Comments on: Property Management Software Sure Is SaaSy

By: Aqi

Aqi — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 19:50:45 +0000

Great article and I agree SaaS is the way forward. I’ll add my few cents here to help people looking to buy or upgrade their property management software:

Hidden charges:
As the SaaS based software usually have monthly fee in shape of support/licensing etc, most of the companies i’ve come across have many hidden charges that can really swell your monthlies and eventually the total cost of software so always try to find out whats included in the standard licensing and whats not.

Lengthy contracts:
Well it wont be a big issue if the software does exactly what you need, but if you are buying into a software without thorough testing it’ll be good to not tie into long term contracts.

Local support:
Another important thing to consider is to make sure the software company have support team based locally, a timezone and cultural difference sometime can be a real pain in the arse, if you know what I mean.

Training:
Make sure some initial training is included in the upfront price you pay to avoid any nasty financial surprises, also make sure the software comes with a comprehensive documentation.

Website:
A software that comes with a pretty website is always better, see if your software provider can offer you an integrated website that is powered by your software to cut the down time on website management.

Now here’s a list of companies that are offering SaaS based software, they all have pros and cons:

1: Gnomen Estate Suite – Excellent all in one package, offers everything including residential and commercial property management, accounts and integrated website.

2: Vebra live – Very good online software, do not come with a website but can feed your existing website using separate module

3: LetMC – Good software but for residential properties only, don’t come with a website but can feed using separate module.

By: Linda Day Harrison

Linda Day Harrison — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 21:01:54 +0000

Chris,
Thanks for infusing enthusiasm to our industry and reminding us we need to focus on our internal systems and retool everything possible to make our business model profitable. Automating, elimination of redundancy, improving customer service, rethinking processes, exploiting economy of scale and standardization should be the top of all of our agendas. I have connected your article through to my blog as well at http://www.managerlabs.com. I encourage your readers to join our awesome family of groups on LinkedIn as well.
Thanks,
Linda@ManagerLabs.com, CPM, CCIM

Consider joining our family of LinkedIn groups:

PFMI (Property and Facility Management Innovators)
http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=1858850

–Vendor Bidding Lab (beta) subgroup of PFMI
http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=2238793

–PFMC(Property Facility Management Companies) subgroup of PFMI
http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=2644670

Rooftop Gardening
http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=143300

Certified Property Managers (CPM Group)
Need to be listed in IREM Membership Roster.
http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=138868

Join me at Maven Research too: https://www.mavenresearch.com/join/4G4Y4QmB

By: Marty Thomas

Marty Thomas — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 19:47:03 +0000

Hi Chris.. I’m a one-man-team software company (Micro-ISV), and have worked in the SaaS landscape for the past few years. I thought your article was very encouraging for the industry in general. A portion of the property management industry that was not covered is the ‘Vacation Rental’ or ‘Short-term’ management area. This area has exploded because of Internet based services such as VRBO and Homeaway. For the first time (thanks to the internet), an individual has the power to make their homes available as a short-term rentals to the masses. The SaaS applications that stem from this can also be very powerful. For example, I have created the “Vreaze” SaaS application that automatically accepts rental inquiries from 3rd party sites, and automates the short-term rental process. Working on an iPhone/iPad app now when will open up a whole new realm of possibilities. A very exciting time in the SaaS world.

By: Melissa Stanley

Melissa Stanley — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:57:06 +0000

Very interesting article, I have five rental units myself and write on my blog, chicagolandlord.blogspot.com, for the smaller real estate investor. I would love to have this type of software but I can’t see how it is cost effective for small property owners that have less than 20 rental units. The cost of purchase and implementation would probably out way the benefits. Still if I was working for a mid size company I would strongly consider SaaSy.

By: Gregory Guillen

Gregory Guillen — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 07:23:45 +0000

Chris,

We currently use Tenant Pro 7 from Domin-8. We found it to be very buggy, but the company keeps coming up with new bug fixes and download patches. However, we recently discovered that the company filed for bankruptcty last November ’09. Evidently, Tenant Pro was purchased by another property management software company. After reading your article, I hope TP evolves into an all-in-one platform, otherwise, we may have jump ship to keep up with technology.

By: Chris Thorman

Chris Thorman — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 13:24:39 +0000

@Derek

Yep, you’re right on the possible cons. Connectivity seems to be the major one, although I think that becomes less and less of an issue every day.

By: Saar Safra

Saar Safra — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 03:48:46 +0000

Chris,

Good article; comprehensive, deep and insightful. One worth mentioning comment, is that once you have a dedicated Saas(y) application for your property, the sky is the limit. Aside from Rent Payment, Service requests and the obvious contender features, much challenging tasks can be addressed, automated and streamlined. Package Management, Resource Reservation, Permissions to Enter, Premium Concierge Services (form to order a car, form for Dry Cleaning, with fully-automated back-end fulfillment) etc. Another aspect that is easily feasible is an in-property social network. With a dedicated in-property app, for owners, renters and on-site team, a social graph can be obtained, maintained and leveraged at very little to no effort (auto-register at move-in, auto-detach at move-out). There is more, but I will try to make this comment shorter than your piece Not to solicit to our solution, I still think my point is valid regardless of the vendor (Saas Provider).

By: Derek Kalles

Derek Kalles — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 02:38:36 +0000

Spot on Chris. The only point I would make is that while you outline all the potential benefits, like any business decision, there are downfalls as well: Performance issues, downtime issues, scalability of cost, dependence on a single vendor, etc. While I don’t see any of these as a “smoking gun,” and am absolute in believe that SaaS is here to stay and for good reason, it is important for owners to make a decision that is based on analysis of all the pros-and-cons and this needs to include looking into the future of their business. Good stuff; really enjoying the blog!

By: Chris Thorman

Chris Thorman — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 14:18:57 +0000

@ Erik

Agreed Erik. Reporting options are/should be completely customizable.

By: Erik Hansen

Erik Hansen — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 22:57:06 +0000

I like the all-in-one package with the SaaSy platforms. But I don’t think it’s a good idea to have an owner portal where they can see when tenants pay late! I think it would lead to unnecessary stress from the owners which would lead to a ton of calls to the property manager. Isn’t it part of the business for tenants to pay late and managers trying to collect? This turbulence should be sheltered from the owners and they should be at peace as long as they get their owner draw without knowing the trouble we had to through to get the rent?