As technology continues to evolve, property management standards and methods are changing just as quickly. Property managers have access to more data about their tenants, assets, and activities than ever. In response, providers and manufacturers are offering a variety of new ways to record, analyze, and interpret this information to enable users to improve their property’s performance.
Below are just a few tools that property and asset managers can use to inform their decisions, stay one step ahead of potential issues, and keep renters and owners satisfied.
HappyCo
HappyCo’s mobile inspection platform allows multifamily owners and property managers to standardize their housing inspections and operations data. Happy Inspector allows property inspectors to record data and take photos during inspections, while Happy Manage enables property managers to assess any property damage and schedule repairs. Portfolio owners can use the product’s Happy BI feature to observe their properties’ performance.
HappyCo offers integration with Yardi Voyager, MRI Software, and Buildium property management platforms, as well as the Happy API, which software developers can use to integrate with HappyCo. happyco.com
RealPage
RealPage seeks to streamline and accelerate resident screening with its Resident Screening Software, which the company says takes the typical 48-hour process of vetting residents down to one minute and almost immediately gives managers a pass, fail, or override rating. The software taps an extensive database that goes beyond credit scores, instantly searching more than 800 jurisdictions in 47 states, over 26 million resident payment-history records, and 12 government databases, including the FBI and Interpol.
Kortney Balas, vice president of process and technology at Oak Brook, Ill.–based JVM Realty Corp., says implementing the software across her company’s properties has saved time beyond just waiting for results to come in.
“Our prior screening process was very manual. Regardless of whether an applicant applied online or in person, we would have to key the information into our property management system, log into a separate screening site to key in the same data, wait two to three days for full results, and then print all of the data from the screening site for the file,” she says. “Now, we can screen an applicant directly within our property management system, or applicants can screen themselves within our online leasing portal. Either way, redundant key strokes are a thing of the past, as is logging into a separate system.” realpage.com
Show My Property
Show My Property’s digital marketing services have grown from promotional property video services to photography, social media marketing, digital renderings, and even virtual-reality environments that clients can view on their smartphones. The firm’s video services range from basic video tours to short, cinematic-quality narratives that showcase an apartment property as they tell a story. Show My Property specializes in national multifamily profiles, including student and senior housing properties, and offers service packages at a variety of price tiers. bestapartmentmarketing.com
LeaseGuarantee
LeaseGuarantee, a new program from the American Apartment Owners Association (AAOA), protects landlords from lost and unpaid rent, damages, and legal fees that can occur from eviction cases. The program offers coverage starting at $299, a cost that can be paid either by the landlord or the tenant in lieu of a security deposit, for 12 months of $2,500 worth of protection. Coverage levels of $5,000, $7,500, or $10,000, with no deductibles, are also available. The company says most landlords opt for the $5,000 option.
“It’s really a safety net for the landlord, and it gives them a competitive advantage by allowing them to rent faster. Lowering tenant requirements and renting to residents that may have a low credit score, for example, gives the landlord a broader base of tenants that they can select from,” says Robbie Cronrod, vice president of AAOA. Cronrod says the service is also attractive to residents, who may purchase the coverage in place of a traditional security deposit.
“The tenant then would only need to come up with $300, instead of thousands of dollars for a traditional security deposit, and could pocket the rest of that money to save for other things they need,” Cronrod says. american-apartment-owners-association.org/leaseguarantee
The Matterport Pro2 Lite camera.
Matterport
Matterport’s newest True3DTM camera, the Pro2 Lite, offers the same high-quality 3-D virtual-reality (VR) capture functionality as the Pro2 camera at just over half the cost.
Unlike panorama 3-D capture, Matterport’s True3DTM capture creates “dollhouse”-like models of properties and spaces from the pictures it takes, with smooth transitions between rooms. These models, which can be viewed with or without a VR headset, can communicate the spatial relationships in a given room or multifamily unit at a glance and convey an immediate understanding of scale. matterport.com
Knock
Announced last fall, Seattle-based start-up Knock is a marketing, messaging, and scheduling platform for large multifamily properties designed to streamline the leasing process. The software allows property managers to easily and quickly communicate with renters, coordinate and schedule tours, and track overall leasing effectiveness, all in one centralized platform.
Prospects who are ready to view a property can schedule a tour 24/7 via online scheduling tools and engage with leasing agents to receive fast responses via automated messaging and live chats. Knock also enables managers to easily track where leads are coming from and offers real-time metrics to help management companies meet leasing and NOI goals. The software integrates with other systems, including those from Yardi, RealPage, Entrata, and ResMan. knockrentals.com
