Have A Great Property Manager But Weak On Technology?

Property Managers are one of the most stratified groups when it comes to technology. Some have embraced it to the point that they have portals for the investor and tenant while others still use the 'ol filing cabinet.... maybe even a rotary phone. But if the property manager is doing a great job is there a way to increase your digital communications with them without forcing them to do a complete overhaul on their business model? Of course!

The Cloud. Such a buzzword these days and one which few actually understand what the heck it is. In laymen terms The Cloud (I capitalize it for dramatic effect) is simply a way to store information online. Doesn't matter where online, just that its online and accessible to those who need the information. Is it complicated to use? Ask yourself if you've ever used Yahoo! email or Gmail as examples? If you have then you've used The Cloud. Perhaps you've saved pictures on Facebook... another instance of Cloud computing! So now that we have an understanding of The Cloud let's dive into some applications that can actually hit on the purpose of this post...  :)

First the easiest and fastest applications for getting your property manager up and running: 

 

• DropBox - Think of a folder on your computer desktop. That pretty much sums up DropBox. You sign up and download an application and it sits on your computer desktop ready for you to drop in documents. Want to share the documents? Easy to do with DropBox... create a folder inside the DropBox main folder and you can give others permission to access the documents! 
• GoogleDocs - Wow... one of the most overlooked applications around. Sign up for a google account and find the Document feature under the "More" button on the Google homepage. Upload everything and anything and share it just as easily. 
• Email - Sounds odd but keeping a solid record of communciation can be incredibly helpful when there are misunderstandings. In addition, if your Property Manager lacks even the ability to cut on a computer they can normally scan and email. This puts the ball in your court to save the documents on your home computer or one of the options above.

Now for the use of the applications (Email was already explained):

• DropBox - Create folders for each property and then place copies of leases, reports, receipts, etc. in them. Many investors have found that doing this electronically has created a huge releif for them. They can always access the documents and if there is an issue, they can allow viewing of the documents by others. Think about it, would you rather gather up paper and mail it off to a lawyer, scan it all in and email it to them or simply send them a permission email? DropBox is also incredibly "light" in that you can access it from the downloaded application on your computer, iPad, iPhone or even by going to www.dropbox.com and loggin in.
• GoogleDocs - This system really is incredible. No installation of any application just log into your Google account and go to Google Docs. Create as many folders as you like and share them to your hearts content. Don't have Office for Word, Excel, Powerpoint? Google has free versions that are excellent... and you can save them as Word, Excel and Powerpoint files for easy viewing by others.

Getting your investments in order by centralizing the thousands of documents that go along with them can be incredibly frustrating, especially if your property manager isn't using an electronic management system. By showing your property manager these tools or using them yourself, finding that one receipt for your taxes can take minutes instead of heart pounding days.   As always.. Comments, Critiques, Angry Words are appreciated!    NOTE: A full blown article is in the works... "How To Bring Your Property Manager Into The Digital World"