What is property management software?
Very basically, property management software are applications that facilitate the operations of an accommodation property and ensure effective communication between stakeholders, managers, and landlords to enhance business operations.
If you own or manage a property, you can agree that it comes with its challenges especially with the rising expectations in property management in 2024 and the years to follow.
In fact, according to a research by Zigo, 75% of apartment operators say renter expectations have risen in the past year.
Technology has proved to be a useful tool in improving business operations. Property managers might as well jump on the bandwagon and leverage the power of management software to streamline operations and improve their small businesses.
In this article, I will highlight the best property management software for small businesses that can help you manage your properties more efficiently in 2024.
Quick Summary
- DoorSpot – Best for its all-in-one platform
- Property Boulevard – Best solution for paperless workflows
- Propra – Best for providing great service experience to clients
- Jurny – Best for consolidating your tools, dashboards,and apps in one place.
- HOA works – Best for homeowners associationsÂ
3 Tips for Choosing Property Management Software
a) Features and Capabilities
The market is flooded with many property management software that pack different features and capabilities.Â
It is essential to evaluate these features and ensure you pick a software with features that align with your business’s unique needs and requirements. Some features to consider include customization options, maintenance tracking, and reporting and analytics features.
b) Ease of Use
User-friendliness is among the top factors you should consider to ensure that the software is intuitive and with an easy to navigate dashboard and menus so that your team can adapt quickly.
If the software vendor provides training materials, great as they can be helpful in timely implementation. Additionally, customization can be valuable, allowing you to tweak the software to fit your business needs.
c) Data Security
Managing properties often means dealing with sensitive data such as financial records, customer details, and your property details. Therefore, considering the security a software provides to reduce risks should be a top priority.
Consider security features such as access controls and permissions to allow you to manage access to restricted information based on roles.
1. DoorSpot
DoorSpot is designed for property owners, administrators, and tenants.
Choose DoorSport to relieve yourself and your employees of some time-consuming and repetitive tasks that the software can do more efficiently such as tenant communication.
It helps you take tenant-landlord communication to the next level by integrating both email and text messaging – two very effective ways to reach tenants and make important communication.
In terms of features, DoorSpot’s all-in-one portfolio management tool is packed with several from automated workflows to reporting, analytics & tenant management. The latter provides insightful data about your business to help you direct your focus where it is needed most and make data-powered decisions.
You no longer have to spend hours looking for information thanks to Doorspot’s powerful search and filtering function that will find any details about your property in seconds.
DoorSpot is perfect for small businesses in search of a user-friendly platform providing an easy way to manage your tenants.
Key features:
- The tenant portal is valuable as it allows tenants to create and submit detailed requests with description, pictures, and preferred scheduling options.
- DoorSpot’s maintenance portal provides a platform for your maintenance team to view assigned tasks and access status updates.
- DoorSpot’s tenant management tools are useful in storing and updating tenant information. It also enables you to communicate with tenants from the platform and view conversation history.
Pricing:
Starting plan: $54/month
2. Property Boulevard
Property Boulevard provides an easy-to-use platform for small businesses.
It is like having a personal assistant that helps you organize information and perform time-consuming mundane tasks.
Every aspect of property management you can think of, Property Boulevard can help simplify it from tenant management, accounts payable & accounts receivable.
To enhance the security of your properties, the software allows you to restrict access to specific properties and functions, create custom security per user, and separate login for each user.
Additionally, the tool and equipment tracking feature is valuable for accounting for and tracking all business equipment. For this, Property Boulevard allows you to give serial numbers to items, classify and group tools, and provide usage history.
Small businesses in 2024 can leverage Property Boulevard’s comprehensive features and easy-to-use interface to manage multiple properties.
Key features:
- Receivable and payable management tools simplify invoicing processes by automating time-consuming yet important tasks in property management.
- Property Boulevard has top-tier security features such as restricted access to specific functions and buildings to ensure property security.
- Property Boulevard’s maintenance management solutions streamline maintenance operations by providing workforce details, maintenance requests in order of priority, and details on whom to charge.
Pricing:
Contact Property Boulevard for pricing.
3. Propra
Propra provides a suite of management tools that streamline operations.
This software does everything from streamlining communications to elevating resident experience. In nutshell, it delivers an efficient, adaptable, and intuitive platform for your property management needs.
Propra comes with a host of features including service accounting that brings and manages all your accounting activities from one single platform.Â
That involves, GST and HST tracking and managing all your accounts from accounts payable and receivable to maintenance request billing.
Additionally, Propra provides access to past unit information on your properties, an organized record of all your residents and their lease files, and operators’ skills and schedules to help you maximize productivity.Â
With Propra’s robust features, small businesses in 2024 can efficiently manage all aspects of their properties from one platform.
Key features;
- The requests dashboard helps you keep track of all requests by displaying pending, scheduled, and overdue requests.
- Propra enables you to receive real-time updates on the status of maintenance operations via automatic emails and alerts.
- Propra’s automated workflows simplify management operations by automating schedules, documents, and communications.
Pricing:
Get in touch with Propra for a quote.
4. Jurny
Jurny brings together all the tools you need for efficient operations.
Journey makes the list for the best property management software for its comprehensive guest app that makes your guest feel in control of their stay.Â
The management platform allows your clients to manage check-in and check-out operations, extend their stay when they want, and to control their room temperature autonomously among other possibilities.Â
Jurny harnesses the power of AI to allow you to automate communications, content creation, and manage reviews with increased efficiency.Â
Additionally, the software gets rid of disjointed systems thanks to its integration capabilities that enable it to sync seamlessly with other systems. This also helps you save time and increase efficiency by eliminating the need to switch between applications.
Jurny is ideal for landlords, AirBnBs, and hotels because of its AI powered guest mobile platform from which clients can take control of their stay.
Key features:
- Jurny’s proprietary AI, NIA, helps enhance your clients’ experience by automating inquiries and reviews while directing complex issues to agents.
- Jurny has a guest app that provides a one-stop solution for your customers where they can check-in, check-out, and access amenities.
- Wheelhouse enables you to maximize revenue by providing access to a data-rich pricing engine that uses several data points to recommend prices for your units.
Pricing:
Starting plan: $29 per month
5. HOA works
HOA works is designed to assist homeowners associations streamline their operations.
Managing several properties can be challenging, especially with a traditional system, but it shouldn’t. That is why HOA works is dedicated to simplifying work for homeowners association board members and help them keep track of finances, communications, and service requests.
To help you with accounting HOA works has robust reporting tools that streamline processes like invoice generation and provide insightful data on budget performance.
In addition to that, without leaving the software, you can organize and manage all your documents for easier storage and retrieval rather than manually dealing with large piles of documents.
HOA works is the best property management software for small businesses looking for an easy-to-use tool with all processing functions to help them effectively manage HOAs.
Key function:
- HOA works automation feature relieves you of mundane yet important tasks turning them into simple automated workflows.
- HOA works document management securely stores all your documents in a way that they are easily accessible and retrievable.
- HOA works has a very user friendly interface with easy to navigate menus to provide an unmatched user experience.
Pricing:
Starting plan: $29 per month
Conclusion
Small businesses already have a lot on their plate.
While property management is critical, it doesn’t have to be daunting, time-consuming and expensive.
Implementing a property management software can help eliminate inefficiencies that may occur due to inadequate systems.
As a matter of fact, a research by appfolio suggests that 56% of property managers agree that faulty integrations cost time or money.
While all the property management software listed more or less perform the same functions, do note that they may have special features that may make a huge difference when picking the right software for your unique business requirements.
If you are still not sure which direction to take, I recommend DoorSpot & Property Boulevard that provides an all-in-one solution for small businesses including features such as maintenance and tenants’ portals.
Start a free of either one to get firsthand experience of how its features can simplify management and increase efficiency.
