DATA/DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT GUE LANDLORD’?
he end for bad practices in the industry, says Trevor Youens, utions at MRI Software.
management technology to track the state of their buildings, handle a growing range of payments, keep vacancy levels to a minimum, manage the upkeep and use of facilities and amenities, and deliver an overall positive resident experience.
Build-to-rent in particular is where we are seeing an increasing move to this ‘hotel-management’ approach to rental properties. And the trend to build-to-rent continues to grow. Figures published by the British Property Federation earlier in the year showed number of Build-to- Rent properties under construction in the fourth quarter of 2018 up by nearly 40% from the year before, while the number of those completed increased by close to 30%. What’s more, a recently published MRI Software survey of property industry CEOs, directors and top managers revealed that 82% of respondents – and 91% of those from the investor/owner/developer category – said the UK would continue to see more build-to-rent developments beyond the next 12-18 months.
Internal MRI figures confirm this trend, as there has been major growth in uptake of property management software for build-to-rent properties over the past year, with roughly five times as many clients seeking capability to manage facilities for these types of developments in 2018 as would have two years earlier – with many looking for the functionality to run features and services such as resident portals, maintenance management, package delivery management, automated inspections of rental units changing hands, renter credit profile tracking and virtual tours.
“The whole culture of development and property management has shifted from a lease focus to a customer-centric approach.”
The upshot is the whole culture of development and property management has shifted from a lease focus to a customer-centric approach. Things are not being done by word of mouth anymore but by an auditable and often automated system that ensures nothing slips through the cracks – a pipe will not be leaking for days and causing further damage to a property on the floor below, the light in the hallway does not remain broken for weeks, or the repainting of a unit and the outside hallway scheduled for every two years takes place when it is supposed to.
Indeed, the availability of data and technology ensures that landlords create a clear audit trail of how any resident problems have been dealt with – documenting how and when
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each issue is logged, responded to and checked. Creating this auditable trail is not only sound business practice from a property management point of view but essential for ensuring that compliance to today’s strict regulatory standards is met and maintained in all cases.
Resident portals are emerging as a critical element in all of this. Rental residents today expect the highest levels of service and to be treated less like only renters and more like community members. These portals can be linked into property management and accounting solutions, utilising data from both landlords and renters to deliver more effective customer service to residents. This also creates visibility for residents, so they can see how issues are being dealt with and have confidence in the management team handling their housing unit.
Residents are then able to flag issues with their property or shared facilities easily, 24/7, get an automated response and have any problem documented and tracked for reference throughout the process of dealing with it. It simply becomes a matter of, for example, taking a picture with a smartphone of a smashed light, a broken lock, or a leak and inputting the information via the portal – which also provides the means for the property manager to respond in real time.
Portals can also be created for use by contractors and in-house maintenance teams to track and prioritise their tasks – giving landlords oversight of how maintenance requests and other problems are being handled.
The result for landlords taking this modern approach is a competitive advantage. As more modern, build-to-rent developments come onto the market, the expectations among renters – especially young professionals – for high-quality, effectively managed and well-maintained properties will begin to force out landlords renting subpar and, in some cases, unsafe accommodation. Renters will increasingly avoid questionable rentals and look for properties that are run in an up-front, professional manner – and where they can be part of a ready-made community.
This emerging class of professional landlord is raising standards for property management to a new level and scale, using data to better understand resident needs, provide improved services, provide consistently positive customer engagement and comply with terms of lease agreements. The fact is professional facilities management, backed by technology, data and digital documentation is no longer a luxury or a differentiator but an expectation – which is very bad news indeed for the rogue landlord.
www.mrisoftware.com/uk TOMORROW’S FM | 47
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