Modern property management encompasses tasks of diverse nature like online marketing, leasing, accounting, compliance and payment processing that can be highly taxing without proper assistance. Property management software is essential in providing a single source of information for your team and smoothly managing properties. But are you hesitant to pick a platform? Not sure which property management software features best suit your business? Don’t worry. We’ve got you covered.
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Article Roadmap:
- What Is Property Management Software?
- Who Needs It?
- How Does It Work
- Top Features
- Features of Top Property Management Systems
- Key Considerations
- Software Shortlisting
- Conclusion
What Is Property Management Software?
Property management software or PM software is a platform offering a bundle of tools that can:
- Market properties on multiple channels.
- Offer a centralized view of bookings and appointments.
- Design and generate leases for eSigning.
- Manage prospect, guest and tenant communications.
- Track maintenance and housekeeping.
- Record financials and automate bookkeeping.
- Create dashboards and visualizations for daily reporting.
The platform brings every aspect of rental property management under one roof, maintains a clean audit trail and automates administrative tasks, leaving room for you to focus on customer experience, KPI analysis and business growth.
Who Needs It?
Anyone responsible for managing rental real estate’s day-to-day activities and profitability can benefit from implementing property management systems. Some of the sectors that see the maximum benefit from using the platform are:
- Residentials: Market, manage and maintain residential properties with rental PMS. You can accept online rents and maintain clear lines of communication for a better tenant experience.
- Commercials: You can manage properties like shopping malls, office spaces, airports, marketplaces and other retail spaces. Commercial management software offers CAM reconciliation, utility tracking and robust reporting tools to handle complex commercial leases.
- Hotel: Create websites and accept direct bookings with hotel management software. The system can handle front desk activities and connect with backend workflows for smooth data flow and improved visibility. You can manage motels, hotel chains, bed and breakfast, vacation rentals, and every other hospitality real estate.
- Homeowner’s Association: HOA software offers specialized modules for managing association meetings, polls and community notices on top of the usual features of property management software.
- Public Housing: Access robust accounting tools for handling government funds and benefits. You can rent, manage and communicate from anywhere with a mobile device.
- Student Housing: Track individual beds on a timely basis and rent each student for amenities used with student housing software. Tenants get individual portals to pay, request services and chat with managers.
- Self-storage: You get color-coded maps to track each space’s status. Self-storage software connects with gate systems, CCTV cameras and thermostats to track tenant movement within facilities.
- Real-estate Investors: Real-estate asset management solutions help investors track the profitability and growth of different asset classes from a unified dashboard.
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How Does It Work
Due to the broad scope of property management software, most modules have specialized functionalities catering to a specific real estate section. But overall, every PM system is responsible for handling five pillars of property management:
Marketing
You can distribute your unit’s availability, pricing and other information on multiple listing channels, distribution services and travel agencies. Get a centralized view of every application and define custom rules for accepting and rejecting offers.
For residential and commercial properties, you can screen prospects and applicants for credit score, criminal history, background, business health and other metrics. Once you’ve found the ideal tenant, you can move on to the next step.
Booking/Leasing
Quickly design leases using state-specific templates and enable prospects to eSign documents using any device. Lease management solutions help maintain the lease library and send alerts about important upcoming events like renewals, inspections and terminations.
Hotel managers get a native reservation engine to take direct bookings and avoid third-party commissions and fees. Once they accept a booking, the front desk staff receives notifications to block rooms and schedule housekeeping.
Online Rent
The platform can accept credit cards, ACH transfers and digital wallets. You can set up rent reminders and define rules to charge late payment penalties.
Depending on the software, you might get a native payment processor that connects to your bank accounts or integrates with popular payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, RazorPay and more.
Maintenance
Mobile apps or portals help tenants submit maintenance tickets with multimedia proof. You can respond to each ticket from a unified inbox, issue work orders to external vendors and track progress.
Reporting
Property management software is a hub of your operational data, allowing you to create reports and visualizations. You can export the reports in various formats like .xlxs, PDF, and .doc and distribute them to owners, staff and other concerned parties.
Advanced platforms also offer owner portals, and you can manage each owner’s access levels.
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Key Features
Accounting
Trust accounting is unavoidable in property management. You must maintain separate accounts for deposits and operational funds, disburse owners and suppliers, send statements, maintain ledgers, and manage compliance with state laws. A small mistake in these tasks can land you in hot water. Plus, with recent changes to lease accounting standards, property management accounting couldn’t be more complicated.
One of the main features is automating a major chunk of accounting activities. Most platforms are trust accounting-certified and can maintain separate accounts and ledgers for properties, owners and tenants. Account for leases according to the latest FASB and IFRS standards and quickly submit 1099 MISC tax forms. You can also create public disclosure forms, budgets, bulk charges, payroll structures, automated invoices and more.
Stay on top of every accounting workflow. Source
- 1099 eFiling
- Accounts payable and receivable
- ACH payments
- Bank reconciliation
- Budget management
- Bulk tenant charges
- CAM tracking
- Credit card payments
- Fee management
- Fixed assets
- General ledger
- Holding deposit
- Invoicing
- Lease accounting
- Recurring charges
- Payroll management
- Debt Collection
Operational Tools
Property management systems make the daily lives of managers easier. Integrated calendars allow you to post activities, notify team members and track progress. You also receive a templates library for quickly designing emails and letters.
Advanced solutions like AppFolio and Propertyware offer call center services for receiving tenant queries and maintenance requests 24/7. You can manage the activities of multiple properties from a single dashboard. A few systems also provide compliance management modules that notify you of upcoming important dates and things you need to do.
Use interactive calendars to track tasks and events. Source
- Compliance management
- Contact center
- Letter templates
- Owner portal
- Multi-location management
- Interactive calendars
- Task tracking
Reporting and Analytics
The depth of the reporting module varies from platform to platform. Costlier solutions have robust reporting and analytics modules that help you track KPIs, determine trends, and identify growth opportunities. You can also analyze competitor rent structures to determine the ideal pricing for your unit.
Most economical options have basic reporting libraries with templates for profitability, vacancy, operations and more. Customize these templates to fit your needs and schedule statements for automated reporting in intervals.
Maintain costs and boost income by tracking KPIs and identifying opportunities. Source
- Custom dashboards
- Customizable reports
- Report exporting
- Pre-defined templates
- Automation and scheduling
- Cost analysis
- Market rent analysis
- Owner statements
- Marketing intelligence
4. Leasing
This property management software feature can turn leasing into a walk in the park. You get a library of templates compliant with all the latest standards, enabling you to generate new leases with a few clicks. The system creates a repository of all your leasing data and sends alerts to keep you on top of upcoming renewals and terminations.
Tenants can use individual portals to access leases and request terminations or renewals. You can also include specialized clauses in your lease and automatically track violations and charge penalties.
Other than leasing, you can also screen applicants’ credit scores by connecting with TransUnion. Screen prospects based on personalized metrics and club screening costs with application fees. Enterprise platforms also provide tools to manage renter’s insurance and security deposits.
Simplify lease management, accounting and lease lifecycles. Source
- Applicant credit scoring
- Tenant screening
- Lead and applicant tracking
- Lease agreement drafting
- Lease renewal
- Rent by-the-bed
- Insurance management
- Tenant and lease database
- Tenant or resident portal
- Billing and transaction history tracking
- Violations tracking
Maintenance
Collect maintenance tickets and respond to them from a centralized dashboard. You can create to-do lists, issue work orders to team members or external service providers and track task status. Most platforms offer inventory tracking tools to view the available stock accurately.
Enterprise platforms provide multiple utility tracking meters and charge tenants based on actual consumption. A few systems also allow you to conduct virtual property inspections via video calls and create inspection checklists.
Use an integrated calendar to schedule and track maintenance activities. Source
- Inventory management
- Maintenance tickets
- To-do lists
- Multiple meter types
- Utility management
- Common area maintenance (CAM) tracking
- Mobile inspection
- Property inspection management
- Service issues management
- Work order management
- Vendor Credentialing
Marketing
A channel manager distributes your property availability and information across multiple sales channels. You can specify rules for intelligent pricing based on customer profile, sales channel, location and other metrics.
Advanced solutions provide website designing kits with templates, drag-and-drop editors, WYSIWYG tools and HTML coding. The websites are fully mobile responsive, and some have integrated chatbots and concierge services. You can create guest cards, track customer journeys and launch campaigns.
Some platforms like RealPage also offer unique digital content creation services. Leverage tools and expertise to create 3D property maps, virtual tours, drone videos, blogs and more.
Design attractive and ADA-compliant websites to increase business reach. Source
- ADA-compliant websites
- Chatbots
- Guest card tracking
- Channel manager
- Listing and distribution
- Dynamic pricing
- Marketing campaigns
- Property maps
- Website builders
- Virtual site tour
Integrations and Extensibility
You might want other software along with a property management system to run your business smoothly. Or upgrade your existing system to add extra features. Both cases require your PM software to connect easily with external modules.
Look for solutions that offer API extensibility and transparent developer documentation. Some useful integrations include:
- Accounting software
- API management tools
- Cash payments software
- Business Intelligence
- iPaaS and middleware platforms
- Lead scheduling software
- Lease management software
- Payment gateways
Other Capabilities
A property management platform needs more than the functional requirements discussed above to be a success. Many miscellaneous factors play into the usability and efficiency of the system. Suppose you’re looking for a specific lease and have to go through your entire library to find it because the software doesn’t have adequate search tools. That’s frustrating.
Pick a solution that leaves a clean paper trail for audits and searching. It must offer adequate communication tools that connect your team with tenants. Your tenants should be able to pay in multiple currencies in a safe environment. Look for PCI DSS-compliant systems that offer web application firewalls and encrypt data transfers through TLS 2048-bit certificates.
Enterprise solutions offer HR tools to onboard your entire team, assign profiles, and define roles, access and privileges. You can also create custom workflows and embed training manuals to get your team running faster.
- Audit trail
- Automatic email reminder system
- Communication tools
- Custom workflows
- Defining user roles and privileges
- Document sharing and storage
- eSignature
- Mobile-optimized or responsive web design
- Multi-currency
- Native mobile app
- Online security
- Search tools
Features of Top Property Management Systems
Now that you’ve got a fair idea of the features of property management systems let’s review a few of the most popular platforms in the market and their top features:
AppFolio
AppFolio is a robust property management system that can handle residential, commercial and HOA real estate. It provides an in-depth accounting module and offers unique solutions for omnichannel marketing, tenant screening, maintenance and team management.
Use AI and machine learning for rent analysis, automated invoicing and assigning pre-approved vendors whenever a tenant requests maintenance. Other standout features include:
- Mobile app
- Tenant insurance
- Leasing and maintenance call center service
- Leasing chatbot
- Website designing
- Universal search bar
- Utility tracking
- CAM reconciliation
- HOA board member management
Online portal view and dashboards. Source
Yardi Voyager
Yardi Voyager is an end-to-end solution for managing multi-site portfolios and offers robust accounting and reporting modules. You can handle every type of real estate, including residential, HOA, commercials, student and public housing, airports, ports, government buildings, campgrounds, and more.
It offers easy connectivity with other Yardi products and external modules, allowing you to create personalized software stacks. A few of its other features are:
- Lease management
- Accounting trees
- Tenant screening
- Report templates
- RentCafe marketing suite
- CRM
- Payment processing
- PCI, SSAE 18 and Sarbanes-Oxley-compliant
Daily reporting visualizations and dashboards. Source
RealPage
RealPage is an all-encompassing platform that handles residential, commercial and HOA communities. It can track online customer journeys, and the native AI offers you insights to improve leads-to-lease conversions.
Connect with other proptech for keyless doors, campus-wide WiFi connectivity, and community engagement and reward programs. Its other features include:
- Digital content creation services
- Payment portals
- Cash payments
- Pre-verified maintenance vendors
- Website designing
- Contact center services
- Accounting and analytics
Design unique property descriptions and 3D virtual tours. Source
Key Considerations
For an optimized experience, you need software that can onboard and streamline your unique workflows. But it’s important to realize that there isn’t a single solution in the market that is perfect for every type and size of business.
You must identify your requirements, prepare a budget and look for solutions that cover all your needs without going over the budget. Consider the following points while devising your requirements checklist:
- Business Scale: This will determine the features you need. A free property management platform like Innago for rent collection, income tracking and portfolio advertising can suffice a single landlord’s or a small property manager’s requirements. But if you’re managing multi-location properties, owners and tenants, you’ll need advanced platforms with accounting, customer experience management, CRM, business analytics tools and more.
- Portfolio Diversity: Find a solution that can manage every type of property in your portfolio. Not all software can handle all property types. For example, free platforms are great for managing less than five residential rentals. But for managing government buildings, military housing, self-storage or shopping malls, you’d need software that offers specialized modules for commercial property management like MRI Software and Yardi Voyager.
- Marketing Channels: The software should connect with every marketing and sales channel your business operates on and intends to use in the future. You can create a single marketing information source, distribute accurate information across channels and avoid double bookings or appointments.
- Deployment Mode: SaaS or online property management systems let you deploy the software on vendor servers and access it from anywhere with a monthly subscription. However, you get limited customizations and control over its functioning. On-Premise deployment uses your personal servers, allowing unlimited customizations and tweaking. But the downside is that it requires hefty investments in IT infrastructure, maintenance and hiring personnel.
- Ease of Use: Many ignore this factor, but if you can’t easily navigate the system’s interface, you’re signing up for long-term headaches and frequent run-ins with the vendor support team. Look for software with an attractive interface that is simple and intuitive to use. We recommend using trial periods and product demos before making the final purchase.
- Vendor Support: You can consult peers, research reviews and contact past customers to get a transparent picture of the vendor’s customer support. Find vendors offering long-run support and try to have a service-level agreement for standardizing response times.
- Return on Investment (ROI): Calculating a software’s ROI can help determine if you need a new platform or add features to your existing systems. The best way to start is by asking whether the boost in revenue will be more than the cost of maintaining the software.
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Software Shortlisting
The global property management software market is expected to grow from $22.05 billion in 2023 to $42.89 billion by 2030. Due to this growth, choosing the perfect system for your company from the sea of options can get overwhelming. It’s like going to your favorite toy store as a kid — you’re spoilt for choice.
To help you out, Selecthub has devised a straightforward nine-step process that helps identify your requirements and ensures you select the best property management software features and platforms. We call it the lean selection, and here’s a quick rundown of the process:
- Establish: Identify the major pain points and bottlenecks in your property management workflow. That’ll help you answer why you need the platform.
- Collaborate: Assemble every business department head and executive and discuss their expectations from the new system.
- Define: Create a detailed requirements checklist that includes every committee member’s expectations and needs.
- Distribute: Do a quick market survey and shortlist every product that catches your eye. Distribute your requirements checklist to each and score vendors on how well they meet your needs.
- Justify: Review vendor scores from the previous round and determine one of three possibilities:
- Do you want a new solution?
- Do you want add-ons for your current system?
- Do you want to end your journey here?
- Prove: In this step, ask for vendors’ proof of how they will meet your requirements. Score each vendor based on their demo performance. You can request demos, proofs-of-concept and use case reviews.
- Rank: Now, rank vendors based on their TCO, requirements and demo score. You can remove unlikely ones from your list and rank vendors with the highest chances of being a good fit for you.
- Negotiate: Contact the top vendor on your list and review their contract. You can consult a lawyer or law firm for a second opinion on the agreement. You’re ready to proceed to the next step if it’s satisfactory. If not, repeat this process with each vendor on your list until you find the perfect contract.
- Sign: Sign the contract and design a detailed implementation and onboarding strategy.
You can also use our free comparison platform that offers a list of products based on your unique requirements and allows you to compare and rank their features against each other. All you need to do is sign up, and you’ll receive onboarding instructions in your email.
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Conclusion
Ultimately, the best property management software features are more about you and your company and less about a perfect set of modules that can fit every property management business. You must carefully evaluate options and choose a platform that combines workflows under one roof and offers intelligent automation to simplify your day-to-day activities.
Do you think we missed any? Want to know more about the features of property management software? Drop a comment below.