Latest Trends In Property Management Software

The real estate scene is growing bigger and bigger each year. In fact, a study by Fortune Business Insights says that the global property management market size will reach $23.63 billion by 2026.

As more people look into investing in real estate and property management, businesses in the industry are expected to continuously innovate and improve their operations. This is so they can leverage their brand over their emerging competitors.

The future of property management is dominated by the prevalence of new software and tools to help landlords streamline processes, track income and expenses, and manage their properties. If you’re still stuck with your spreadsheets, it’s high time that you start looking into modern property management systems.

To help you prepare your real estate business for what’s coming ahead, here are some of the latest property management software trends that you need to know.

6 Property Management Trends

1. Shift in Demographics

There is a move away from boomers and gen X, it’s time for the millennials and gen Z kids to take the spotlight. According to the latest property management industry statistics by Clever Real Estate, 51% of those looking to buy or rent properties are millennials.

By knowing who your prospective tenants are and what their behaviors are, you can ensure that your software has the tools and features fitted to meet their needs. In this case, for example, millennials and gen Z are known to appreciate the use of technology. They have grown up using it and have developed a reliance upon it.

Therefore, real estate investors and landlords are slowly migrating from traditional means of reaching out to their customers and moving into the digital space. This shift in demographics is also part of the reason for the rise in the popularity of property management software.

2. Use of Cloud Services

With cloud services, you have a centralized database where you can access your files and documents anytime, anywhere, and through any device. This allows you to manage your properties remotely and perform tasks from the comforts of your own home, on your commute, or even while on holiday.

Using software connected to the internet means you can track all transactions and activities regarding your properties in real-time. You can immediately be alerted of any issues, letting you act on them quickly before they can get any bigger. Likewise, it helps you stay connected and contactable by your tenants thus increasing customer satisfaction.

3. Inclusion of Tenant Portal

While most property management software focuses more on monitoring and tracking your business’ growth and activities, more and more software are becoming tenant-oriented as well. This is in the form of in-app portals where tenants and landlords can interact with one another.

A tenant portal serves as a platform where they can submit requests, feedback, reports, rental fees, and other necessary interactions. This makes it easier for them to reach out to you, follow up on their concerns, and track their own transactions with you.

This also serves as a repository of records for you. You can keep up with your tenants’ requests and billings so that you will never miss out on rent collection and other important appointments.

With Landlord Studio you can invite your tenants to the tenant portal allowing them to easily pay their rent online, review their upcoming and historical payments, and even submit maintenance requests.

4. Optimization for Mobile Devices

Mobile phones have witnessed drastic evolution throughout the last decade. What was once just a device for calling and sending short messages, now has almost the same capabilities as a laptop. It allows people to browse the internet, stream videos, run productivity applications, and so much more. It is because of this multi-functionality that 65% of people use their phones over 160 times a day.

Hence, property management software companies have evolved features and functionality optimized for mobile devices. This does not only include smartphones but tablets as well.

The different screen orientation and hardware specs mean software are now flexible enough to run across the various devices for the convenience of their users. If you can track your expenses, generate reports, collect billings, and e-sign leases on your desktop, then you should be able to do the same things on your smartphone or tablets.

5. Smarter Automation

The whole point of utilizing the services of software is to make work easier for you. It automates certain tasks so that you don’t have to do everything by yourself or hire someone else to do it for you. Doing so lets you focus on other more crucial tasks for your property management.

With the advancement of technology, automation is becoming smarter. They can compute faster, track figures accurately, and generate insightful reports for you. Likewise, you can set reminders within your software so that you don’t have to worry about missing out on important due dates such as billings and rent collections. It can also send automated emails to your client as well. Some software, like Landlord Studio, can even screen tenants for you!

As software becomes increasingly intelligent, you get to do more work. It hastens processes within your business. It also helps in cutting operational costs. Most importantly, it can gather and analyze essential data that you can use to choose smarter and better decisions for your business.

6. Open for Integrations

Even as property management software is becoming more and more comprehensive with their tools and services, no solution can ever cater to your every need. Hence, many software chooses to be open to integrations with other solutions to help bridge the gaps in their services.

These integrations make it easier for you to transition from one task to another without having to keep shifting windows. This also ensures that the integrity and observability of your data is preserved as you move on to other tasks.

An example is the integration of your property management software to your online banking app. This ensures that your software can generate accurate financial reports and track your business’ cash flow. You can even integrate your software with marketing solutions or social media to help you expand your audience reach and entice more prospective clients.

Keep Looking Ahead for Your Property Management

Knowing the property management software trends can help prepare you for the future to gain an edge over your competitors in the market. It can also help you find the most suitable property management software that will future-proof your business.

As your audience shifts over to millennials and Gen Z, expect that the market will continue migrating into the digital space. This means all transactions, marketing, and deals will be made over the internet and through mobile devices.

You may also want to look into virtual team communication tools from the likes of Finances Online. By having all aspects of your business accessible in the digital space, it can help you further streamline your business operations and overall management.