Documentation doesn’t have the best reputation in business – rarely do people enjoy documentation. But in property management, good documentation is not only profitable, but it’s also required by law. In an ideal property management world, everything is documented.
Property managers utilise a variety of documentation in the course of conducting business. We all know of standard documents such as applications, leases, inspection sheets, income statements, rental agreements, and insurance policies. But there are also service agreements, confidentiality agreements, disclosure statements, landlord notice to enter, consent to sublease, late rent notice, notice to evict, pet addendums, and plenty more. In short, property managers deal with a lot of different documents.
Documents are crucial in the property management world, and property managers are legally responsible for managing their own documents and keeping them secure. Digital documentation is a key to rental property management profitability. Let’s look at how property managers today are optimising their communications through document automation.
Post-pandemic ways of working
In the face of an abundance of uncertainty over the past couple of years, property managers have become more innovative with how they run their businesses. Not having the time to devote to marketing, tenant relations, and handling maintenance requests is a problem that gradually hurts business. Property managers and tenants, alike, have had to adapt to the changing real estate and property management landscape post-pandemic.
According to the 2022 State of the Property Management Industry Report, property managers adopted a broad range of technologies to digitise the interactions with their customers that they’re used to conducting face-to-face. They’re keeping the tools that have increased their teams’ productivity and customer satisfaction, with 30% of property managers saying that using technology to drive efficiency is a key aspect of their revenue generation strategy this year.
Property managers have turned to technology to bring their capabilities online, making their services more convenient for their customers to access and making their operations more efficient. Digitalisation has never been more at the forefront for property managers. Property managers are now optimising their communications through document automation by using technology tools and software that streamline the process of creating, sending, and managing documents. This, in turn, has allowed them to focus their efforts on what they do best: delivering on-the-ground support, local market expertise, and ultimately – the best customer service they can.
How property managers benefit from document automation
Time saved
Property managers can save a significant amount of time by automating the document creation process. Instead of manually creating documents, property managers can create and send documents out digitally, making the process far more efficient. Property managers have many responsibilities, including tenant research, profile checks (general, civic, and financial), managing repairs, general maintenance, and taking care of renovations. In addition to that, they have a budget to manage and are required to communicate frequently with their tenants and stakeholders all while adhering to legal constraints and requirements. For some, hundreds of documents must be drafted and sent to different stakeholders, like rental contracts, rent receipts, inventory of fixtures, management mandates, contracts, and invoices for vendors.
Improved accuracy
Real estate transactions, especially in the commercial sector, involve large volumes of paperwork that must be signed and stored. In accordance with the law, certain documents must be stored for several years. As a result, paper documents can take up a significant amount of space and are often time-consuming to process and locate when necessary. With document automation, you combine files into a single hub, to streamline business workflows, and efficiently handle documents, allowing organisations and their investors to easily locate and extract key information. You also avoid potential human errors, such as misfiled or lost contracts.
Enhanced security
Security is a critical issue in the storage and management of documents for property managers – and for obvious reasons. There is a lot of sensitive and confidential personal and financial information. So when documents are not properly stored and managed, the chances of proprietary and sensitive information being exposed to the wrong people are higher. With a document automation platform, property managers can rest assured that their communications are both stored and delivered securely.
Increased efficiency
One of the most pressing challenges we hear from property managers is productivity. Managing properties is a never-ending process that involves many moving parts. Monitoring the status of jobs and projects takes longer than actually doing them. Glitches and emergencies are part of the everyday job, causing interruptions both technically and operationally. Standardisation in certain areas, with document management and business process automation, can make process and communication seamless and productive. Through document automation, property managers can automatically distribute documents to tenants and other stakeholders via email, text messages, or other communication channels. This eliminates the need to distribute documents, which increased overall efficiency manually – it not only saves time but reduces the risk of errors. By automating the document preparation and distribution process, property managers can free up time and resources to focus on more important, customer-focused tasks.
Remote-friendly access
When documents are stored in separate computers, servers, or filing cabinets, it becomes difficult to find what you need, compile data, or share information when necessary. Say a property manager is out and about but needs access to a crucial tenant lease. Going into the office to retrieve documents means time spent travelling back and forth. Property managers on the go can save time and be more productive with document automation software because they can easily unify the management of documents and access them from anywhere, anytime.
Property management’s shift to digital
In the past, smaller companies may have looked past implementing digital tools because it’s seen as an extra expense. As a result, we are witnessing market leaders in the industry buying up some smaller companies. Therefore, it seems the digitalisation of the industry is happening at two speeds – large rental management agencies that are already well-equipped to enhance their processes, and smaller businesses struggling to catch up with the technology.
The modernisation and digitalisation of the property management industry have been on the rise, and it has only boomed during the pandemic. According to the 2022 State of the Property Management Industry Report, 1 in 3 rental owners say that property managers’ use of technology is a primary consideration for them when hiring a property manager. Property management agencies – especially the smallest ones – should evaluate their processes and look into how they can move towards automating their processes and documents.
Switching to technology-driven solutions can save space, time, and money. Embrace the latest technology for effective document management and take the growth of your real estate syndication business to the next level.
Sources: 2022 State of the Property Management Industry
