The Essential Guide to Property Management Websites

As the global pandemic continues to drive astonishing advances in digital life, the commercial real estate industry is adapting rapidly with exciting innovations. Now more than ever, building owners and property managers are discovering that engaging, informative, and accessible property management websites can deliver a wide range of advantages in today’s marketplace.

Along with most other aspects of their businesses, tenants today expect to be able to accomplish a variety of tasks 24/7 with a click or tap of a screen.

Why do you need a property management website?

Beyond simply existing as self-service portals, a well-developed property management website helps property owners and managers streamline services and communications by providing an intuitive information hub that empowers tenants to easily access everything they need.

Here are 5 reasons why a property management website can help enhance the tenant experience from end-to-end. 

1. Present a consistent digital identity

As with any business, you need a professional and inviting digital presence for your properties. A management site can connect seamlessly to the main site for each property, offering a fluid experience as prospective clients become tenants. This external-internal flow helps you maintain consistent brand and marketing identity, further developing trust and confidence as you build long-term relationships with your tenants.

2. Centralize information and access to support

At the most basic level, your property management website should act as a main information hub and connection to your management team.

At every hour of every day, your site can provide DIY access to details like building maps and parking rules, and automated services such as maintenance requests and guest registration. This also reduces the administrative workload for your management team, allowing them to prioritize key interactions.

3. Highlight and improve access to tenant amenities

By featuring property amenities on your management site, you can further support your internal marketing efforts by showcasing everything your building has to offer. Additionally, providing online access to booking tools can encourage more tenant uptake – an easy way to enrich their day-to-day experience.

4. Create a sense of connection and community

In the brave new world of living virtually and working remotely, a sense of belonging to a community is more important than ever. Many property management website templates have tools or integrations with tenant experience apps that facilitate connections between tenants, including message boards, interactive directories, instant messaging, and more. These services help build a digital community that tenants can interact with every day, at any time, at their own pace and convenience, to foster feelings of connectivity and satisfaction.

5. Increase tenant engagement

Along with encouraging communication between tenants, a property management website can provide ways to boost communication between tenants and management. From delivering immediate updates about COVID-19 safety protocols to sharing details about an upcoming appreciation event, email campaigns sent from your dashboard can proactively keep your tenants informed and engaged.

6. Gather invaluable data

Running smoothly behind the scenes, certain tools can allow you to collect and present detailed insights on tenant satisfaction and paint points, space usage trends, and demand for different amenities. You can then draw upon these insights for future improvements to monetize and market your building for greater revenue and retention.

Overall, a great property management website can help differentiate your building experience to attract and cultivate long-term tenants.

Property Management Website Examples

Now that you know the rationale behind building your own property management website, along with the key elements to include, here are a few successful examples for inspiration.

Key Elements of a Property Management Website Template

Here are the indispensable qualities to look out for when evaluating property management website templates:

Visuals

Make sure the template allows for beautiful and enticing images, videos, floor plans, virtual tours, and navigation elements to bring your property to life. This section can also include photo galleries of different tenant events, for example.

Property descriptions

This is a key way to re-emphasize and accentuate the top amenities and unique facets of your asset. Additionally, you may feature interactive maps of neighborhood amenities and points of interest.

Building certifications

Organize any accolades, awards, sustainability certifications, and professional accreditations in one place to form an impressive display of third-party endorsement.

Integrated work order system

Make it convenient for your tenants to create a new ticket by integrating a maintenance request or work order system within your property website.

Document portal

Allow your management team and tenants to securely exchange sensitive, important information. For example, SharpLaunch’s Document Portal offers a central online repository as a simple way to sign, process, send, receive, and store key documents.

Tenant directory

Build confidence via peer influence by visibly showcasing your tenants. This can have both an external and internal component. For example, SharpLaunch offers a module to display tenant logos, links, and locations in your property. Internally, this can then be linked with a messaging service, social media-style comms portal, or message board.

Tenant Services and Property Management Team Contact Information

Offer a direct, instant, and transparent link between tenants and management services for high-quality customer service. Additionally, you can use a specific section of the website to list all the available tenant services and key contacts. This way all the information such as cleaning and security services, timetable and availability, parking and access information are in one place and accessible 24/7 online.