Despite a huge blast of information presented on Google, property management software development is a complex topic worth talking about more and more. Why? Because property management remains an industry with a moderate level of technology adoption. To speed up the process of technology adoption within the property management industry, we decided to dig deeper into software development.
This article breaks down the myths about the high cost of software development and walks you through the process of building software for your property business.
Property Management Software Functions
Property management software (PMS) is a specialized digital tool, app, or cloud solution, that is designed to help property managers, commercial property managers, real estate agents, landlords, and owners-operators handle various rental property operations, such as tenant screening, lease drafting and signing, property inspection tracking, and many more. By automating these tasks, PMS significantly increases the efficiency of property management and saves time and manual effort.
While there is a myriad of ready-made property management solutions like Yardi or AppFolio that you have probably looked into by now, they always come with two drawbacks:
With a custom-built property management system, you get a solution that is built to fit your exact needs and workflows, not the other way around, without paying for unnecessary features. It’s flexible, scalable, and built to grow with you.
Other benefits of custom property management software development are:
Comparison of Ready-Made vs Custom-Developed Software
What’s better: to implement a ready-made solution or build a custom one? That’s a tricky question. Everything depends on your business goals and the company’s size.
We’d say that small and middle-sized companies can successfully use ready-made solutions. But for mid-to-large-sized property management organizations, those solutions may not be enough.
Around 40-50% of ready-made solutions lack customization capabilities, have limitations when it comes to integrations, and cannot be easily scaled up. Additionally, you need to consider the cost of licenses per user, which might not be cost-efficient for a big company with many employees who will need to use the software. In this case, by building and implementing custom-made PMS, you’ll save great amounts of money in the future. Moreover, you invest in a solution that can be tailored to fit your business and altered exactly how you need it.
Custom vs Ready-Made Property Management Solutions
Before embarking on a full-scale property management software development, it’s important to understand that the niche you operate in will likely define the majority of features in your custom-made PMS (e.g. hotel management software would need to come with dynamic pricing calculations while rental property management system would need to have a rent collection module).
Below are some of the common types of property management systems and the features they often come with.
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Designed for managing residential properties such as apartments and single-family homes, residential PMS software streamlines tasks associated with tenant relations and property upkeep, such as
Some of the well-known examples of residential property management software are Buildium, DoorLoop, AppFolio, RentRedi, SimplifyEm, and others.
Residential Property Management Software: Interface for Home Owners | AscendixTech.com
Tailored specifically for commercial real estate, this software manages various property types, including office buildings, retail spaces, and industrial properties.
The commercial real estate management features include:
Examples such as MRI Software and Yardi Breeze are used in commercial property management. These platforms offer users self-service portals for tenants and advanced financial analysis tools for owners and operators.
This kind of software is focused on short-term rental properties, like those listed on Airbnb or Vrbo.
It provides tools for managing bookings, including calendar synchronization across platforms to avoid double bookings; guest communications, which streamline automated messaging and inquiries before and during stays; and property maintenance to ensure quick turnover services between guests.
Guesty, Lodgify, Escapia, and Hostaway are examples that offer channel management features to centralize booking operations from various travel sites.
Specifically designed for hotels and resorts, hospitality management software handles booking and guest services.
Key features include
Cloudbeds and Hotelogix are popular platforms that also integrate with the hotel’s customer relationship management system to enhance guest experiences and make the task of managers easier.
Hospitality Property Management Interface: Example by AscendixTech
Aimed at managing community associations, this type of property management software tracks resident interactions and administrative tasks.
It supports tracking dues and processing payments; managing violation histories to maintain community standards; handling maintenance requests from residents; and facilitating communication through community announcements and resident forums.
Additionally, it may have reporting and accounting features to streamline financial management and initial resident screening tools for sublets to ensure compliance with community guidelines.
FRONTSTEPS and PayHOA are examples of HOA management software that offer comprehensive solutions for streamlining community management and engagement.
Industrial property management software is designed for managing properties like warehouses and manufacturing facilities. It helps ensure these properties comply with building codes and safety regulations.
Key features include maintenance scheduling to keep equipment in good condition, tools for regular inspection tracking, and compliance updates tracking to meet industry standards. The software also handles real estate tax reviews and simplifies vendor management for outsourced services. Also, it can include features for staff management and optimizing workforce schedules and assignments.
This software is meant for properties with specific uses, such as theaters, sports arenas, resorts, senior care facilities, schools, and places of worship.
Each type of property has unique needs: theaters may require event scheduling and ticketing features, while senior care facilities may need resident care management tools. For schools, the software might manage enrollments and campus utilities.
Special-purpose property management software can support specific functions necessary for efficient operation of these diverse properties, but it rarely comes out-of-the-box, meaning that this kind of property management software often require property management software development from scratch to ensure the software meets the needs of a business.
Though not strictly a property management system, this software concentrates on the maintenance aspects of property management.
It handles maintenance requests by logging and prioritizing work orders, schedules preventive maintenance tasks to ensure property longevity, and tracks the history of repairs and maintenance activities.
Often integrated into broader property management systems such as the ones for residential real estate or hotel management systems, it enhances overall property upkeep and ensures consistent and high-quality maintenance services.
Platforms like UpKeep and Maintenance Connection provide independent solutions or integrate with broader property management platforms.
When developing customized property management software, you should consider who will use the software. Despite standard features set required in any property management system (e.g., dashboards, tenant portals, multi-calendars, document sharing, in-app messaging, etc.), the final functionality depends on the goals and expectations end-users place on it.
Below, we list approximate features property management software should have according to the type of its end user.
Property Management Software Features Set According to End-Users
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AI and machine learning are actively integrated in property management, especially in software for property managers. They help forecast leasing patterns, optimize maintenance schedules, and improve tenant experiences with automated inquiry responses and convenient chatbots. The most useful features in property management software in terms of AI and ML are:
As an AI development expert, we partner with small firms and global enterprises helping them bring automation to their operational processes.
Integration of smart home devices into property management systems is becoming an incredibly popular and widespread practice. IoT and smart home technologies enable property managers to remotely oversee and optimize systems like HVAC. This helps to increase energy efficiency and tenant comfort. This not only improves operations but also attracts tech-savvy tenants who strive to live in modern smart homes.
There has been a significant increase in the demand for remote property management, particularly after the Covid-19 pandemic. Digital-first approaches in property management are on the rise, as property managers try to interact with tenants online mostly, including handling online maintenance requests and rent payments.
Sustainability has now become a priority in property management, especially in Europe, where being ecologically considerate is currently a legal requirement. Luckily, the property management software development can now integrate tools that optimize energy usage and support green building certifications to help property managers comply with the new requirements. This trend is becoming more common as the governments focus on reducing carbon footprints and enhancing energy efficiency in new properties and optimizing these aspects in the old real estate assets.
By integrating with accounting platforms like QuickBooks or Xero, it is possible for property managers to track financial transactions, manage budgets, and generate financial reports. This integration also automates invoicing and payment processes, making financial management easier. Moreover, if a custom property management software development service is chosen, it is also possible to easily integrate the existing accounting software into newly built property management software.
Connecting with tenant screening services such as TransUnion or Experian lets property managers launch automated background checks, credit reports, and eviction history reviews for prospective tenants, which contributes to a comprehensive screening process.
Integrating with payment gateways such as Stripe, PayPal, or other bank APIs allows tenants to pay rent online easily and safely, without providing their bank details to any unknown software. This feature significantly simplifies the process of collecting and tracking payments after property management software development process is complete.
Linking to maintenance management systems allows property managers to track and address maintenance requests from tenants, often through mobile apps, making the general submission process smoother and faster.
Integration with custom or pre-built CRM platforms helps property managers maintain relationships by tracking tenant communications and managing leads, which in result can improve tenant retention and boost service delivery.
CRM integration also allows property managers to continuously track all communications with tenants, ensuring that inquiries, issues, and service requests are managed quickly and effectively. It also helps to collect and analyze resident feedback. Additionally, CRM systems help in managing leads, automating follow-ups, and personalizing tenant interactions.
Custom property management solutions can integrate with marketing tools and platforms to automate property listings on rental websites and social media and maximize exposure to prospective tenants. Marketing tools can also provide insights into prospective engagement across different platforms, allowing property managers to improve their marketing strategies and optimize results.
Integration with document management tools allows for efficient storage, retrieval, and sharing of important documents, such as leases and maintenance records. This integration reduces the time spent on document management and minimizes the risk of misplaced or lost paperwork.
Advanced document management features may also include optical character recognition (OCR) for scanning paper documents into digital form and automated workflows for document approvals and renewals, making administrative property management processes even more efficient. Ascendix has practical experience in utilizing OCR technology for streamlining document management and reducing the paperwork load from property management teams.
Ascendix development team has immense expertise and experience in delivering cutting-edge real estate solutions, property management platforms being one of them.
Let’s discover in more detail how Ascendix would accomplish the task of creating property management software from scratch, with an example of hotel management and hospitality systems.
Before building any software, a comprehensive market and business analysis must be conducted, so that the goals, scope, and requirements of the project are clear.
Start by researching the market and identifying the features of ready-made property management platforms that would solve your core needs. Pay attention to features like room management, reservations and bookings management, and front desk operations tracking. Also, determine which of them need to be adapted for your business, given the staff and guest requirements.
It’s a good idea to consider the desired platform’s accessibility (mobile, desktop, or both) and any necessary integrations with existing systems like PMS, CRM, and payment gateways, if you’re using any.
You may want to organize all these requirements by priority and complexity, so that the development team understands your needs and desires better and can manage the budget and expectations more easily. This preparation might seem daunting, but it ensures the final product aligns with your business objectives and user needs.
As the features are identified, it’s time to collaborate with your development team and start planning your future hotel management software. Developing the structure of such software is extremely important, as it must facilitate timely communication and seamless data exchange between all users – management, staff, and guests.
To accomplish these tasks and ensure the system and operations run smoothly, Ascendix would use the following structure for the hotel management platform:
Structure of a PMS System for Hotel Management | AscendixTech
As the structure is confirmed, all the processes and elements of your future software should come together in a single architecture plan, which would describe how the software would work. For a custom cloud-based hotel management software with the possibility of third-party integrations, Ascendix would suggest using the following architecture scheme:
Architecture of a PMS for Hotel Management | AscendixTech
As the structure is set up and confirmed, you’d need to move on to the technology stack optimal for implementing the required features.
For hotel property management software development, Ascendix would choose the following:
As all the details are confirmed, the development process starts.
Ascendix takes an Agile approach in property management software development with iterative phases of analysis and planning, design and architecture, development and testing, deployment and integration, followed by continuous monitoring and optimization as the software is launched.
This ensures smooth development progress, as the process includes regular testing cycles and performance optimization, which contributes to the solution’s flexibility for future enhancements and robust current functionality.
After the main development phase is completed, Ascendix would move on to add the required third-party integrations.
These may include the integration with the company’s existing CRM, payment gateways like Stripe or PayPal for secure transactions within one platform, online travel listing platforms like Booking.com and Expedia, which would allow for wider market reach with better visibility, and communication, marketing, and messaging services such as SendGrid or Twilio for automated guest notifications and easier communication between guests and staff.
We would implement these using message queues for data synchronization, with automatic retries and error handling. We would also implement standardized hardware integration protocols, IoT gateways, and APIs to connect with various key card systems, POS terminals, and other hotel hardware, to ensure compatibility through dedicated interface adapters and middleware solutions.
As the software is ready, Ascendix would deploy the solution following a blue-green strategy using Docker containerization and Kubernetes orchestration to ensure zero-downtime updates and seamless rollback capabilities.
The deployment would be cloud-based, with AWS or Azure infrastructure utilized for it. It would also include automated CI/CD pipelines for systematic testing and deployment for smooth transitions between versions and system stability and high performance.
To ensure that the software is working properly and as it was expected, Ascendix would monitor the performance using the ELK stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) and Azure Monitor, integrated with Grafana for real-time tracking.
These systems use Redis caching strategies and load balancing to optimize performance during peak periods. We would also conduct regular performance assessments to help identify and address bottlenecks and automate multi-region backups and disaster recovery procedures.
For continuous software optimization, Ascendix would conduct regular security audits, performance tuning, and system updates based on usage patterns and user feedback.
Ascendix as an experienced Proptech expert and custom software development company, can offer unique solutions to any property management company of any size.
Ascendix has been developing real estate solutions of varying complexities for 15+ years. We’ve completed a great number of successful projects such as custom CRM development for JLL.
Our team offers unique real estate development services that enable us to produce customized products with various technologies. We follow GDPR, local data privacy, protection policies and legislations on a regular basis to ensure that our apps follow real estate laws and can be easily used at any time.
Our real estate and property management custom solutions have gained widespread acclaim. We build software with a strong backend that supports a large property database, advanced search and filter, an interactive map, real-time chat, document management and generation.
Read our case studies to explore solutions we offer. Contact us to discuss your project.
It is difficult to give an accurate quotation since the final cost and number of development hours depends on PMS type, complexity and requirements. To get accurate project estimate, feel free to contact us.
Invest in property management software development and automate all routine tasks. To find the most suitable way for property management automation, cooperate with companies like Ascendix.
We’ll analyze your business needs and requirements, conduct a discovery phase, and suggest the best solutions for you (whether it’s a custom or an adaptation of a ready-made solution).
Property management software is a digital tool designed to streamline and automate the administration of real estate properties. Property managers and landlords use it in rent collection, lease tracking, maintenance requests, and tenant communication, which helps in managing residential, commercial, or mixed-use properties.
The best software for real estate management often depends on specific needs. Some popular ready-made options include Buildium, AppFolio, and DoorLoop, known for their comprehensive features in managing leases, accounting, and tenant interactions. Alternatively, businesses can consider custom property management software development to ensure that all their requirements are fulfilled, and the system is perfectly tailored to their needs.
Property management software is primarily used by property managers, landlords, real estate professionals, and management companies to handle tasks related to property administration and tenant relations.
It typically takes 2-3 months for initial analysis and design, 4-6 months for core development and testing, followed by 2-3 months for deployment and integration, with continuous improvements and feature enhancements in subsequent iterations.
Kateryna specializes in creating engaging content about CRM software development for Legal Services and custom software development. In her articles, she provides relevant data, stats, business tricks and makes overviews and guides of new technology trends and CRM updates.
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