By Erika Martin Wednesday, April 8th, 2015

AppFolio has doubled down on its core property management service with its first-ever real estate software acquisition, a San Diego-based startup called RentLinx.

The Santa Barbara Web-based software firm already offers a platform for landlords with 150 to 8,000 units, to manage accounting, billing and vacancies. With the RentLinx acquisition, the company hopes to help its clients better market vacancies. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Although AppFolio hasn’t been particularly acquisitive to date, company CEO Brian Donahoo said RentLinx was answer to problems clients had brought forth.

Donahoo said the company’s expansion of its real estate services should not be seen as a challenge to South Coast property management neighbor Yardi, which services clients at the higher end of the market, as opposed to AppFolio’s small- to mid-sized customers.

“We really just want to bring more value to our customers,” Donahoo said. “[Our software] needs to be priced and packaged in a way they can consume it. It needs to be kind of out-of-the-box easy to use, and I think that’s where we are significantly different [from Yardi].”

With the deal, AppFolio has also secured rights to the website ShowMeTheRent.com, owned by RentLinx, immediately giving its clients a greater listing presence and expand its client sphere.

For the full story, see the Web or print edition of Friday’s Business Times.