If you’ve been wanting to stay ahead of the competition, save yourself some time, and delight your clients, it may be time to consider the benefits of offering access to an owner portal.
What is an Owner Portal?
An owner portal is an online access point for property owners to connect to vital information about the status of their property or property portfolio being managed by a property management company.
An Online Portal Lets Your Clients Do the Following Online:
- Monitor rent payments received
- View expenses paid
- Review work orders
- View property ledgers
- Access the property portfolio statement (also known as an owner statement)
- Pull customizable property and portfolio level reports
- Receive and access important shared documents
- See owner disbursements received (also know as owner draw or owner distribution)
- Send an owner contribution by ACH to the property management company to cover unexpected expenses
- and more!
3 Reasons to Offer Your Property Management Clients Owner Portal Access
The three main reasons to consider giving your clients access to an online portal are time savings, improved communication, and competitive advantage.
1. Owner Portals Save You Time
If you currently spend your days creating and emailing (or using snail mail) to send your owners monthly, quarterly, and yearly reports, giving them access to an online portal is a game-changer.
Property managers field questions from tenants and owners all day, every day. Owner portals can reduce the amount of time spent in direct contact because self-managed information cuts down on the number of calls and emails received from owners.
2. Owner Portals Improve Communication
You can upload files to share with your clients directly to their portal. Items some property management companies choose to share for easy access are management agreements, lease agreements, copies of work orders, and documents shared with tenants. Owners will no longer have to wait for reports in the mail and you can communicate important information by automating work order sharing or clicking a button to share a document.
3. Owner Portals Give You a Competitive Advantage
In addition to building a great rental business reputation, an owner portal can set your property management company ahead of the competition. Utilizing a property management software with a stellar owner portal allows you to market those features as part of your owner management service. and help grow your property management business.
By offering a robust owner portal to your clients, you can stand out from the competition as being the property management company up-to-date with technology and appeal to those clients wanting the best from what technology has to offer.
Benefits and Features of an Owner Portal
- Convenient 24/7 easy access
- Self-service to support individual client needs
- Reduces number of calls received
- Reduces amount of emails received
- Improves communication
- Reduces paper clutter
- Competitive advantage
Online Portal FAQ for Clients
What Can Clients See in Their Portal?
- Owner distributions they’ve received
- Owner contributions they’ve provided
- Rental income
- Rental expenses
- Property management fees charged
- Work orders
- Owner statements
- Property ledgers
- Portfolio ledger
- Attached receipts to expenses
- Shared tenant forms
- Shared documents
- and other shared information
Where do I find my Portal?
If you have your properties managed by a property management company, they would need to be using property management software that offers online owner portals to give you access. The best property management software companies want to give their clients the best features and services for them to maximize their time and help foster a good relationship with the owners they serve. That would include offering owner portals with robust options.
How Does an Owner Portal Work?
Your property management company would enable the owner portal for you. Access would include a user name (typically your email address) and a password received from your property manager. From there, you would download the owner portal app for your smartphone or device or use a browser for access.
What’s Not to Love?
- Owners love online portal access for the convenience of having at-a-glance organized information available 24/7. They can pull their own reports to give to their accountants and be able to see the health of their property portfolio from the comfort of home or on the go.
- Property managers and support staff love owner portals for the time savings from reduced emails and calls. Not to mention time saved by not pulling, printing, and sending reports. It cuts down on the office paper clutter too!
- Property management companies love owner portals for the competitive advantage, better communication with their clients, and improved relations.
All this love translates to happier clients, happier support staff, and hopefully happier profits. Remember, if you already use a property management software system, check to see if they have a robust owner portal to provide to your clients.
You’ll want your property management software to not only provide online portal access but also have an owner portal app available so that your clients can check the status of their portfolio on the go from any smartphone or device.
Lastly, make sure software allows you to customize owner portal options, share important documents, allow access to work orders and is easy for your clients to use.