What You Should Know About Property Management Software and How to Choose the Right Fit

Different software's will have slightly varying or unique features, but most of them will cover the basic needs of property managers. The basics are things like accounting, operations, management, and leasing.

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Features to Help Your Accounting Processes:

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Accounting features will make it easier for your company to do tasks like:

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• Accepting online rent payments from tenants

• Direct deposit for property owners/investors rent funds

• 1099 Tax filing for your vendors

• Bank reconciliation to match up for property management licensing audits

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Features to Help Your Daily Operations:

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Stuff to help your ship run smooth and tidy. Things like:

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• Rental listings center with all vacant/filled properties data

• Dedicated portal for owners to login and access documents, financials, etc

• Dedicated portal for tenants to login and pay rent, submit work orders, etc

• Access to software for all team members for efficient updates and task management

• You can keep track of maintenance work orders by priority and timeline

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Features to Make Leasing Easier:

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Leasing takes a lot of time and activity, these features improve efficiency:

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• Online rental applications from tenants

• Screening and background checks online

• Advanced rental property advertising and syndication

• Electronic signatures on leases to reduce needed meetings

• Document storage in the software portals

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Optional software features or add-ons:

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Offering the right services and features to make your property management business more efficient can help you stand out to prospective clients and get more leads because of it.

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Some software's will offer a feature that others won't. You need to consider what is important to your company and what services you wish to offer your owners and tenants so you can choose the software that will help your company shine.

 

Only you know your company and what makes you special and different. You will want to look at the specific software features to align the best option with your company goals and needs. These might include offerings such as:

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• Renters Insurance

• Maintenance Contact Center for Tenant Calls

• Remote Check Printing or Payments For Vendors

• Property Showings Scheduling/Assistance

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Pricing and costs of software:

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Although not the most important thing to consider, the cost of property management software is something you obviously care about. Most software's charge you a certain monthly rate per property with volume pricing (the bigger your portfolio, the lower the cost per property).

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Some software's display a setup fee, and others don't show one (check to see if it's a hidden fee).

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It's also worth noting that a few popular software's require a minimum amount of properties under management to even qualify for using their software.

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Do you need the software to integrate with your website?

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If you have a property management website for your company (you definitely should) that acts as the digital hub for existing owners and tenants, you will want to make sure that your software can integrate nicely with your existing website.

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You'll want to showcase rent payment options on your website, embed tenant and owner portal links, and you'll definitely want to display your available properties for rent.

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If you want to showcase these things on your website, make sure to ask if the property management software you are interested in has the ability to embed via HTML code, iFrame, or another method.