Technology and the Successful Property Manager

By Phoebe Chongchua, SD Real Estate Help, San Diego, CA

It’s the kind of job that requires a lot of patience, and today being a property manager also requires keeping up with technology. Property managers work with many different personalities, which requires them to have some important skills that help make the job of managing properties a success. But they also need to keep up with where their future tenants are spending their time–online.

Get Social.

Interestingly, social media and technology play a critical new role in the job of property managers. Now, tenants and prospective tenants aren’t just stopping by to see a property; instead they’re on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media platforms learning about rentals in your area before they have even set foot in the neighborhood.

Through these and other social media sites, not only is information shared but also reviews and feedback about properties are posted. That’s why today many companies are hiring social media people to “actively” listen to the sites. It’s part of online reputation management and it’s good a way to see if and what people are sharing about your properties.

As a multi-media video journalist, I am often asked about how to respond when there is a negative remark about your company, product, or property. Should you roll up your sleeves and “fight back”? No. Often this will cause the person who is negatively commenting to start a full-blown war. The campaign can get very ugly and turn into an over-dramatized sensation.

My suggestion is to counter the attacks by addressing the issues in a positive manner and not necessarily right after the person leaves the comment. How do you do this? Article writing and posting on many sites is a great way to get the information you want out about your properties.

So, for instance, if there’s a negative comment about your property being poorly kept up, writing a post and showcasing with photos the well-manicured property and its unique attributes is a better way to convey your message.

Resist the urge to fire back a comment that sounds defensive. Instead, think of the negative comment as a question: “How well maintained is your property?” Then write your post. Of course, this is assuming that you are keeping your property in good shape!

Give it to them Quick.

Quick Response (QR) codes are showing up everywhere. How important are they to the property manager’s job? Very. These little codes can help carry vital information to prospective tenants, when used appropriately.

QR codes are used by people with smartphones. They download a free app and then scan the code which is linked to a website page. You can create a QR code very easily and for free using online resources; just search for free-sites to create your code.

The QR code is meant to provide information to the user in a quick fashion. In order to be useful, the information must be valuable. So, if you link the QR code to a video that gives good information about your property, that’s useful. If, on the other hand, you embed a faulty link or the link just opens to a generic website, the QR code can be seen as nothing more than advertising–useful to some, but others may feel it was a waste of their time to scan the code.

Placing a QR code on your brochures, business cards, and marketing materials with helpful links to very valuable information such as frequently asked questions, videos of your properties, etc. can be a big help for prospective tenants.

Pay rent online.

With so many people doing online banking, getting your residents to pay their rent online makes sense. There are many advantages such as the ability to schedule payments, automatic monthly debits, no hassling with paper, and being able to pay rent from anywhere instantly.

If you’re finding that your tenants aren’t as hip to signing up for the online rent-pay option, try using sign-up incentives such as a gift card to a local merchant’s shop or do a drawing from a pool of all the tenants who signed up that month.

Technology is nothing more than tools that can help streamline and better brand your business. However, it’s how you use them that determine how successful you’ll be as a property manager.