Good afternoon. Thank you for standing by and welcome to the AppFolio Incorporated Second Quarter 2021 Financial Results Conference Call. Please be advised today's conference is being recorded and replay information will be given at the end of the broadcast. I would now like to hand the conference over to Erica Abrams.
Thank you, Holly. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us today as we report AppFolio's Q2 of 2021 financial results. With me on the call today is Jason Randall, AppFolio's President and CEO. This call is simultaneously being webcast on the Investor Relations section of our website at www.appfolioinc.com. Before we get started, I would like to remind everyone of AppFolio's Safe Harbor policy.
Comments made during this conference call and webcast contain forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Any statement that refers to expectations, projections or other characterizations of future events, including financial projections or future market conditions is a forward looking statement. AppFolio's actual future results could differ materially from those expressed in such forward looking statements for any reason, including those listed in our SEC filings. AppFolio assumes no obligation to update any such forward looking statements except as required by law. Please see our filings with the SEC, including our Form 10 Q, which was filed earlier today for greater detail about risks and uncertainty.
With that, I will turn the call over to Jason Randall, AppFolio's President and CEO. Jason, please go ahead.
Thank you, Erica, and welcome to everyone joining us for AppFolio's Q2 of fiscal year 2021 financial results. As those of you who follow us closely know, Eda Cain, our former Chief Financial Officer, departed AppFolio in early June 2021 and the finance team is presently reporting to me on an interim basis. With our search for a new Chief Financial Officer currently underway, I will be discussing the details of both our financial and strategic progress in the Q2. For the quarter, we reported total revenue of $89,000,000 and GAAP net income of $2,000,000 or $0.06 per diluted share. GAAP net income includes an income tax benefit of $300,000 as as well as $3,200,000 in non cash charges related to stock based compensation.
Our Form 10 Q was filed today and includes more details on our results. On the call today, enhanced clarity and comparability, I will discuss the results of our continuing real of our state business for comparable periods historically, excluding the impact of our former My Case business, which we divested in the Q3 of 2020. To that end, revenue from AppFolio's continuing business for the Q2 of 2021 was $89,000,000 which represents an increase 22% over revenue of $72,800,000 reported in the same period in 2020. The increase in revenue year over year is mainly attributable to growth in the number of property management customers we serve, which correlates to an increase in use of our core subscription solutions and our usage based Value plus services, which are designed to enhance, automate and streamline processes and workflows that are essential to our customers' businesses. At the end of the second quarter, we had over 16,500 Real Estate Property Management customers, which represents an increase of 10% reported in the same period 1 year ago.
Those customers had 5,820,000 units under management in our property management ecosystem at quarter end, which represents growth of 18% from 4,900,000 units reported in the same period in 2020. Core Solutions revenue derived from subscriptions to customers in our continuing real estate business in the 2nd quarter was $25,400,000 an increase of 20% over $21,200,000 for the same period 1 year ago. Value plus Services revenue from our continuing business was $60,400,000 in the 2nd quarter, an increase of 25% over $48,200,000 for Q2 2020. Revenue from NatFolio's Value plus Services benefited from increased demand for our electronic payment services in the Q2 of 2021 as primarily residents, Property managers, owners and customers transacted more business online than they did a year ago. Furthermore, usage of our tenant screening and insurance services increased year over year consistent with the increase in units under management.
As a reminder, while we also experienced growth in several other Value plus service offerings, especially those primarily related to the rental process. A significant majority of our Value plus services revenue comes directly and indirectly from the use of our electronic payment services, tenant screening services and insurance services, all of which we make available to customers and other constituencies in our property management ecosystem. Turning now to spending. Total costs and operating expenses in the Q2 were $87,800,000 representing a year over year increase of 30% relative to $67,500,000 from our continuing business in the prior year. Our year over year increase in cost is primarily related to 3 key expense areas.
First, we on increase in personnel related costs, mainly primarily from a 22% year over year expansion in headcount that we believe will enable future growth and positively impact long term shareholder value. 2nd, we saw an increase in third party transactional costs that supported a 25% year over year increase in our Value plus services revenue. 3rd, we saw an increase in expenses related to online advertising and virtual marketing events were designed to support key investments in the business this year and beyond. Moving to the balance sheet. At June 30, 2021, Principal source of liquidity were cash, cash equivalents and investment securities, which had an aggregate balance of $163,100,000 During the quarter, we generated $15,100,000 for operating activities.
In addition, we used $5,700,000 for capitalized software development with ongoing investment in our technology and service offerings as well as $1,900,000 for capital expenditures. We also spent $4,900,000 in connection with tax withholdings for RSU net share settlements. Our Q2 financial performance reflects Gapfolio's continued focus on delivering value to new and existing customers in the form of foundational software and services designed to address Key challenges and opportunities both now and into the future. Our customers rely on AppFolio to unlock value and efficiency in their businesses and to leverage our digital transformation as a competitive advantage in the real estate industry. Within AppFoli of Property Manager, Our solutions automate and streamline core aspects of property management, accounting, leasing, maintenance and communications.
In the Q2, we introduced key functionality in our core Appfolio Property Manager solutions to improve customer success in leasing and renewals. Rental history verification and lease renewal proration are designed to help customers increase revenue retention by minimizing manual tasks throughout the rental and bringing their lease renewal process online into a single workflow. Rob Carriello, Property Manager at Century 21 Hagerty Company commented, now that we have a process that could be filled out quickly and electronically, we are seeing same day, sometimes same hour responses, which makes our turnover so much quicker. We continue to serve larger portfolios with AppFolio Property Manager Plus in the second quarter recognizing the evolving needs these distributed portfolios have for deeper business insights, robust automation and more advanced customer experiences. As smart home technology and hardware see more adoption in the multifamily housing space, we are laying a foundation for Plus customers to manage their properties remotely through technology integrations with leading hardware vendors like SmartRent.
Our software is designed to deliver efficiency gains by automating workflows to free staff to focus on growth and customer relationships. According to Mark Tuohy, Director of Operations for Locations, a large portfolio customer, AppFolio Property Manager Plus is an integral part of our operation. The customization of the reporting functions, online Application features, bill pay and excellent customer service support have truly helped our business reach its maximum potential. For our customers managing community association portfolios, we've expanded capabilities that are designed to help them serve homeowners and board members by digitizing and automating certain aspects of their Customers like Crystal Smith, Director of Finance for Elite Housing Management are realizing added value, recently telling us Since using AppFolio 3.5 years ago, our business has grown from 1600 units to nearly 10,000 units. AppFolio delivers top of the market customer service and new ideas that help us do more with ease every day.
As part of AppFolio's ongoing mission to be a trusted long term partner to customers, We hosted the AppFolio Virtual Wave Summit in May, bringing together technology, education and service. This conference was available at no charge to both existing and potential customers creating a digital space for industry leaders to discuss the latest trends, technologies and innovation to the forefront of real estate. We're proud that our Folio Property Manager was selected in Q2 as the best AI based solution for real estate in the annual AI Breakthrough Rewards. By applying more automation and standardization through technology, we strive to create more freedom for our customers to focus on the strategic aspects of their business and make space for them to foster deeper connections with their customers. AppFolio Property Manager customer, Karina Lyons, Corporate Vice President of Concept Property Management had this to say.
Lisa, the AppFolio AI leasing assistant has changed the game for us. We were simply unable to keep up before AppFolio. It's been fantastic and absolutely allowed us to rent faster. We've started the gradual re openings of AppFolio's office hubs in Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, San Diego and Dallas. While we are mindful of CDC, state and local guidelines with respect to workplace safety, we are also encouraged by the sense The community and innovation is being felt across our campuses.
As we look toward returning to the office more fully over time, we're excited to utilize a hybrid working model that provides flexibility in work location coupled with vibrant offices designed for collaboration. With that said, we continue to monitor our business team and culture carefully as we experienced some of the same challenges that other companies are facing, including a competitive labor market and COVID related impacts. I'd like to express my sincere appreciation to our team for the resilience and dedication they've shown in leading our business during this period. And a testament to our customer centric culture, just this month, we received the news that AppFolio has been pre certified as a great place to work, marking our of the consecutive year. Congratulations to all Appfolians.
Looking ahead, we remain focused on generating long term spend on providing exceptional experiences to our growing customer base relies on FLEO's cloud based software to power their businesses, Especially as they adapt to the evolving needs and expectations of their own customers and business ecosystems now and into the future. Given our performance to date, we now expect total revenue from our continuing business for fiscal year 2021 to be in the range of $350,000,000 to $355,000,000 The midpoint of the range implies year over year growth of 23.8 percent in 2021. We continue to expect our weighted average diluted share count for the year to 36,000,000 shares. Thank you all for joining us today. I will now turn the call back to the operator.
Please go ahead.
Thank you for participating in today's AppFolio Incorporated Second Quarter 2021 Financial Results Call. This call will be available for replay beginning at 7:30 p. M. Eastern Time today through midnight on is 12, 2021. The conference ID number for the replay is 2,995, 293.
Again, the conference ID number for the replay is 2,995, 293. The number to dial replay is 8 5,585,9056 or 404-537. Once again, we'd like to thank you for participating on today's conference call. You may now disconnect.