a text thread
    • The tenant’s photo on the record, and the tech’s once the job is done
    • Every request kept in that unit’s repair history

  • Reminders that leave on time

    Scheduled emails carry the repeating parts of the month: a rent reminder before the due date, a receipt after a payment, an overdue-repair digest for the office and a nudge as each term nears its end.

    • Rent reminders and payment receipts to tenants
    • Daily digest of new and overdue work orders
    • Renewal prompts at 120, 90 and 60 days out
    • Tenants and staff sign in with their own accounts
Data model

The collections behind it

Netiva keeps your records in built-in collections. Here’s a starting structure — the agent adapts it to your prompt, and you can change it any time.

Units

Every door you look after, with its rent, its owner and what it is doing right now.

  • Building (required) Property name or street address Text
  • Unit number (required) 3B, Rear, or the house number for a single-family rental Text
  • Beds and baths Shown on the turn board and in renewal offers Text
  • Market rent (required) What the unit would ask today, next to the rent in place Number
  • Status (required) Occupied, notice given, vacant, make-ready, off-line Text
  • Owner For managers holding units for several owners Text
  • Access notes Lockbox, parking, dogs, where the water shut-off is Paragraph
  • Year built Flags pre-1978 units that need a lead disclosure at signing Number

Leases

One record per tenancy: who lives there, until when and on what terms.

  • Unit (required) Relation to Units
  • Tenants (required) Every adult on the lease by name; ask for a tenants collection to hold an email each Text
  • Start date (required) Date
  • End date Left blank once a tenancy rolls to month-to-month Date
  • Monthly rent (required) Number
  • Deposit held Amount only; the money sits where your state requires Number
  • Renewal status Not due, offer sent, renewed, notice to vacate Text
  • Signed lease Lease, addenda and the signed disclosures that go with it File

Rent charges

What a lease owes for one month and everything paid against it.

  • Lease (required) Relation to Leases
  • Period (required) The month being billed, such as 2026-10 Text
  • Charge type (required) Rent, late fee, utility, damage chargeback Text
  • Amount due (required) Number
  • Due date (required) Drives the days-past-due count on the open-balance list Date
  • Amount paid Total received so far; a partial payment leaves the rest on the balance Number
  • Payment log One line per payment: date, amount and whether the tenant or a housing authority sent it Paragraph

Work orders

Each repair from the tenant’s first photo to the day the tech closes it out.

  • Unit (required) Relation to Units
  • Reported at (required) Date & time
  • Issue (required) The tenant’s words first, then what the tech found Paragraph
  • Priority (required) Emergency, urgent, routine, make-ready Text
  • Photo Taken by the tenant when reported and the tech when done Image
  • Vendor Plumber, HVAC company, handyman or in-house Text
  • Scheduled visit The window agreed with the tenant, and whether the tech may enter if nobody is home Text
  • Status (required) New, assigned, scheduled, waiting on parts, closed Text

Required field. Types are Netiva collection field types.

Screens

Pages and screens to start with

A typical first version. Ask the agent for more, or annotate the preview to change any of them.

  • Rent roll

    Every unit with its lease, tenants, rent in place and this month’s balance, filtered down to one building or one owner.

    Your team

  • Open balances

    Leases still owing, sorted by days past the due date, with the most recent payment logged on the charge and who sent it.

    Your team

  • Renewals

    Leases ending in the next 120 days with rent in place beside the unit’s market rent, and the renewal status you move along.

    Your team

  • Work order

    One repair: the reported issue and photo, its priority, the vendor, the visit window with permission to enter and the status the tech moves along.

    Your team

  • Tenant home

    What a tenant sees after signing in: balance and payment history, lease dates, their open repairs and a form to report a new one.

    Signed-in users

  • Turn board

    Units under notice or standing empty, ordered by move-out date, with make-ready tasks and the date each one can be shown.

    Your team
How it works

From prompt to a live property management app

  1. Describe the doors you manage

    Tell Netiva how many buildings and units you run, whether they are yours or an owner’s, and how rent is billed. The agent drafts collections for units, leases, rent charges and work orders.

  2. Load this month’s rent roll

    Enter leases in the spreadsheet-like collection grid, or describe them and let the collection assistant draft records for you to check, then attach each signed lease. No coding at any point.

  3. Shape the screens your week runs on

    Open the rent roll and a work order in the live preview. Annotate whatever sits in the wrong place and the agent rearranges it while you watch, until the screens match how you actually work.

  4. Publish and let tenants in

    Publish in one click, send tenants the link and switch on the rent and renewal emails. Every change is checkpointed, and the code stays yours to export whenever you want.

Why Netiva

Netiva vs a traditional build

Building a property management app with Netiva compared with a traditional build
Criterion With Netiva Traditional build
Rent status A rent roll that shows this month’s charges, payments and open balances as they are recorded A spreadsheet rebuilt from bank statements once the month has already closed
Lease renewals An expirations list built from lease end dates, with renewal prompts emailed months ahead Calendar reminders somebody has to set by hand, one lease at a time
Getting started Describe what you need in chat and watch it take shape in a live preview Hire developers, or stitch together templates, plugins and a hosting plan
Content and data Built-in collections with nine field types, bound straight to your pages Set up and connect a separate database or CMS
Making changes Ask the agent; every change is checkpointed and reversible File a ticket, wait for a sprint, redeploy
Hosting and domain Global hosting and automatic SSL; connect a custom domain from the Starter plan Buy hosting, then install and renew SSL certificates yourself
Code ownership Clean production code you own and can export Locked into a template, plugin or agency setup
Examples

Ways teams use it

  • A landlord self-managing 14 doors

    Three small buildings, no office and a day job. The rent roll and open-balance list open on a phone between meetings, and a tenant screen means a broken water heater arrives as a photo and a work order instead of a voicemail at 11 p.m.

  • A two-person management company

    They hold units for six owners. Saved views split the rent roll, renewals and repairs by owner, and each owner gets a monthly email covering occupancy, leases ending soon and repairs still open on their own units.

  • A student-housing operator facing an August turn

    Most tenancies end the same week. The turn board lists every unit by move-out date with its make-ready tasks, so painters and cleaners are booked in the order the units actually empty rather than all at once.

Good to know

Before you build

  • The app records rent, it doesn’t move money

    Netiva builds the web app. Rent still arrives through your bank, your payment provider or a tenant’s check, and the app records it against the charge. If your provider offers a REST API, ask the agent to pull settled payments into the ledger with your key stored securely.

  • Deposits and entry notice follow your state

    How much deposit you may hold, where it sits and how soon you return it are set by state and local law, as is the notice before entering an occupied unit — California presumes 24 hours is reasonable. The app keeps those dates on file; it doesn’t check the rules for you.

  • Pre-1978 buildings need a lead disclosure

    Federal law has landlords of most housing built before 1978 give renters the EPA lead pamphlet plus a signed lead warning statement with the lease, and keep that signed disclosure for three years. Keep it filed on the lease record with everything else.

  • Screening and signing stay with your providers

    Netiva does not run credit or background checks and does not sign documents. Applicants go through your screening provider and leases through your e-sign tool; the finished PDF is then attached to the lease record.

FAQ

Questions about building a property management app

How does the app show who is behind on rent?

Each lease gets a rent charge for the month with an amount due and a due date, and every payment against it goes on that charge’s payment log: the date, the amount and whether the tenant or a housing authority sent it. A partial payment simply leaves a balance. The open-balance screen lists each lease still owing, how many days past due it is and what was last paid. Sort it by building or filter it to one owner’s units.

Can tenants report a repair with a photo?

Yes. Tenants sign in and see only their own unit, lease dates and balance, plus a short form that takes a description and a photo from the phone. The submission lands as a work order on that unit with a priority and a status. Your maintenance tech opens the same record, adds the vendor, notes and a photo of the finished job.

Can the property management app collect rent online?

The app keeps the ledger — what each lease owes, what was paid, when and by whom. The money itself moves through your bank or the payment provider you already use. If that provider has a REST API, the app can call it with your key stored securely, pulling settled payments onto the right charge each morning instead of you keying them in.

How do lease expirations turn into renewal offers?

The renewals screen lists leases whose end date falls inside the next 120 days, putting the rent in place next to the unit’s market rent and a renewal status you move along: offer sent, renewed, notice to vacate. Scheduled emails prompt you at 120, 90 and 60 days, and a tenancy left without a new end date shows as month-to-month.

Can one app handle units belonging to several owners?

Yes. Each unit records the owner it belongs to, and saved filtered views split the rent roll, renewals and work orders by owner. Owners can sign in and see only their own units, and a scheduled email sends each of them a monthly summary of occupancy, leases ending and repairs still open.

Does a maintenance tech have to install anything?

No. Netiva builds web apps that run in the browser, phones included, so a tech opens the work order, changes its status and uploads a photo with nothing to install — and tenants use the same published app. A tech on any phone or tablet sees the same record the office does, including the visit window and whether the tenant agreed to entry, so nobody works from a screenshot.

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Drafted with AI assistance from Netiva’s product pages and reviewed by the Netiva team. Example data models, screens and prompts are illustrative starting points, not customer projects.

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