How to make multi-family property inspections smarter and more efficient

February 28, 2022

In recent years, property inspection and operations software has become a much-needed tool in every property manager’s tech stack. 

A great alternative to traditional pen and paper processes, digitising your property inspections using an end-to-end property inspection and operations software greatly speeds up the overall process.

This is vital for a number of reasons, not least in the area of compliance. Ensuring everything is above board with evidence captured in granular detail enables property managers to keep a more comprehensive audit trail.

But aside from the legal aspect, when we talk about any tech or software solution, what we’re really looking for is efficiency. Through using property inspection and operations software, efficiency is given a real and tangible boost.

This is important because, as many of you know, the average property manager’s day-to-day tasks can be overwhelming, with so many moving parts to take care of.

So, making the inspection process more efficient frees property managers up to focus on other areas of the business.

However, while basic inspection apps offer advantages over the traditional pen and paper processes, they’re not all up to the task.

Of late, a handful of do-it-yourself applications have emerged on the market. Unfortunately, however, these “solutions” have left property managers feeling bamboozled rather than relieved.

In the case of some basic property inspection apps, the gains are only marginal, focusing on a single area instead of being a catch-all solution. Because of this, few property managers are compelled to make the switch.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Some leading property inspection and operations software is end-to-end, packed full of time-saving features that enable property managers to give their service the boost it desperately needs.

Why you should use an inspection app for multi-family inspections

Let’s pose a scenario that many property managers have faced before. At the end of the inspection, let’s say you’ve identified an issue, perhaps a wall is showing signs of degradation.

What normally happens next? Pushing paper around from office to office, manually contacting maintenance teams or external tradespeople. Maybe a quote is needed for the work, then a long wait time until you’ve even got a work commencement date.

After that? Document the repair, attach photographic evidence or other documentation, wait for further responses.

It’s all very time-consuming. 

Before you know it, that’s almost a dozen tasks for just one part of the inspection.

In the case of multi-family property management, taking into account multiple properties or units in a larger portfolio, things can get out of hand quickly.

Before long property and facilities managers are faced with a laundry list of things that need to be done for units to be made ready for new tenants.

With that in mind, property and facilities managers must ask themselves how efficient their process really is and look to make positive changes to their workflows.

Speeding up manual tasks and eliminating repetition in multi-family inspections

Using an end-to-end property inspection and operations app, property managers or facilities managers can benefit to no end by speeding up manual, repetitive processes.

Time-consuming tasks like inspections can be made all the more efficient through the use of pre-made templates, which can then be assigned to other team members, internally or externally.

Not only do these interactive and instant reports contain a detailed audit trail for compliance – as we mentioned previously – they also include important aspects of the process that require input from other teams in the organisation, such as hazards, maintenance and cleaning.

Bringing other departments into the fold in this way greatly increases transparency, enabling all stakeholders to gain valuable insight so that they can plan effectively.

Staying on top of changes is easy with alerts and notifications, through real-time and historical timelines, alerting you instantly when things change, providing summaries of outstanding and past reports to the right people at the right time.

But perhaps most importantly, end-to-end property inspection and operations software can give you the peace of mind you need to get a unit or a property back on the market, ensuring it’s up to standard and ready to go.

Beyond that, giving property managers, facilities managers or maintenance staff a smarter and faster way to conduct their work ensures that every unit generates as much turnover as possible.

With less time wasted, more tasks completed on average and visibility for all stakeholders, property inspection and operations software uncovers real value by greatly speeding up repetitive, manual tasks. 

If your processes aren’t up to scratch you’re missing out on these opportunities. Isn’t it about time you took your inspections and operations to the next level?

About the Author

Warrick Swift
Marketing Director
Warrick is the marketing director at Property Inspect. He has a passion for technology and Dune.
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