Real estate property management plays an important role. It may sound as easy as just collecting rent and occasional maintenance, but it is so much more than that. Property management brings some major risks with it as well. Property management firms are always on the lookout for reducing these risks and solving the pain points of their property management workflow.
Besides this, problems like scattered data, dispersed information, mismanaged workflows, and inefficient communication considerably hinder property management firms’ progress. Effective property management is one of the best ways to lower the risk and get ahead. And you can only effectively manage when you’re empowered with the latest tech solutions. The current property management firms need to innovate and adopt synchronized tech solutions to overcome these challenges.
In this article, we will focus on property management basics and the 10 crucial aspects that any property management company will need to master, with some helpful tips to use along the way. We will also address some major pain points of property management firms and how to overcome them. But first, let us take a deeper look into why exactly we need property management.
So, Why is Property Management Important?
As we mentioned earlier, property management in the real estate industry is full of risks. Be it some mismanagement in data or ineffective workflow management, there is always a chance of something or the other going wrong.
Hence, property management companies play a major role in the real estate industry. They’re experts in risk management and know-how to strategize accordingly. However, they need to stay connected with the latest developments in the industry. This involves technology developments and otherwise.
Effective real estate management can only be done when the managers are in touch with the latest trends in the industry. It is the best way to lower the risks and get ahead. Let us try to understand this with some statistics, the latest market trends, and the current scenario of the real estate industry.
What do the Statistics Say?
The US Property Management Market size is growing at a CAGR of 3.94% during 2024 to 2029 and is estimated at USD 81.52 billion in 2024, and is expected to reach USD 98.88 billion by 2029.
The industry currently employs more than 400k managers across the country, including both company-employed and self-employed individuals.
In USA, there are around 307,621 Property Management businesses in 2024 showing an increase of 4.1% from the last year.
Key Factors for Successful Property Management
- Ease of Contact (85%): A strong emphasis on being easily reachable by tenants and property owners alike.
- Speed of Reaction (80%): The ability to address tenant concerns and maintenance issues swiftly is crucial.
- Follow-up and After-Care (65%): Ensuring ongoing support even after the initial issue has been resolved.
- Resources Available (55%): Access to the necessary tools and resources, including maintenance and management services.
- Technical Capability (50%): Leveraging modern technology to enhance service delivery and streamline operations.
Industry Impact and Growth
- Economic Contribution: The industry contributes approximately 14% of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP), underscoring its importance as a key economic driver.
- Market Growth: The industry has maintained an average annual growth rate of 2.8% over the last five years, reflecting steady expansion despite economic challenges.
- Market Share: Property managers currently control around 40% of the national market share, which is about 7% higher than the global average of 33%.
In-demand Property Management Services
The four basics of property management are maintenance & repairs, rent and fee collection, leasing and documentation, and property inspection (in that order). Then comes other facets like evictions, property listings, sales, outdoor services, etc.
Here we bring you a basic property management checklist to help you update and integrate your property management business with the latest ongoing trends:
1. Effective Data Management
The primary pain point for property management firms is to manage their data securely. A good property management solution can help them manage profiles of customers, sellers, properties, and so on. They can store and process huge chunks of data and help customers and agents find appropriate properties with indicated parameters.
Besides that, they can save all the manual data-related tasks through a synchronized solution. This can be achieved by getting seamless sync between their database and portal. The unified solution helps manage all the real estate listing, sales, marketing, and lead funnels from a single place. The major benefit of using a synchronized unified interface is that managers do not need to keep switching between different tools.
2. Seamlessly Manage Your Listings
Property listing features are one of the basic features of property management. Every company involved with property management digitally must provide extensive listing features. If your listings aren’t flawless, buyers may not reach the listings of their choice. They may not find exactly what they want.
Admins or property managers need to manage properties along with brokers, sellers, and agents. There must be features like add, edit, delete, approve and reject properties added by brokers and sellers based on set criteria. They can also define various parameters to make various filters available for their end customers. Listings and properties can be made more visible through:
I. Property Search Mechanism for Flawless Navigation:
Provide better navigation to guide visitors to their pages of interest. Make sure you provide an interactive UI and a platform for a well-arranged menu. Enable your clients to provide personalized listings. You can pick a tech partner who would help you implement algorithms that suggest and recommend properties based on their previous search history.
II. Robust Search Filters for Categorization
Personalized Search Using Filters
Search filters are a must for property listings. Customers need to categorize their listings based on several parameters for simplification of their search. Categories and subcategories help the buyers find properties faster.
Your property management tech should allow you to implement a comprehensive categorization in terms of the type of property, the number of rooms, garage, balcony, other details like amenities, etc. It must allow you to add custom categories too.
III. WishList Management
Enable the buyers to create their wishlist. Let them shortlist their favorite properties and add them to this wishlist. This will also help you to serve personalized listings.
CRMJetty’s property management solution is known for its easy-to-configure backend features. It helps you with everything from providing personalized listings to data management. It makes life easier for property management companies, as they can easily add the listing parameters and filters from the backend. Would you like to take a look? Get in touch with our experts today!
3. Entity Management
Comprehensive entity management features like media management, customer management, broker management, etc., are important in many ways. As a property management firm, you must have access to add, manage and define access to various sellers, brokers, customers, and agents. You need full admin control to add, edit, delete and manage user profiles and their roles.
Admin Controls
Managers or admins should also be able to create different user groups and roles and let users access different entities based on their roles. With the right permission and defined access privileges, you can enhance security and manage operations better. You can simply assign these roles from the backend.
Let your brokers, agents, and sellers manage their profiles as they want. Let them add details like name, contact details, properties, documents, and more. Once they add it, you as an admin can verify it and make changes if needed.
User Profile Management
User profile management is yet another basic feature of property management. User onboarding must be a seamless, single-step process rather than a long, tedious process. You must also see if your digital solution/portal provides features like add, manage, and define role-based access (to sellers, brokers/agents, and customers).
Customer Management
Let brokers/sellers create customized tags from the backend to manage potential buyers. Enable them to manage their lead data as they want, to keep a clear understanding of where they stand with a particular customer.
Check out how US Housing Consultants enhanced case management
4. Rent Collection
Rent collection also comes under the rental property basics. Here are the most popular ways to collect rent: checks, money orders, credit cards, and physical cash collection. The obvious inconveniences arise from accepting personal checks, as they might bounce and leave a hefty fee that the landlord will pass to the tenant.
On the other hand, manual cash collection or having a local convenience store collect rent takes up much time. It is a lot of effort to ensure that the money needs to be on time and in the right amount. Hence most professional property management companies opt for the online rent collection system.
Having said this, secure payment management becomes an essential aspect of property management. Hence empowering your property management solution with integrated and secure payment management options would be beneficial.
5. Tour Scheduling
If the buyers have shortlisted properties, their immediate next step would be to schedule a tour. They would physically want to see the property. This is why tour scheduling plays an important role in property management. Buyers must be able to book a tour whenever they want.
Allow buyers to take virtual tours and in-person tours to get a better understanding of the property. Manage your tours easily by integrating a calendar into your property management system. This enables the buyers to directly check the availability of visits and book a tour without contacting anyone.
Video Tours: Video tours have become quite popular now. Agents and managers simply have to compile videos of the said property to provide a better idea to the buyers.
With a video editing website, you can create and edit a seamless and polished video tour that highlights the best features of the property, making it more attractive to potential buyers.
Earlier, we saw the importance of full backend admin controls for 360-degree entity management. We also saw how high-definition video tours are an integral part of a property management solution. Did you know CRMJetty’s provides exactly these features? Know more about us.
6. Social Media Presence and Sharing
These days, the option to provide social media sharing is more of a necessity than a demand. Hence providing various social media sharing options on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., is essential. This way, buyers can share property information and listings on their social media profiles.
Help your customers garner favorable search rankings through these sharing options. Sync popular social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and let your site visitors share property information and listings to their social media profiles. You can create custom buttons for these sites and make sure they’re highly visible.
Besides social media sharing, social media presence is also important. Plus, social media advertising can prove to be a fantastic marketing strategy. These two social media tools will help you flourish without much effort.
I. Pinterest Board
Pinterest boards are a great way to provide information for specific listings. Sellers can create Pinterest boards for a single property or multiple properties. In addition to the property photos, highlights, amenities guide, Pinterest boards can benefit majorly to generate leads.
II. Social Ads
Do not miss out on the opportunity for paid ads on social media. Popular social networks have an organic reach and are often the most effective way to get ahead in the pool of competitors. Target-based ads and promotions can help you get in front of prospective clients. Facebook has many great targeting features, and it ensures that you’re only paying to get noticed by your key target audiences.
7. Mobile Compatibility and Notification Alert
Use the smartphone ubiquity to serve better! The main objective is to let your users seamlessly access the portal to add/manage property listing from any device and all parts of the world. Get a fully responsive and engaging mobile interface that enriches the client experience by allowing them to access your listings whenever and wherever they want.
Allow sellers to send personalized notifications during instances like user onboarding, tour schedule, etc. You can also enable sending notifications to tenants when the property on their wishlist is available again. You can also share seasonal offers and vacant property details from time to time.
8. Location Information
It is important to provide a location guide. They would want to know everything about the neighborhood as well. Hence, a thorough explanation regarding the surroundings, the nearest landmarks, malls, etc., would help you provide a better idea to your customers.
I. Google Maps Integration
Google Maps integration is also one of the bare minimum features expected from real-estate property management companies. You can integrate Google Maps along with the location details in your property listings. This way, potential buyers can track the exact location.
This way, they’ll automatically see the area surrounding the property, distance from schools, hospitals, public transport, etc. You can also include guidelines on reaching the place or simply letting the map do its work.
II. Neighborhood and Amenities Guide
Buyers are always looking for a place that provides them with a quality life. And that depends on the surroundings and the availability of basic amenities. Aspects like access to basic transportation services, nearest local stores, and so on make a huge contribution to the buyers’ decision-making. Therefore, providing a neighborhood and amenities guide with your property listing is a plus.
Whether it is a rental property or a new house on sale, buyers are always curious about the neighborhood and localities. Therefore, you must provide detailed information regarding the neighborhood, the locality, the nearby landmarks, and so on.
Mention details like the size of the family it is best to fit for. You should always try to include all the property features and amenities for the sake of clarity. More information about the property helps buyers decide better. Even a minor feature that might not look like a highlight of your property may attract potential buyers.
9. Easy Modes of Communication
Providing simple means of communication in a way that benefits both the buyer and seller is challenging. No matter how hard you try, some query slips through the cracks. Using systems that provide an omnichannel interface can help you overcome this challenge.
Omnichannel communication simply means providing multiple options to your buyers to reach out to you. It enables you to manage everything from a single interface. Choose a property portal that lets managers/brokers communicate with potential buyers in real-time through multiple ways. You can integrate a live chat option for customers to solve all their queries. You can also put contact details through various CTAs and let buyers communicate easily.
Having multiple channels of communication also contributes to building your brand identity. It makes sure that the buyers reach out to the brokers in one way or another, and you don’t lose potential buyers because of the communication fiasco.
CRMJetty is known for providing customized real estate solutions. Its omnichannel interface lets users perform all the operations from a single place through a custom dashboard. Get in touch with our experts to know more.
10. Use Analytics to Empower Your Property Management Business
The real estate industry is ever-changing. And hence, managers constantly need to stay updated about the latest trends. They need to track analytics to identify the most effective marketing strategies, trends, and roadblocks.
Partner with a tech solution provider that provides a well-arranged admin dashboard. This dashboard should include setting and saving quick links to widgets like recent activity, counter block, etc., for any required entity. You can also go for solutions that provide customized dashboards. This way, you will not have to keep switching between various interfaces and tools. And you can operate and generate all the reports from a single place.
Work With Experts
CRMJetty is known for providing customized real estate portal solutions. It lets users perform all the operations from a single interface through a custom dashboard. Its extensive listing section creates a win-win scenario for both buyers as well as agents.
CRMJetty is a real estate portal development company. Using our extensive knowledge of the real estate industry, we aim to assist firms in capturing more growth opportunities. Our goal is to provide a robust, multi-featured, synchronized solution that provides the ultimate platform to increase operational efficiency. We can help businesses increase their profitability by focusing on customer acquisition and services.
Our real estate property management solution is centralized and helps property management companies overcome all the challenges. It caters to B2B businesses. Additionally, it helps you solve problems like scattered information, mismanaged property listings, inefficient communication, and dispersed databases that seem to hinder the current real estate industry. Innovate and adapt synchronized technological solutions. Let’s discuss your Real Estate needs.
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