Outskirts Press, INC.

OBSERVATIONS OF A 30 YEAR VETERAN OF PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

The author creates what he believes is a needed systems extension to property management education utilizing his diverse but associated background prior to his work with property management systems. His observations are very pertinent to California property managers but also applicable to other property managers and owner/operators in other states, especially those that are under state and regional mandates and government review. His experience with multiple systems and hundreds of fee property managers and owner/operators since the 1980’s traces the evolution of property management systems and their most important features. He identifies the importance of due diligence in the evaluation and selection of a system plus the major issues that require serious consideration. He also identifies the necessity of increasing support and in some cases the replacement of traditional operations with newer systems, features and innovations. He introduces observations and recommendations re: the use of current systems in not only the traditional operations such as accounting, but also marketing, maintenance, niche management, the Internet, contracts and records, systems security, risk management, government entities, and systems management. He provides personal experience and a number of “horror stories” at a company level to share with his readers as a means to avoid the disasters that some property managers have barely survived. He has much to share and readers have much to benefit from his observations and recommendations.

Observations on site with so many of our clients have shown that the advanced features have not been implemented and in many cases at this time management and staff are not aware of, or do not remember their existence. Most often staff is to involved and too busy to take up the process of investigating and implementing on their own and too often similar circumstances seem to apply with management. Mean-while one of the solutions to the ”too busy” issue is left in limbo. Advanced features often provide the benefits of less labor and/ or growth with no increase in costs or administration.. So why would you not promote their implementation and use? Most advanced features are well worth remembering.