Managing properties can get pretty stressful, and many property managers often feel that they sometimes lose track of all the tasks that need to be taken care of. If that’s something that you feel you might be struggling with as a property manager, then using an online property management tool will help you greatly.
What Are Online Property Management Tools?
Online property management tools are made to make property managers’ lives easier, giving them the ability to have more free time or more time to focus on other aspects of their lives. There is a wide variety of property management tools to choose from. In order for property managers to know which tools are most suitable for them, they must first look at what it is they need the property management tool to do. Do they need help in organizing tasks? Managing leases? Or maybe they need to communicate more seamlessly with tenants? See, the great thing about using property management tools is that you can have multiple features on a single platform. By using an online property management tool, property managers are able to carry out all their tasks online and get insights or analysis on their properties and performance.
Issues That Property Managers Face
In order for property managers to find solutions, they must know what their issues are. By first identifying their issues, property managers would then be able to choose a property management tool with the features that solve the issues they are struggling with. There are many things that property managers have to deal with on a day-to-day basis that could be done much easier and quicker using a property management tool. A few of the common issues that property managers struggle with are:
- Bad communication or lack of communication with tenants:
Having multiple properties under your management means that you must be prepared for and are responsible to help out all the tenants that are present. Furthermore, you need to be ready to operate a continuous leasing procedure; since tenants may come and go. Both procedures possess the need for a high degree of communication, which could be quite difficult to do if you are depending solely on emails and phone calls. Using property management tools, property managers could communicate quickly and directly using the platform. This would reduce any worry of not having direct access to contacts, or forgetting to respond to a tenant.
- Dealing with issue requests and issue reporting from tenants:
Accidents can occur at any time; however, most of the time, tenants are unable to contact you immediately to report the issue. An additional reason for delaying the request for maintenance is the fixed working hours, during which you are able to connect and employ a contractor. With strict working hours, it could be difficult for an issue to be resolved, especially when you’d need to arrange an appointment suitable for both the contractor and the tenant. With a property management tool, you would be able to receive a tenant’s report, and then contact contractors and easily schedule a suitable appointment using the tool.
- Handling leases and any delinquent payments:
Manually reporting your finances leaves room for error. Furthermore, reminding every tenant of their upcoming payment is not just time consuming, but also risks property managers losing payment receipts. When you fail in tracking the finances, you risk your business failing. Managing all leases and payments that need to be taken care of can be easily done using an online property management tool, since payments would be made online, and receipts, documents and signatures would be automatically sent and stored online as well.
The Benefits of Using an Online Property Management Tool
One of the main reasons to start using a property management tool is automation. With automation, the numerous struggles that property managers face on a day-to-day basis can be resolved. Some benefits of using online property management tools include:
- Access to information from anywhere and at any time:
Using an online property management tool, you are able to put all the needed data on a web-based platform; which in turn gives you access to this data whenever and wherever you may be. It also allows you to update any information directly, at any time. This gives you, as the property manager, and your tenants access to all the data and needed features from your phones.
- Enhanced communication between all parties:
Managing a property involves several people. For instance, tenants are expected to take care of various activities such as paying rent and reporting maintenance issues. With the help of online property management tools, tenants would be able to log into their tenant app and carry out all these activities anywhere. Having access to the tenant portal enables them to communicate any service requests and track any updates at any time of the day.
- Quick and efficient property inspections:
Even though some property management tools don’t offer property inspections, it is a feature that can help a lot. Property inspection is one of the most time-consuming processes that property managers must do. In order to do this, property managers need to visit the properties one by one, take notes of any essential information regarding the state of the inspected property, then go back to the office to type everything and save the data. However, with property management tools, property managers would be able to conduct the inspections needed and produce insightful reports instantly while the inspection is happening. Most property management tools provide a template for your inspections for you to be prepared. With these templates, you can ease your mind knowing that you will not forget anything.
- Lessening the administrative work:
Entering information manually in a spreadsheet is time consuming, and most importantly is very prone to error. In addition to that, it does not give you instant results; you would need to analyze the information yourself, which will take time. Using property management tools, you can input all the needed information, and complete reports can be generated at the click of a button.
- Payments done digitally:
Rent payments can sometimes be troubling for you and your tenants. When the transactions are done manually, keeping track of the payments can be hectic and takes several days to process. You may even lose track or miss some payments when recording payments manually. With the help of an online property management tool, tenants can directly pay their rent using their phones in minutes, and you can easily track the payments and dues of every single tenant. Furthermore, using a property management tool that tracks transactions will enable you to automatically generate financial reports.
- Safeguarding sensitive information:
In any company, it is crucial to keep information about your clients confidential. As a property manager, it is your responsibility to keep your tenants’ information secure. Property management tools provide you with the ability to securely store all the data needed online; since software companies provide data encryption to further protect your data.
Conclusion
Evidently, using an online property management tool that was made and tailored to your needs will drastically aid you and enhance nearly every aspect of your business. Through work process automation, you will gain more spare time that you can allocate for things like growing your business.
If you’re looking for a comprehensive online property management tool, check out RAY. RAY is a property management tool made to aid property managers in doing their jobs faster and easier. It offers a variety of features that benefit property managers as well as tenants. If you’d like to learn more about RAY and how you can leverage its power, please visit getray.com.
