7 Property Management tools your Apartment Community needs

Property management is a multifaceted business and managers deal with a lot on a daily basis. These property management tools will affect property managers’ time and administrative capabilities in a hugely positive way.

1. Online Rent Payments

So you’re still accepting cheques for rent and happy with that. Are your residents happy with the status quo?

Statistics have shown that the number 1 most desired feature in rental communities is online rent payments. Allowing residents to easily submit payments online from any internet enabled device has been proven to reduce cost and speed cash flow for many property management companies throughout North America. Let residents set up automatic recurring or one-time payments from the comfort of their home. You want payments faster. Why not give residents the tools to do just that by offering them multiple payment methods at their fingertips. You’ll be happy you did and so will your tenants.

Tip: Ensure your system has robust reporting to allow a full view of your portfolio and be able to drill down right to a resident real-time transaction.

2. Payment History and Receipts 

Your residents are making online payments and you’re reaping the rewards of streamlined electronic payments. Why not kick it up a notch by allowing tenants to actually have a record of their past payments and even print receipts online. Creating a more transparent payment flow for you residents will boost electronic on-time payments.

3. Management Initiated Auto-Payments

Some tenants are less tech savvy and may not have internet connections. Or, you just want to accelerate your cash flow collection. Create pre-authorized debits directly from your residents’ accounts and allow it to automatically recur every month. Put rent payment collection into auto-pilot.

Tip: Get higher adoption with a transparent payment flow so residents can stay on top of their payments.

4. Online Maintenance Requests

My sink is leaking. Our fridge broke down. The hallway door is making sooo much noise every time it closes. Any manager knows that maintenance requests are a part of servicing an apartment building; but why do your cell, email, text and office all need to be inundated in order to track them?

Giving tenants the ability to create requests online through a resident portal will not only streamline the maintenance process but also give you the tools to act on, track and complete them faster. Not to mention always updating the resident throughout the process and notifying them when the job is complete. Having all requests, whether created by your resident or your staff, in one place will allow you to stay on top of every request and have a real-time view of your properties’ state of affairs. In addition, offering an easy way to create a request will ensure that small issues don’t become big issues down the line- which is all too common.

5. Online Announcements and Notifications

Easily send out a painting announcement to a specific building or a holiday announcement to your whole portfolio, with the click of a few buttons. Involve your residents in what is happening in their community by sending out a newsletter through the messaging system. Residents love feeling part of something bigger and keeping them in the know is the best way to do that while continuing to strengthen your company brand.

Tip: Take the time to engage your community and encourage resident input. This will generate more interaction with your portal and at the same time make your residents feel more involved in their community.

6. Resident Perks

Residents love being rewarded. Why not reward them for being your tenants? Offering residents rewards will help retain tenants and attract new ones to your properties. Having monthly giveaways or a referral program is a great way to make your residents happy at little cost. Take advantage of Payquad’s Perqs program to offer great exclusive discounts and deals from all sorts of brands and companies.

7. Branded Portal

Having your brand shine from a customized branded resident portal is vital for resident adoption as well as to continue to strengthen your property management image. When residents feel the resident portal is an extension of their property management company, they already have the built in comfort of dealing with a company they trust.

Tip: Make sure your portal is user friendly with a great user experience to allow all residents to interact with it regardless of their technical know-how.



Do you wish your management company had some or all of these tools to offer residents? Are you nervous about the complexity or cost of introducing these kinds of tools? Say hello to Payquad , Canada’s simplest online rent payments and resident portal tools. With 50+ years of property management experience, we’ve seen it all. Our solutions are built on decades of experience and industry knowledge which shows itself in our industry-changing portals. It can even be a cost-free solution.

Your community can gain the benefits of all these tools in one easy to use and simple to implement system. Just go to our site to book a quick online demo and learn more. I guarantee it will be worth your time.