Most landlords enter the business as a side investment. They often work a nine-to-five and, after saving up money, purchase their first rental property. As their portfolio grows, whether they remain with their day-job or become a full-time landlord, the tax on their time grows too. The greatest benefit of cloud-based property management software is therefore the automation it provides landlords, property managers, and owners, saving them precious time so they can focus on spending time with their family, growing their business, and enjoying the fruits of their investment. . Here are five advantages of using cloud-based property management software.  

• Collect Rent Faster

Landlord software packages offer automated reminders, remote access, and better tools for enforcing late fees. All of these features and many more add up to faster rent collection. What’s more, most rental management software services provide tenants the ability to sign up for automated payments. Like their electric bill, internet bill, or credit card bill, they no longer have to remember to pay it (and you don’t have to bother hassling them for it). And if they don’t signup for autopay, the multitude of one click payment options – from bank transfers to credit card payments – make it incredibly easy for them to get their payment to you. Some rental management platforms now even promise to deliver the funds to you in just a single business day, which is faster than some banks process physical checks. 

• Data Back-Ups and Trustworthiness

Conventional property management applications rarely receive security patches and have a dysfunctional client support system. Countless landlords have horror stories of using the once great Tenant Pro platform only to lose all their data permanently once their hard drive or in-house server malfunctions. Good luck facing an audit... 

Cloud-based property management software platforms are immune to such accidental losses of data as they typically integrate a data backup system within their distributed architecture. When evaluating which software to choose, be sure to ask them about data backups and the security of your information. A modern platform should take this seriously, offering industry standard compliance and backup servers. If you can trust your data, you can spend less time stressing about a loss or picking up the pieces if one happens.  

• Uninterrupted Access to Information 24/7 

Landlords that use manual methods of property management more often than not keep their business data in spreadsheets on their local computers or under heaps of files. If you’re out on the job and a tenant asks you what they owe, you’ll have to rely on your memory. If you’re picking up supplies from the hardware and you forgot to write down the part you need for that maintenance issue a tenant called about, your only hope is that they’ll pick-up if you call them back. Cloud based property management software, in contrast, enables access from anywhere at any time. From your phone, computer, or tablet, you can pull up your software program and make updates or check on relevant information. 

• Reduced Administrative Chores

Manual input of data into the spreadsheets is a great time killer and fundamentally is prone to human errors. Likewise, you don’t get the results immediately as you need to analyze the data well before you gather any consequential insight, making it even more cumbersome. Cloud based software for landlords automates these tasks as data is automatically updated to the server. Real-time generation of detailed reports empowers landlords to make the right financial decision for their properties. What’s more, tenants can participate too. Maintenance tickets, renewal notifications, files, and notes can all be handled and communicated through a single platform that both you and your renters have access to. 

• More Transparent Operations

Speaking of tenants, online rental management software provides a degree of transparency offline management techniques simply can’t rival. If you manage your rentals offline, at best, you provide your tenants a printed receipt every time they submit a rental payment, you notify them via text or email whenever a maintenance request is completed, and you put in writing changes to their lease agreement. Software can automate all of these tasks and more. Email reminders, digital file downloads, and easily accessible communication tools gives your tenants a clear and full picture of their status and relationship to you, their landlord, with little to no ambiguity. Good software doesn’t just automate tasks, it automates trust, a critical component of any successful tenant-landlord relationship. 

If a dispute ever does arise, you can quickly and easily settle it by going to what operates as a robust, full-bodied tenant ledger – your rental management software. 

Wrap Up 

There’s a wide variety of cloud-based property management solutions out there. Some are for large landlords, some for small ones, some for commercial properties, some for residential. The truly great platforms can simply and effectively accommodate a wide variety of landlords. Afterall, real estate opportunities come from a range of places and it’s important to have software that allows you to grow your business as you see fit. Great software should be easy and intuitive to understand and should offer exceptional customer support when you need them. They should be modern in their tooling and affordable. Regardless, whichever platform you choose, make sure that it fits your business and automates your business practices.