Last modified on December 20th, 2023
By Brittany Benz

How many property types do you manage? If you have multifamily, single-family, affordable housing, and/or student housing rental properties, in addition to community associations in your portfolio, chances are your day-to-day is probably more complex than the average property management business. Each property type has its own characteristics and unique needs that aren’t always easy to meet. Read on to find out the top three common challenges of managing multiple property types and how to overcome them by implementing the right tools.

Challenge #1: Logging Onto Different Systems

You use multiple software systems: one for your multifamily properties, one for your single-family homes, one for your affordable units, and one for your community associations. A lot of time is wasted logging into these different solutions, which makes it harder to keep track of workflows and also leads to inaccuracies with data and reporting. As a result, your team has less time to spend on customer service and focusing on bigger-picture initiatives, like growing your business.

Solution: A Single System of Record

Save time and reduce errors by consolidating all your property types into a single solution with one login. When you have one system of record, you can also maintain transparency and have better visibility into how each aspect of your business is performing. 

Challenge #2: Generic User Permissions

You have numerous roles within your organization for your rental properties and associations but no way of tailoring what kind of information and documents each team member can access. Without any way to customize the information they see, team members are inundated with things that don’t pertain to their role, and you’re unable to ensure security.

Solution: Customized User Roles

By switching to a system that lets you create and assign user roles specific to your organization, you can easily limit your team’s access to only information and functionality relevant to their roles. This not only leads to less frustration and confusion but also makes your organization more secure.

Challenge #3: Lack of Personalized Support

Your current software solution doesn’t understand your business’s unique needs. You may have felt supported initially, but when your team transitioned onto the system, you quickly realized the experience was generic and not tailored to your business. As you hire more employees across your property types, they run into the same problems and take longer to ramp up. Additionally, your software provider doesn’t offer resources for your teams to reference on an ongoing basis if they need to troubleshoot issues or want to adopt new tools.

Solution: A True Partnership

Choose a technology partner over a provider who understands and listens to your business. A true tech partner provides in-depth, personalized training and support through onboarding and beyond, so you can better adapt and overcome challenges. As a result, you get the most value for your tech investment, and your team feels more confident.

Lessons From a Peer: 4 Degrees Real Estate

When you have the right tech partner, overcoming the challenges listed above is easier. Take the story of 4 Degrees Real Estate for instance.  Brothers Joel and Jordan Tampien founded the business to create a full-service real estate company. Today, they manage a mixed portfolio of multifamily and single-family residential properties and community associations. Through their technology partnership with AppFolio, they have scaled their business from managing 20 units to a portfolio of over 4,300 units and are continuing their growth today.

“Building our workflows directly into the software and equipping our teams with daily task lists has significantly reduced the learning curve, ” says Joel. “As we continue to grow quickly, we can bring on new employees and train them even faster, within 50% of the time.”

Along with facilitating growth, AppFolio’s hands-on approach to support has also made it easier to adopt new features. 

“Our strategic account manager makes rolling out new features within the product very easy, helps us with training for new and existing employees, and is very hands-on,” says Joel. “The partnership we have with our strategic account manager and all of the services teams makes it very easy for us to do our jobs which turns into continued success for our business.”

Managing different property types is challenging, but with a single system of record and a deep partnership with your software provider, it’s easier to maintain transparency, serve customers, and streamline workflows. To learn more about how to streamline your operations, download the free guide below.