Property management may not seem like an industry ripe for technology, but the complexity of the business has been increasing, and just as with any other type of management, there are technologies that can help streamline the process to build better communities. As a result, experts in property management increasingly need to stay up to date on new trends that are shaping it, and this includes technology.
Property management is a big business in the United States today. Research from Statista found that in 2021, the U.S. property management market reached $101.3 billion, and Grand View Research has determined that the property management software market is worth $3.04 billion. Whether it’s residential, commercial, affordable housing, manufactured housing, self-storage, or homeowner’s associations, software helps drive good management for better communities.
There are a variety of software types available to help with community management. According to property management statistics collected by iPropertyManagement, software for maintenance, renting, and collecting fees are used by 80 percent of property management interests. Leasing and advertising solutions are used by 77 percent of organizations, followed by property inspection (74 percent), evictions (68 percent), cleaning (62 percent), accounting (57 percent), financial reporting (55 percent), property sales (53 percent) and outdoor services (52 percent).
Following are several new trends shaping software used for property management.
Online buying. Younger generations, including Millennials and Gen-Z, have expressed a strong willingness to engage in the buying process online, similar to how the same young adults have boosted online car sales. In fact, research conducted by Cision PR Newswire found that one in three Millennials – who now represent the largest demographic group of home buyers – would be willing to buy online. There is an increasing need, therefore, for software solutions that manage the entire process, from searching to financing and closing, online.
Lease renewal management. With overall U.S. apartment retention climbing as younger generations are priced out of home buying, software solutions can manage lease renewal in an automated way, allowing for faster and easier paperwork processing.
The rise of homeowner’s associations. Research has found that 82 percent of new build homes are part of a homeowner’s association. HOAs essentially act as a kind of small community government, providing residents with benefits such as property value protection as well as responsibilities. Most HOAs are run by a management company, so software solutions that operate on a cloud basis can help increase communications between managers and homeowners, automating many processes such as communications, payments and dues, regulatory issues such as requiring homeowners to submit proof of septic pumping and insurance coverage, for example, and community issues such as budget approvals or changes to rules. This takes much of the repetitive manual labor out of the HOA management process.
Choose a Property Management Company That Is Software-Savvy
Community management software solutions are not created equally. Smart property management companies choose cloud-based or hosted solutions that are properly supported, integrated with other necessary functions such as accounting and bookkeeping or customer relationship management (CRM), and bolstered by analytics that can help improve efficiencies and usability. Paladin Property Management offers management of day-to-day operations for HOA client associations, including reserve studies, maintenance requests, communication, collection of common charges, payment of vendors, bookkeeping, rule enforcement, resale packages, and construction projects, as well as any other routine administrative responsibilities. For more information or to contact us, call 860-395-8863 or visit our website.