Ask five things: which direction the data moves, which fields come across and how often, who keeps the connection working when the software changes, what stops if it drops, and what happens to your data when you leave. A vendor who can't answer one of them precisely has answered it.
A rep says the product "works with" your property management software, and you write it down as a yes. Six weeks later the yes is a nightly spreadsheet somebody on your team now owns. "Works with" spans a documented API call and an assistant re-typing vacancies. Five questions tell you which end you bought.
Which Direction Does the Data Move?
Two purchases hide in one phrase. A read-only pull takes listings and availability out, leaving your records alone. A two-way connection also creates rows in the system your bookkeeper reconciles (leads, guest cards, notes), and a bad day in that direction is a cleanup job, not an outage. Ask which it is, then ask what exactly gets created. LetHub's answer: it syncs with AppFolio, Buildium, RentVine, DoorLoop, TenantCloud and Propertyware to read listings and availability, and runs the conversation, booking and ID check in its own system.
Who Keeps It Working When the Software Changes?
Endpoints get versioned, fields move, old ones retire. All on the platform's schedule, not yours. These are big systems: AppFolio reported 22,096 property management customers, whose portfolios total 9.4 million units under management, as of December 31, 2025, in its annual report. Nobody at that scale is hand-tending a bespoke pipe for your 400 doors, so ask what your vendor is actually calling (a documented interface, or a workaround somebody rebuilt last quarter), who watches it for changes, and whether your own subscription plan carries the access they need. Then ask how you'd learn it broke: an alert, or a renter saying the listing is gone?
What Actually Comes Across, and How Often?
"Synced" describes a portfolio-wide copy and a four-field pull equally well. Ask for the list (units, marketing status, rent, photos, availability dates) and the refresh interval: nightly and every-few-minutes make for different Sunday afternoons. Some publish their side of it: RentVine advertises an "open API and MCP server" for connecting outside tools to a portfolio's data, and DoorLoop advertises connecting "to virtually any program or LLM with Zapier and our open API" (both as published August 2026). A bridge tool is a fair answer, and a third company in the chain.
What Stops if the Connection Drops?
Ask for the failure list, not the uptime number. If the product is just a window onto your data, an outage is an outage. If the renter-facing steps live on the vendor's side (LetHub's shape: listings come in, while the conversation, booking, verification and access run in LetHub's own system), the question narrows to what a paused pull does to a unit that hit the market this morning. Make them say which shape you're buying.
What Happens to Your Data When You Leave?
Asked last, and never negotiated under pressure. RentVine publishes a number for its own side: full access to your data for 12 months after cancellation. Ask a leasing vendor the same: what it holds, how you get it out, in what format, how long you have. The two windows rarely match.
| What To Ask | Specific Sounds Like | Vague Sounds Like |
|---|---|---|
| Which direction does data move? | "We read listings and availability. Nothing lands in your records." | "We're fully synced up." |
| Which fields, how often? | "These eleven, refreshed every 15 minutes." | "It all stays up to date." |
| Who fixes it when the API changes? | "We watch the changelog. Here's our last fix." | "That's never come up." |
| What stops if it drops? | "New listings stop arriving; here's what doesn't." | "Everything just works." |
| What happens when we leave? | "An export in this format, in this many days." | "We'd hate to lose you." |
Five questions, four minutes. To watch a read-only pull end to end, book one.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should I ask a vendor about my property management software?
Five things: which direction data moves, which fields come across and how often, who maintains the connection when the API changes, what stops if it drops, and what happens to your data when you leave. How precisely each gets answered tells you more than the answers.
Is a read-only listings pull enough to run leasing?
For most scattered-site portfolios, yes. Leasing needs to know what's available and what it rents for; the inquiry, the tour and the identity check happen outside the software anyway. Reading is also the smaller commitment: nothing new lands in the records your bookkeeper reconciles.
Does LetHub create lead records inside my PMS?
No. LetHub syncs with AppFolio, Buildium, RentVine, DoorLoop, TenantCloud and Propertyware to read listings and current availability. The inquiry, booking, ID verification and access steps all run in LetHub's own system, so there's no second lead record for anyone to reconcile later.
How do I tell a documented API from a workaround?
Ask the vendor to name the endpoint or documentation page it calls, and whether a third tool sits in the middle. Either answer can be fine. A vendor who can't name one or the other is describing a manual process, not a connection.
