How to Select Property Management Software for Landlords

Good property management software for landlords can help to transform your entire company.
But how do you find the best solution for your organisation? We have talked to our customers and other leading companies across the Nordic and CEE regions and the wider world. Here are their recommendations:

It all starts with growing revenue

All solutions you acquire to boost your business should also increase your earning potential. For rental property management software, there are various ways to measure its financial impact. We have outlined six benefits our customers say have given them the most financial impact :

Seamless information exchange via an API

“The easy integrations mean less work for the accounting and financing teams per rental unit. We can handle more units and grow faster. We have revised and broadened our growth plans as a result.”

Automating the rental agreement lifecycle

“Automated rental agreements translated into more productive work hours for frontline managers. More face time with tenants talking about value even during the pandemic than before. Leading to higher retention rates.”

Empowering smaller teams to do more

“I track the property management costs as a percentage of total revenue. That one landlord can manage an entire large building gives huge savings. Now they directly exchange information with accounting.”

Benefits of a white-label tenant app for tenant retention

“Noticed higher tenant retention rates after the launch of our white-label app. Additionally, seeing new revenue from extra services we added to the app start to increase month to month is always good a sign to us.”

More word of mouth recommendations

“We saw more recommendations via word of mouth. We are reducing marketing costs. Now we barely do any marketing. The portal plus online listings are creating a strong digital channel on its own for getting and onboarding tenants.”

Fewer delinquencies

“Fewer late payments and delinquencies thanks to reminders and payment automation. Just a change couple of percentages translates into a lot of money for a larger portfolio like ours. ”

Set up your relationship with tenants on the right track

Strengthening and simplifying your tenant relationships is one of the benefits that almost all property managers we have spoken to have pointed out. Automating routine interactions with your tenants can free up your resources for higher-value activities. Modern software provides a mutually pleasing experience both to landlords and residents, eliminating situations where both sides internally scream at each other.

The best of breed solutions offer tenants what they are looking for, such as:

• Tenants can use communication channels to start solving issues instantly in their pocket on their phone or their laptop screens. Nothing beats that sense of relief.
• Keeping residents up to date with their latest responsibilities. Precise, real-time reminders for upcoming due dates. Or updates to maintenance issues. Best of all, you, as the landlord, face no extra hassle as most of your side of the communication is automated by property management software such as Bidrento.

All of that amplifies your brand promise, the value you provide to your tenants with other means. Whether you provide straightforward, cost-effective co-living or A-class premium studios, your tenants will appreciate the clarity.

Great UX is key for property management software for landlords

Some software you use daily always feels fresh and never gets old, like drinking from a spring of clear water. The secret behind that sense of freshness is the correct application of User Experience design:

“User experience (UX) focuses on having a deep understanding of users, what they need, what they value, their abilities, and also their limitations.  It also takes into account the business goals and objectives of the group managing the project. UX best practices promote improving the quality of the user’s interaction with and perceptions of your product and any related services.”

usability.gov

As researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell stated: “In many cases, even minor fixes can have a major impact, offering a return on investment that’s several times larger than the conventional use of financial incentives or marketing and education campaigns.”

You can read more about their findings at the Harvard Business Review. However, to summarise, their research showed that three aspects give a 15% improvement in engagement:

• Better use of colour. What researchers term a vibrant “colour scheme of the options”. Colour coding selections to highlight differences, leading to better decisions.
• Displaying data more directly. Making it easier for users to take vital information into account when solving their daily challenges.
• Simple use of language. Researchers gave a good example: “I want to enroll with different choices” became “Do it Myself”.clear language can help both landlords and tenants from vastly different backgrounds. 

All these aspects are crucial in the field of property management where landlords, senior property managers and executives alike can face crushing workloads at critical points of growth. If the property management software for landlords you chose offers a great user experience, that can be an asset not only communicating with tenants but internally as well: preventing burnout and helping to retain key employees.

It all comes down to time management

They say: “time is money”. For landlords during their busy season, time can be even more valuable than money, slipping through your hands like sands when you most need it.

As a landlord, you are mostly too busy to think about and test out different time management strategies proactively. So successful time management is something that mainly falls on well-made rental property software like Bidrento to help you achieve almost as if automagically:

• Can it help me be more available to tenants while reducing my actual workload? 
• Does it limit working too long hours, burning out and actually help us get significantly more done?
• Is it possible to reduce the 20% aggressive tenant relationships that take 80% of the time to zero?
• Can it help set the right expectations from the start to the end of the tenant lifecycle? 

These are all questions that we at Bidrento have found the correct answers to via technology. For example, we have made it effortless to integrate listings between our landlord software and your website. Giving one continuous modern experience from the first time a potential resident sees a listing to the end of their tenancy.

About Bidrento

Bidrento’s powerful automation suite has been created in collaboration with hundreds of landlords, with an ambitious target to reduce daily work and stress not just 300% but 500%.

So whether you are tackling issues with booking viewings, creating rental agreements or providing extra services, you are not the only one, and working solutions are available for you. And we can give Bidrento bespoke touch right for you with custom integrations and branding. If you want to take our solution for a spin, simply contact our CEO, Taavo Annus.