The property management industry is undergoing significant transformation due to advancements in technology. These tools not only save valuable time but also simplify the experience of working with owners, communicating with tenants, and handling the nitty-gritty of managing each unit, lease, work order, and vendor relationship.
But they can also go one step further. By putting valuable business insights at your fingertips, property management technology can help you make smarter business decisions about everything from structuring your team to setting your marketing budget, helping you to grow and unlock new revenue streams.
With so much potential, it’s essential to stay on top of the latest developments and their benefits to property managers.
Using Technology to Keep Up with Owner and Tenant Expectations
According to our 2025 Industry Report, 99% of rental owners are comfortable conducting business online, a figure that has grown consistently over the past few years. The majority of these rental owners now want the property management company they work with to handle several functions online, including:
Sending and receiving payments
Maintenance and repair requests
Communications
Document storage and sharing
Leasing management
Financial reporting
In response, companies have turned to property management software, particularly those that include owner portals to give their clients access to essential details, from inspection findings to monthly reports.
They’ll be able to access the details they want in real time and at their own convenience through the portal, which means your clients can have many of their questions answered and needs met without additional effort for your team.
Likewise, most renters (88% as of 2025) are open to taking care of tasks related to their rentals online. The pandemic has partially been responsible for this, along with a larger percentage of younger, tech savvy tenants entering the rental market.
But these expectations are also starting to extend beyond a single demographic. Tenants of all age groups want their property manager to offer digital options. Their top requested services include:
Electronic payments
Email and text communication
Electronic leasing
Online maintenance ticketing
Reporting on-time payments to credit bureaus
Online utility setup and billing
Smart property managers are keeping up with renters’ preferred payment methods and introducing solutions that are a win-win for their tenants and their own business.
Online maintenance ticketing, for example, can provide a fast, straightforward way for a tenant to make a repair request, which property managers can view, send off to a vendor, and track through to completion. Showcasing some of these technologies and the convenience they create can also be a compelling way to attract prospective tenants to your properties.
Using Technology for Property Management Operations
One of the easiest ways to benefit from technology is to use it to do business more efficiently. In our recent Industry Report, 48% of surveyed property managers said they’re using technology to improve efficiency.
While generic tools, such as basic word processing, spreadsheets, and document sharing services, do shave some time off the average workday, purpose-built software has the benefit of targeting the specific intricacies of property management.
A great example of this is creating lease agreements. Property management software often comes pre-equipped with several different types of templates that you can easily customize, creating custom fields and adding details as you go. Once you have an agreement that meets your needs, you can save and share it.
In fact, the entire leasing lifecycle benefits from this kind of specialization.
With the right technology you can process applications, perform tenant screenings, send out and sign lease agreements and inspection documents, store all the details on that specific lease, and even collect rent payments and security deposits all within the same platform.
You won’t be spending as much time jumping between programs, fishing out a particular file, or getting a new team member up to speed on a tenant or lease. Everything is right there for you in one place.
Using Technology to Find Marketing and Business Growth Opportunities
Another benefit of having all the details of your properties and leases easily accessible is that you can make smarter business decisions, both big and small. If you open up the repair history for a specific unit and see similar work orders, for example, it may be time to invest in a new appliance or find a new vendor.
On a larger scale, you can use insightful reports on a property and convenient communication tools to build stronger relationships with clients, which can translate to referrals to other properties.
These tools put you in good stead to become trusted advisors for your clients when they are looking for new investment insights. You’ll have the data to back up recommendations you make, further adding to the value your company brings to owners.
With analytics tools, you can also look into your own business growth, nurturing areas that have the potential to give you the most ROI. That includes marketing. As we’ll explore, there’s technology specifically designed to strengthen your brand and help you find more leads.
Finally, certain services such as rent reporting to credit agencies or a third-party, 24/7 maintenance contact center can add value for your tenants, more than justifying additional service fees to help bring in additional revenue.
