Posts about Technology

Tech trends in the property management industry

As our world continues to change and evolve due to the ongoing health crisis, property management agents are turning to new and innovative technologies to help improve their leasing practices and the lives of residents through automated resources and smart tools. There are many industry practices that the team at FOURMIDABLE has focused on in our ongoing effort to strengthen community connections and develop ways for prospects, residents, managers and owners to maximize the benefits of the tools available in Entrata, our property management software system. Two of the key elements in the Entrata platform are ProspectPortal and ResidentPortal. Both of these have allowed FOURMIDABLE to develop no contact, paperless systems for our prospects and residents. Our applications, screening processing, leases and lease addendums, rent payments and maintenance requests can all be completed and signed online. FOURMIDABLE has also implemented Entrata’s Internet Listing Services portal, which automatically synchronizes real-time pricing and availability data to all major internet listing services websites for effortless updates. This allows managers and owners the flexibility to change rents and add specials across all online marketing venues on demand. Another key element, which we implemented in early April, is the ability for our on-site team to conduct remote and virtual open houses, so that prospects can view their new apartment without having to step foot on the property. Many other electronic enhancements go beyond traditional leasing practices, such as package management with onsite lockers that provide easy, secure and contact-free ways to streamline deliveries and send automatic notifications when packages arrive in the office. Also, smart home technologies that integrate devices and allow residents to manage locks, thermostats, and lights are now being slated for our properties which are currently in development. The information technology team at FOURMIDABLE is focused on the future and are working directly with the leaders in our industry to continue to develop leading edge processes to enhance the experience for our applicants, residents, owners and employees.

FOURMIDABLE’s Technological Future

Technology is pervasive in today’s business environment. How well we integrate that technology impacts our time management and productively at work. It can also affect our quality of life at home. Over the past few years, technology and software used in the property management industry has shown significant improvement. Software offerings have transformed many property management office tasks such as digitized purchase orders, invoice processing, compliance software, resident utility billing, and check scanning. Interactive websites can now feature a property’s current availability, lease rates, online application, electronic leases, and online chat with the leasing agent. Resident portals offer online resident payments, mobile-based service request management and community billboards. These are some examples of value-added software used in our industry, but they have come at a cost. They are typically not all managed from within one software platform, therefore requiring another user login, another password to remember and another user interface to learn and master, they may not integrate well with the core property management / accounting software and therefore can require duplicate data entry requirements. There is also the challenge of keeping the data up to date. We have been watching our industry's leading core software companies, such as Entrata, Yardi, MRI and Realpage make moves to stay competitive. Some are acquiring other value-added software companies, others are partnering with them, and some of the known software development leaders are building these value-added services right into their core property management / accounting software suite. The latter option provides the key to our technological future. We are pleased to announce that after several months reviewing the latest releases of the leading property management / accounting software available, we have selected Entrata to replace AMSI at all of our conventional, tax credit and Section 8 properties. Entrata has designed their software with much more flexible reporting and with the end user and resident's needs at the forefront of their design, while providing a new level of flexible reporting methods. One login, one password, and one user interface are all that is needed to navigate all of the marketing, leasing, resident management, compliance, online payments, check scanning and other features, thereby eliminating the need to use so many different software solutions at our properties. We will be rolling out Entrata throughout 2018 and are excited about our enhanced technological future!