Property management for Kenya, with M-Pesa built in
Every unit. Every tenant.Every shilling.
Realm raises every rent invoice on time, puts every M-Pesa payment on the right one, and shows you who owes what across all your units.
- M-Pesa paybill and till
- Invoices that raise themselves
- Free trial, no card
Good morning, Wanjiku
Thursday, 30 October
Collected in October
KES 2.41M
Owed
KES 228,000
4 tenants, 2 overdue
Occupancy
96%
238 of 248 units
Paid by M-Pesa
84%
matched automatically
Collected, last 12 months
% of rent billed
Payments coming in
- AOAchieng Otieno · A2SJK4H7Q2LM+45,000now
- BKBrian Kiprop · B7SJK4G2P8XA+32,0004 min
- WKWanjiru Kamau · C1SJK4F9L3WQ+28,50012 min
Realm Stays
Stay somewhere good.
Furnished places across Kenya, booked by the night. Pay the host directly by M-Pesa or card.
Renting out property should not be a second job.
Most landlords and agents run their buildings from a notebook, a spreadsheet and a phone full of messages. Here is what that costs, and what changes.
Working out who paid means scrolling messages and checking a notebook.
Every payment lands on its invoice, and balances update themselves.
Invoices go out late, or not at all, when you are busy.
Rent invoices raise themselves on each lease's billing day.
Arrears pile up for months before anyone notices.
Unpaid invoices are flagged overdue the night they pass their due date.
A vacant unit sits empty because nobody was keeping track.
Occupancy for every property, on one screen.
Repairs get lost between the caretaker, the tenant and you.
Every request is tracked from open to resolved.
Everyone shares one login, or one spreadsheet.
Each person has their own access, limited to their job.
Realm Homes
Homes to rent or buy.
Listed by the agents and landlords who manage them on Realm. See what is free, then call, WhatsApp or send an enquiry.
From empty unit to paid invoice.
Follow one unit through a month on Realm. Most of these steps happen without you.
01
Add your buildings
Properties, units, rent and deposits. Each unit shows whether it is occupied, vacant or under repair, so you always know what is earning.
Kilimani Heights
Argwings Kodhek Rd, 18 units
83%occupied
A1A2A3A4A5A6B1B2B3B4B5B6C1C2C3C4C5C6OccupiedVacantMaintenance02
Sign the lease
Choose the unit and tenant, set the rent and the day of the month it is billed. Invoice the deposit in the same step.
New lease
ActiveTenantAchieng OtienoUnitKilimani Heights, A2RentKES 45,000 / monthDepositKES 90,000, invoicedBilling day1st of each month03
Invoices raise themselves
At five past midnight, Nairobi time, Realm raises rent for every lease that is due. Run it twice and you still get one invoice per lease per month.
Nightly rent run
Africa/Nairobi- 00:05:00Rent run started for November
- 00:05:01INV-000142 raised, A2, KES 45,000
- 00:05:01INV-000143 raised, A3, KES 45,000
- 00:05:0238 invoices raised, 0 duplicates
- 00:15:00Overdue check, 2 invoices flagged
04
The tenant pays on their phone
One click sends a payment request for the balance to the tenant's phone. They enter their PIN, and the money goes to your own paybill or till.
Safaricom12:04M-PESA
Pay KES 45,000 to Realm Demo Properties, account INV-000142?
Enter M-PESA PINCancelSend05
The invoice settles itself
The payment lands on the invoice with its receipt number, and the balance drops to zero. No matching, no chasing, no spreadsheet.
paidINV-000142
November rent, Kilimani Heights A2
Balance due
KES 0
ReceiptSJK4H7Q2LMPaidKES 45,000Confirmed4 seconds after the prompt
Kilimani Heights
Argwings Kodhek Rd, 18 units
83%occupied
01 / 05
Built for Kenyan landlords and agents.
- Rent invoices raised every night
- 00:05
- Of isolation between landlords
- 2 layers
- Owner, manager, accountant, caretaker
- 4 roles
- Encryption on your payment keys
- AES-256
Nairobi
The whole rental business, in one place.
Kilimani Heights
Argwings Kodhek Rd, 18 units
83%occupied
01
Every unit, accounted for.
Your whole portfolio on one screen. Rent and deposit live on the unit, and each unit knows whether it is earning.
- Rent and deposit set per unit
- Occupied, vacant or under maintenance, updated by leases
- Occupancy per property and across the portfolio
New lease
Active02
Leases that bill themselves.
Sign a tenant once and the rent takes care of itself, on the day of the month you choose.
- Billing day anywhere from the 1st to the 28th
- Deposit invoiced at signing if you want it
- Ending a lease frees the unit straight away
Maintenance
Westlands CourtOpen
Leaking kitchen tap
Gate remote not pairing
In progress
Repaint stairwell
03
Repairs, tracked to the end.
Log a problem against the unit it affects and follow it until it is fixed. Your caretaker can do it from their phone.
- Priority from low to urgent
- Open, in progress, resolved
- Every role can log and update requests
Books that balance themselves.
Stop matching payments to tenants by hand at the end of the month. Request rent from the invoice, and the payment finds its way back to it.
- Straight to your account
- Tenants pay into your own paybill or till. Realm records the payment, it never holds the money.
- On the right invoice
- Each payment request is tied to an invoice, so the money lands in the right place with its receipt.
- Never counted twice
- A repeated confirmation is ignored, so a receipt is only ever applied once.
- Never lost
- If a confirmation goes missing, Realm checks the result itself and settles the invoice anyway.
- Cash and bank too
- Record cash and bank payments against the same invoices, so one balance tells the whole story.
M-PESA
Pay KES 45,000 to Realm Demo Properties, account INV-000142?
M-PESA
Enter your PIN
Processing
Payment received
KES 45,000 to Realm Demo Properties
Your records never meet anyone else's.
Realm is one platform shared by many landlords. Each organization is sealed off twice: once in the application, and again inside the database itself.
- 01Your payment credentials are encrypted with AES-256-GCM and never shown again after you save them.
- 02Short-lived access tokens with rotating refresh tokens. Signing out revokes the session.
- 03Roles are checked on the server for every request, not just hidden in the menu.
Your organization
Demo Properties
- Properties and units
- Tenants and leases
- Invoices and payments
- Payment settings
Another organization
Another landlord
- Properties and units
- Tenants and leases
- Invoices and payments
- Payment settings
1. Application. Every query is filtered to your organization before it runs.
2. Database. Postgres row-level security refuses rows from any other organization.
Realm Stays
Short stays, booked by the night.
Beach villas, city flats and safari cottages across Kenya. Guests book and pay by M-Pesa; the door code and Wi-Fi arrive two days before they do. Hosts run it all from the same workspace as their rentals.
One workspace. The right keys for each person.
Add your staff to your organization. Each role can only change what that job needs, and the server enforces it.
Owner
Everything, including your team and payment settings.
Manager
Properties, units, tenants, leases and billing.
Accountant
Invoices, payments and payment requests.
Caretaker
Logs and updates maintenance requests.
Pay for what you manage.
Start free, no card needed. Slide to your size to see what each plan costs you.
No card needed to start. Pay by M-Pesa or card when the trial ends, and change plan any time.
And all of this
Built in and working today, on the plans that include it.
Tenant and owner portal
Tenants pay, see their invoices and receipts, and report repairs. Owners see their statements and payouts.
Reminders on WhatsApp, SMS and email
Before rent is due, on the day, when it is late, when a bill is raised and when a payment lands.
PDF invoices, receipts and statements
Documents with your name on them, sent by email or WhatsApp, or printed.
Paybill matching
Tenants who pay your paybill or till on their own are matched to their account, with a receipt.
Card payments
Tenants and guests can pay by card through your own Paystack account.
Expenses and owner statements
Costs per property, management fees and net statements for each owner, sent monthly.
Renewals and notices
Renewal offers tenants answer in the portal, and notice to leave with the move-out handled.
Inspections, utilities and vendors
Move-in and move-out inspections, water and power readings billed on, and job cards for your fundis.
Spreadsheet import
Bring in properties, units, tenants and leases in one go.
Team roles and activity log
Each person sees only what their job needs, and every change is recorded with who made it.
Questions landlords ask
How does the free trial work?
Create your workspace and use everything on your plan, free, for the length of the trial. No card is needed to start. Before it ends we remind you, and you choose to pay by M-Pesa or card from your Subscription page.
What happens when the trial ends?
Your first invoice is sent and you have a few days to pay it. Nothing you added is lost. If it stays unpaid, the workspace is paused until it is settled.
Can I change plan or cancel later?
Yes. Move to a bigger plan at any time and its features open straight away; a smaller plan starts at your next renewal. Paying quarterly or yearly costs less.
Does the money go through Realm?
No. Tenants pay by M-Pesa into your own paybill or till, or by card into your own Paystack account, using your own keys. Realm only records each payment against its invoice.
What if a tenant pays but the confirmation never arrives?
Realm checks the result itself shortly after each payment request and retries a few times, so the invoice still settles. A receipt is never applied twice.
Can tenants still pay in cash or by bank?
Yes. Record cash and bank payments against the invoice, and the balance updates the same way.
Can I raise rent invoices myself?
Yes. They are raised automatically every night for leases whose billing day has arrived, and you can run the same process on demand from the Invoices page. Running it twice never creates duplicates.
Is my data separate from other landlords on Realm?
Yes. Every query is limited to your organization by the application, and Postgres row-level security enforces the same rule inside the database.
Can my staff use it?
Yes. Add managers, accountants and caretakers to your organization. Each role limits what that person can change.
