7 biggest property management challenges

As a property owner or manager, you likely already understand all the pains and gains that come along with this challenging yet rewarding position, especially if you don’t have a comprehensive property management solution. However, no matter how many years of experience you have, and how much you’ve scaled your business, every property manager faces the same issues at some point along the timeline.

Maybe you’re starting to ask yourself questions like:

• How can I be a better property manager?
• Why do I never have time?
• What am I missing?

If this is the case, there’s something you need to know. You could be subconsciously adding to your workload.

In today’s digital environments, adopting software is a must, and allows you to adapt to the increasingly complex demands of the market. When you’re reluctant to take the leap and invest in comprehensive property management software, you actively add to the list of issues you face.

The common property management challenges

From keeping up with general maintenance of a building right through to financial administration, your ability for project management is constantly put to the test. The success of your business ultimately comes down to your communication skills, and, if that wasn’t enough pressure, you constantly have to keep track of what’s going on.

When you start to grow, it’s a cause for celebration. But soon, more and more property management issues start to arise. Here are just a few of the most common challenges you’ll face.

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Property management challenge 1: Employment

When you start to scale, it becomes impossible to organize everything on your own. You have to hire and retain high quality staff members who can help fix your property manager challenges, rather than adding to them.

Property management challenge 2: Maintenance

As if owning and renting buildings wasn’t enough, maintenance is one task on a property manager’s list that never seems to diminish. When one job is finished the next is there, ready to demand your time and attention.

Property management challenge 3: Tenants

Alongside looking after your real estate assets, you have to look after the people. A big portion of your work is:

• Finding reliable renters
• Conducting background checks
• Signing Rental Service Agreements
• Accommodating client requests
• Communicating with relevant contractors
• Fixing issues as and when they arise

In addition to this long list of duties, tenants always need to know what you expect of them. When issues arise, you have to enforce evictions, which can be a messy process.

Property management challenge 4: Admin

Any business owner will proudly proclaim that admin is the bane of their existence. So why do they insist on continuing to put themselves through it? As a property manager, you likely have thousands of different pieces of paperwork spread across multiple devices.

Property management challenge 5: Scaling

And, when you have so many tasks that need completing, scaling your revenue seems like a distant dream. In order to encourage client recommendations, you need to provide them with the best service possible, but you can’t do that without getting on top of your task list. It’s an endless cycle.

Property management challenge 6: Time

Every property manager will agree: there’s never enough time in a day. Either you’re desperately trying to catch up on yesterday’s work, or you are falling further and further behind.

Property management challenge 7: Costs

One of the hardest challenges a property manager faces is the growth of the subsequent costs that come from accepting additional projects.

Contractors need to be paid, tenants continue to complain, and things slip through the cracks. Pretty soon, you and your accountant are in a disagreement and your profit margin is on the decline.

How investing in property manager software can help

It isn’t all bad news, though.

Despite the numerous property manager challenges, you’re not in this alone. You likely already have staff members helping along the way.

But honestly, how many times have there been miscommunications, lost papers and files, or data entry errors that have hampered productivity and slowed progress on projects?

If you are not already, start looking at property management software. With the best program, you can:

• Increase your efficiency: Innovative property management software can automate manual processes, save time, and increase productivity for your organization.
• Track each of your properties: A centralized system allows you to keep information in the same place so you can easily track which properties are making money, and which ones aren’t.
• Receive alerts on tasks that need completing: To stop yourself from falling behind, MRI’s software addresses property manager issues like miscommunication and a lack of planning and control.
• Build relationships between your employees and clients: When you’re able to easily reach out to relevant stakeholders, you can respond immediately to queries and build trust between yourself and the people who rely on you.
• Improve tenant satisfaction: To maintain occupancy, your tenants need to be reassured you are meeting their every need. Property manager software can help.

Realistically, we as humans make errors. No matter how hard we try, we’re imperfect beings and it’s just what we do best. Unfortunately, real estate and property management is a very “survival of the fittest” world, especially with the economy the way it is.

Embracing property management software can help you stop wasting resources and scale your revenue. Take advantage of smooth working processes from the front to back office through easy-to-use client dashboards, automated finances, insurance tracking, AI-powered lease abstraction, and streamlined accounting.

Property management challenges – FAQs

Are you still hesitating? It’s normal to have questions when you’re considering a structural overhaul of how you run your property management business.

After all, won’t adopting property management software just add to your to-do list?

Absolutely not. Let’s take a look at why with these FAQs.

Why do property management companies fail?

The main cause of property management failure is an inability to deliver on the promises made to tenants. Relationships get damaged, and businesses start to get a bad reputation, though it’s often not their fault. Property managers get so caught up in their extensive day-to-day to-do list that they can’t focus on what matters: delivering excellent service.

What does property management software do?

Property management software can aid you in delegating, automating, and organizing tasks. In just a few seconds, you can pull up rental agreements and check maintenance requirements to keep everyone happy. But there’s more. Everything from the accounting process, online rent payments, and preventive maintenance can be built, established, and managed all through this one system.

Is property management software useful?

Yes, incredibly so. Many software platforms will address the direct problems that property managers face, allowing them to be more productive with their time. Using property management software, managers and owners can systematically and efficiently run their business.

Can property managers work from home?

Only when they embrace a digital-first business model. Cloud-based property management software can allow managers to communicate easily with their employees and tenants and enjoy days off with their family and friends.

What MRI Software can do for you

Efficiency isn’t just handed to you as a reward for working hard.

If you don’t dedicate time and attention to upgrading your work processes, you’ll never be working as effectively as you could be. Mistakes will continue to be made, and you’ll encounter common property management challenges again and again.

Instead, seize the opportunity that lies before you: MRI’s incredible property management software.