Utilizing Technology in Property Management

Residential Property Management has a renowned reputation for being slow to adopt technology, even in its most basic form. Given that the vast majority of Property Management firms are local mom & pop shops overseeing between 50–100 doors, the time and investment required to vet, train, and deploy technology solutions hasn’t been worthwhile. In most instances, using pen and paper and Microsoft Excel is more than sufficient for these smaller operations.

However, the amount of institutional investment dollars flowing into residential real estate is forcing significant change, and investors are now demanding the same level of transparency and reporting as any of their other investments. We’re now seeing a new breed of tech-driven Property Management companies filling this void, investing in technology to automate, track and drive efficiencies, and provide investors an unparalleled amount of insights into their investments. These companies are also growing at rapid speeds through acquisitions and paid marketing channels, gaining massive economies of scale and cost efficiencies.

So what part of the PM process needs can benefit the most from technology? And what are some of the available off-the-shelf solutions which allow PMs to realize these benefits?

Make-Readies

Time is literally money when it comes to Resident turns. Owners are not collecting rental payments while their homes sit vacant, and instead, are paying for repairs, maintenance and resident placement fees. This is when it’s time for a Property Manager to demonstrate their worth, and execute like clockwork.

During a turn, Property Managers must execute the below tasks in 3–5 days:

• Conduct a move-out inspection

• Schedule and 3rd party vendors to make unit rent-ready

• Perform a final walk-through

• Take professional photos

The scheduling, coordination and execution required to make this work is complex, and this is where technology can play a pivotal role.

Repairs & Maintenance

While getting quality vendors to actually fulfill maintenance requests is a challenge in itself, oftentimes, the communication and coordination among three parties: the PM, Vendor and Resident causes headaches and delays.

Payments & Accounting

Payments and accounting are still one of the largest opportunities for innovation within the Property Management space. While Cash, physical checks, and money orders are still very common and generate inordinate amounts of time to process and reconcile, electronic Payment processing and accounting is typically bundled within off-the-shelf Property Management software such as Buildium & Appfolio.

• Buildium — https://www.buildium.com/

• Appfolio — https://www.appfolio.com/

As always, if you have questions about what we’re doing at Bundled Management, please get in touch with us directly!