January 11th, 2019
Top 10 real estate tech trends to watch in 2019
Property Management
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It’s no secret that technology has come a long way in the last decade. From the commercial adoption of cloud technology to the advent of on-demand services like Netflix and Uber, the expectations of consumers have changed drastically.
In fact, studies show that over 40% of consumers now expect a reply to their query within the hour and 52% of consumers are willing to pay a price premium for greater speed and efficiency.
As a result, property management technology has evolved to help property managers increase their efficiency and deliver a better customer experience. Let’s take a closer look at how property management technology is evolving.
The shift to the cloud
In recent years, there has been a notable shift from server-based to cloud-based technology, and for good reason. There are many benefits to cloud property software including time and cost savings, greater accessibility, scalability, increased security and simple backup and recovery.
From a risk management and compliance perspective, cloud property management software eliminates the risk that arises from manual data processing and administrative tasks, and ensures a clean digital paper trail. Not only are backups and upgrades automatic, but every interaction is logged within the software to ensure transparency and accountability.
Additionally, cloud-based technology has laid the foundation for electronic lease signing technology, software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications, automated workflows, paperless document storage and self-service portals.
Paperless document storage
Gone are the days where property managers have to wait till they’re back in the office to find out information for their owners and tenants. Data that is stored digitally is both indexable and searchable. You can simply log into your cloud property management software or cloud storage solution to remotely access all your files, contacts and data.
Not only does this increase efficiency and streamline your processes, but it also helps you reduce first-response times to ensure a better customer experience. Plus, some agencies have saved thousands of dollars on postage, printing and paper costs from going paperless!
Automated workflows
Just a decade ago, property management processes were tedious and manual. Property managers would plan out their inspection schedule by manually calculating distances and drive times between properties to find the shortest route. Thereafter, they would draft up inspection notices and manually select the tenants to send the notices out to.
Today, you can do this within minutes. Using integrated geodata, PropertyMe automatically creates a customised inspection itinerary for you, complete with distances and drive times between properties. You can simply drag and drop inspections to reorder your itinerary and once you’ve confirmed your itinerary automated notices are sent to tenants.
This is just one example of an automated workflow that modern property management technology has allowed for. Property management technology has evolved to automate predictable communication, trust accounting and administrative tasks to mitigate the risk of human error and simplify your workload. This way, you can focus on delivering a better customer experience and growing your rent roll.
Self-service portals
According to Forrester research, 91% of customers prefer using a self-service portal if it meets their needs. By enabling customers to self-select the level of service that best suits their needs, you’re not only empowering them but you’re also proactively solving a problem.
An application of this in the property management industry is providing owners and tenants self-serve access to their property and financial information in real-time, from anywhere in the world. Owners can view tenancy and financial details, drill into inspection reports, track maintenance and more. Meanwhile, tenants can log and track maintenance, view upcoming inspections and rent payments, download rent receipts and more.
In effect, self-service portals efficiently deliver the answers that your owners and tenants want, before they even know they want it. Not only does this reduce customer enquiries on your end, but it also adds tangible value to your services and creates lasting customer success.
Data and insights
Following in the footsteps of technology companies like Amazon and Facebook, the property management industry is now leveraging data for insight-led decision making to boost productivity and efficiencies.
Property management technology has evolved to derive meaning from large data sets in real-time to provide actionable insights at a glance. For example, PropertyMe allows you to track key performance indicators such as payment management, inspections, maintenance status, compliance management, overdue tasks, properties gained and lost, communication, issue resolution time and percentage of vacancies.
These insights shed light on business profitability, customer experience, net growth, dissection of revenue and productivity, which can then be used to identify opportunities and inform business decisions. In the long run, this can help you better meet the expectations and demands of customers and outperform your competitors.
Thanks for reading this blog on how property management technology is evolving. You might also be interested in Top 10 Real Estate Tech Trends to Watch in 2019 and Top 6 Benefits of Cloud Property Management Software.
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