There’s more to choosing property maintenance software than simply opting for the cheapest product because there several vital issues to consider.
For those who work in real estate, whether as a managing agent or a landlord, then using property maintenance software that meets all of your needs is a key part to making life easier.
Indeed, for those who are managing several properties or a large portfolio without using any software will be difficult.
The big attraction for using property management software is that it will – or should – save time and make your life easier. You will:
- Avoid building up piles of paperwork that comes with managing property
- Have all relevant files and data stored securely
- Have information at your fingertips – wherever you are in the world
- Automate those time-consuming tasks.
Having recognised that property management software is beneficial, it’s time to appreciate that there are lots of software packages available and you will need to determine which is the best for you.
Which property management software offering?
Among the first steps to work out which property management software offering will best meet your needs; you need to consider:
Cost
Most property management software is affordable and will save you time and money. Don’t just sign up for a cheap offering and then struggle with everyday tasks. Take time to consider what each one offers and sign up to that one.
Accounting
Most of the software packages will help with putting accounts together rather than leaving it to the tax year end.
Most of these are simple click operations and you can record expenses, when payments have been received or have been made, digitise receipts so you don’t need to store them in shoe boxes and create professional automated accounting reports.
Communications
The software package for managing property should easily keep all relevant information about contractors and tenants in one place. The software should also automate all communications easily, such as sending rent reminders, so you receive prompt payments.
Automated
Having automated reminders also means you won’t forget important things – and it’s not just about reminding tenants to pay their rent. Among the reminders that can be automated to make managing your time easier, is for a property inspection renewal day to be set.
The automation will also see you produce professional reports that show the rents collected, your business expenses, as well as your profit and loss.
There’s no need to enter the data manually into a spreadsheet anymore.
Access
While most property managers and professionals will accept that using paper files is no longer suitable, having access to data and files is important.
This means that you should be looking for a property management software package that has everything being stored in the Cloud securely. As a result, you can access this information from anywhere in the world – from your smartphone, or a computer.
Scaling
Any property maintenance software offering for managing properties should offer an easy way to scale their offering, so whether you need to manage just one property or a large portfolio, this should be easily done.
That’s a lot of things to consider when searching the marketplace for suitable management software offerings and you will also need to be able to analyse the data easily to help with decision-making and producing accurate accounts.
All of your information will also need to be backed up regularly – most packages offer an automated process, and it must be easy to recover data in the future.
Do you need desktop or smartphone property management software?
As part of the selection process for property or facilities management software, you need to consider how you will access it.
For many, this means using a desktop computer and there are some very good packages available for this purpose.
However, it’s also worth considering those packages that have a mobile app that makes the software package easier and simpler to use.
For example, you may be on holiday in a far-flung destination and be required to answer a simple question.
Which will be the best solution – finding access to a desktop computer, or accessing information on your smartphone?
That’s a no-brainer and having smartphone app access is certainly worth considering when looking at the variety of packages available.
A maintenance management system can help
As a landlord or property manager, there are lots of routine tasks that need to be undertaken and a maintenance management system can help with this.
Whether it’s managing a maintenance request or tracking rent payments, these issues can take time to resolve.
And if you have lots of requests to deal with at the same time, it can be overwhelming to resolve each and every one.
This means growing numbers of real estate firms and landlords are looking at investing in property management software.
But rather than developing their own bespoke offering, it is quicker and more cost-effective to invest in property management software that is already established.
Having said that, you need to be wary about paying for functionality that is of no use to you or your business, so you need to carefully select the software that will meet your everyday needs.
This means understanding exactly what your problems are for the property maintenance software to solve these, including:
Property maintenance
Requests for property maintenance can arrive at any time of day or night so organising a contractor’s work order should be made easy. Maintenance software packages can also enable communication with a tenant to arrange a date and time for repairs to be carried out.
Communication
You could invest in property management software that enables a tenant to log in and register a repair request. They are then able to track any updates and interact with the landlord or property manager about when a suitable time for a contractor to arrive can be arranged.
Property inspections
Rather than laboriously writing up a property inspection every time, you can use a template to save time and generate the report automatically.
Administration
As mentioned, part of the automated process means there’s no need to input data into spreadsheets which is prone to errors and can be time-consuming. With property management software, most or all of the data is updated automatically so reports can be generated on demand.
Using property management software daily
Essentially, there’s a lot to recommend using property management software daily since it makes life easier for landlords and real estate professionals.
If you want everyday management tasks to be made simpler, regardless of how large your property portfolio is, then there will be a suitable software package available for you.
