The role of a property manager comes with the hard task of ensuring both tenants’ and landlords’ satisfaction while promoting the value of the property. This is a lot for a single individual, principally if daily tasks are performed without the help of property software management. There are several challenges faced by professionals who work with property management. It goes from dealing with damages and unexpected maintenance costs to handling late or non-paying residents.
A significant part of the property manager’s role is to boost the company’s reputation. By doing so, the company gains excellent buyers and tenants. However, overwhelmed by the number of administrative tasks, some aren’t able to allocate enough time for marketing strategies. Poor buyers and renters acquisition may jeopardize your company’s viability. Especially in these hard times where the real estate market is greatly affected.
Property management software not only saves you a huge amount of time by performing automated administrative tasks. It also helps your company grow its business while maintaining high-quality standards for all of your stakeholders. In this article, we’ll go through the key benefits of property management software and how to choose the best one for your company.
1. Why is property management software so necessary?
a. Modern website and portal
In fact, a key aspect of a property manager’s role is to promote the value of a property or community and attract new buyers or renters. Having a beautiful modern website allows you to engage easily with prospective residents. Your website can be personalized and can reflect your community’s look and feel.
b. Great communication
By using a property management system, you can send emails, notices, text messages in one centralized location. You can also send information to one or more communities with just a few clicks. It’s also a huge asset when you need to set rent reminders or keep residents up to date with their service requests. Since the pandemic, some software also provides virtual meetings in their portal which host the whole community without using a different platform.
Here’s a great example. Residents won’t have to call the property manager desperately when they can’t find the form they need to change their fence. If they have a community portal, they can make their request online and the right person can evaluate their proposal. This saves a lot of time for all parties involved and most certainly reduces frustration.
c. Flexibility
As a property manager, you’re probably always on the go. Site inspections, prospective resident visits, and much more. Having software allows you to stay in touch with residents anytime, anywhere through your mobile app. Sending out notices, being updated, and getting reminders has never been easier.
d. Daily tasks automation
The most beneficial aspect of property management software is how you can delegate some of your most tedious tasks to it. It allows you to route all maintenance requests to the correct person but also track and moderate violations. Using software means centralizing all activities in one place. This reduces the extensive amount of tools property managers use to handle day-to-day tasks.
e. Residents database
Have you spent countless hours manually entering data into excel spreadsheets? Having your residents database in a community portal enables you to view, manage and edit units/houses efficiently for each community that you manage. To reduce your workload, you can ask residents to enter their information themselves. This would save you a lot of time.
f. Online payments and accounting
With property management software, you have greater control over finances. You can easily view which tenants are up to date with paying their dues and those who aren’t. You can also quickly access what needs to be paid. A portal can also help you to make payments online. It helps you create invoices, payment management, and making online payments. As a property manager, being able to accept payments easily is very important.
g. Customer support
If you’re reluctant to switch from a manual process into a digital one because you don’t think you’re tech-savvy. Most companies invest heavily in excellent customer support. These professionals are willing to go the extra mile to make your company use their solution and have a great experience with it.
h. Saving time and money
Adding software to your property management business adds time-saving, efficient tools that help you to run your communities even better than before. There are a lot of options available in the market at affordable prices, or who offer property managers discounts. Having more time and resources at your disposal is the best way to ensure your company’s viability and growth.
2. How to choose the right software for your company?
It’s one thing to realize you need software, it’s another to choose the best one for your company. There are so many offers available that it can be overwhelming.
As a property manager, you most probably already have much on your plate. You don’t feel like going through the hassle of picking a company and implementing software. The good news is that choosing software and getting it up and running is not as hard and time-consuming as it was before.
Nowadays, a lot of information is available on the internet. You can easily find reviews to help you to make up your mind. Besides, most companies invest in excellent customer service so in one phone call or chat message you can have all the answers you need. All this makes the process straightforward.
Five-step process
There are also some tricks to make the process much quicker and easier. Here’s a five-step process that will help you choose the best property management software.
- Identify what your needs are
- Define the budget you’re willing to invest to meet the needs listed above
- Start a list of property management software companies
- Ask fellow property managers what software do they use
- Search on the internet
- Compare prices, features, and reviews
- You can go on sites such as Capterra or SourceForge to see software reviews from clients
- Select your two preferred options and start a free trial or request a demo
Once you’ve done your free trial or demo, you’ll have a better idea of how the platforms work. This will help you choose the right fit for your company. We always recommend demonstration versus a free trial. This is because, during a demonstration, you have the opportunity to ask all our questions and learn many tricks and additional functionalities that you may easily miss during a free trial. Your demo is also your first contact with the companies’ employees. This can help you determine if the customer success team is easily available and supportive.
To conclude
Property managers face excessive tasks that consume too much of their time.The right software will optimize and automate these tasks. All simple and procedural tasks can be left to the software. As a result, property managers have more time to work on more specific issues and their company’s strategy. There are many property management software available in the market. Dedicate some time and follow our step-by-step process to choose the software that fits your needs and expectations. Once you match with the right software, you’ll never go back to manual processes.
Vinteum may be the best fit for your property management company
Vinteum provides powerful yet easy to use property management software for your community’s needs. You can request a free demo to learn how our award-winning platform can help your company.
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