Virtual Property Management

March 03, 2020

Could You Go Virtual with Your Company?

Managers in many business sectors find physical management from a brick and mortar office location a costly and time draining waste. That time, money and effort spent reduces a property managers ability to keep assets profitable.

One property management trend you may have heard of is virtual property management. It’s done via property management software (and apps if you need them). With the arrival of the Covid 19 Pandemic, managers are realizing that face to face, in person meetings should be minimized. Most routine work can be either automated or done online. There is a change happening.

Will your property management business be changed at all when services are managed virtually?

Business Virtualization is Increasing

Marketing agencies, real estate brokerages, and retail companies have discovered how much more profitable virtual business is. The savings enjoyed allows them to reinvest in new technology to make them more competitive.

It’s not hard to imagine how eliminating the cost of a physical location from rent to taxes to utilities raises ROI. And then there is the market and customer knowledge that comes via online activity. The big companies all vie for that data.

Becoming a virtual property manager makes you more efficient and competitive at a whole new level.

And if property managers and landlords can rely on online property management software to bring their virtual team and tenant services together successfully, then online platform adoption is your next step. The virtual business model does create new challenges, but it relieves the weight of commuting, utilities and rent costs on their bottom line.

Key Questions You’ll Need to Ask

Times change, and processes, people and customers change. You can best understand the evolution if you ask good questions. If rent revenue growth is questionable, operations costs rise, and your door count decreases, will you be able to produce expected ROI in the years ahead? Will owners be discouraged if you don’t have a definite physical location near them or use a very modern property management system? How will you manage and motivate staff in the next 5 years?

Can You Outsource Everything?

You can outsource maintenance to contractors and let them house all the physical tools, work vehicles, and other things. You can outsource to virtual assistants, accountants, contractors, marketing consultants, and leasing agents.

A rising number of support services from virtual customer service to cleaning to self-operated laundry to leasing agents makes it possible now.

virtual property management CSR assistants
virtual bookkeeping and administration
virtual inspection apps
virtual renter screening
virtual leasing
virtual rental tours
virtual maintenance management
virtual payment system

Your Time is More Valuable Than You Believe

What will you need to do to reassure owners?

If you’re on the hunt for new landlords and property owners, you’re better off out on the road yourself visiting them. With more time and money, you’re likely to reach more potential clients and convince them you’re the way of the future.

What About Your Staff?

Staffing may represent the biggest challenge. Certainly, your staff will love not having to commute back and forth to the office. The freedom, flexibility and work/life balance is better. Yet some home-based workers suffer from loneliness, disorientation, and lack of motivation. They’re not present for you to watch hawkishly.

If you have a staff, there are trainers/consultants who can help you orient your staff to at home work. You can arrange to meet frequently at a central location (wework locations) once a week to keep the team camaraderie. And you can use virtual meeting software such as Slack to run meetings.

You need to be confident of your staff. You won’t be there to micromanage them, or motivate them to be productive and conscientious. If your current staff can’t handle the home-based operation, you can train them, or you may have to consider hiring others who can work at home professionally.

The Property Management Solution You Need

If you should decide to go virtual, ManageCasa property management software can be your go to virtual property management system. You can add other software tools or virtual services to augment it. Yet with ManageCasa, you can run the core tasks and monitor your properties, finances, maintenance tickets and people very well.

Virtual property management is what cloud based property management was designed for. Property managers have wanted the freedom of mobility for a long time. With ManageCasa, they’re finding benefits well beyond what they expected.

See more on ManageCasa and how it will serve your Virtual property management business well.