This short article will show landlords, property managers and administrators of home owners associations some of the benefits which can accrue by using a web-based property management software package.

Any property management organization has to deal with different groups of people (stakeholders). There are prospective tenants, existing residents, owners, managers and maintenance contractors. As a manager you can use a web-based system to set up efficient communication with these diverse groups. Each group has its own needs from the system, and its own level of access to the system. The system allows you to set up web address for interaction with these different groups.

To make contact with prospective tenants it is likely that you will want your web pages to provide listings, photographs etc of properties which you have available. Prospects will be able to search this site for properties of interest, and they will be able to find your site using searches on standard search engines such as google. Once the prospect finds a property which they like, then they will be prompted to enter all their contact details there and then.

As the landlord or manager you would be immediately notified of this by email or by text message. You can then assess the prospect for suitability: a good system will provide a way to access checks such as credit history checks and criminal background checks.

Communication with existing residents should also be supported and improved by the system. Tenants should be able to get the information they want, when they want. Information such as lease agreements, scheduled maintenance, rent due dates, rent payment history can all be provided to the tenant. Tenants will have the option to choose an electronic method of rent payment, and they will be able to set up regular monthly or weekly payments, or make a one-off payment. Tenants will expect a secure website which protects their electronic payments and their privacy.

Residents will be able to report any issues such as maintenance problems using the web-based system. Confidence in the system is built by allowing tenants and managers to track maintenance progress through the system. You will have also the option to send work orders to contractors using the system. This can help reduce misunderstanding about what contractors should be doing, and when they should be doing it.

Portfolio owners, and home owner association committee members can be provided privileged access to the data of relevance to their properties. For portfolio owners this might be income and expenses for all their properties, or broken down on a single property basis.

Finally a good web-based property management software package will allow the production of financial reports for tax purposes, and for financial planning and management.