CASE STUDY
Property Management System for Canadian Landlords
Industry
Real Estate
Work Done
Challenge
Being a landlord isn’t easy these days. One has to deal with an information overflow day in and day out. Hence, the client wanted to create a one-stop solution to help landlords manage their rental properties.
The challenges this task brings were quite something. We had to add too many features in one platform which includes property listings, online rental applications, tenant vetting, tenant onboarding, lease agreements, managing cashflow, rent collection, monthly reports, etc.
In order to deal with such a huge demand within a tight deadline, we quickly ramped up a team of experienced designers and software engineers who are pro in working in an agile environment, in a week’s time. One of the many hurdles which were out of a software developers’ gambit and with which we had to deal with was to tie up with banks to get the rental payment and financial report feature up and running
We decided to have both the mobile app and web application as some of the features like getting pictorial views of the properties in the listing section and taking financial reports out would work best in a web app. Now, we had to increase the number of engineers to meet the launch date.
We then decided to offer payment-wise features to landlords so as to make it easy for all sections of property owners.
The solution
Impeccable web design and listing views
What would a prospect tenant like? Getting a complete view of the property they’re going to live in. This is where web design and listing feature comes handy. Since we’re negating out each and every phase of a physical contact, we have to make sure the navigation for tenant onboarding is user friendly and self-explaining.
Tenant Vetting and Digital agreements
Default in payment of rent is the biggest risk for a property owner. Hence, we collaborated with Certn and Equifax for background check of tenants. These features help the landlord in identifying potential defaulters or unruly elements. We also provided an easy option of sending lease agreements digitally and storing the copies. This was especially a bit difficult as paperwork/rules are different in all states.
Ditching reliability on third party payment systems
When you try to negate physical contact, you’ve got to integrate a payment system, for collecting rent and deposits. We tied-up with Bank of Canada and set up our won payment system to negate any reliability on a third-party system in the future. The client was particularly satisfied with this feature as it saved him a fixed monthly amount. Friendly reminders for due date approach and late fees notifications will reduce save landlords from many awkward conversations.
There’s more to this – Mobile inspection, do away with spreadsheets
This is one contentious conversation between every tenant and the landlord while leaving the property. To add some circumstantial evidence to this convo, we added a new feature that can be used to take pictures, make notes at the start of agreement and get signed copies of the records; essentially doing exactly what a property maintenance software does. This feature is specifically added to make moving-out easy. Also, when the landlords are getting everything in their individual accounts as per their paid plans, why’d anyone need to maintain spreadsheets and remember formulas?
Technologies used
Results
The system was launched within a fixed timeline and was well received by property owners at large. Our systematic approach ensured that the client had enrolled more landlords than expected, and in turn resulting in more property bookings, ensuring the vision of a taking the whole process online being realized.
We also ensured having a proper feedback mechanism so that both tenants and landlords can suggest improvements in the features to make the process faster.
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