Innovative Technology for Stress-Free Property Management

Rental property maintenance can take up a lot of time, especially when tenants are calling to report an emergency or a complex plumbing problem requires more than one vendor. We’re here to protect the condition and the value of your investment, so we must work closely with excellent vendors, contractors, and service professionals. 

Technology allows us to track the age and condition of every function in your property. It allows us to assess when preventative services might be needed for your HVAC, your wiring, or your roof.

Thanks to innovative technology, we’re able to manage maintenance more efficiently and cost-effectively. We save you money and we save ourselves time. We’re also able to deliver better service to your residents, which results in higher tenant retention and satisfaction. 

Documenting maintenance is a critical part of providing it, and this can be difficult without a great system in place. At Niguel Point Properties, we invest in a strategic property management platform that integrates maintenance and provides tenant portals, which makes it easy for us to follow every maintenance issue from the tenant’s request to our vendor’s resolution. 

Tenants can report routine maintenance issues and make repair requests electronically, which is especially helpful because it gets us the information we need quickly. Even better, it documents the repair need, the actions that were taken, and the recommended next steps. If there’s a tenant who is complaining that we did not act fast enough, we can show the timeline of our actions. 

This also helps with planning and budgeting. We can tell our owners exactly when their water heater was replaced, their HVAC was serviced, and their roof was replaced.  

Having access to a documented maintenance history like this can save our owners money. You won’t find yourself making unnecessary repairs. You’ll have a better idea of when you should replace a washer rather than repairing it. 

With the innovative technology and integrated platforms we use, our team can track the necessary repairs, collect invoices, and provide you with as much information as you need when we’re completing work on your investment.

• Online Portals and Payments

There are several benefits to online portals when it comes to property management, and they all bring us back to streamlined services and automated technology. Which, ultimately, means a profitable owner experience and a pleasant tenant experience. 

Tenants appreciate the portals mostly for online rent payments. This is the fastest, easiest, and most reliable way for them to pay rent, and it works out better for our owners too, because you get paid faster via ACH transfer. There’s no waiting throughout the month for a check to show up in the mail. 

We prefer online payments as property managers. They’re easier to track, document, and view. We also avoid delinquency. Our experience has shown that there are fewer late payments, likely because tenants can set reminders, schedule automatic and recurring payments, and save payment information. 

Accounting statements are much easier to provide when we’re using updated technology. This is good for you, as an owner when you need to track your income and expenses, and it’s helpful to tenants as well when they’re looking for a documented history of their rental payments. 

• Creating and Signing Lease Agreements

Secure signatures are also available. Digital signing capabilities mean that tenants can sign leases from anywhere, at any time. This flexibility accelerates the leasing process, reducing the gap between agreement and occupancy. We work with platforms that offer secure electronic signatures, which ensures the authenticity and legality of the documents. There’s less risk. 

Lease renewals were once tedious and time consuming for property managers, but there’s less coordination required now, thanks to our technology. We streamline the entire process with:

Having all lease documents stored digitally in one platform means easy access and retrieval when needed. This centralization aids in efficient record-keeping and ensures that all parties are informed of their rights and responsibilities, supporting compliance with regulations.

Technology and Tenant Screening

Advancements in property management technology have introduced innovative solutions that simplify and enhance tenant screening. Here's how:

Reaping the Benefits of Technology and Tenant Placement

By adopting property management technology for tenant screening, we can bring several benefits to the entire streamlined process:

• Efficiency. Screening is streamlined to make faster, more informed decisions.
• Accuracy. We reduce errors associated with traditional manual methods of pouring over credit reports and combing through income statements.
• Compliance. There’s less risk of violating fair housing laws and other regulations because of easy adherence to fair housing laws and data protection regulations.
• Peace of Mind. You know we’re selecting reliable tenants who are more likely to pay rent promptly and maintain the property.

Incorporating property management technology into your tenant screening process streamlines what we do and protects you and your properties. 

Additional Technology Bonuses and Benefits

• Data

Let’s talk about the data we’re able to collect, thanks to our technology. It allows us to more accurately price your property, study the market, and make recommendations about how you should pivot or adjust your existing investment strategies. We are gathering insights and analyses not only on local markets but also on the state and the country in general. This helps us put together a picture of where we stand and where we’re heading. This is valuable information that we’re happy to share with our owners.

• Tenant Experience

The technology we use also contributes to a better experience for your tenants, and that means less turnover, fewer vacancies, and a more stable rental property.

Finding and placing good residents is important. Even more important is retaining those residents. It’s better for your bottom line and it’s better for your property. 

Think about how technology can help you serve and retain residents. We see the connection every day. Whether you’re working with one resident or a hundred residents, spending time understanding and responding to their needs is important. For starters, technology enables that availability. We can be available to our tenants thanks to our platforms and portals. 

Residents find us more responsive and faster to resolve their needs thanks to the technology we use. That elicits a fantastic tenant experience and deeper relationships. 

There’s also smart home tech. 

Lately, we’ve been encouraging owners and investors to consider investing in upgrades and updates that include smart home technology. Tenants in South Orange County are responding favorably to these developments. More and more of them are demanding it when they look for a new rental home. 

Smart home technology is a huge selling point when we’re marketing rental properties and attracting tenants. This type of amenity also helps us retain those tenants. 

Various types of smart home tech are more of a priority for residents than ever before. Your best renters are looking for access to: 

• Video doorbells
• Smart thermostats
• Automated lights 
• Energy efficient appliances

A lot of our tenants are working remotely. They’re at home more, so you can expect your appliances will be used more, your security will need to be as up to date as possible, and you’ll need to deliver what tenants are looking for if you want them to choose your property over all the others on the market. 

What’s Coming Down the Pike Technology-Wise?

Wondering where things are going technology-wise?

We have some ideas.

Artificial Intelligence – A.I. and Property Management Technology

As with anything and everything, there are benefits and risks to A.I. A lot of people are rightly worried that it’s taking over too much, and too fast. They might be onto something. We’re not here to debate the ethics of A.I. but we can tell you how it’s impacting property management.

If you’ve ever used a chatbot on a website or while dealing with a customer service agent, you’ve had experience with A.I. It’s simply a tool that anticipates the information you may need based on the questions you’re asking or the data you’re providing. This saves us a live person answering the same questions from owners, tenants, and prospective clients. 

We can use A.I. to automate rental payment reminders. Emails and texts can be responded to quickly, even if just to confirm receipt of a maintenance request. 

There’s no possible way that A.I. could reasonably take over the work of a live property manager. This is still a relationship business, especially when it comes to working with tenants, turnover over properties, and helping owners make decisions about their investment goals and properties. 

Using the Internet of Things (IoT)

Have you heard of the Internet of Things? This is a new technology that is currently trending, especially in property management and real estate circles. It refers to the interconnectedness of everyday objects to the internet, such as the use of sensors. We can apply it to our rental industry in several interesting ways. It can be a great risk management tool; if there’s a leak in your building or toxic fumes, the IoT sensors will detect it before things can get out of hand. There’s also an ability to gather real-time data on how the property is performing and what kind of resources are needed. 

Our investment in technology is to further the performance of your property. That’s how we make our decisions on which types of software and systems to buy: will it help us do our jobs better?

We’d be happy to talk through this with you further. Contact us at Niguel Point Properties.