How does technology impact Property Management?
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Everywhere you look in the economy, technology is changing the way we do business. AirBnb turning your house into a vacation rental when you are away. Uber making the taxi industry cheaper and faster. Sites like Zillow have opened up the information flow to make it easier than ever find a new house. But how does technology impact property management – an industry that has been very slow to adopt new technology.
Here are the top 6 impacts technology SlateHouse Group has found that can have for an owner of a property.
1) Automated Payments: It might sound basic, but getting tenants to automate their rent payments is the #1 way to ensure they pay rent on time. For a property management company, this also applies to getting owners their money each month. Automating payments takes away time from collecting payments or cashing checks that can be spent on making sure properties are well maintained.
2) 100% Transparent Owners Portal: It’s no secret that the construction industry is paved with some less than honest individuals. Workers billing for 2X the time spent on a project or management companies adding fake management fees for no reason. An owners portal gives the owner complete transparency into everything going on. All costs are detailed to avoid any hidden fees from occurring. Bottom line you see what you get!
3) Improved Marketing of Apartments: The internet has exploded the information age to give everyone access to information at lightning speed. A good technology platform can get a rental listing up on 100 different websites immediately. This is important b/c each site caters to different use cases, demographics, or ways of showing off the data. In a click of a button your listing is now on hundreds of sites covering millions of potential tenants to get a tenant faster.
4) Better Communication: A key part to keeping tenants happy and maintenance costs low is proper, timely communication. Interfacing across owners, tenants, a property manager, the city inspector, power companies, plumbers, contractors, bankers, a roofer, a banker, Section 8 housing, and more can turn into a nightmare without property communication systems. But properly tracking all open items across email, texting, automated alerts, and a phone call when needed a property manager can ensure all parties hear back within 24 hours of a request. If you are having trouble getting people to get back to you on time, the issue might be that you aren’t embracing technology well enough.
5) Rent Estimate: As an owner, it’s incredibly important that you charge the proper rent. Charge too much..... you will have vacant apartments costing you money. Charge too little and you could be losing thousands of potential rent a year without even realizing it! With better information flow has given the opportunity to use technology to estimate your rent. SlateHouse Group actually has built out it’s own proprietary formula (AccurateRent) that you can see on our site: http://www.slatehousegroup.com/rentestimator/. We looked at 15 different variables across thousands of properties to form the most accurate rent estimate tool around. AND – it’s totally free for all owners even if they don’t work with us!
6) Cheaper rates for owners!: This probably should go first, since it’s the number one thing we hear from owners. Even just a few years ago, the lowest property management rates in Central PA would be 710% of the monthly rent. Now we are able to charge 6% of the rent a month and guarentee high quality service due to property managers being more effective with their time. 14% in savings might now sound like a lot but if you own 3 units in Central PA – the savings could be well over $2K a year if you include additional rent from more occupied rooms. $2K is a pretty nice savings for an owner all thanks to better technology!
Shoot us a note if we missed anything, you have a question, or want to talk to us about our PM services.
