When you’re first starting out in property management, things may seem pretty straightforward. As your portfolio and your business begins to grow, however, things will naturally become more challenging. This is especially the case if your properties are located in diverse geographic locations or feature a mixture of different property types. Fortunately, the right software solution can address these common issues. Let’s take a look below.

Problem #1: Lack of visibility at the corporate level.

While larger property management organizations typically appoint leaders to oversee each location, meeting with them regularly can be a time-consuming hassle. And when these meetings do occur, corporate really only gets to see what the managers want them to see. It’s a waste of time and it lacks adequate insight to properly run a business.

Solution: Consolidated dashboard with on-demand reporting.

Rather than arranging regular meetings that take up precious time and fail to reveal the full picture in real-time, corporate leaders can leverage software that provides full oversight of each location in one single dashboard. Furthermore, detailed reports can be run on-demand to provide a glimpse at just about any facet of the business.

Problem #2: Inconsistent processes.

Some processes will be the same across the board, regardless of property type or location. That being said, as the business grows and expands, the risk for inconsistency increases. And if you have multiple locations operating independently, implementing their own way of doing things, you lose brand control. Additionally, it becomes increasingly difficult to measure performance and identify areas of opportunity.

Solution: Defined processes and templates.

Property management software enables you to ensure that all locations are operating in tandem. When all offices and team members are working from the same system, utilizing pre-defined templates and workflows, efficiency is maximized and consistency is achieved. This will also allow corporate leadership to run accurate comparisons and measure KPIs across all locations.

Problem #3: Cookie-cutter solutions don’t suit every need.

Managing a residential property requires a markedly different approach than managing commercial properties, and vice versa. Likewise, laws and regulations, tax rules, and other factors may vary based on the geographic location of a particular property or group of properties. Because of this, a one-size-fits-all platform simply won’t suffice.

Solution: Customization and flexibility.

A dynamic and intuitive property management software can provide the customization and flexibility a multi-location property management company needs to succeed. While standardized processes and templates can serve as a foundation, they can then be further tailored and tweaked (within certain parameters) to suit each business unit’s specific needs and requirements.

Problem #4: Employee access issues.

Not every employee needs access to every system, report or template. Likewise, only certain designated team members should be able to make changes to said systems, reports or templates. When there is no way to control and manage this access, you could end up with deleted files, rearranged templates or messed up reports. And whether it’s malicious or accidental, it’s still a big mess.

Solution: Dynamic user profiles.

The right property management software will allow complete control over user access. Employees will be able to work with only the systems, functions and materials that they need in order to do their job. Further, access can be granted on a limited basis. For example, based on pre-defined parameters, a team member may be able to only modify certain fields in a template vs. the entire thing.

Running a multi-location property management company requires high-level oversight and the ability to keep an eye on the various locations without getting bogged down by the nitty gritty. Property management software enables this, delivering consistency, flexibility, visibility and control. By leveraging this type of solution, you’ll be able to achieve continued growth and sustainable success.