Maximizing Efficiency: A Data-Driven Look at What’s Holding Property Management Businesses Back
Executive Summary
Despite a historic climb in rent prices and surging demand for units nationwide, today’s property managers are contending with a host of challenges, from rising material costs to cutthroat competition and wider economic concerns.
AppFolio Property Manager’s 2022 Property Management Industry Pulse, a report polling more than 1,000 employees of U.S. property management companies, outlines the struggles businesses face with "shiny" new proptech solutions that often prove clunky due to poor integrations with legacy software.
Proptech: A Key Component in Scaling Operations
As external economic pressures increase, operational efficiency and revenue generation have emerged as the primary hurdles for rental operators.
Key Statistics & Challenges (2022)
Top Challenges: Operational efficiency (62%) and revenue generation (54%).
The Disconnect: Frontline staff are 11 times more likely than executives to consider innovation/technology a top challenge.
The Efficiency Gap: Many operators fail to see tech-enabled benefits due to dated systems that cannot effectively integrate with industry-leading partners.
The Digital Mindset
Technology should be viewed as an enabler that streamlines workflows, including:
Automated payments
Maintenance requests
Virtual showings
Industry Parallel: Similar to the restaurant industry’s shift to digital ordering and automation during COVID-19, property management technology is transitioning from "confusing" to "essential."
Is the Talent Market Normalizing?
While "The Great Resignation" dominated 2021, staffing concerns appear to be stabilizing in favor of economic concerns.
| Challenge Category | 2021 Impact | 2022 Impact |
|---|---|---|
| HR, Staffing, & Recruitment |
> 50% | 25% |
| Primary Concerns |
Staffing/Retention | Efficiency & Revenue (Inflationary Pressures) |
Employee Experience & Retention
To keep talent in place, the industry must emphasize the employee experience through:
Modern Tools: Moving away from manual operations (index cards/Excel) to automated SaaS platforms.
Training: Empowering teams to make an impact on residents' lives.
Engagement: Making property management jobs more desirable and less administrative.
The Importance of Effective Integrations
A significant barrier to productivity is the "faulty integration" found in legacy systems developed as far back as the 1980s.
User Dissatisfaction: 40% of managers are unhappy with the integration between their existing tech stack and new services.
The Problem: Outdated system architecture makes a "single source of truth" impossible.
The Solution: AppFolio Stack™, a marketplace for vetted and approved partner integrations built on a reliable system architecture.
Customer Satisfaction Rates
AppFolio Users: 70% satisfied with the technology’s ability to address key challenges.
Other Solution Users: 51% satisfied.
Delivering on the Tech Experience
While the industry has a way to go in standardizing technology use, data suggests that property management companies are addressing challenges head-on.
The Resident Factor:
A substantial portion of renters overwhelmingly choose to lease from companies that provide the best experience. Providing a central platform with industry-leading tools delivers a satisfying experience for both residents and employees from start to finish.