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Finding the right property management tool can be difficult.
Of course, you need to consider your budget and the software ratings online.
But what about features?
What are those critical property management software features that can make all the difference?
Knowing what features you can expect from a tool– and which ones are important to you from those available– will help you choose the right software for you.
With that said, below we’ll break down why property management software is so important.
Plus, we’ll cover all the major features you can find in most property management tools.
First, let’s talk about why property management software is so important, which ties closely in with the features it provides.
Why is property management software important?
If you’re unfamiliar with property management software, you may not be aware of just how much it can do.
With a great property management software tool, you can:
- Collect rent automatically
- Track and manage all your property expenses from one place
- Manage maintenance requests from beginning to end, even communicating directly with tenants
- Post listings to major platforms automatically
- Complete the entire leasing process online
And those are just some of the most common property management software features.
Taken together, you’re talking about hundreds of hours of time saved each year.
Plus, you can rest easy knowing that you can access everything no matter where you are, as most property management tools allow you to access the app from any computer or smartphone.
7 Top property management software features
Below is a list of the top, or most common, property management software features.
Keep in mind that this list isn’t exhaustive.
However, it is a list of those features that are the most impactful, allowing you to do everything from streamline to optimize and even automate many vital tasks.
Let’s start with what many consider the most important feature: rent collection.
1. Rent collection
We’ll cover some amazing features throughout this list, but let’s face it: if it doesn’t help make collecting rent easier and more efficient, how valuable can it really be?
Fortunately, many property management software tools do just that, with a variety of features such as:
- Online and automatic payments
- Late payment reminders
- A tenant portal (which we’ll cover in-depth later) which brings together all the tenant’s responsibilities into one place
- And, depending on the tool, sometimes easy access to a rent payment portal via a convenient smartphone app
The end result is rent and other financial responsibilities like pet rent and parking are:
- Easier to track and collect for property managers, and
- Owners and easier to stay on top of and pay for tenants
2. Accounting
One of the main collections of features property management software offers is in accounting.
An extension of the fundamental business of collecting rent, property accounting is a necessary aspect of property management.
Property management software typically offers a large suite of accounting features depending on the tool.
For example, DoorLoop’s suite of accounting features includes:
- A full chart of accounts
- Bank account reconciliations
- Vendor payments
- Robust reporting tools
- QuickBooks Online integration that takes just minutes to set up
- And more
So, whether you’re looking for a complete accounting tool that can replace your current software or something that simply plays nice with QuickBooks, you’re covered.
3. Maintenance management
Another big one, many property management software tools give you access to a complete maintenance management system.
That includes:
- The ability to receive maintenance requests straight from tenants via their portal
- Edit work orders with attachments and notes
- Assign those orders to vendors
- Pay out vendors
- And notify vendors of the completed maintenance
Maintenance is often sudden and unexpected, and an inconvenience in terms of both time and budget.
These features, taken together, can give you some of that time back and help streamline your entire response to maintenance requests for all of your properties.
4. Tenant portal and communications
If you’ve been managing properties for a while, you know that communicating with tenants can take up a lot of time.
The back-and-forth nature of communication– times however many tenants you have– means even simply messaging your tenants to handle their various concerns (and your issues) can be a huge time sink that you never get back.
Then there’s the splintered nature of communication. Email, text, Messenger, phone, whatever combo you use, they’re all generally disconnected.
Property management software seeks to fix that problem by centralizing all tenant communications into one convenient dashboard.
5. Owner portal
One of the most unique issues with managing properties is the fact that you need to juggle both the managing of your properties and the managing of the business itself.
The owner portal feature seeks to make that a little easier, by giving you a special portal within the software where you can go to manage multiple items related to your owners.
That typically includes two main things:
- Generating checks for your owners, and
- Running reports relevant to information your owners want to see on a regular basis, to help keep them happy and informed
Together, keeping your owners happy– and things more organized– is a little bit easier.
6. eLeasing
The leasing process is one of the first that property management software tackled, and for good reason.
The more effectively you can screen and onboard new tenants, the better.
Property management software helps with a variety of tasks related to streamlining and simplifying the leasing process.
Including:
- Receiving applications online
- Automatically screening tenants using a variety of factors
- Complete leases 100% digitally, including the signature
- And more
Taken together, ‘eLeasing’ (the moniker given to a fully digitized leasing process) streamlines the leasing process in several big ways.
That makes it not only easier to bring in new tenants and better tenants more effectively but saves you time throughout the process as well.
7. Marketing
Lastly, property management software also surprisingly can offer several useful marketing-related features as well.
For example, two of the most common are:
- Automatic listings: Allowing you to automatically put up new listings for vacant units on major platforms.
- And a fully-functional, IDX-based website
This is an area where each tool differs widely, so make sure to check to see what kind of features a particular software offers first before investing if these are important to you.
Discover what property management software can do for you
Property management software offers a number of invaluable features.
Taken together, they can:
- Streamline complex systems
- Optimize what’s already working even further
- And automate simple, mundane tasks so they’re taken off you and your team’s back
All this considered, managing properties today without property management software puts you at a huge disadvantage.
So, do yourself a favor and see what it can do for you.
You can give DoorLoop a try for as little as $59 per month.
Schedule a free demo to try DoorLoop today.
Want to learn how to choose the best property management software to automate your business? Check out this free whitepaper!
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