In the world of rental properties, it is becoming increasingly important that modern property managers are able to harness the power of technology in order to grow their business. In 2024 property management trends, technology has become an indispensable tool for success.
As more rental property management companies are looking for ways to increase their efficiency, income, and tenant satisfaction, many property managers looking to technology to help them get there.
In this blog post, we will talk about how using technology can help to make your company more successful and your life easier. Then, we will go over our top picks for which provider you should choose to meet your property management company’s unique needs.
How Technology Can Lead to Property Management Innovation
Ultimately, property management technologies can offer you one extremely valuable benefit: more time. Technology helps to save you time on a wide range of responsibilities, making your business significantly more efficient and your day-to-day life easier.
Whether it’s contacting property owners, communicating with tenants, handling finances, or keeping track of ongoing maintenance projects, there is technology out there that is specifically designed to help give property managers everywhere a smoother workflow with their daily operations.
Aside from your day-to-day tasks, technology can help your business thrive by helping you make wiser and more well-informed business decisions. Now, you may be wondering: how can technology affect my future business choices?
Well, using software that is specifically designed for professional property managers can help you access valuable insights and statistics for your business. You can then use this information to help you set your budgets effectively and unlock new streams of revenue for your company.
How Property Management Technology Can Help Your Business Be More Effective in the Long Run
As we mentioned above, one of technology’s key benefits for property managers lies in its ability to streamline your daily operations and increase efficiency. But how exactly is this done? Let’s break down the value of property management technology a little further by going over the three main benefits it can offer to your company:
1. Keeping Up with the Expectations of Both Property Owners and Tenants
When it comes to property management, you know that creating a positive experience for your clients and tenants can either make or break your success. As the years go by, more and more landlords are more than comfortable with the idea of doing their business online.
There is a long list of client-related tasks that property managers can use technology to handle more effectively. You can send and collect rent payments, receive and track maintenance requests, communicate more effectively with your clients and tenants, store and share your important documents, and do all of your financial reporting.
Similarly, the vast majority of tenants are also happy to do their rent-related business online. From submitting maintenance requests to making their monthly online rent payments, offering an online portal for your tenants to use makes their rental experience much more convenient.
Property managers should focus on what they can do to improve their clients’ and tenants’ experiences. By using property management software, you can handle the majority of your communication with clients online, allowing a more convenient experience that both helps your clients and tenants and makes sense for your business.
2. Streamlining Your Daily Operations
While using property management software can help make your clients’ lives easier, it can also help make your life a little easier as well. While many tools on the market can streamline your day-to-day operations, software that is specifically designed for property managers will be your best bet.
For example, property management software can be essential when creating new lease agreements. It will often come with a variety of different lease templates for you to choose from. You can then easily customize the template, create your own sections and edit the details as you go. Once you’ve created a lease agreement that meets your specific needs, you can save it and send it off!
With this kind of technology, you can make a long list of tasks feel easier. You can do everything from processing applications from prospective tenants to collecting rent payments and security deposits, all on the same platform. This ultimately keeps everything organized and within reach, so whenever you need to access important information, you can do just that in seconds.
3. Finding New Marketing and Growth Opportunities for Your Property Management Company
Finally, another huge benefit of embracing technology for your company is allowing you to make more informed business decisions and grow at a faster rate. This can be beneficial in both larger and smaller aspects of your business.
On the smaller side, let’s say that you open up a maintenance history for one of the units you manage and you notice the same repair happening on one appliance multiple times. You may then decide that it’s time to replace it altogether.
On a larger scale, you can use the analytics and valuable information that your property management software offers to truly see your business growth. You can see your company’s weak spots, take note of various opportunities to increase your income and improve your marketing strategies.
Our Top Recommendations for Property Management Technology
Now that we have gone over what the benefits are of implementing property management software into your business, you may be thinking: which software should I choose? The truth is, there are a lot of options out there for you to choose from, and the process of finding the right one for you and your company can be stressful.
Luckily, we have done all the research for you and narrowed down our top picks to nine options. Below, we will go over each of our favorite property management software options including why we love them, how they can help your company, and what their pricing looks like. So, let’s dive in!
1. Buildium
Buildium is a great comprehensive property management software option for companies of all sizes. This platform can also work for any property type, including single-family homes, multi-family complexes, commercial properties, and even student housing.
Primary Features:
The primary features of Buildium are designed to help property managers tackle everyday tasks, all while remaining competitive, growing their business, and making their clients happy. This includes the following:
- A variety of online marketing tools to help you boost your business. This includes a free website, a portal for online tenant applications, tenant screening, and online signing for lease agreements.
- A resident center that helps both property managers and their tenants keep track of everything related to a rental including maintenance requests and rent payments.
- Access to valuable information about how your business is performing in an Analytics and Insights hub.
- The ability to automate payments and accounting.
- Mobile apps that property managers, tenants, and property owners can use to conveniently access all important information.
Pricing:
Before you fully commit to using the platform, Buildium offers a 14-day free trial so you can be sure that it is right for you and your business. After that, Buildium offers users a choice of three different plans: Essential, Growth, and Premium.
The basic plan starts at $55 per month, the Growth plan starts at $174 per month, and the premium plan costs $375 per month.
2. All Property Management
If one of your 2024 goals for your company is to grow your client list and gain more doors, then All Property Management may just be the property management software for you. This platform helps users take a proactive approach to reaching new clients, and it primarily exists to connect landlords and property managers.
Many landlords use this service to help them find a reliable and experienced property manager who can offer them exactly what they are looking for. So, as a property manager, we highly recommend creating a profile, as it can help you reach leads with minimal effort on your part.
Features:
In the All Property Management platform, there is a search bar with a map that landlords can use to find property managers in their area, compare pricing and experience, and contact different companies directly once they have found one that may be a good fit for them.
Pricing:
Joining the All Property Management network is free of charge, however, users will have to pay per lead.
3. HomeWiseDocs
If you work in real estate and manage an association, then you know how hard it can be to keep up with and organize all of your important documents. Enter HomeWiseDocs.
This is a platform that is specifically designed to make this part of your job as easy as possible, and the end result allows users to streamline all of the work that an association needs to do to prepare the various documents needed for the sale and resale process.
Features:
HomeWiseDocs’s document management tools can offer users the ability to:
- Process payments
- Answer questions quickly and easily
- Complete order requests on time
- Keep track of expiring documents
- Use analytics to track revenue and find new, innovative ways to increase streams of income.
Pricing:
If you are the manager of a community association, you can use HomeWiseDocs free of charge. Instead, all of your fees will be added to the price that you set for documentation services.
4. Tenant Turner
If your main goal for 2024 is to find new tenants, then we recommend Tenant Turner to help you get there.
Tenant Turner is a tool that can help you find leads, market your listings, and secure new, high-quality tenants. If you have ever had to work to fill a vacant property, then you know the process can be frustrating.
With Tenant Turner, you can speed up that process by posting your ads to multiple rental property listing sites at once. Then, the platform can help you schedule and manage your property showings.
Features:
- Tenant Turner offers a leasing dashboard to help you keep track of your property listings, showings, and leads.
- To help you find high-quality tenants, the platform can run a pre-screening check for you, including asking custom pre-qualifying questions to applicants.
- A custom calendar to help you organize and schedule all of your meetings and showings with applicants.
- A variety of options for electronic locks, allowing property managers to present safer, electronic showings.
- The ability to import listings so you don’t have to retype all of a rental unit’s information.
- The ability to create reports for your clients that show them how listings for their properties are performing.
Pricing:
Tenant Turner offers a variety of pricing options to choose from, with add-ons for digital lock boxes. The basic plan with scheduling assistance and an automated phone system costs $1 per rental unit each month.
5. Goodjuju
Any property management company that wants to thrive in 2024 needs strong branding to represent its work. This is where Goodjuju can help.
Goodjuju is a marketing software that can help property managers build their property management websites, optimize SEO, manage their Google Ads, and improve their overall online presence. This service can even integrate with other platforms such as Buildium.
Features:
- The primary benefit of using Goodjuju is building a custom website. Each one is strategically created to attract as many leads as possible to your business.
- Goodjuju also helps you boost your search engine optimization and any other aspect of your digital marketing strategy for your company.
Pricing:
Goodjuju’s pricing model is based on your market and what you will need from them to succeed. They offer a free consultation on their website for newcomers.
6. ShowingHero
If you have ever struggled with organizing various property showings, then ShowingHero might just be the thing that helps you the most.
ShowingHero offers its users a way to automate their leasing and showings, and the site claims to help you find tenants for vacant properties 3x faster, in addition to improving your property’s profitability by 70%.
Features:
- The ability to pre-screen potential tenants before booking a showing.
- An automated booking system that you can send to applicants, allowing them to choose a time that works best for them without the back and forth.
- Compatibility with electronic lockboxes so potential tenants can view the property on their own without compromising safety.
- Analytics that show you how your listings are performing.
Pricing:
ShowingHero pricing begins at $22 per month with a minimum of four listings.
7. Property Meld
As a property manager, you probably know that maintenance has long been referenced as one of the most time-consuming and costly aspects of operating a rental property. With Property Meld, you can make that process easier for you and your team.
Property Meld is a software that’s sole purpose is to help your property management company automate and streamline the maintenance process of your properties. So if you struggle with this aspect of the job, this is our most recommended solution.
Features:
- Set up automated alerts to keep you updated on the progress of maintenance requests, and let you know when tenants request new ones.
- Message tenants and vendors directly.
- Maintenance staff and vendors can be alerted when a new request comes through, and they can keep your team up to date on their progress.
- Keep track of multiple projects at once without letting details slip through the cracks.
- Vendors can submit invoices through their work through Property Meld, which also allows you to keep track of all of your paperwork.
Pricing:
Each month, property meld charges users $1.60 per unit, with a $160/month minimum.
8. Nutiliti
If you are looking to make the tenant move-in process go more smoothly, using Nutiliti to manage your property’s utility services might be your best bet.
This service allows you to activate electricity, gas, water, and internet services, in addition to managing your tenant’s utility bills. This is a platform that is beneficial to both you and your tenants.
Features:
- Nutiliti can handle all aspects of utility activations and deactivations for you.
- Schedule any necessary service appointments for your property, in addition to handling tenant concerns
- Keeps track of your provider invoices and other paperwork.
- Collects utility payments from tenants directly, allowing them to conveniently split the payments between roommates if necessary.
Pricing:
Nutiliti’s pricing information is not available on their site, so you will need to contact them directly to get more information.
9. HappyCo
For multifamily property managers, HappyCo can help streamline your inspection process, allowing you to spot potential problems with ease. This platform offers users a simple yet effective checklist to follow, helping inspections become less daunting.
Features:
HappyCo covers a variety of rental property inspection-related tasks, including virtual inspections, guest inspections, pre-built templates, customizable forms, storage of inspection photos, and more.
Pricing:
HappyCo integrates seamlessly with Buildium, and is available if you are already subscribed to BUildium’s Growth or Premium plans. If you are only wanting to access HappyCo, subscriptions are priced each month per unit with a minimum of 250 units. Contact HappyCo to find out more about their standalone pricing for property managers.
Bottom Line
We know that all of the property management software options on the market today can be overwhelming to consider. After all, with technology in property management gaining popularity so rapidly, the list of platforms to choose from seems to only be getting longer and more difficult to navigate.
We hope that our list has helped you narrow down your choices and identify which technology can best help you reach your company’s unique goals.
Whether you are looking to streamline your maintenance process or find new clients this year, it is important to identify what your company’s next steps are and how technology can help you get there faster.
If you have any further questions on how to integrate technology into your property management company’s day-to-day operations, contact our team at Blanket today.
