Here’s Your Property Management New Year’s Resolution Checklist

Hello Real Estate Professionals!  It’s a New Year and it’s time to start check off those New Year’s Resolutions for 2012!  Some people want to lose weight, some save money, some make more money and some want more education.  Although, you may want everything that I just mentioned, there may be one thing in particular that you want the most and that’s to invest in an Online Property Management Solution for your rental property business!

Sure you’ve increased your sales and have retained some tenants in your units last year, but you are worn out and believe there’s a more efficient way out there!  Yes, you have your manual system down to a science, from dotting “I’s” and crossing “T’s”, but you’re missing many crucial elements in your business, one of which is being mobile and being able to manage tenants and pay bills all in one place.  You don’t want to just manage your business online, but you want the ability to do it anywhere in the world.  All the other “bells and whistles” that come along with the online software will be an added bonus for you right?

Ok, so to make your life a little easier and to help you decide what kind of Online Property Management Software Solution is right for you, you need a checklist to help you out!  I found a great article on the Internet from Software Advice that provides a checklist for you to use when you begin your evaluation.

Here are the Ten Steps to Selecting the Right Property Management Software

1. Research the Property Management Software Market - Surf the internet, read blogs and download white papers - all in an effort to “get smart” on the state of the online property management software market.
2. Prioritize Your Software Requirements - Start at a high level by identifying what challenges you want to solve and what your current system isn’t doing for you.
3. Make the Case to Management - Present a compelling case that the benefits of the new online software vastly outweigh the costs.
4. Build a Short List of Software Vendors - Start with a long list of products and then eliminate systems that don’t serve your specialty, size of business or high-level functional requirements.
5. Educate the Vendors - The more the software vendors know about your needs, the better they can communicate how their software can help.
6. Evaluate Live Software Demonstrations – See the system in great detail and keep track of your impressions using a “demo scorecard”.
7. Score and Rank the Software Systems – Score and rank the systems you have evaluated.
8. Gather and Compare Price Quotes - Ask the vendors to provide a detailed price quote, inclusive of all costs associated with the system.
9. Verify References and Vendor Viability – Ask the front runner to provide one or more customer references that share your division/trade and business size.
10. Review the Software License Agreement - Make sure you are purchasing enough licenses for the entire organization.

Following these 10 steps should definitely help you to make your New Year’s Resolution come true and get the Online Property Management Software Solution that is just right for your business! 

If you have questions about Point2 Property Management Software, please leave a comment or just give us a call at 1-877-705-6270, we’d love to hear from you!