Five Ways to Automate Your Property Management Processes

From handling maintenance calls and collecting rent checks to facilitating lease renewals and conducting resident screenings, the list of responsibilities never seems to end for property managers. Tackling these day-to-day tasks can be chaotic and slow down efficiency. 

Luckily, there are several ways you can automate these property management processes and give yourself time back to focus on what really matters – like increasing your door count. 

What is Property Management Automation?

Property management automation refers to tools such as software and apps that are designed to eliminate specific manual tasks. While property management automation is not designed to take over your job completely, it does help save you time and improve efficiency, making your job a whole lot easier. 

Let’s dive into the top property management tasks that can be automated, allowing you to optimize your operations:

1. Rent Collection

Reduce some of your workload by collecting rent payments online. Implementing an automated payment system is a convenient, effective way to collect monthly rent. Oftentimes, automated payment systems have the ability to send residents reminders when payments are due, reducing the risk of a tenant missing a deadline. Many of these platforms give residents the option to set up automated payments, which would also ensure your tenant never forgets to pay rent.

Leveraging a digital rent payment tool also helps appeal to potential tenants. No one wants to write a check, drop it off to the mailbox or leasing office and wait days for the payment to clear. People crave immediate gratification and digitally collecting rent is one small way to help delight existing and future residents, while saving yourself time. 

There are several tools out there that assist with automated rent collection including, RentRedi, Buildium, Propertyware, and more.  

2. Apartment Tours

From back and forth communication to schedule a showing time to physically taking time out of your day to give a prospective resident an apartment tour, this tedious process takes time away from all your other important responsibilities – especially when the prospect isn’t a good fit. Not to mention all the post-tour following up that’s easy to forget when there’s so many other things going on. 

With today’s technology, you can completely eliminate these repetitive, time-consuming tasks from your day-to-day field work. There are multiple tools out there that even integrate with your base software to allow for more efficient inspections. Some of these self-guided touring platforms include Rently, RentCheck, and Tenant Turner.  

3. Resident Screening

Automating your resident screening allows property management companies to quickly and easily fill vacancies with qualified tenants. Eliminate the tedious task of having to manually run thorough criminal background checks, review credit scores, or assess any potential criminal records.

Fortunately, property management software is available to help automate this process for property management companies. Spend less time in front of your computer by leveraging tools such as RentRedi, Buildium, and Propertyware.

4. Maintenance Requests

According to a recent study, 80% of property managers are involved in the coordination or performance of maintenance/repairs. Handling maintenance requests is also known to be one of the biggest headaches as a property manager. Who enjoys getting hundreds of phone calls a week to listen to residents complain?

Erase the most unpleasant responsibility as a property management professional and invest in a company, like Latchel, that handles this for you. Latchel picks up your maintenance calls in less than 60 seconds, 24/7/365. Residents can seamlessly submit a request via text, phone call, or through the Latchel dashboard. The best part is, 81% of work orders do not require a single touch from property managers (when a budget is not required). 

Leveraging a property maintenance request tool like Latchel can also help improve resident satisfaction and happiness. In fact, Latchel averages a 4.8 out of 5-star rating for resident satisfaction. 

5. Maintenance Jobs

As previously mentioned, the majority of property managers attempt to perform property repairs on their own. With so many other important responsibilities to take care of, conducting repairman-type tasks is one thing that should not be added to a property manager’s plate. Attempting to fix things on your own oftentimes creates a bigger mess and ends up costing property managers more money, while prolonging the timeline to get the issue resolved. 

Automate the maintenance job process by utilizing a system like Latchel that dispatches the appropriate vendors at a time that fits your residents’ schedules. You can even set budgets prior to Latchel sending a vendor out to the property so you stay in your desired price range. 

Give Yourself Time Back

Automating these five tasks will not only make property management professionals’ lives easier and give you time back to focus on what really matters, but it will also help improve your residents’ experiences. Implementing the right tools will allow your property management operations to run smoothly and help your business grow.

To learn more about how Latchel can help automate some of the most tedious tasks and streamline your business, click here to request a live demo today!