Future of the Rental Property Management Industry and PropTech

Few industries are mired in antiquation more than property management. A visit to any property manager’s office will provide ample examples: file cabinets, piles of paper and drawings, pegboards with clusters of keys, sticky notes all over computer monitors, ledgers, dust, and more. Historically, property managers started their business out of necessity or at the request of their real estate customers, which resulted in a lack of planning, foresight and constantly playing catch up. It doesn’t help that accounting for property management is particularly complex due to trust accounts and the quantity of monthly transactions in property accounting. Add the intricacies of resident retention and property maintenance and it’s not surprising why 2019 saw $26 Billion invested into Proptech innovations.

Growth, efficiency, and profitability were the top 3 concerns of property managers according to a 2019 NARPM survey. 

As you can see, the priority that saw the largest increase in concern was efficiency (+ 6.1%). This is not surprising considering that the workload of a property manager has grown to include much more focus on legislation and technology. Why technology? As we know, technology is the best and most cost-effective way we know of to increase efficiency. 

The next question that needs to be asked is: in what areas of technology are property managers looking to become more efficient in? NARPM’s survey showed that accounting and payments were the two most important areas.

The future of the rental property management industry is going to see exponential dependence on technology and SaaS (software as a service) because this will be the most efficient and secure way to do business. It may not be the most profitable- in the strictest sense- but as NARPM’s survey also showed, prioritization of profitability decreased by 3% between 2018 and 2019. PMs are willing to sacrifice some profit for efficiency- especially when it comes to accounting and payment services. 

Accounting and payments are one of the most complex and perilous aspects of property management, which is why products like Yardi Voyager, Appfolio, Buildium, Propertyware, Rent Manager and Quickbooks for real estate are so prolifically used in property management. Yet many property management companies are still inefficient at USING these softwares- especially the accounting functionalities within them, and a property manager with heavy accounting training is rare. This results in inefficient and oftentimes illegal use and bookkeeping of the clients’ funds. 

This is where companies like APM Help really shine. Founded by former Appfolio employees, APM Help fills a major gap for property managers: the SERVICE part of SaaS. As experts in all the major PM softwares, their employees are the answer to problems of efficiency and accounting for rental property managers in the United States. Offering trust account and corporate bookkeeping, daily bank reconciliations and audits, on-demand consulting, and even maintenance coordination- APM Help is emerging as the go-to company for any PM wanting to become more efficient and move out of the antiquated past into the streamlined and secure future of working with experts. With over 100 full-time staff, 50,000+ units under influence, and a 10 minute response time, it is no wonder that they are trusted by some of America’s premier property management companies. Contact APM Help today for a free 30 minute consultation and see where your business can grow and your stress level can diminish.