Property Management Software: Technology That Changes Lives

When you think of technology that changes lives you probably don’t think of property management software—at least not immediately. I myself when faced with deciding which technology makes the most difference in my own life would definitely default to my car or a washer/dryer combo. However, property management software, despite its relative anonymity, has indeed changed many lives for the better, especially landlord lives, property manager lives and the lives of those involved with property associations, etc. Even renters and unit/home owners’ lives have been changed due to the fact that renting and buying from those who use property management software is a “different—more evolved animal” than renting and buying from those who still run processes manually.

Article Discussion

In this article, I would like to discuss some of the benefits that property management software technology can provide. I would also like to discuss a far more “explosive” technology that has impacted the entire world with its benefits. The technology? Nuclear power. “Hmmmm????” you might say, “the two technologies don’t exactly seem related.”

My answer to you my dear friendly reader is that in a general sense they really have more common ground than you might suppose. With both technologies, it seems sure that the well-deserving inhabitants of our dear planet Earth (if not all then definitely some) have saved a good amount of both time and money and who doesn’t want more of those precious commodities?

What is nuclear power good for?

If you think like I used to think, then you are probably assuming that nuclear power is used for creating mortal explosions that start Stalin-Era type Cold Ward scares. However, nuclear power decidedly extends beyond the horizon of weaponry and reaches out towards more peaceful applications. Thank goodness!

For example, according to an interesting online source1, nuclear power is good for producing electricity. There are many ways to produce the power that keeps us warm, comfortable and surrounded by light. Using fossil fuels or hydro/wind power are both viable options2 for generating electric power. However, it would seem that nuclear power has some clear advantages over its sister authorities. Nuclear power for instance has less impact on the environment and in many cases is less expensive to “manufacture.” Why? Well, according to the same online source, “The energy in one uranium fuel pellet—the size of the tip of your little finger—is the equivalent of 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas, 1,780 pounds of coal, or 149 gallons of oil.”3 Wow! Power in a nutshell!

What is property management software good for?

Not all property management software options are equally comparable in terms of the features and benefits that each option provides. With the right property management software however, landlords, property managers and those involved with property associations can take advantage of some pretty impressive features and benefits.

Property Management Software Features and Benefits

Property management software4 can provide a sort of scheduled directional map for landlords. In other words it can tell landlords when and where there is a vacancy in an apartment, rental unit or a condo and can also help property managers keep track of upcoming vacancies. With the right property management software, landlords can also take advantage of a program that will easily calculate and/or track security deposits, rent or purchase payments and fees. With the right property management software, you can also waive any individual fees that you think are unnecessary or invalid for certain individuals.

Another difficulty for landlords is finding the time and the organizational means to keep track of maintenance requests and make sure that the requests are met satisfactorily. With property management software, landlords can easily keep track of requests for maintenance and improvement.5 With the right software, landlords can also take advantage of an in-system email application. This email application can be used to send information to leasers or renters. Property management software can also be used by managers of property and those who are involved with an association of units or homes.

What are the similarities between these two helpful technologies?

The similarities between the technology that changes nuclear power to electricity and the technology that streamlines many landlord processes simply lie in the fact that each of these two technologies saves people time and money. Nuclear power that is generated into electricity saves people time that they don’t have to spend lighting fires or candles and money that people don’t have to spend on more time consuming and human labor intensive tasks like using coal or other sources to generate electricity.

The property management software saves landlords time that they might have spent hiring apartment complex managers or simply doing the administrative tasks themselves. Property management software also saves them money that they would have used to pay managers for the time that they used to spend performing routine and monotonous tasks.

1 http://www.nei.org/index.asp?catnum=2&catid=106

2 http://library.thinkquest.org/5217/produce.htm

3 http://www.nei.org/index.asp?catnum=2&catid=106

4 http://www.buildium.com/Whats_New/Whats_New.shtml
5 http://www.buildium.com/Landlord_Software/Landlord_Edition.shtml#trackRequests