The real estate market was probably the worst hit when COVID-19 hit us 5 years ago.  

Although life seems to have gone more or less back to normal, property managers everywhere continue to struggle with getting real estate demand up to pre-pandemic levels (in spite of RTO mandates!) 

Added to that is the stress of finding and dealing with new tenants, conducting service calls, and drafting lease agreements (which is usually lengthy and complicated!). This is because property management teams use inefficient software or spreadsheets that demand more manual work and time, and yet produce a staggering number of data errors.

Using an advanced cloud-based CRM doubling up as a real estate management software (like Salesforce) can shake things up here!

In this blog, let’s dive into the massive benefits Salesforce can bring to residential and commercial property management as well as the real estate development sector.

Benefits of Salesforce for Property Management

Property management, though lucrative, comes with its fair share of challenges. Juggling multiple properties, handling intricate agreements, and ensuring timely payments can be overwhelming to a property manager.  

Adopting a feature-rich CRM like Salesforce, however, can help property managers organise their customer data, derive data analytics, and increase conversion rates. 

In fact, this study claims that the most successful real estate agents are twice as more likely to adopt CRM and lead management solutions than their struggling peers. 

Here are the top 10 ways in which Salesforce facilitates innovative property management: 

1. Centralised and secure database for properties and tenants

As a CRM software, Salesforce provides you with a single, unified platform to help manage all your customer information and property listings in one place. Due to its cloud-based capabilities, it would be easy for property managers to access data and manage their property and tenant information from anywhere in the world. Moreover, you would also be able to store additional information like lease agreements, financial transactions, maintenance requests, and staging schedules in your CRM and access this data at any point of time. Having a centralized database like Salesforce eliminates the need to keep your data in disparate systems and spreadsheets. This not only reduces data security threats and the risk of data errors and duplication but also ensures that your data maintains its integrity and reliability.

2. Improved quotes and agreements

One of reasons for Salesforce’s popularity is its quote generation and contract management features, which allow real estate managers to streamline and automate the end-to-end lease process in one place. Not only does Salesforce simplify quote and agreement generation but also reduces the sales cycle considerably. By integrating data from various sources (such as property details and client preferences), Salesforce generates accurate quotes and agreements in a fraction of the time it would traditionally take.

3. Simplified payment and receipt management

Manually tracking payments and managing receipts are laborious and error-prone. Salesforce streamlines this by integrating with payment gateways and accounting solutions through its platform, Mulesoft, or apps from Salesforce AppExchange. This automation facilitates payment reminders, invoicing, and receipt management, ensuring on-time payments and a transparent financial environment for property managers and tenants.

Would you like to read how a leading rental equipment firm established a centralised business environment with a quick, seamless, two-way integration between MYOB AccountRight Premier and Salesforce? Read our case study now: Case Study | Corptec

4. Real-time, flexible communication

Salesforce empowers property managers with robust tools like Experience Cloud and Chatter for unparalleled real-time collaboration. Experience Cloud provides web portals for tenants and stakeholders, centralising communication and document exchange. Following that, Chatter enhances this collaborative environment with real-time messaging, file sharing, and project collaboration. Combined with Salesforce’s mobile capabilities, property managers gain the flexibility to address tasks like maintenance requests and lease approvals on the go, significantly enhancing communication and operational efficiency.

5. Streamlined move-in and move-out procedures 

The transition of tenants (whether move-in or move-out) can be chaotic without proper management. Salesforce can help you with comprehensive tools to manage tenant transitions, schedule move-in inspections, and handle security deposits seamlessly. The CRM also provides you with automated notifications and task assignments to help with smoother transitions. 

6. Automated workflows

Property managers burdened with repetitive tasks and paperwork can leverage Salesforce Omnistudio and Salesforce Flows for automating the entire property management lifecycle. These tools streamline tenant screenings, rent collections, lease renewals, property inspections, maintenance management, and tracking defaulters. With Salesforce Omnistudio, you can design and deploy engaging user experiences, while Salesforce Flows enables the creation of powerful automation workflows for triggering actions, sending notifications, and updating records effortlessly, thus significantly reducing time and costs associated with manual operations. 

7. Data-driven analytics and reporting

In the traditional way of managing residential and commercial properties, property managers or real estate owners rarely took into account insights from data analytics, and relied on word-of-mouth to establish best practices in this sector. With Salesforce’s reporting and analytical engine, you can now create custom reports to monitor occupancy rates, analyse revenue trends, optimise rental pricing, and forecast future demand. You can create dashboards to help track custom key performance metrics that help you make informed decisions and formulate proactive management strategies. Moreover, Salesforce can help you identify underperforming properties, anticipate maintenance needs, and predict tenant turnover. 

Did you know that Salesforce Einstein—the first-of-its-kind comprehensive AI for CRM—offers an integrated set of AI technologies to help you become more predictive about your customers, anticipate newer opportunities, and exceed customer needs? Einstein has been seamlessly integrated into many Salesforce products that comprise the Customer 360 portfolio (such as Marketing Cloud, Sales Cloud, and the Service Cloud). This means that customisable, predictive, and generative AI can be used across your business to enhance productivity, improve customer experience, and ultimately increase profits. 

Read more about Einstein’s versatile capabilities here: Leverage Salesforce AI for Peak Sales Efficiency — in 5 Easy Ways | Corptec 

8. Infinite integration capabilities 

Another major advantage of adopting Salesforce for property management is its multipurpose integration capabilities. (Rarely can any business process work in isolation!) Salesforce can help you seamlessly connect with third-party systems and IoT devices, thus helping you automate myriad processes. For example, integrating your Salesforce application with smart building technologies can help automate energy management, security monitoring, and predictive maintenance—driving cost savings and improving tenant satisfaction in the process. Salesforce also offers features such as Salesforce Connect, which allows you to access and edit data in real-time from any external system in Salesforce. 

9. Scalable and flexible processes 

As a property manager, whether you’re overseeing a small portfolio of properties or managing a larger real estate empire, Salesforce can provide you the much-needed competitive advantage with its scalable and flexible features. For example, you can use Salesforce CRM to respond to customer queries or concerns faster and in real-time, or use personalised automated responses to reply to messages. The software allows you to view and retrieve historical records of payment transactions or purchased properties, as and when required, thus helping you settle disputes or misunderstandings, if they arise. As mentioned before, Salesforce can be integrated with any cloud-based application (including real estate technologies such as IDX and MLS) to leverage data from multiple systems and ensure all stakeholders access a single source of truth. Best of all, Salesforce is capable of scaling according to your business growth and is agile enough to adapt to changing market demands and customer preferences, making this CRM an ideal choice in the long run.

10. Enhanced customer experience

Since the dip in real estate and property demands faced since the advent of COVID-19, property managers have had to work harder than ever to attract and encourage prospective owners to invest in properties. Salesforce enables you to make your customer experience engaging by personalising interactions and delivering proactive service based on their needs throughout the property lifecycle. By capturing and analysing tenant preferences, feedback, and engagement data, you can tailor your mutual communications, offer relevant services, and address concerns promptly. Property managers can also leverage Salesforce’s marketing automation tools to nurture leads, promote available properties, and drive leasing conversions effectively. 

Leverage Salesforce for Property Management with Corptec Technology Partners 

Salesforce is, without doubt, the most comprehensive CRM in the market today. With Salesforce for property management, you acquire a pro-real-estate CRM and property management solution that can centralise data, streamline operations, and guarantee data and process security. 

However, we understand that configuring and maintaining this CRM might not be an easy task. Why not seek out the expert assistance of elite Salesforce professionals at Corptec Technology Partners? 

As a trusted Salesforce Consulting Partner since 2019, Corptec Technology Partners has designed customer journeys for organisations across Australia by helping them maximise the potential of this leading CRM platform. We offer full-cycle implementation of Sales, Service, and Marketing Clouds, and support custom Salesforce integrations with any ERP or third-party applications. 

Our experienced team can help you simplify the complexities of the real estate sector by offering you Salesforce for property management, integrated with your choice of real estate tools. Our offerings include: 

• Inventory management 
• Land development tracking 
• Contract management 
• Supplier and contractor management 
• Customer/Broker online portal 
• CRM sales/marketing automation 
• Customer support and analytics 
• Customisable dashboards 

Buying a property may be the most significant investment your client ever makes. Enlist the help of Corptec Technology Partners to make sure that you provide the best experience to your clientele. 

Start your Salesforce success journey with us today!