BrickROI vs Stessa: an honest comparison for Canadian deals
Stessa is good software, but it solves a different problem. Stessa manages the property after you own it. BrickROI runs the deal before you make the offer. Here is where each one fits.
Where Stessa is genuinely good
Stessa is a strong portfolio-management tool. The free tier is generous, the bank-feed automation is real, and at tax time it saves US filers a lot of hours. It tracks income and expenses, collects rent, screens tenants, and rolls everything into clean reports. If you already own rentals and want one place to keep the books, Stessa does that job well.
The catch is the stage. Stessa is built for after you buy. Even a US investor uses it once the deal has closed and the keys are in hand. It does not tell you whether the deal in front of you is worth making an offer on.
Where it falls short for a Canadian deal
Two gaps matter for a Canadian investor. First, the stage: Stessa is portfolio bookkeeping, not pre-offer deal analysis. Second, the country: Stessa is built around US tax and US banking. The Schedule E report is a US tax form. The Stessa Cash account is US-only and FDIC-insured, so a Canadian investor cannot open it. There are no Canadian rent comps, no CMHC math, and no MLI Select scoring.
| Capability | Stessa | BrickROI |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-offer deal analysis | Limited | Yes, core job |
| Portfolio bookkeeping and rent collection | Yes, strong | No |
| CMHC insurance math | No | Yes |
| MLI Select points scoring | No | Yes |
| Canadian rent and sales comps | No | Yes |
| Provincial rent-cap automation | No | Yes |
| Municipal mill rates loaded | No | 55 cities, live |
| Tax report | US Schedule E | Not a tax tool |
| Reads your specific deal and answers what-ifs | No | Deal Mentor |
| Lender PDF for Canadian banks | No | Canadian format |
| Price | Free / USD up to ~$35/mo | CAD $27 Foundation / $97 Pro |
Different jobs, different stages
This is not a case of one tool beating the other on every line. Stessa wins the bookkeeping job cleanly, and BrickROI does not try to do it. If you want rent collection, bank feeds, and a Schedule E at year end, Stessa is a fine pick and a US-based investor will get real value from the free tier.
BrickROI lives one stage earlier. It answers the question Stessa does not: should you make this offer at all? You paste a Canadian listing, the property data fills in price, taxes, and rent comps, and the math runs. Cap rate, DSCR, cash-on-cash, the CMHC and MLI Select paths, and a lender-ready PDF, in about two minutes. Then the Deal Mentor reads that specific deal and talks through the what-ifs, the way an experienced investor would.
A Calgary investor warned on a forum that CMHC premiums "can easily add $10k+ to your numbers." A portfolio tool will never surface that, because by the time you are bookkeeping the property, the offer is already made. BrickROI shows you that cost while you can still walk away.
See your next Canadian deal scored before you buy.
Paste a Canadian listing into BrickROI and watch the CMHC and MLI Select paths appear next to the standard numbers. Two minutes, no signup to try.
Try a dealStessa questions
Does Stessa work in Canada?
You can track properties anywhere, but Stessa is built around US tax forms and US banking. The Schedule E report, the Stessa Cash account, and the buy-and-sell marketplace are US-only. There is no CMHC math, no MLI Select scoring, and no Canadian rent comps.
Is BrickROI a replacement for Stessa?
Not exactly. Stessa is for the portfolio you already own: bookkeeping, rent collection, and reports. BrickROI is for the deal before you make the offer. Some investors use one tool to decide and another to manage.
Can I do bookkeeping in BrickROI?
No. BrickROI is a pre-acquisition deal-analysis tool, not a bookkeeping or rent-collection platform. If you want ongoing portfolio bookkeeping, Stessa does that job well for US filers.