Essential Features For Property Management Software - A Checklist

Real estate is an exciting and challenging field. A property manager usually has various listings to take care of, and they have to deal with landlords and renters. So, there are a lot of things that they need to do, including advertising for listings, maintaining the property, and processing legal documents. 

Previously, property managers used spreadsheets, paper documents, and emails to record their transactions. Although, this method is overwhelming as one can forget to keep track of everything. Instead, incorporating robust property management software can help you to remember appointments, automate mundane tasks, and delegate work to your team. 

But, small business owners find it challenging to digitize their operations because of the lack of accessibility to the right software in their budget. However, property maintenance software can help stabilize and scale your business. You won't face inventory problems or struggle to maintain records. 

So, you can always find software that allows you to choose the features you require as a small business owner and only pay for them. In this way, you will be able to digitize your budget, plus the transition will be straightforward.

Take time in choosing property management software, as there are a lot of options in the market. But, you can always filter out the options based on customizability in features and flexibility in pricing. 

What is property management software?

Property management software helps real estate developers to maintain the operations of commercial and residential properties. It helps in hospitality accommodations too. 

Good software can sort your property listings and help you to give priority to each client. It can further streamline and store your legal contracts with tenants in one place. Not adopting property maintenance software can affect your business as you will have to focus on the mundane administrative tasks and delegation of work. You won't have time to focus on the core essentials of your business. 

So, adopting rock-solid software is the way forward for your property management business. After you have decided to run your business with the help of the software, you need to determine which processes you want the tool to handle. Do you want to stabilize your internal operations through the app, or do you even want to have a client portal?

Once you are clear on that, you will have to decide on the features that your property management software will require. It is entirely okay if you haven't decided what you want the software to handle, as it is a complex process. 

Instead, you can continue reading the blog to check our exhaustive list of features which will simplify the process of adopting the software for you. This checklist will clarify the features you must prioritize while purchasing a property management tool. 

Alternatively, you can also opt for a no-code tool where you can build custom software and prioritize the features that your small business needs. 

Always opt for features that your small business requires in the current stage. Later, as you grow, you can always add more features. 

Choosing the right property management software

Read our framework carefully, as it will help you to reach a conclusion and adopt the right property management tool. 

1. Know your solution

There are various kinds of property maintenance software solutions in the market. Decide which kind is suitable for your small business based on the requirements and budget. 

• Field Service Management Software
  

This software has pre-created templates that help you adapt your business processes accordingly. It has subscription packages with many features. They have little scope for customizability within the choice of features in a given package. 

• No-Code Tools​
  

They are popular amongst small business owners as they are highly customizable and allow people to choose and pay for their required features. Also, you don't need a technical team to create your software with these tools. 

• Developers
  

When you wish to create a property management software from scratch, you can take help from developers. It is an expensive process, and it has little room for customizability. Once your business evolves, you will face challenges to changing the existing processes. 

Know your requirements

It is one of the essential steps in adopting the software for your property management business. Without knowing what you want your software to do, you will be unable to decide which features to incorporate. 

It would help if you started by listing what you want the software to do. For example, if you collect rent from tenants through the property management tool, you will need an invoice feature that sends bills and reminders to your clients. You will also need a third-party integration with your software which helps you to collect the payments. 

So, you should classify the size of your business and choose features accordingly. Most people have this misconception that a software is good if it provides an array of features. But it is essential to understand that property management software is good if it's easy to adopt for your team members and provides the option to choose relevant features and customize them based on your requirements. 

For example, if you are starting with 2-3 listings, you do not need the feature that allows you to list properties for customers. You might need it later when you have 10-15 listings. 

Know the software

Once you have listed the features you want and shortlisted various property management software, compare them. Differentiate them based on their pricing, customizability and mobile friendliness. 

Try the software

Most software offers a free trial or demo. Take the trial to understand the navigation of the property maintenance software better. It will also help you to know whether the FSM software, no-code tool or developer agency ticks all your boxes and is compatible with your business processes.  

How to use features and integration checklists?

The feature and integration checklist will help you to understand your requirements in a better way. Sometimes, it is possible to forget a feature or integration while adopting the software. But, if you have a checklist, you will not miss out on anything important.You can use the checklist by assigning values to each feature based on the requirement and priority of your small business. Your values can look like P1, P2, P3 where:

P1- High Priority

P2- Low Priority

P3- Not Needed 

Features checklist for property management software

Capture Digital Signature

Make it easy for your clients to capture digital signatures on essential legal documents. 

Payments

Keep track of all your payments in one place. You can use it to give salaries to your employees, collect rent from tenants and collect brokerage from your customers. 

Invoicing

You can use this feature to streamline the process of rent collection. You can include a different portal for residential tenants to offer them a choice of payment method. Besides this feature can also send alerts to avoid late payments. 

Quote Creation

It has templates to help you generate quotes for your customers for residential and commercial properties. 

Quote Management

You can negotiate with property owners and tenants with the help of this feature. Send them a quote online for a particular property and give them a chance to respond. 

Consumer Financing

Allow clients to pay in easy installments by giving them the option of financing.

Quote Approval and Follow-ups

Property owners can approve the quotes from their tenants via the app. Even the landlord and tenant can give negotiation and follow ups through the software. 

Online Bookings

You can offer various options to your clients to book meetings with you via property management software. You can take bookings through social media platforms, Google Search and your website. 

Customer Management

You can use this feature to view your tenant's data and update their records like contact information, lease duration, deposit and payment transactions. 

Customer Portal

Have a customer portal which allows your clients to check property listings, book appointments with you and communicate their queries. 

Customer Notifications

Receive notifications from the client when they pay the rent or upload their documents. Even clients will receive notifications when you send reminders for contract renewal and more. 

Lease Management

It is one of the essential features of property management software. If you store electrical leases in the system, it will send auto-reminders for lease renewals before the due date. 

Reports and Analytics

It can help property managers in bookkeeping to digitize receipts and track finances. It also allows the generation of reports of finances and creates dashboards to view data on sold/unsold properties, existing customers and more. 

Mobile Friendly

You or your employees can access all the data on your property maintenance software through your phone. You can even add or update data from anywhere. 

Inventory Management

Having multiple properties can be challenging, but with inventory management, you can keep track of the properties that are leased. You can even keep track of newly registered properties. 

Create Custom Work-Flows

Create customized workflows for your internal processes. For example, you can create a workflow to onboard the client once he finalizes a property with you. You will look organized in front of the client, and it will save you time while collecting documents and making contracts. 

Scheduling

Schedule jobs for your employees for the next week or month so that they have clarity on their tasks. For example, ask an employee to follow up with potential tenants. 

Job Management

Ensure your employees are finishing the assigned tasks. For example, if you assign an employee to create a contract for a tenant, check whether the contract is ready by the deadline.

Job Checklists

Create a task checklist for your employees and yourself, and check it at the end of the day. It will help you to keep track of your tasks, and you won't forget important meetings. 

Employee Timesheet Management

Keep a tab on your employees by checking their time to finish a task for a particular account. Also, ask them to log in and out daily, so you have the number of billable hours they worked on. It will help your accounts team at the end of every month. 

Employee Notifications

Talk to your employees via the app and ask them for updates on pending tasks like drafting lease agreements, following up on leads and more. 

Recurring Jobs

Create a reminder for your employees for the recurring jobs that they have to do. For example, collect rent every month from the tenant. 

Site Inspection Checklist

Create an inspection checklist, so you don't forget any area of the property and make a list of the maintenance and repair requirements. 

On-Site Assessments

You can have a feature of on-site assessments included in the app, where your employees can fill in details about new properties. For example, they can add that to the app if the property has to be painted. 

Email Marketing

Send emails to potential clients and lead to encouraging them to do business with you. With good property management software, you can automatically sync customer details and create email campaigns with drag-and-drop options. 

GPS Tracking/ Map View

Allow clients and employees to track property addresses. If you offer maintenance, your field staff will also be able to track the address and reach them for service. 

In-App Communication

Talk to your employees via the app and ask them for updates on pending tasks like drafting lease agreements, following up on leads and more. You can even speak to your customers by sending them meeting reminders or payment requests. 

Offline Access

Access all your data, client information and property listings offline from anywhere. Stay connected with work wherever you go. 

Online Requests

Give payment or meeting requests online to your customer. 

Service Authorization Forms

Give service authorization forms to landlords so that you can take charge of the listing. 

List of Integrations- A Checklist

Integrations are essential to run your property management business smoothly. Your software will have functions that allow you to send invoices or manage accounts, but integrations will help you to accept those payments and do the bookkeeping. 

We have created a list of integrations, and based on your business size and requirements, you can choose the ones that enhance your business processes. 

Category of Integrations

Payment Integration

It allows you to send and accept payments from your clients, vendors and employees. Some popular payment integration tools are Authorize.net, Paypal, Profit Rhino, Stripe, and Wordplay.

Accounting

Accounting integration helps you to make the payment process easier, monitor expenses and bills, gain instant insights into your KPIs and generate reports like balance sheets. Accounting integrations that you can explore for your small business are Fundbox, Quickbooks, ResponseiBid, Sage Intacct, Sage 50, and Xero.

Marketing

Such integrations help you to run email and social media campaigns to acquire leads and drive customer referrals while crafting a marketing strategy. Some of the integrations to use with your property management tool are Broadly and Mailchimp.

Automation Tool

It helps you create automated workflows across 5000+ apps to move faster. Workato and Zapier are some of the popular tools.

Advertisement and Directory

It helps you to list your business locally and advertise it to a larger audience. Google Local Search and Thumbtack are popular tools to integrate with property management software.

Storage and Documentation

Store all your legal documents and client data in one place, so you never lose it. Some of the integrations you can consider for this are Dropbox Business, Google Drive and Microsoft Excel.

Customer insights and Analytics

This tool helps you to gain a perspective of customer insights and analytics, which gives you a fair idea of the traffic and leads generated on your app through organic and inorganic campaigns. Tools that help you check this are Convert, Google Analytics and Mixpanel.

Customer Reviews

Customer reviews are an essential aspect of your property management business. It helps you to meet client expectations and serve them better. Popular tools for the same are BirdEye, NiceJob and SendJim.

Customer Communication

It helps you to be available on various platforms to communicate with customers. Even your clients can directly contact you to ask about any queries. Integrations that you can explore are Podium, Twilio and Zendesk.

CRM 

It helps you to deliver top-notch customer service. In today's competitive market, customer service allows you to beat the competition. Popular tools to integrate with property maintenance software are Dynamics 365, Freshdesk, Hubspot, Salesforce, Zendesk and Zoho CRM.

Team Communication

Collaborate with team members and take updates on tasks easily with popular tools like - CompanyCam, Google Workspace, Microsoft Outlook, Naturalforms, Slack, Zoom, Google Calendar, Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Zoho.

HR and Payroll

Stabilize internal processes like leave management and salary for employees with ADP Workforce now, Gusto and Workday HCM.

E-commerce

Integrate shopping experience on the property management tool with Shopify, Woo commerce, and Adobe Commerce.

If you are using any other integration in the same category, compare this list with that and decide for yourself.

Conclusion

Now that you know all the features and integrations required to run a successful property management business run a comparative check on the available software.

Also, most software provides a multitude of features which might not be relevant to your small business. Adopting software is a complex process, but it is challenging to embrace it when it doesn't have the scope of customizability based on your needs. Choose a property management software that gives you the liberty to choose relevant features, is easier to adopt and has a higher scope of customizability. 

You can try no-code tools as they are less complex and easily adaptable to your needs. If you are looking for a customizable solution without technical knowledge, Utilize offers a no-code platform enabling you to design your own property management software. Utilize offers many features, such as customizable workflows, employee management, and streamlined billing and payment processes.
To know more about no-code tools, check out UTILIZE. You can even book a demo call  to understand the adoption process better.