The best tech for property managers

In the past, we’ve covered productivity boosting tools and great apps for real estate agents, so we thought it’d be worthwhile to shortlist the must-have technology making the lives of property managers (PMs) easier.

The following five tools are essential for savvy and efficient PMs when it comes to workplace safety, booking inspections, streamlining reporting and training.

Safety 

InspectSafe

If safety is a concern for you and your team when you’re out at inspections flying solo this cloud based app has several innovative safety features that’ll give you peace of mind. If there is an emergency or threatening situation you can send instant ‘distress alerts’ to key personnel for help. The app also transmits your current location and silently takes video and audio until assistance arrives.

But wait, there’s more! InspectSafe also allows PMs to dictate inspection notes using voice recognition, to automatically plan inspections, take, store and review property inspection photos, facilitate maintenance requests and make professional condition reports. It’s the complete package.

Cost: Software starts at $50/month.

StaySafe

This app is a great way to help PMs working on their own feel safe and secure at property viewings and alike. Starting a session on the app when performing an inspection for instance, triggers a timed session and location tracking that is viewable in the company’s StaySafe Hub. The PM can easily trigger a discreet panic or duress alert at any time. The app will notify your emergency contacts of your location by email and SMS if you don’t check-in after the inspection.

Cost: $10.99 from the App Store. 

Scheduling inspections

InspectRealEstate (IRE)

IRE’s Register Online Rentals booking system is a fantastic tool for PMs to save time arranging, communicating with tenants and rescheduling property viewings. IRE has automated the whole process where tenants can book inspections online 24/7. Once an inspection is booked tenants can automatically receive a confirmation message, your office’s rental application form and an inspection reminder closer to the day. If the inspection is cancelled or rescheduled all registered tenants automatically get notified by SMS.

Encouraging tenants to pre-register for inspections is a great way to expand your database where you can keep in touch and notify them in bulk about similar properties. You can also utilise your database to impress prospective landlords with the number of tenants you have on file looking to rent a property just like theirs.

Also, check out IRE’s KeyTracker system if you have keys frequently going missing for the properties you manage. KeyTracker will alert you whenever a key is taken and returned and who by. It also automatically alerts the key borrower by SMS when the key is overdue.

Reporting

Rentfind Inspector

If you’re not a fan of the time and effort it takes to manually create lengthy inspection and condition reports, then this is the app for you! Rentfind is equipped with different formats specific to Australian states and territories allowing you to create professional looking reports with the touch of a button. Best of all the app saves you lots of time by auto-filling the data from previous inspections as a starting point, leaving you to simply update the comments and images sections. It also has voice to text dictation saving you from having to type in all your comments.

Cost: App is free to download (with a 30-day free trial). Packages start from $55/month.

Training & upskilling

Real+

If you feel like you or your team need to brush up on any property management skills and best practices, check out the excellent live webinars and courses via the e-learning platform Real+. Their Property Management Fast Track course covers everything you need to become an expert property manager including state specific legislation testing, interactive learning modules, and assessments. Their 40 minute PM webinars run weekly on Wednesdays at 12:30 pm (AEDST), which are great to attend and join the Q&A with the rest of your PM team.

Cost: $99 per webinar (for non-members), $450 for Property Management Fast Track course.

Are there any other property management technologies or apps that you couldn’t function at work without? Please share them in the comments section below.