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Property managers and owners can achieve higher retention rates and boost their reputations by using the right tools and technology.
Property managers have been increasingly turning to technology to streamline operations and focus on building relationships with owners while juggling busy rent rolls.
Managed’s key account manager, Mignon Ahrns, and customer success team leader, Bairave Jeyasothy, spoke with Property Management Excellence (PMX) Podcast host Alex Whitlock about ways technology is reshaping the industry.
They said online portals created transparency by giving owners access to pivotal data, enabled clients to have a deeper appreciation of PMs by seeing their workflows, and freed up time for relationship-building by automating processes.
According to Ahrns, fostering client connections was something PMs often neglected, as they were constantly burdened with multiple tasks at once.
“Quite often you spend so much time working with the tenant that the owner gets left out because you’re doing so much backend admin, chasing money, chasing receipts,” Ahrns said.
She said many PMs only rang their clients to request payments, creating a transactional relationship that can lead to missed opportunities.
For example, she said if PMs failed to create a connection, their agency could miss out on a listing if the owner decided to sell.
“If they’re looking at selling their property, because quite often property managers find out that they’re selling it once it’s already on the market, they don’t even have it.”
“Then the sales agents are sitting there going, well, why didn’t we get an opportunity to even do an appraisal?”
To build trust with clients and enable transparency, Jeyasothy said PMs should use owner portals that allow individuals to view property data, lease details, transactions, and payments.
“It gives that transparency that doesn’t get provided otherwise. Most owners are used to just receiving a monthly statement, and that’s where a lot of the transparency is lost,” Jeyasothy said.
“This platform will provide the insights on where the rent is up to, if there are any bills payable, but also maintenance jobs, and putting up any claims that they need to as well.”
According to Ahrns, another perk of using portals was that owners could develop a greater appreciation for the PM’s work by viewing their workflow.
She said that with Managed, PMs can invite clients to follow their pending tasks, including maintenance, leases, rent, reviews, and arrears.
“Then they’ll be looking, going, ‘Wow, we should be paying them more because they’re doing so much. They don’t see all the work behind the scenes that you need to do.”
“It’s just providing that consistency and open transparency, they can really appreciate what they’re getting for their money.”
While PMs may initially feel hesitant about allowing owners to see their workload, Jeyasothy said they should remember that it is intended to leverage their own agency and prove their worth to the owner.
Additionally, Jeyasothy said that by automating tasks, the online portals gave PMs back time to focus on fostering relationships.
“Normally in a normal trust account solution, you would be doing end of month reconciliations, you would be staying in your office at the end of the financial year, doing those statements, etc.”
“With Managed, we provide that automation … it really reduces the amount of time you have to waste on manual work and gives that time back to PMs in focusing on building that relationship with owners and tenants and maintaining it,” she concluded.
