Why Do You Need Property Management Software As A Small Business Owner?

Introduction

The real estate market is expanding at an incredible speed with many lucrative career options like property management. Although, the job of a property manager is quite challenging. You have to manage various accounts, advertise for sales, maintain the property, process legal documents and check for repairs. 

For many years, property managers used spreadsheets, emails and paper to record tasks, transactions and more. Although, technology has made things easier as they can automate repetitive tasks and keep all their data in one place with the help of property maintenance software. 

However, small-time business owners still face issues in digitizing their operations because of the accessibility to the right software and their budget. Without the right property management software, these business owners face inventory problems and struggle to maintain records of accounts and transactions. Also, it takes a lot of time to manage the data, which doesn't allow them to focus on the essential tasks of their business. 

To run a smooth real estate business, it is essential to incorporate the right technology for your operations. Select a software that you can customize based on your business needs, is easy to set up and fits your budget. 

What exactly is Property Management Software?

Property management software helps with the operations of residential and commercial rental properties. You can even use it for hospitality accommodations. It can assist property managers in automating administrative, financial and back-office tasks. 

Maintenance software for property management comes with many functions like online payments gateways, tenant interfaces, record management, digital leases and maintenance tracking, which helps save time and money for streamlining tasks. 

3 types of Property Management Software

1. Field Service Management Software

It is one of the most popular property management software solutions. You can get started quickly by subscribing to these solutions monthly or yearly. They can help property managers by automating processes, keeping track of service and repairs, managing tenant contracts, collecting rents and more. 

There are a lot of different types of field service management software. Here is a blog that explains key features of field service management.    

One thing to note is that this software is pre-created, and you must adapt your business processes accordingly. You will have little room for customization. Some popular field service software is Housecall Pro and Jobber.  

Who can use them?

• Property dealers with large and small teams

Can you customize them?

• No customizations are possible

Why choose them as your property management software?

• You can quickly incorporate this into your system

• These solutions have an excellent customer support team that can help you with onboarding

• They are easy to use, and your employees can adapt to them quickly

• Have a range of pricing options from monthly, quarterly and yearly subscription 

2. No-Code Tools

It is one of the most popular categories for software development as such tools will account for 65% of application development by 2024. They are prevalent among small business owners as they allow non-technical people to create software without composing a line of code. 

No-code tools have a user-friendly visual interface that guides the users through the development phase. The best part about such property management software is that they have drag and drop capabilities. 

It allows you to assemble and experiment with the features based on your business requirements. You can use no-code solutions like Utilize, Stacker, or Glide to maintain records of transactions and properties for your business.  

Who can use them?

• Property dealers with small and medium-sized teams

• Real Estate Startups

Can you customize them?

• You can customize every feature of the software 

Why choose them as your property management software?

• You want a customized app that suits all your property management business needs

• You are in an initial phase where your processes will continue to evolve, and so you need software that is easily modified

• Save on the elaborative development costs

• Pay for the features that you integrate

3. Develop Property Management Software from scratch

You can work with a developer or a software agency to build your app from scratch based on your requirements. However, one thing to remember is that working with a developer can be challenging.

You must look for the right developer/agency that fits your budget. Usually, building property management software from scratch is an expensive affair. At the same time, improving the software might not be straightforward if your processes evolve. 

Who can use them?

• Large property management enterprises

• Real estate companies with big teams

Why choose them as your property management software?

• Your property maintenance business needs peculiar customizations

• You have an in-house tech team

• Your company has database systems like SQL to store data

• Budget to integrate IoT and hardware

Why should you use Property Maintenance Software?

Real estate is a lucrative business, but it is not necessarily straightforward. To run a successful business, you require efficient tools with the correct software to impress your renters and satisfy your employees. 

A robust software will help you to execute tasks quickly without causing problems to your tenants and help you to maintain a positive track record.

Some of the things that property maintenance management software can do are:

• Helps to centralize your data
  

Property management software lets you keep all your data in one place. It helps your employees to work as they can save time finding crucial information like legal contracts, property details and more. 

Centralizing your data will help you to make regulatory deadlines in time, close agreements faster and earn your client's trust. It further helps to protect sensitive data from getting lost.

• Organizes Accounts
  

Accounts are tricky for property managers as you have to maintain multiple properties. With the help of maintenance software for property management, you can log payments, record expenses, generate financial reports and digitize receipts. It will also help you to file taxes properly. 

• Access to real-time data
  

If you choose a cloud-based property management software, it will help you to access all the data in real time. In simpler terms, you do not have to be in the office to check your system. You can keep a check on your employees by ensuring that all your work is completed on time. For example, if a property is due for a cleaning, you can check whether your team reached the location and finished the task. 

• Security
  

Good property maintenance software has advanced security with firewalls, encryptions, recovery modules, and backups to ensure all confidential information is kept safe. As a property manager, you have personal information of your clients, legal contracts, and police verification papers. Such data is sensitive and must be protected at all costs.

So, a good software can provide better security as compared to papers or random documents on your desktop.  

Why is it essential to find good Property Management Software?

Good property maintenance software can help you simplify a time-consuming and complex task. As a small business owner you have to take care of various elements of your real estate business, like creating documents, generating reports, setting reminders for repairs and more. You don’t have the budget to hire more people and so, you can switch to a top-notch software that can handle all the tasks. 

It allows you to spend time on essential tasks rather than mundane ones, as technology can handle them efficiently. 

Many companies are selling property management software, but you should choose an app that goes well with your business. It is a good idea to opt for flexible software that allows you to customize everything. 

Customizations are essential for small businesses and startups as your business will evolve as it grows. In such a scenario, you will want to change your processes, and that is possible only if you have room for change. Apart from that, the software will automate tasks and reduce the possibility of human errors. 

You can check field service management software and no-code tools when looking for software. However, field service management software comes with an array of features. You might only require some features if you are a small business.

So, at Utilize we feel that good software should only have the required features and can be customized based on your business needs. There is no point in buying traditional software with features you don't require as it can make it complicated to adapt. 

What are the essential features of Property Management Software?

If you are a small business starting with software, you should ensure that you integrate a few essential features. 

Some of the features that are critical for a small business are:

1. Payments

Keep a track of all your payments in one place. You can use it to give salaries to your employees, collect rents from tenants and collect brokerage from your customers. 

2. Invoicing

You can use this feature to streamline the process of rent collection. You can include a different portal for residential tenants to offer them a choice of payment method. Besides, this feature can also send alerts to avoid late payments. 

3. Customer Management

You can use this feature to view your tenant's data and update their records like contact information, lease duration, deposit and payment transactions. 

4. Lease Management

It is one of the essential features of property management software. If you store electrical leases in the system, it will send auto-reminders for lease renewals to your tenants before the due date. 

5. Automated Administration with Reports and Analytics

It can help property managers in bookkeeping to digitize receipts and track finances. It also allows the generation of reports of finances and creates dashboards to view data on sold/unsold properties, existing customers and more. 

6. Mobile Friendly

You or your employees can access all the data on your property maintenance software through your phone. You can even add or update data from anywhere. 

7. Customer Portal

Having multiple properties can be challenging if you have to track and manage maintenance requests with contractors. However, with property maintenance software, you can ask tenants to submit requests with pictures and descriptions of their problems on the customer portal. 

8. Service Authorization Forms

You can note down critical information from your clients during maintenance and repair visits with the help of these forms to ensure customer satisfaction. 

9. In-App Communication

Talk to your employees via the app and ask them for updates on pending tasks like drafting lease agreements, following up on leads and more. You can even speak to your customers by sending them meeting reminders or payment requests. 

Having property maintenance management software is crucial as it reduces the workload of property managers. It further allows you to expand your business soon as good software can quickly adapt to your growing needs. 

10. On-Site Assessments

You can have a feature of on-site assessments included in the app, where your employees can fill-in details about new properties. For example, if the property has to be painted, they can add that in the app. 

Having property maintenance management software is crucial as it reduces the workload of property managers. It further allows you to expand your business soon as good software can quickly adapt to your growing needs.

Bottom Line

Property management software is highly essential to run a successful real estate business. It catalyzes growth by automating time-consuming administrative tasks. It also helps with seamless communication between property owners, tenants and contractors. 

Incorporating software is the best option for small businesses as you do not have to hire a workforce for tasks that can be done by technology. However, you do not need all the features that traditional software offers. It is essential to identify the right features that your business requires currently. 

Only no-code tools can offer you the freedom to choose and pay for features you require. Also you don't require an infrastructure or a technical team. 

These tools are easy to use and adapt for your team as well. Another added advantage is that these tools can be customized based on your business requirements. You can pick features you like and continue to add more elements as you scale.  

Are you looking for a user-friendly and visually appealing property management app? Then, check how Utilize works. We have all the necessary features to build an app to improve your internal operations with existing data sources like spreadsheets. It's easier than you think. Get started today!