This article was originally published on 19/10/2021.
Property management tools can help estate agents, property managers, brokers, and landlords centralise their data and workflows. Such tools offer features such as lease tracking, tenant portal and document management. Read more to find out about the benefits of property management software.
In this article
Real estate agents are typically responsible for many tasks relating to the management, maintenance, and monitoring of all manner and sizes of properties. To effectively manage all such tasks, businesses may need to rely more on a technologically sound system. Having said that, efficient property management software (PMS) can help real estate professionals and property managers streamline their daily operations and simplify their workload.
In addition, a report by Strategic Market Research, the global market size of property management software is expected to grow to 2.70 billion U.S. dollars in size by 2030. This data indicates that many businesses might be investing in property management software in the future. In this article, we will explore the benefits and features of property management software that can help real estate agents improve their efficiency.
How does a property management system work?
Property management typically refers to real-estate-related activities ranging from monitoring the health of a building or physical property to advertising, repairing, and maintaining facilities. With that said, a property management system can offer companies a convenient solution to better manage their property-related tasks. Such tools are similar to virtual assistants that can help automate repetitive tasks and even perform or monitor complex tasks.
Moreover, such tools generally focus on areas such as managing property assets, checking rentals, maintaining tenant accounts, keeping track of renovations, and following up on repair and maintenance issues. As performing these tasks manually could be time-consuming, property management tools could help automate such routine activities, including managing visitors, keeping up with rent payments, and updating tenant data. Companies could also cut down on additional hardware installation expenditure by adopting cloud-based property management tools.
How property management software can benefit businesses?
Some cloud-based property management software can help companies remotely monitor client-facing tasks —such as checking the status of room or property reservations for guests and tracking payments— and back-office activities —like managing promotional activities and monitoring sales. Here, we list a few benefits of property management solutions for real estate agents.
PMS can help simplify property asset management
Household equipment and furniture often require maintenance and repair services due to deterioration caused by regular use. Real estate agents can cater to maintenance issues with property management solutions by sending reminders and notifications. These solutions can also help them conveniently track the maintenance process and progress status by allowing them to communicate with tenants through chatbots.
It can help in monitoring rent payments
At times, monitoring rent payments can be challenging, mainly if there is a large volume of such payments to track. PMS can help real estate agents check if they have received payments on time, and if not, can help notify tenants about late payments, as well as any late fees that could be applicable. Additionally, in case payment details are not updated in the database, such solutions could notify both the real estate agent and the tenant in question.
It can help companies take data-driven decisions
Whether your company is engaged in managing one property space or a wide range of properties —including multi-storey houses and commercial spaces— catering to their requirements and keeping track of tenant details can become challenging. PMS can help companies store important tenant details and documents in a secure database. This could enable real estate managers to make data-driven decisions about property leasing, tenant screening, and releasing related advertisements.
PMS can aid in prompt and convenient communication
To align with customers' requirements, real estate agents may be well-served by adopting practical tools that allow for prompt communication. Property management solutions can help real estate agents conveniently communicate with tenants by sending messages and emails in bulk to notify them about rental payments, repair and maintenance status, and share important documents, audio, and video files.
It can help provide flexible data storage solutions
Managing and storing paperwork related to renting, property assets, quality assurance, and financials can be daunting. With some cloud-based property management solutions, real estate agents can conveniently store data related to rental financials, asset management, and more on the cloud and access them from most devices.
What should be considered when evaluating PMS?
With a range of solutions available, it can be difficult to decide which property management software would be suitable for your company. In order to help you make an informed decision, we will now look at some features that can be kept in mind while choosing the ideal property management software for your needs.
- Password-protected security- Sometimes, managing and securing tenant data manually in spreadsheets and documents can be challenging. Companies should consider choosing software that helps them automate storing data and using authentication features to protect it. Companies can aim to prevent data breaches and secure important tenant data with password-protected authentication features.
- Integration platforms- Company operations can be interrupted if applications and software are not well-configured. This could result in a delay in performing tasks and the inability to meet essential deadlines. Companies should ideally opt for software solutions that enable integration with existing databases and payment apps.
- Secure payment platform- With numerous property management solutions to choose from, companies should keep an eye out for features that enable the encryption of data and messages to protect users' sensitive financial information. In addition, these tools could help ensure payment transaction security by using one-time passwords (OTPs).
In conclusion
Overall, property management software is a type of customer relationship management (CRM) software that offers various features and tools to track and automate property-related tasks. With the implementation of property management software, real estate agents can sort out their to-do lists and prioritise tasks with deadlines. It can also help companies keep track of the maintenance of facilities and property assets used by clients and better understand their requirements.
