Archive for January, 2010

Does Good Property Management Matter?

Monday, January 18th, 2010

Keeping a property looking good and the tenants happy is hard work for property managers.  And now with the internet, it has never been more important to focus on keeping good relationships with your residents.  A recent blog on Rent Bits indicates that people are beginning to use reviews as a way to choose an apartment or a single family home.   Though the blog refers to the predicted purchase of Yelp, a very popular review site, by Google, Yelp has since passed on the deal.   Google had already begun to expand its review concept with Google Place Pages, where people can review companies and places.  Instead of just getting limited information on a map, Google now provides an entire page dedicated to information about the company or place.  I tested this by typing in several apartment properties into my Google search bar.  I was able to quickly get reviews by current and previous tenants.  The blog suggests that reviews on the internet will change the apartment industry.  I agree with this.  Whenever I buy a product on the web, I read the reviews to make sure it will fit my needs.

Providing ways for your tenants to communicate with you and you with them is a way of determining how they are doing.  Many property management companies are starting to use online resident portals to accomplish this, letting the tenants schedule the use of common areas, pay their rent online, report maintenance requests, and check the status of existing service requests.   A good online rental property management software program should support this feature as part of the system.

Over communicating with your tenants on what is going on with the property and seeking feedback is the real key to keeping a pulse on what is going on.  It is better to learn how a tenant feels when you can do something about it than waiting for them to post a negative review online.  In his book, ‘What Would Google Do?’, Jeff Jarvis says that a company must allow easy two way communication if they want to be successful today.  The web allows information about a company to travel at the speed of light, so focusing on communication with your tenants will make sure that information is positive.

So how do you make sure your hard work is paying off?   Communicate.

Rob Crichlow
DIY Real Estate Solutions

Posted in Property Management Tips, Real Estate Internet Trends | 2 Comments »

Good Property Management Software Helps Property Management Companies Grow

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

In many of my previous blogs, I have pointed out that using good rental property management software impacts a property management company in many positive ways.  Well now a recent survey has pointed out it actually helps property management companies grow.  Software Advice has published the results of the survey on their website showing various technologies that growing firms are using.

One quote that stood out to me was, “Companies who used property management specific software managed an average of 102 units per employee. Those that used generic software or spreadsheets only managed an average of 61 units per employee. We acknowledge there are other factors to consider here. But we’re firmly in the camp that an integrated software system frees up property management employees to do more tasks.”  This certainly shows that a company using a well integrated property management program can do more with less people.

Over 60% of the growing companies surveyed used a property management software product.   Other technologies were listed as well, including emailing statements, electronic maintenance requests, online rent payments, integrated accounting, tracking leads electronically, and auto-posting to Craigslist.

One respondent said, “I feel web based software is coming of age …”

I found the survey very interesting and encourage you to check it out.   Staying on top of what is happening in technology is a good idea for any company, but it is essential for a property management company, since increasing the number of units being managed without increasing costs at the same rate is ultimately the goal.

For some tips on researching what products are available today, check out my blog Picking a Property Management Software Solution or checkout our web based property management software as an example of a fully integrated solution.

Rob Crichlow
DIY Real Estate Solutions

Posted in Property Management Software Ideas, Residential Property Industry | No Comments »