Proptech Solutions

September 02, 2022

Proptech Software

You’ve likely heard the term PropTech often enough in your daily surfing and solutions research online. The term is a hyped buzzword and yet it means almost nothing to some business owners.

What PropTech really is and does unfortunately, is a point of confusion for end users and could be preventing them from adopting some productive business solutions.

We’ll try to clarify some of the UVP benefits, pain points solved, and business potential in this post. PropTech is revolutionizing property management and you’ll find a list of innovative property technology solutions below. It’s creating some exciting business-boosting benefits for real estate investors, landlords, Realtors, and property managers.

From rental tenant portals on smartphones, to property inspection drones and smart home services, to automated rent payments, remote virtual management tools, and AI-based accounting improvements, the technology is becoming more pervasive, and important to real estate pros.

Cooling the Confusing Tech Language

And many PropTech companies forget that managers may not understand their product’s purpose, UVP, and potential usefulness. The complexity of the solutions along with tech buzz words and explanations can actually turn off potential adopters. Once turned off by that, they’re hard to reach again.

PropTech apps and platforms operate via SaaS services via the cloud. You get a wonderful property management service, a multitude of useful applications, instantly and always available on a subscription basis. It doesn’t get more modern than this.

No software installations are required and it’s designed to perform perfectly and securely on any device you might use.

A simple, clear explanation goes a long way.

Rental PropTech Software Solutions

Proptech software helps professionals in many sectors including our sector of rental property management. Along with the rental unit and tenant management focus, there are additional tools to help you optimize financial performance as well.

ManageCasa for instance, is a PropTech solution. And its cost-cutting, smart automation-based productivity introduces landlords and property management firms to profitable new business models and revenue sources and virtual, remote management. Definitely check out ManageCasa’s cost reducing profit boosting platform

Software is the Core of PropTech

Although hardware and systems improve, the real value delivered by Proptech is via all in one platforms. These integrated services given you all you need to do your work cohesively.

As an example, ManageCasa offers numerous integrated apps including accounting, online payments, communications, work scheduling, and task automation which is really the big value add for busy property managers.

Definitely review the property management software platform and ask for a Demo.

Investors Pouring Funds into the PropTech Market

Investors are sinking billions into new tools, apps, and solutions, and according to some accounts, 70% of all that investment has been in the last few years. And billions more will be poured into PropTech in 2022.

In fact, Houlihan Loukey in their July 2022 report said more than $8 billion in growth equity and debt funding and multiple $1+ billion M&A transactions in the U.S. PropTech market happened in 1H 2022.

According to Future Market Insights research report, the PropTech market will grow 16.8% during the 10 year period of 2022-2032., and will increase US$ 18.2 billion in 2022 to US$ 86.5 billion in 2032. Currently, the market was valued at US$ 67.5 billion.

Real estate firm JLL reported Proptech startups across the real estate industry in the last ten years have risen from under 2,000 to nearly 8,000. JLL believes hybrid work, health and safety, and sustainability initiatives are also increasing demand for these solutions. The company says those 8,000 companies collectively raised more than US$97 billion of equity funding in the past decade.

If anything, the Covid pandemic has quickened the pace of Proptech adoption. We’ll see further adoption statistics as researchers get back to work in 2022. The fact is, landlords and property managers need tech efficiencies and staff training and operating ease are additional positives.

The Commercial Observer describes PropTech investment as “a rosy picture for a fledgling sector of the real estate industry that has grown at a rapid rate as landlords, investors, brokerages and consumers have sought more efficient, tech-centric ways of doing business.”

Definition: What is PropTech?

PropTech includes a wide range of ingenious software and hardware technologies which helps property managers do more work, automate, optimize asset management and performance, improve tenant experiences and satisfaction, and grow services. And of course it serves well for investors who are buying/selling rental properties, financing them, and assessing the financial performance of their rental assets.

PropTech is a catchall phrase that describes hardware and software technology applied to the property sector of real estate. Some could argue that PropTech is focused solely on the property management sector. Those in the real estate sales industry might refer to their sector as RealTech, but that phrase isn’t used much.

Property technology solutions are designed to help property managers all of their work including lease management, communications, accounting, maintenance work, financial management and more.

PropTech encompasses platforms, databases, communications media, electronic devices, and computing infrastructures. They’re often developed in concert with arriving technologies such as cloud infrastructure, 5G channels, mobile devices, and the software used on these.

Wikipedia offers another description of the entire technology:

PropTech encompasses property management using digital dashboards, research & analytics, listing services/tech-enabled brokerages, mobile applications, residential & commercial lending, 3D-modeling for online portals, crowdfunding real estate projects, shared spaces management, as well as organizing, analyzing, and extracting key data from lengthy rental documents.

In a nutshell: PropTech is the hardware/software alternative to current property management systems which use general software solutions and hosted IT platforms not designed for property management business. Proptech specializes and adapts systems to work solely with property management business.

Real Estate is Ripe for Disruption

Real estate is old school. Lagging investment in new technology and reliance on old paper-based document management slows the selling, renting, and financing of real estate. New solutions help get more work done and gain deeper insight into transactions, helping landlords and property managers optimize portfolios and earn more money.

According to a report from MetaProp, the Global PropTech Investor Confidence Index score reached 9.2 out of 10 — a record high, up from a previous ceiling of 8.8 in mid-2019. The pandemic helped to accelerate investment in the sector. Their Startup Confidence Index hit its highest recorded level to date, at 7.7 out of 10. That was in 2020.

Confidence in PropTech Adoption and ROI among CEO’s and Investors. Screen Capture courtesy of Commercialobserver

Merging with All Aspects of Global Real Estate

PropTech is merging itself with a potential 13 trillion dollar global real estate market. Everything from construction to financing, transactions and advertising, to property management accounting will be impacted by PropTech solutions.

The upside is obviously immense. Consider how much will be invested in PropTech in the next 2 years, how much time and technology is being applied, and you might understand the hype and excitement about disrupting real estate.

Unfortunately, the topic is still regarded less as an opportunity to improve business, and more as a disruptive threat. Yet, we’re already within a change in mindset and when you dig into the value you can generate and how that translates to dollars and more sustainable business for your company, you’ll be excited.

PropTech is Big and Nichey

New proptech startups are targeting niches in real estate where little technology exists. Market opportunities keep popping up all over. Well established firms such as Zillow, Zumper, Homelight, Reali, OpenAgent, and Rentberry for instance are gaining significant marketshare in core services.

And niche players such as UK proptech startup RentalStep were reporting 150% growth monthly. Using RentalStep, UK landlords can list available properties on popular UK rental websites such as Rightmove, Zoopla and PrimeLocation. The solutions will be ever more creative in 2022.

1. RentalStep – Landlords can access an online booking system, comprehensive referencing services, and find the best tenants using a tenant screening and credit checking service. Combining that with a good property management solution, and you have a product that can serve rental property managers very well.

2. RentMoola – RentMoola offers an interesting twist to help tenants to pay their rent on time, and be rewarded for paying. They pay rent any number of ways from credit card/debit cards to cash. Tenants earn points which they can use to buy travel, shopping, and home services along with chances to free rent, prepaid gift cards, and trips around the world.

3. Amenify – If you’re active in the multifamily property sector, Amenify offers the types of services renters are missing. Amenify creates amenity programs with mobile-first technology which matches tenants to apartment cleaners, dog walkers, yoga and exercise classes, ride sharing services and more. Amenify turns an apartment building into a service for residents.

4. Zillow – Zillow as a PropTech company has been around for a while and its market cap is now $5 Billion dollars. Zillow’s website enjoys hundreds of millions of visitors each year. Its success comes from providing an feature rich, accessible, open market alternative to Realtor.com and many other alternative online services such as its Zesstimate tool. Where Realtor.com was not consumer friendly, Zillow has brought real estate to the smartphone generation. More Realtors are finding they need Zillow.

5. Zumper – Zumper offers a real-time home and apartment rental platform for tenants and landlords to find/rent apartments. Zumper, financed at on $37 million, uses direct data feeds and partnerships with landlords, brokers and property managers. Zumper gives renters real-time, curated apartment rental listings, and an interesting lead generation opportunity for landlords and brokers.

6. Homelight – Homelight uses a “matching engine” to connect homesellers to real estate agents. This machine learning algorithm analyzes 29 million transactions and 2 million agents. Home sellers are matched to the best, compatible Realtors thus increasingly the likelihood of a sales conversion. Homelight doesn’t allow Realtors to advertise, it makes money based on a share of commission, which old school real estate associations would never allow.

7. Reali – Reali ($30 Million funding) replaces the real estate agent with a platform and app that connects home sellers directly with buyers for a flat fee + commission instead of the full 5% to 6% Realtor commission. It serves the California housing market only. They make the transaction process more frictionless and transparent.

8. OpenAgent – OpenAgent is an Australian based service that helps home sellers find an agent that meets their criteria and terms. They provide the typical property information and free property reports. Sometimes, Proptech can be average companies yet provide a pleasant software, mobile device user interface with good support and win millions of customers.

9. Rentberry – Rentberry is a transparent rental application and price negotiation platform for tenants and landlords. Rentberry is the only platform to provide a transparent rental auction with the ability to submit custom offers. That makes it unique from Airbnb, VRBO, and other rental platforms.

10. CriteriaCorp – CriteriaCorp’s tools are used by real estate companies and HR companies to assist with hiring. The software’s pre-employment screening tools and testing service helps property management company exec’s and brokerage managers screen in better employees. Hiring and recruiting is identified as the number one challenge of property managers.

11. ManageCasa – ManageCasa is the Swiss Army knife of Proptech. This all-in-one software platform integrates a number of accounting, communications, scheduling, internet payment, and reporting tools that help automate and streamline operations.

Using ManageCasa, property managers remove the grind out of daily work and allow direct to tenant services (e.g. online rent payment, maintenance tickets, and problem resolution). ManageCasa gives property managers an insightful picture of the status of their complete array of property accounts.

12. Vivint Smart Home Systems – Vivint’s smart home systems integrate valuable home security, climate regulation, security cameras, door lock access all via a mobile app. Security is an increasing concern whether burglary, gasoline theft out of autos, and unauthorized building or facility access. This service offers the peace of mind and security that many renters are demanding now.

New PropTech startups are launching every day, however which will thrive to deliver solid benefits is still unclear. As you look at the value proposition, brand promise and actual services of each, consider the clarity and practicality of their offer.

Reinvent Your Property Management Business

The property management industry is booming across the world. It’s competitive and you’ll be feeling pressure from new entrants in your business area. They’re using property management systems and tools such as ManageCasa to outcompete you at a fundamental and powerful level.

Open a ManageCasa FREE trial account today!