5 Software Every Property Manager Should Know

Last updated on August 7th, 2022 at 07:20 am

“If you don’t adopt disruptive technology, you’ll be disrupted. – Brad Inman”

This line rings true, especially for a property manager who is trying hard to handle routine tasks. 

For a majority of property managers, a 9 am to 5 pm gig is a dream.

Reason?

A property manager has to juggle many tasks simultaneously, including

• Attracting and screening tenants
• Ensuring maintenance and repairs
• Facilitating new tenant lease
• Collecting rents
• Strong customer service
• Handling move-outs
• Maintaining financial records and planning budget

You’ve to perform all these tasks plus many others while ensuring timeliness and keeping spirits high.

Manually performing these operations is an uphill battle and becomes overwhelming when these tasks are just the iceberg’s tip.

With 45% of property managers wanting to improve efficiency, investing in the right software could be the difference between a manager who receives overwhelming response from tenants and someone who has to post on every listing site to contact tenants.

Investing in technology is no longer a luxury; it has become a necessity. Using such software, you ensure renting is no longer a side gig as technology ensures constant cash flow. A successful property manager gets things done in the right way using the right set of software in his arsenal.

5 Software Every Property Manager Should Know

To make your life less stressful and ensure your rental is being operated as per the owner’s guidelines, we’ve listed the top five tools to manage real estate properties.

1. Property management system (PMS)

With the world slowly unlocking itself from COVID-19 forced lockdown, rental businesses, especially vacation rental and Airbnb, are witnessing a sharp increase in occupancy rates, leaving no choice with property managers like you to invest in an advanced Airbnb property management software.

A PMS:

• Tracks back-office operations
• Ensures full reporting
• Help manage functionalities that result in business expansion
• Keeps an overview of financial records
• Collect rents
• Automates all repetitive tasks like guest turnover or cleaning process
• Allows online signing of lease agreements
• Streamlines guest communication
• Syn your bookings and calendar

Apart from these benefits, a PMS helps in marketing, provides real-time access to information, and rents the property. Furthermore, unlike spreadsheets, your data is encrypted, which provides complete protection and safety of critical information.

When searching for  real estate management software, consider the following features:

• Intuitive dashboard
• Channel management
• Control calendar
• Best available rate
• Payment processing
• Reporting
• Direct booking engine

Also, ensure it has a user-friendly interface, excellent customer support, and online reviews. Depending on the size of your property management business, choose software offering the right set of functionalities.

2. Interior design software

The first step for putting any property on sale is sprucing up interiors to make it market worthy. When potential tenants look for rented accommodation, they’re sent a listing usually comprising 5-8 homes matching their requirement. Each listing has a short bio, details of the property (area, number of bedrooms/bathrooms, etc.), and some photos. It’s these photos that trigger the interest of a customer in your property.

If your photos reflect cluttered rooms, dull interiors, and wastage of space, tenants will likely move on to the next.

That’s where you need interior design software to help you keep up with the interior design trends 2021.

Interior design software helps create visual room layouts with furniture and other fixtures to present a visually realistic image of the property to potential tenants. It helps property managers to flip properties by offering incredible design tools to create astounding yet real interior design.

Using the software with a single click of a button, you can change colors, add wallpapers, maximize space, and ensure everything is as you want. Without touching the furniture physically, it gives tenants an idea of how to use the space. Furthermore, the interior design revamps photos could be a deciding factor between two or more properties of similar qualities.

Given the choice of two properties, would you choose a house with a cohesive design or a house with mismatched and outdoor décor? This is the difference an interior design software creates, making it a must-have in a property manager’s toolkit.

Include interior designing in your property management business to scale up cash flows and ensure faster renting of properties. 

3. Smart security system

With a smart security system, property managers like you take the protection of your property into your hands. There is nothing more frustrating and embarrassing for a property manager than a midnight burglary. It not demoralizes the tenant and landlord but adversely affects your business. A burglary sends a message of your inefficiency in providing a secure home to the tenants.

According to research, 60% of burglars indicated that finding an alarm system forces them to seek a different burglary target.

That’s the power of a smart security system. It could be your one-stop solution in ensuring a safe and secure environment.

With a smart security system installed, you and tenants receive notifications of irregular occurrence. These smart-systems send out alerts when it detects smoke or carbon monoxide. Many security systems let you sync other home systems such as flood sensors and send a sound notification to family members when a mishap happens in the home.

This security system offers live video streaming, which gives you a peek into the activities outside the building to ensure tenants’ safety.

While it’s your foremost duty to protect tenants, respect their privacy, and install cameras or the security systems at places that don’t breach the tenant’s privacy rights.

4. Intelligent document processing software (IDP)

Whether it’s lease documents, rent receipts, brokerage contracts, credit applications, or tax forms – paperwork is unavoidable in real estate. Every property requires specific documentation as laid by the state and federal guidelines. On average, a property manager like you has to manage 10-15 documents per property.

An overwhelming task, isn’t it?

An intelligent document processing software or IDP automates these tasks and saves you from the nightmare of doing repetitive and mundane tasks. The software works by extracting data using natural language processing and artificial intelligence. It converts unstructured data from scanned pdfs, images, or emails into structured and meaningful data.

Furthermore, manually entering data and maintaining records could lead to potential errors, which could hurt your business.

Apart from record management, IDP ensures compliance and risk-monitoring by reviewing lease contracts and tracking invoices. It protects you from tenants defaulting on payments.

5. Tenant portals

How are you communicating with tenants? Using a generic Facebook page or through call once a month? There is a gap as tenants prefer customized and anytime communication over generic Facebook pages and monthly calls.

An investment in a tenant portal offers a seamless way to communicate with tenants and solve issues. Apart from streamlining communication, these portals give access to lease contracts, allow them to pay their rents, increases transparency, and stops your phone from ringing constantly.

It creates a win-win situation for tenants and property managers as tenants can communicate anytime, and property managers can access tenant requests from online portals. These portals empower managers to keep a track record of the tenant history.

When you invest in a tenant portal, you gain a competitive advantage as these portals keep you up-to-date with technology. Tech-savvy tenants prefer doing business with property managers who give them easy and quick access to their account as it puts everything at their fingertips.

Conclusion

2021 is the right time to ditch spreadsheets and turn tech-savvy by embracing innovative software. Investment in property management tools may be intimidating at first, but these tools help you manage your properties efficiently.

Apart from automating your day-to-day activities, these tools give you the chance to manage properties while sitting at home. With automation, you gain valuable time, which you can spend on expanding your business and other creative processes instead of wasting time on manually managing the entire business.

A day in a property manager’s life will rarely be relaxing, especially if you manage multiple properties. These five tools could make the daily routine less hectic while ensuring tenant satisfaction.

Whether you decide to implement one or all software, it will make you feel less overwhelmed and help you get the most from your property management business.

Which software did you use? Do tell us in the comments section.