The best time to change your Property Management platform was yesterday
There is always something about to happen, the end of financial year, the Head of Department going on leave, someone has resigned, someone is pregnant… the list is endless. But one thing is certain, if you wait for the ‘perfect’ time to shift platforms then you’ll never make the change that you know you need to make.
Moving your property management platform is a big deal, no two ways about it, this is not just a matter of turning up on Monday morning, flicking a switch, and then continuing as normal.
But it’s manageable, and with the support of your onboarding team you’ll be surprised how quickly your current processes will be a distant memory.
If you make the change to the right platform then it’s a fundamental shift in the way your PM business will operate. You're about to transition from a manually based process of executing tasks, over to an automated system where you only get involved in managing the exceptions.
And don’t be fooled by smart looking cloud-based products that are essentially just the old legacy products on the cloud. Deep automation driven by complex artificial intelligence is the key to operating an efficient business. If a product doesn’t have deep automation and a payments process that collects and disperses rental, then you need to keep looking. If a platform asks you to use a multitude of add on apps that are developed by 3rd parties, then you need to keep looking.
Let’s take the payment of rent and arrears management as an example. In your current process it’s the tenant who decides when and how much rent they pay. The tenant ‘pushes’ the money into your trust account, where you have to reconcile it and then disburse it. If the rent is not paid your arrears process will provide a list of outstanding amounts and times that you scan and make decisions as to what you do and when. When you do get the funds in trust you need to reconcile them and then disperse them.
When you go to an automated platform that includes payments you now ‘pull’ the exact amount of rent owed by the tenant on the day it's due. If for any reason that payment declines, then the automated system uses sophisticated artificial intelligence to engage with the tenant using the medium and language that has proven to get the best results – you only get dragged in if a call is required or if you need to approve an action such as the sending of the pre populated notice etc.
These two ways of operating are poles apart – the old way is expensive with a relatively poor level of customer experience (CX). The new automated process not only saves vast amounts of time but also a huge number of now unnecessary 3rd party subscriptions that you’ve needed for a host of jobs that your existing system couldn’t t manage (ad uploads, viewings, applications, vetting, digital signing, inspections, maintenance, and the list goes on!) – all now unnecessary.
There are two costs to consider when moving platform. The cost of doing the move, and the cost of doing nothing.
The first choice is cheap. On the Our.Property platform there are no subscription costs, so your only cost is the once off onboarding fee for managing to data shift and set up.
The second choice (doing nothing) will cost you plenty. According to one of our competitors the cost of not moving to an automated platform that manages payments is around $97,200 a year for every 500 properties in your portfolio.
As one of our clients recently said when asked the question of when the best time was to change, he simply said ‘rip the band aid off and do it now’.
You can watch his complete interview below
Daniel is the General Manager of an Agency with over 850 managements that has been very successful and that recently changed to Our.Property after many years on a legacy platform.
