Property management is surprisingly one of the industries that are still continuing to thrive even after the great recession. This is because individuals and families who are not capable of buying a home or those who unfortunately don’t have other choices but to sell for economic reasons still need a roof above themselves. And for someone who is in this business, there is an immense amount of duties and liabilities that you have to face every single day. In order to somehow ease you off of the rather tedious tasks that are involved in managing this kind of business, you would need an effective and efficient tool such as property management software (PMS) that will make things relatively simple and easy.
But how will you be able to choose the right solution from the seemingly limitless array of products that are available in the market? The simple answer to this is by comparing a specific property management software from other solutions of the same capacity. You may do this by reading client reviews who are currently using it, and through this, you will be able to glean on each of its advantages and disadvantages, what worked and did not work for them, and the key functionalities that will essentially address your business’ needs. To give you a quick glimpse and understanding of how the business works and how to go about the comparison of property management software, feel free to read on the following information. For more information regarding the importance of comparing software and solutions, click here.
Property Management Overview
Property management is certainly an important aspect of a property that is functioning to its full capacity. Ineffective and inefficient management of properties would significantly cost the business owner a great amount of money in a lot of different aspects, like income loss, additional expenses, property’s physical deterioration, lawsuit exposure, and decreased tenant retention. As most of the income properties are based on capitalization rate, a substantial loss of income or increase in expenses definitely decreases the property’s value.
Now, what exactly is property management? The Businessdictionary.com theoretically defines this as “the process of managing property that is available for lease by maintaining and handling all the day-to-day activities that are centered around the piece of real estate. It may be involved in seeking out tenants to occupy space, collecting monthly rental payment, maintaining the property, and upkeep of the grounds.”
Property management also involves the processes, systems, and manpower required to manage the life cycle of all acquired property as defined above including acquisition, control, accountability, responsibility, maintenance, utilization, and disposition.
What are the Roles of Property Management?
Given the sheer amount of details that property management entails, the duties of property management generally include these basic primary tasks:
- Detailed and accurate screening of applicant’s credit, criminal history, rental history, and capacity to pay
- Identifying the lessor, lessee, and the leased asset or property to include state lease term and rent with the use of legal bases and documents duly approved for the area where the property is located
- Monitoring of risks to property and elimination of these risks that works within the company’s budget, with prior or conveyed consent via a Limited Power of Attorney legally agreed to by the property owner
- Maintenance of required documents for tax and other legal purposes.
Property management is a complex industry that demands efficient managing of accounts and finances of real estate properties and participating in or initiating litigation with tenants, contractors, and insurance agencies. It is likewise important to give full attention to landlord and tenant law especially eviction issues, nonpayment, harassment, and reduction or elimination of previously agreed services.
Reasons Why You Need Property Management Software
Owning and managing commercial properties absolutely requires organizational skills and an effective tool that will help you manage your files. PMS vendors and providers have successfully done essential innovations to their products through the years passed by providing intuitive cloud-based systems.
Using this software will aid you to lessen the amount of your team’s workload as well as save you and your property managers a whole lot of time. PMS is starting to become an optimal system in managing properties and its portfolios. Also, it is a more efficient and effective tool to use compared with other systems that depend on printed documents and reports or the ones that are done using spreadsheet applications.
However, a lot of people within the industry still choose traditional methods in handling and organizing their portfolios using excel spreadsheets and the like. It truly depends on personal and company preferences, but at the end of the day, you cannot overlook the conveniences that a PMS could potentially contribute to your company. Should you decide to finally acquire a PMS, the following are some of the significant benefits and key features that you are to look out for when comparing the various solutions that you are being presented:
- There is a need for consistent monitoring of performance. One of the major benefits of PMS is its capability to give you an overview of the important performance dynamics of your portfolio as it happens. It is important to compare PMS products with regard to their ability to display information. Popular PMS providers offer cloud-based solutions, which use symbols and colors to let you look at your information in an easy manner.
- You manage a number of properties. It is just but logical that if you are managing more tenants, buildings and agreements, then you will be able to effectively exploit all the benefits that a PMS offer.
- You need to save time. Administrative tasks will surely be lessened as most PMS solutions offer features that enable you to automate tasks that are routinely done like monitoring who has paid and who has not as a PMS automatically alerts you of these types of information. There are also PMS products that can communicate with other online accounting software which is very beneficial when it comes to monitoring revenues and receivables.
- To lessen paper consumption. As most PMS are capable of automating documents like lease files, renewals, reviews, and other legal documents, you will be eliminating the tons of paper that you face every single day. A lot of PMS providers feature the ability to upload and download documents.
- Need for an easy access to information. It is imperative to look for flexible PMS products that will enable you to access vital information whenever and wherever you are using any device through the internet.
- You regularly generate legal bases and documentations. If you create legal documents, it is important to look for a PMS that will enable you to the information already saved in the software as once data have been stored carefully, it can, therefore, be accessed by you or your staff who are duly authorized to.
Essential Features That Need Consideration
Comparison of property management software demonstrates that there is a wide range of solutions and applications in the market; however, picking the right one that would best address your company’s needs and budget can be a real tough job. A lot of the more popular products that are currently being used by many property managers are reported to have been very difficult to use as they were designed to be very complex and difficult to understand. It is prudent to look for a PMS that is much user-friendly and easier to navigate and has been with the real estate investor, landlord, and property manager in mind.
Most leading software applications require drawn-out and complex installations that are too time-consuming for a busy property manager; you need to check out for a PMS product that would take you the shortest time possible to set up. Some providers offer quick setup where users can just simply create a free account, enter their property information, and could already begin monitoring important income and expenses for their properties. An outstanding PMS provides property managers handy methods in monitoring rental properties at the same time giving an all-inclusive list of expenses that can potentially be written off as tax deductions. Also, the software should monitor income and monthly or yearly expenses that the property has incurred like utilities, taxes, insurance, maintenance, and repairs.
With the aforementioned reasons why you need a tool for property management, it is apparent to have a property management software.
Given all this information, there is no doubt that property management is no walk-in-the-park kind of profession that is why it would really be cool if you will be able to find one that is going to help you accomplish so many tasks.
To help you compare property management software products, read client reviews on CrowdReviews.com. This will give a quick glimpse of the different products that property managers are currently using and what they consider as the best and worst part in using a specific PMS.
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