4 Tips on Choosing the Right Property Management Software for Your Business
Published · Updated · 3 min read
An Overview of Crucial Features and Things to Consider.
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Whether you’re a landlord or a property manager, you are well aware of the hustle and bustle in managing properties — from tracking finances, organizing and leasing contracts and documents down to collecting rental payments.
If you’re looking for ways to go above and beyond the traditional tools, then you are on the right track. In the 2020 Global Property Management Software report, the Property Management Software industry was projected to reach $3333.47 million by 2022.
Don’t get left behind and read about the things to consider when choosing appropriate property management software.
1. Find software with great data management
Before the rise of property management systems, data was entered manually by property managers in Microsoft Excel, OneNote, and Notepad. However, using such software has drawbacks due to its highly manual nature. Additionally, encoding of data is slow and prone to errors.
It is recommended to find a PMS that allows you to store details of as many properties as you need. The traditional tools can keep your data, but you won’t be able to access it anytime, anywhere.
Lendlord, one of the available PMS in the market, allows you to store relevant data and even documents, receipts, and invoices while attached to the property or tenancy. You can track your rent collection anywhere because all of your data is secured on a cloud system.
2. Opt for software with reporting features
Traditional tools cannot automatically create reports out of data. It is hard to keep track of the real-time status of properties and rentals without a complete report. This is a great advantage of property management software that can generate reports in seconds.
According to Hubspot’s report, roughly 3.55 hours a week was spent by employees on collecting, organizing, and analyzing data. Instead of spending hours writing a report, you may use your time to do routine physical inspections to ensure that your properties are in good condition and ready for lease or rent.
Different systems have different metrics as they generate reports, and this is one point for you to determine how to choose property management software. Lendlord provides insights on tax based on your expected rental income tax, capital gains tax, and inheritance tax. It also has Bookkeeping features that track your income and expenditure on each property and generate downloadable reports. Lastly, Lendlord suggests lenders and financial products available for a mortgage based on your portfolio.
3. Assess your goals and vision
Property management does not have a one-size-fits-all strategy. Property owners and property managers have different risk appetites and capacities to invest. Your goals and vision determine the specific components of property management system that you should check.
If you have plans to manage several properties, property management system with projection features will help you. Having an idea of the opportunities, viable investments, and deals available based on your mortgage costs will help you expand.
Lendlord’s engine can search the market and provide you with a list of saving opportunities weekly based on your mortgage costs. It also has a deal analyzer that provides all the relevant data that you need before investing in a new property. You may also explore other properties in a wide range of locations using Lendlord’s mortgage search. It is very efficient because the options that will be listed are already based on your profile.
If your goal is to maintain your current portfolio and improve property returns, Lendlord is your best bet with its performance metrics like ROI, LTV, Cash on Cash, Yield, and more to help you review the performance of your properties. You may also use Lendlord’s Portfolio Evaluation feature to have an overview of the potential growth of your portfolio in terms of value, inflation, and rent appreciation.
4. Keep track of your task using scheduling features
It can be pretty hard to keep track of all your tenants on top of all property-related tasks. You have to schedule several tasks like the collection of rent, mortgage product expiry, insurance, gas safety, EPC, EICR, tour with potential clients, and more. It is best to optimize your schedule by ensuring that it is a part of your property management software.
One of the best features of Lendlord is its due date alerts and rent collection, where you can create a payment schedule. You will be alerted which payments and tasks were made, due, or overdue.
Mastering the art of property management
Managing your properties requires skills on your end, so you can also look up some of the best online masters in real estate programs. Once you have equipped yourself with relevant concepts, it’s time for you to look for tools like property management software to help you streamline your processes.
In choosing PMS, what features you should consider is the top priority. Create a free Lendlord account to get to know if its features are suitable for your needs.