As a property manager, a large responsibility you have is keeping existing tenants happy while living in your rental home. It is also your job to generate interest in vacant rental properties by implementing strategic marketing methods, reaching out to prospective tenants, and effectively screening future residents.
In short, being a property manager is a lot of hard work and takes dedication and organization. But how do you keep up with all of these responsibilities without letting anything (or anyone) slip through the cracks?
That’s where Customer Relationship Management software (CRM) comes in. By using a CRM software, you will gain access to a wide variety of tools that can help you when it comes to marketing a rental property and enhancing your lead generation.
Keep reading to find out what exactly CRM software is, how it can help you, how to use one, and why they are an important aspect of successfully building your property management business. You’ll also see our top five picks for the best property management CRM software.
What is a Property Management CRM Software?
A property management CRM is software that is specifically engineered to help rental property managers and owners maintain positive and successful relationships with current and prospective tenants. But how can software achieve this?
Well, CRM tools provide users with a comprehensive database that has the ability to store both current and prospective tenants’ important information. Through the CRM software, you can view, manage, and analyze the data.
While there are many different industries that use and rely on CRMs, property management CRMs have their own set of benefits because they have a few modifications geared toward real estate.
CRM stands for “customer relationship management,” and the software helps property management companies do just that. Property management companies typically have two different categories of customer data to pay attention to.
These categories are residents and prospects. Each category has its own set of specific data and needs, and CRMs that are specifically geared toward property management companies have features that can help meet those needs.
How exactly can a CRM system meet a property manager’s customer relationship management needs? Whether you’re working with current tenants or prospective ones, you may need to keep track of a long list of individual conversations. You may be handling a maintenance request for one tenant while setting up a lease signing with another.
This can be a lot to manage, especially when you are speaking with many different individuals regarding a variety of different topics and responsibilities. Effective communication with tenants and prospects is crucial in building positive relationships with residents and running a successful business.
All this can be overwhelming and hard to manage, which is why property management CRMs can be so helpful. A CRM stores all of your important information in one place. The software can also filter the data and track your outreach.
This means that you will be able to greatly reduce the amount of time that you spend searching for information while increasing your ability to respond to each individual quickly. By using a CRM, you can do anything from addressing maintenance requests to signing new lease agreements quickly and efficiently.
How Does a Property Management CRM Work?
CRM software operates by gathering all of the residents’ and prospective renters’ information that you need and storing it all in one place. Then, you can quickly and easily access the data, using it to improve your relationships with both residents and prospects.
Ultimately, a CRM system will help you understand tenants better and have more positive personal interactions with them. Excellent communication is an important part of running a property management company, and using a CRM can help you achieve this successfully.
But what kind of data does CRM software store for you? The following is what you can expect to know and gather about your tenants and prospects when using a CRM:
- Names
- Email addresses
- Phone numbers
- Addresses
- Titles
- Opportunities
- Company sizes
- Website and email activities
Owners and managers of rental properties can use this information to retain high-quality tenants for a greater length of time, in addition to attracting new ones when a unit is faced with a vacancy. They can do this by optimizing some of the features and benefits included with a property management CRM.
These features often include the following:
- Notifications and reminders sent directly to you to ensure that no tasks slip through the cracks.
- Emailing tools to improve your communication with tenants and prospects.
- Landing page builders.
- Collecting prospective tenants’ contact information in real time.
- Analyzing engagement from prospective tenants.
- Notes and descriptions regarding current and prospective tenants.
- Engagement data and metrics to help you gain insight into your company’s reach regarding your website, email, and advertising. This can greatly benefit your marketing strategies and help you in advertising your business more effectively.
While there are many CRM systems that have advanced features designed specifically for the property management industry, there are also some common features like document management that you can find when you use any CRM software.
CRMs are generally used for client management, tenant management, and lease management. They streamline the sales pipeline and make lead tracking simpler. They can also make internal project management easier!
Many modern CRM providers use the cloud to host, manage, and update the software. This allows users to access the software on any device that has an internet connection, rather than only being able to access their CRM as a single download that is limited to only one device.
CRMs are not just useful to sales management and marketing teams! Property management businesses of any size can use and benefit from a CRM. Whether you’re running a one-person operation or in charge of a large management company, there are many ways a CRM for property management can be utilized to help streamline your business.
However, it is important to note that some property management CRMs charge an extra fee to allow more than one user to use the software at the same time.
How Can CRM Software Help You Manage Existing Residents?
As a property manager, manually keeping track of each and every resident under your care and maintaining excellent communication with each one can be an intimidating and often impossible job to achieve.
Your tenants have many methods of communication with you, including email and text. So when you are in communication with dozens, or even hundreds, of different tenants at one time, you will need all the help you can get! Luckily, this is exactly what CRM software is designed to do.
Rather than manually scrolling through and reading a cluttered email inbox, CRM software allows you to easily filter your conversations and find exactly what you are looking for in mere seconds.
For example, you can select a resident and view all of your communication records with them. You can also email tenants as a group, which is extremely useful if you need to communicate with multiple tenants who share a unit or need to contact residents who live on the same floor of an apartment complex.
CRM software for property management companies can also help you simplify other duties that come with handling rental homes. A CRM can provide you with a central hub that contains all of your tasks like addressing maintenance requests or keeping track of which tenants have renewed their lease agreements.
Ultimately, you can spend less of your valuable time and energy searching for what your tenants need from you and spend more of that time in action.
How Can CRM Software Help You Communicate with Prospective Tenants?
Finding new tenants for a vacant rental property can feel like another full-time job in and of itself. If you’ve been hard at work implementing strategic marketing tactics like rental property listings or advertising across various social media platforms, then chances are you’ve been able to attract a growing list of prospective tenants.
When it comes to finding a high-quality, long-term resident to fill a vacant property, staying on top of communication with a prospective tenant can make all the difference. Your ability to manage communication with prospective tenants can determine whether or not you are able to fill a vacancy.
By using CRM software, you can access a wide variety of tools to help you organize and communicate with prospective tenants based on the source of the interest, and where they are at in the leasing process. How can these tools be useful to a property manager?
Well, you may want to approach your communication with a prospective tenant differently depending on how they found the rental property ad. If you have been contacted by a particular prospect through a referral rather than an online listing or a social media ad, then you may want to use a different communication strategy.
There are some management software that offer key features such as templates and reminder notifications to send necessary emails. These can help you ensure that you stay on top of things when it comes to communicating with prospective tenants.
By being able to categorize different leads and continue through the rental application process, CRM software can help you organize your conversations with different prospective tenants and ensure that you are always responding to them in a timely manner.
For example, a CRM can give you the option to move someone in the “prospect” category into the “applicant” category, which ensures that you always remember exactly where an individual is in the leasing process.
Why Should You Use CRM Property Management Software?
There are many benefits to using CRM software, but ultimately it will help you lighten your workload and streamline your business operations. CRM software helps ensure that everyone who communicates with you and your business has a positive experience.
If you and your business are implementing effective marketing strategies, then you are probably starting to attract many new audiences who are interacting with your business for the first time. As this continues, your lead generation abilities will grow.
When you use a property management CRM system, you will be able to connect with each and every lead with a personalized approach. This will greatly increase your chances to turn a prospect into a new tenant.
Which Property Management CRM Should I Choose for My Business?
Now that we’ve talked about how beneficial CRM software can be for any company, you’re probably wondering which provider to choose! While there are many options out there, we have narrowed it down to our top five favorite CRM providers for property managers looking to grow their business:
1. Entrata
Founded in 2003, Entrata is a service that is designed to help tenants, property managers, and property owners communicate easily and effectively, all while doing business online.
While Entrata offers users a wide variety of property management tools, its Marketing Suit can give you the communication tools needed to turn a prospect into a tenant. Additionally, since the software is cloud-based, you can access important information from anywhere via any device that connects to the internet.
Entrata’s pricing is unfortunately not publicly available, however, costs will vary depending on your own personalized and unique set of needs.
2. Leadsimple
Designed specifically to help property management firms, Leadsimple is a CRM software that can help any property manager successfully reach their goals. Through this software, you can stay on top of marketing strategies, track calls and emails, and create unique tags to allow you to categorize different groups of prospective tenants.
Leadsimple can also work seamlessly with other property management software and services, so you can be sure that everyone involved with a rental property is always on the same page.
According to Leadsimple’s website, they have three main tiers of pricing. There is a $65 per month tier, a $99 per month tier, and a tier where you can pay $1 per door that you manage, as long as there is a minimum of 200 doors. This selection of tiers offers a wide range of different key features and benefits based on pricing.
3. Knock
Founded in 2014 in Seattle, Knock has a unique business intelligence platform that truly sets it apart from its competitors. In addition to the standard customer interaction services that many other CRM software provide, Knock allows you to use data analytics to make sure that each member of your team is performing with maximum efficiency.
Knock allows you to see the strengths and weaknesses of your team by tracking metrics like email interactions, follow-up rates, and social media engagement. Knock does not specify its pricing on its website, however, you may request a demo, and their team will provide you with a custom quote tailored to your individual needs.
4. HubSpot
HubSpot is a CRM that is not specifically designed for property managers and is used by countless companies across a wide range of industries to help manage and convert prospects.
HubSpot was founded as a general marketing service, and while it offers many effective and valuable marketing tools, it may be beneficial to pair it with another platform specifically designed for property management to ensure that all of your bases are covered.
HubSpot allows you to manage important marketing methods such as social media posts, your website, and a blog. Additionally, you can set up workflows that can make the process of sending, receiving, and categorizing messages easier.
There are three different pricing tiers to choose from when it comes to HubSpot. There is the Starter tier for $45 a month, the Professional tier for $450 a month, and Enterprise for $1,200 a month.
5. RentDynamics
RentDynamics is another CRM that is specifically designed to help property managers succeed. Founded in 2012, RentDynamics integrates with a wide range of other property management services to create a seamless workflow.
RentDynamic places an emphasis on understanding all the different aspects of the real estate industry. This provider allows you to apply unique approaches to every prospect allowing you to turn them into a resident in no time. With RentDynamics you can use text message marketing and collect more lead information than ever before.
RentDynamics does not specify its pricing, however, you are able to request a demo online at any time.
Bottom Line
At the end of the day, customer relationship management software can help you and your property management firm streamline your communication and continue to offer only the best customer interactions possible. When you invest in a CRM, you are also investing in positive relationships with your clients!
