This blog post relates to Rockend, one of our previous brands. For more information please read the press release.

Processing tenant payments for receipting and reconciling can be a tedious task, and when you’re dealing with hundreds of tenancies it can be quite stressful.

To help lighten the load, we developed Tenant Download – a dedicated tool within our property management software, Property Tree that automates the receipting of payments for both residential and commercial tenancies, saving you heaps of time.

How exactly, you ask?  Let’s take a closer look.

Continue reading “How tenant download makes your payments process easier” →

“How do I get rent reminders to my residents in an effective way?”

This is one of the many questions multifamily property managers struggle with as the prevalence of convenience-centered technology grows stronger. Online rent payment portals make it easier for residents to pay their rent, but sometimes they still need a reminder.

Reaching residents through email isn’t always a timely method, so the natural next step is to send rent reminders by text message, guaranteeing that your residents see the notification right away, wherever they are.

How to remind a tenant to pay rent

In today’s world, where small computers follow us around everywhere, text messages are more optimized for sending and receiving messages quickly and in an informal setting. Emails are traditionally more formal than text messages, but that formality also makes emails easier to ignore, especially for tenants who are already behind on their rent. It’s for this reason that rent reminders have become more prevalent and effective when sent via text or SMS messaging.

Think of weather alerts that can be sent through smartphones. It’s uncommon to receive emails on this topic, because it’s important for those messages to be seen right away. The same rule applies for rent reminders; they typically can’t wait. If residents receive texts from their landlords, then there’s a sense of urgency – a sense that this message needs to be addressed.

Choosing the right way to text rent reminders

Even though sending a rent reminder via text message can imply that the situation is serious, it’s important to know both when and how residents should be reminded of upcoming payments or notified about late rent payments. Choosing the proper language in your text message and knowing when to text a resident about their rent can help convey the importance of the situation while also giving them time to respond accordingly.

Let’s look at an example. Texting a resident in the middle of the day might be advisable given that most residents are more likely to be on their phone at that time; however, if the language of the message adds up to “your last two months is due in 3-5 hours and you will be evicted if you do not pay on time,” it is unlikely that either party will end up satisfied.

Reminding residents about their rent payments shouldn’t be something you do once on the day rent is due and hope that it comes in on time. Landlords or property management offices should send a text message to a resident one week before the final due date, and remind them once more two days before the due date.

When it comes to phrasing your rent reminders, you should be crafting your texts in the same way people craft all text messages – with courteous urgency. For example, the ideal rent reminder could look something like this:

“Hi, Resident Name. This is Landlord Name. Just wanted to remind you that your rent is due one week from today. Please contact us immediately if you are unable to pay by this date.”

Using software to send rent reminders

While sending rent reminders through an instant notification system like text messages may be the most effective way to reach residents, there are different methods that allow one to do that. Instead of sending these reminders through a personal cellular device, specialized property management software can be used to send these notifications. This software can enable property managers to send instant communications for a variety of messages, including rent reminders, weather alerts, maintenance notices, or announcements.

Keeping an open line of communication with your residents is a critical part of multifamily property management. Sending your residents text message reminders about rent payments is one of the most effective ways you can keep them in a loop and receive your payments on time, but there are also other ways to communicate effectively with your residents. Learn more about how you can streamline your resident communications and, by doing so, improve resident satisfaction and retention.

This blog post relates to Rockend, one of our previous brands. For more information please read the press release.

Saving time is the name of the game in property management, and Property Tree’s latest feature update has a number of enhancements to help you do just that.
Continue reading “What’s new in Property Tree this February?” →

The real estate cycle is the biggest driver of investment activity, and if historical precedent and expert opinions are any indication, then we may be reaching the end and eventual restart of the cycle within the next few years.

This potential downturn, however scary (or opportunistic!) it might be to investors, is an inevitable part of the real estate life cycle. Nothing can keep it from affecting your business, but there are ways to be prepared for it and make your organization as battle-ready as possible when it does arrive.

What is the real estate cycle?

The real estate cycle is made up of four separate stages that the real estate industry consistently goes through:

• Recovery: New construction is nonexistent, demand grows to absorb the large supply, and interest rates go down. Interest rates typically decrease, and real estate starts appreciating.
• Expansion: Rental income grows, leading to more demand than supply. Construction begins again when growth reaches a certain level and more construction projects are soon approved. The value of real estate may grow to market value and even beyond. However, this starts to create a bubble.
• Hyper Supply: Construction outpaces demand, rental growth slows as fewer renters are willing to pay premium rents, and real estate values trend downward.
• Recession: Interest rates go up and liquidity becomes nonexistent. Real estate values drop, leading to bargain prices. In addition to this, private equity funds start buying real estate, and technological innovations help in getting the next stage underway.

How long is the real estate cycle?

Over the last 100 years, peaks in land value and construction activity have occurred roughly every 18 years, creating a regular cycle of real estate “crashes.” Exceptions to this rule occur when irregular factors speed things up – such as the banking crisis in 2008 that forced lending standards to tighten rapidly. Typically, it takes the market anywhere between five to eight years to recover from a crash. Real estate investors, however, don’t have time to wait for the market to recover; some go completely bankrupt and never get back on their feet.

Where are we in the real estate cycle?

There have been several signs of a decrease in growth for the U.S. economy, which implies that we may be nearing the end of the expansion phase. If that’s the case, then is it possible we might be moving toward the hyper supply phase or even a recession? And when can we expect to see a shift? There are no definitive answers, but a survey in The Wall Street Journal examines those questions.

According to the survey, 59% of private-sector economists surveyed say the economy is likely to stop expanding in 2020, while 22% said that a slowdown in growth might be seen in 2021. A smaller portion of respondents said that a recession could begin as early as 2019, 2022, or a later, unspecified date. Out of the economists surveyed, 62% believe the recession will most likely be caused by the Federal Reserve’s reigning in of the economy. However, around 5% believe the recession will be caused by other factors such as disruptions to national trade or an unspecified bubble burst.

Is there anything that can be done to mitigate risk?

While the thought of an upcoming recession may frighten some and even bring on bad memories from the 2008 financial crisis, there are ways for investors to prepare themselves now for what lies ahead.

• Put forecasting disciplines in place. Use market assumptions and benchmarks to find the middle of the road and keep track of your portfolio’s standing in the market.
• Use predictive analytics to identify trends and patterns in the marketplace based on historical data.
• Utilize debt management. Do you finance your projects with debt, or do you pay with cash? Use debt to maximize returns and performance without exposing you to risk as the market and interest rates change.
• Take full advantage of strategic planning. Conduct this planning across all levels of your business – asset, portfolio, fund, and the corporate level. In addition, consider exploring strategic partnerships and joint ventures.

By taking these actions now, you can potentially minimize the impact on your portfolio if future financial turbulence should arrive.

How technology can help real estate investors prepare

Taking these cautionary steps can help mitigate risk, but it’s crucial that you implement the proper technologies that can help you take these steps the right way.

• Fund Modeling. This tool can help you blend historical financial information with forecasted consolidations and fund-level activities to run “what if” scenarios and produce forecasted performance metrics such as returns and yields. The powerful and flexible calculation logic combined with strict data integrity can help you get a better look at how your portfolio might fare in a recession.
• Asset Modeling. Optimize property performance with calculated insights at the property level. Perform lease-level sensitivity analyses and forecast and value your assets. Produce reports for a board or trust using an executive-level standard report library, and view reports by property type, country, region, sub-region and MSA.
• Debt Management. Investors can streamline the management of debt payments, store documents and lender/borrower information, automate the creation of journal entries, and produce in-depth debt reports. Debt Management is a great tool for investors looking to mitigate risk as we reach the end of the real estate cycle.

To learn more about how investors can prepare for the end of the real estate cycle, explore MRI Software’s investment solutions.

Property managers will agree that one of the most laborious tasks that comes with the job is processing creditor invoices.

On average, each property generates 20 invoices in a year and if you manage a rent roll of over a thousand properties you could be manually entering 20,000 invoices a year!  That’s a lot of invoices and a lot of time spent on processing those invoices.

Thankfully there’s Invoice Genius – the invoice automation platform by MRI that will help you process hundreds of invoices quickly and effortlessly.  It’s one of the most-loved features included in our property management software, Property Tree.  We think you’ll love it too.  Here’s why:

Continue reading “5 reasons why you should be using Invoice Genius” →

This blog post relates to Rockend, one of our previous brands. For more information please read the press release.

Every leader worth their salt knows that behind every successful business are their people working to achieve a common goal.  Teamwork makes the dream work, they say, and it’s true – your vision is only as good as the team that helps you fulfill it.

But what makes the team work?  Surely having big dreams for your business is good, but how can you help your team be in their best shape to realise these goals?

In our Voice of Australian Property Management Report, we identified some key issues that property managers face today that if resolved, will help improve the performance of your property management team.

Continue reading “5 Ways to Improve Your Property Management Team” →

Many commercial retail property managers today warn of a coming “epocalypse,” a time when online retail will completely overrun the world of brick and mortar retail. However, new research from CBRE suggests that not only is the epocalypse not as imminent as it appears, it might not even be coming at all.

On a recent episode of “Building Success: A Real Estate Podcast,” Melina Cordero, Global Head of Retail Research at CBRE, sat down with MRI Software to discuss the current state of affairs between brick and mortal retail and ecommerce.

Epocalypse: Inevitable or imagined?

Despite consumer trends leaning towards ecommerce, existing data indicates that brick and mortar retail isn’t going anywhere. A recent report from CBRE provides deeper insight into the questions surrounding ecommerce and omnichannel real estate.

The report illustrates that online-only transactions currently account for a mere 10 percent of the retail market. Sales from physical stores, however, still make up around 50 percent of the retail market. So why the panic? The fear of online shopping wiping out in-store shopping comes mostly from the speed with which online sales have grown over the past few years. These fears are also stoked by big headlines in the news regarding the declining sales of several big brands that for decades have dominated their fields.

No, the “epocalypse” is not something that’s in the process of happening – there is a future for brick and mortar retail. But what, exactly, might that future look like? And is online shopping affecting the retail industry in any tangible way? Absolutely.

The real challenge for commercial retail property managers

According the CBRE’s report, category and price are two major factors that commercial retail properties should be aware of when it comes to the impacts of ecommerce. Consumers today are turning away from physical stores for items that they typically see as safe investments, both in price and category. Items such as apparel, electronics, and footwear are all seeing increases in ecommerce interaction because these purchases are usually viewed as safe purchases. These products also typically fall into a mid-range price point, which consumers feel comfortable paying for online.

There are retailers that fall into certain categories and higher price ranges, however, that ecommerce has not yet found a way to deeply impact. High-end products at luxury price points are typically not bought online because consumers do not feel as comfortable spending large amounts of money online for products they see as an investment. They’d still rather walk into a store to see how products work, and in some cases, to get the purchasing experience that comes with buying a luxury item. Low-priced and discount products are also fairly resistant to online shopping. The price point is the major factor in discounted purchases, and making these kinds of products available online would push the shipping and stocking costs up to a level where consumers would no longer see it as a discount item.

With these shifts in consumer attitudes brought on by ecommerce, the key to facing these challenges is not to resist the change or fight it outright. Rather, businesses that are impacted by ecommerce need to find ways to integrate the digital and the physical, and commercial retail property managers will need to think strategically about who they take on as tenants and what kinds of customers these tenants can attract.

Thriving from ecommerce

Whether you operate in the commercial or multifamily sector, ecommerce will affect property managers everywhere. Property managers and owners will need to think about tenant mix — ecommerce impacts different categories in different ways, and landlords will need to understand how to optimize their tenant mix. For example, regional malls typically have 75% of space taken up by department stores and other sellers of apparel. Will regional malls and other similar shopping outlets survive the increase in ecommerce? They can indeed, but only by adjusting to the challenges that ecommerce brings. For brick and mortar retailers, a renewed emphasis on experience and convenience can help them face the rise in ecommerce, and by providing a unique, convenient experience to customers, physical stores won’t have to worry about being wiped away by any imaginary epocalypse.

To learn more about commercial retail property management software and other insights into the real estate industry, check out other episodes from “Building Success: A Real Estate Podcast.”