oojacoboo

This logic is flawed in the sense of completely misunderstanding of "progress".

Sure, the 900sqft home argument might be somewhat valid. But in the majority of the situations I've seen, it's the opposite happening. So I'd challenge this one for sure.

As for the cable TV and phone line... Yea. There is something called technological progress. We have more services today because that's the world we live in, a connected world, where work and personal lives merge and access to the internet is paramount.

Your parents bought used reliable cars, great, people still do. But cars are relatively cheaper/easier to produce as well. Are you going to say the same thing when the next generation "rents" car rides as their monthly expense?

Eating out... yep. People eat out more. It's more efficient and frankly cheaper in some scenarios. That's not always the case, but often is. And in larger cities where kitchens are absolutely tiny, cooking is not only inefficient, but sometimes not even possible. So, I'd challenge this as a misunderstanding of the times - again.

Where money is spent vs how it's earned and the cost of living play into all of this. And just because the allocations aren't the same, the idea that it should be attributed to "entitlement" simply puts you on the "out of touch" spectrum.

Good day.

We use php b/c of previous experience, availability to scripts, compatibility with existing technology, and we like its licensing.

server was getting hit HARD there for a bit.

Well, if that's the case, this probably isn't for you.

Couldn't agree more, I appreciate the input on things! I am a very harsh critic myself ;)

What happens if your support is bad? Turnover increases and finding new tenant is not cheap. There is always a flip-side.

Now, what if they were automatically reflected on the tenants account balance and all notifications were handled, etc. Also, if they didn't pay on time, they'd get an automated reminder email letting them know they are late, auto assessment of late fees making the system the scapegoat and in turn increasing your on-time collection ratio, etc. We think that's worth a few bucks a month...

yours truly ;)

It's undoubtedly a legitimate fear. But compare this to a company like ATT for example who has way more clients than most any property mgt company. Do you think they would prefer to deal with online support requests from clients or talk to them in person at their store?

Having an in person or live conversation is almost always more costly. Yes, it likely cuts down on the number of miniscule requests that you will receive, but you are likely to get a large number of those via telephone, unless you don't offer that as well, which would be impossible for offsite property managers.

So, in short, yes, I agree with you that the number of silly requests may go up, especially initially. However, to counter this, sorting them takes all of 5 seconds a piece instead of 5 min to listen to them ramble on the phone, the benefits of online rental payments saves you time and money, and the instant organization that comes from having this all flow into one system is in our eyes, priceless.

Thanks for your valuable input!

We use the Symfony framework and jQuery.

ouch, I knew about this, forgot to put in a fix... thanks for reminding me!

bingo, you nailed it. At least that's how we see it ;)

we are targeting a more technical audience right now while we get our feet in the door. We feel this is the best audience to help us get going. If we start to see issues with traction (it's been great so far), we will pivot as needed.

Yea, the fees would either be passed to the tenant or absorbed by the manager (in order to improve their collections, better to get it with a fee than not)

We had a private beta.

You forgot to mention that their tenant turnover is much lower which drastically reduces their marketing overhead ;)

I guess tenant retention isn't important to you?

Managers spend massive amounts of money trying to find new tenants for a unit. If you have yearly turnover b/c you intentionally stay disconnected with tenants, this will increase your overhead, not the other way around. Hire a college kid to sort through the work orders and prioritize them accordingly.

You make a good point on the work orders. You have full control over deleting, closing out, changing the priority, etc of them.

Think of work orders as a support request for an online company. You get a lot of junk support requests as well, but you have to have something, and the tools to organize as needed. And this is WAY more efficient than speaking with someone over the phone or in person, or taking emails!

We're targeting both, landlords are smaller, and property management companies are larger. Their needs a very similar though. To get our base established, we are mostly targeting somewhat tech savvy landlords and small property management companies. We'll grow into larger and larger property management companies over time though.

We'll review this, thanks for the input!

Well, we have hundreds of beta accounts currently. I'd say that is something. Also, the interest has been quite high, not to mention, we aren't pioneering anything in this space, there are quite a few other competitors that do very well.

yep, and there are others too, even web based ones. This isn't anything new, we just think our service is and will be better.

This is also how your units end up with leaking sinks and tens of thousands of dollars in repair costs. It depends on how you want to run your business. Many companies WANT work orders, and with the system you can read over them, prioritize and determine if you need to address or dismiss. You also don't have to take the call or deal with any of that, they just come into your feed.

thanks for that. We do realize for deeper market penetration we will likely need an active sales team. We are happy with healthy online, technical user, adoption at the moment though as we establish our base.

I think you hit the nail on the head.. thrilled if your manager adopted this... Management companies are offering things like tanning packages, gym memberships and all sorts of crazy perks to get tenants, this is yet another advantage for them over the competition.

We aren't pioneering the space here either, there are half a dozen competitors.

If you want to take your business seriously and stay organized and stay on top of things, aside from rolling out your own system, there is no other way. You can't keep up with it all.

I'd address each of these things but I am tied down at the moment. Basically, it sounds like it isn't for you, and it won't be for everyone.

wow, this is the first time I've seen them... I will have to check out their offering more.

There are others too... http://appfolio.com http://buildium.com http://propertyware.com http://tenantfile.com and others. This isn't a new idea, people have been using property management software for years. We have just taken a slightly different approach to implementation with automation and communication between the two parties, landlord/tenant.

wow yea, I thought for sure that said "A Few Goodies" :/

I dont' like that section all together though... needs redoing.

thanks for this, yea, we are connected with the ACH network for check processing, and we do send notices to tenants. We realize that the pricing is a bit low.

it's not a blow-up-over-night groupon or zynga business, we know. Our goal is to create a sustainable business with healthy growth. Thanks for your kind words.