Innovations in Property Management Technology

We’ve come a long ways as property managers in only a few short years.  Gone are the days of relying solely on the newspaper for listings and manually accepting rent.  Technology has come so far, but does it really mean good things for property managers? 

Some may disagree and dream about reverting  to “simpler” times; however, I believe technology has made our lives so much better and our jobs so much easier. 

Here are a few examples of how:

Banking.  Rent payments today are more commonly done by ACH or even credit card than paper check or cash.  Automated payment systems not only save us a trip to the bank every week, but the payments also clear faster so we know if the funds are good much sooner.  With a few flicks on the keyboard we can login and view the finest details of our bank accounts which, in past years, would require waiting an entire month for the bank statement to arrive.

Online Background Checks.  Today, would any of us dare rent to a new tenant without thoroughly reviewing their criminal and credit history?  I think not . . . at least not if we care about our property and income.  Getting this data today, even for the smallest or newest landlord is quick, easy, inexpensive and readily available online via multiple sources.  Knowing the critical details about a tenant’s rental history gives us perspective into how they will treat our property, and therefore how profitable of a tenant they will end up being.  Before this information was so readily available online think of the hoops that had to be jumped through and the days or weeks of waiting that was often required to retrieve only a small subset of the information available today.

Accounting Software.  When was the last time you read your bank statement line by line and reconciled it at the end of the month?  This process, as I remember, used to take a full day every single month.  Today we’re in much better shape with electronic software available that not only downloads our bank transactions but also automates the reconciliation of all accounts.  Last month took me 18 minutes!

While these are some obvious examples that alone can save 1-2 weeks per month of time and aggravation, they are but a portion of the new resources available.  There are many others to choose from:

- Craigslist for free, and highly effective, rental listings.

        - Postlets to create amazing looking ads, also free.

- Facebook and groups like LetsTalkPM.com which help us share important information and communicate with other property managers faster than ever.  

I for one absolutely believe technology plays a very important role in our day to day operations, and saves us unimaginable time.  What do you think?

Let’s Talk.  Which technologies do you love?  How do they save you time, money, and /or aggravation?

Guest Post by Nathan Miller, Real Estate Investor and President of Rentec Direct, which provides easy and powerful property management software to property managers, landlords, and associations. 

Visit www.rentecdirect.com to learn more about Nathan and his company.