Being a property manager or running a property management company is not an easy job. Rental property management is very demanding and involves a wide range of responsibilities – from finding tenants and preparing leases, to dealing with complaints and handling tenant evictions. The good news is that there are residential property management tools that can make your work less time-consuming and overwhelming. Using property management technology in your day-to-day operations can make a world of difference for your business.
6 Different Property Management Technology Options to Consider in 2020
Whether you are looking for traditional or vacation rental technology for property management, there is a wide range of innovative options to choose from.
TenantCloud
Created by Joe Edgar, TenantCloud is a technology for property management that has been featured in respected publications such as Forbes, The Washington Post, and MSN. This tool comes with an online payment feature that tenants can use to make payment via e-check, credit card, electronic fund transfer, and debit card. This ensures faster money, automatic receipts, and timely rent. TenantCloud also helps property managers keep track of finances by monitoring all the money received and spent by the business.
Besides the online payment feature, this property management software also comes with a repairs and maintenance feature which property managers or rental property owners can use to assign tasks to pest control experts, carpenters, plumbers, and other service professionals. This allows you to send notifications and reminders about pending work on time.
Related: Property Maintenance Services: A Manager’s Guide
TenantCloud integrates with a wide range of property management apps and offers customer support 24/7.
Mashboard
Next on our list is the most unique form of property management technology. Mashboard focuses on ensuring you grow your property management business. It is one of the best tools for finding investment properties for your clients and leads. It comes with a wide range of properties from Auction.com, MLS, and even off market properties. The listings are accompanied by details such as cash on cash return, cap rate, list price, and estimated value. This makes it easy to find the perfect investment property for your property management leads based on their budget and rental strategy. Once you have found the ideal property using the Property Recommender’s unique algorithm (90% accuracy in matching leads to properties!), you can send clients and leads:
- an SMS directly from your dashboard
- a branded PDF property analysis report through email
- email templates.
Start out your 7-day free trial with Mashboard now.
Related: 9 Ways a Property Manager Can Stand Out From the Competition in 2020
CondoControlCentral
As the name suggests, CondoControlCentral is a property management technology that helps digitize and streamline activities involved in managing condominiums. You will be able to communicate effectively, boost productivity, get rid of paperwork, and streamline property management operations.
A communication management feature helps property managers deliver notifications, as well as get feedback from their tenants. Text, voice or email notifications can be sent quickly using the mobile or desktop application.
CondoControlCentral also comes with a feature that allows tenants to book amenities easily, thus ensuring that there is no double booking. This feature also allows property managers to monitor reservations online.
Managing home deliveries effectively is a common problem for many property managers. CondoControlCentral has a digitized delivery logging system which ensures that all packages are accounted for. When packages arrive, notifications are sent immediately to recipients for pickup, thus minimizing their time in storage. The system also makes it easy for property managers to monitor outbound and inbound packages.
A visitor parking management feature notifies tenants and their visitors about the availability of parking space, thus ensuring that residents never lack parking space. The system also allows security guards to quickly identify and report any suspicious threats or activities. A property manager can easily monitor his/her security officers’ patrol routine on a smartphone.
With all its features, CondoControlCentral could appear very intimidating initially. The good news is that this property management technology comes with a full training suite that enables ongoing and new users to get a grasp of the system’s features. This cloud system integrates well with data recording systems, accounting systems, eCommerce systems, and security systems.
Rentec Direct
Rentec Direct is a tool that comes with all the features necessary for managing an unlimited number of property management clients, tenants, and rental properties. This property management technology is user-friendly and requires little to no training.
Marketing your vacant properties with Rentec is quick and easy. You can create attractive rental listings for your vacant units, which will be published on your own property management website, as well as top listing sites such as Apartments.com and Zillow. Potential tenants will be able to reach you directly via each listing.
Rentec Direct makes it easy to locate the best tenants for your rental properties. It gives you instant access to the eviction history, criminal records, and credit reports of potential tenants. Rentec also allows you to set up recurring or one-time online rent payments which let tenants pay via credit card or ACH.
Rentec comes with a tenant portal where your tenants can easily log in and submit maintenance requests, make rent payments, check payment history, and view notifications.
Related: 10 Tenant Management Tips for Property Managers
iStaging
Staging rental properties and hosting open houses can be very time-consuming for property managers. iStaging is property management technology designed to offer prospects virtual tours of your rental property. Potential tenants can enjoy virtual reality, augmented, and 360-degree experiences of your rental home from their smartphones or computers. The good news is that you don’t need any fancy equipment to use iStaging. You can even use your smartphone to take the photos required, and then use the online tour builder to create a tour of your rental. Potential tenants can view the tour online or using a virtual reality headset.
Building Engines
Building Engines is a technology in property management that automates the information capture and workflow for all tasks related to:
- Communications – Effective communication is a very important element in residential property management. Vendors, tenants, and contractors expect to be able to access information how and where they want it. The BE-mobile app by Building Engines allows users to send messages at any time and from anywhere.
- Asset and equipment maintenance – Building Engines boasts integrated capabilities for automating, capturing, and reporting on all maintenance tasks in your rental property.
- Operational risk management – There is always a danger of risk and loss when managing rental properties. Building Engines comes with a suite of tools that helps you manage your processes and document actions taken in case litigation arises in the future.
Conclusion
Whether you are a traditional or Airbnb property manager, property management solutions will come in very handy. Other property management technology solutions worth considering include Buildium, Appfolio, Rent Manager, Re-Leased, FantasticStay, and MRI Real Estate Software. Stay updated on property management technology trends to learn about other solutions that emerge in the market. When making a choice between different options, think about pricing, features, and user-friendliness. Use the free trial period to try out the tools before investing your money.
Visit Mashboard today to see how you can boost your property management career!
