Property Software Integrations: What Are They and Why Do They Matter?

Property software integrations play a crucial role in the day-to-day running of modern businesses in the real estate industry. As companies adopt more and more software solutions to manage their operations, it becomes increasingly important to ensure that these systems can work together seamlessly.

In a nutshell, software integrations allow different software applications to communicate and share data. This can streamline processes, reduce errors and save a lot of time spent on manual data transfer. As an example, integrations can allow data to be automatically transferred between a company’s CRM system and its accounting platform, enabling faster invoicing, billing or payments.

Another important benefit of property software integrations is the ability to create a unified view of business operations. When different systems are connected, it becomes easier to get a well-rounded picture of what’s happening across different areas of the business. This can be quite important for companies with multiple locations or departments.

When used this way, integrations help ensure that everyone is working with the same information across different platforms. A unified view can also help companies identify areas where they can optimise their processes or reduce costs.

As new software solutions emerge and existing ones are updated, integrating them quickly and easily into existing systems with minimal friction is very important. This will allow companies to take advantage of new technologies and capabilities without disrupting their existing operations.

But it’s not just internal factors that software integrations can help with. Companies harnessing the power of integrations can respond to external market conditions with much more agility, too. By quickly adding new tools or solutions to a platform they’re able to respond to behavioural and market conditions in real-time so they always keep pace with things as they evolve.

Overall, software integrations should be a priority component for any modern business’s infrastructure, as they will enable them to work more efficiently, make better decisions and stay competitive in a constantly evolving marketplace.

How do software integrations work?

Software integrations work by connecting different software systems, applications or platforms to allow them to communicate and share data. There are several ways software integrations can be achieved:

• Application Programming Interfaces (APIs): APIs are a set of rules and protocols that define how different software systems can communicate with each other. Developers can use APIs to integrate different systems and share data between them. Some APIs require little to no development, so if you’re less technically inclined they can be up and running in no time.
• Middleware: Middleware is a type of software that sits between different systems so they can communicate with each other. Middleware can translate data between different systems, formatting that data so it’s compatible with other platforms. Middleware can also perform other functions necessary for software integrations to be a success.
• Webhooks: Webhooks are great for allowing one system to send notifications to another when a specific event occurs. A property management system, for example, can use a webhook to notify a maintenance platform when a maintenance request is created.
• Custom Code: Developers can also create custom code to integrate different systems if the integration is more advanced, or if the above methods prove unviable. The developer will have to write custom code that extracts data from one system, transforms it to be compatible with another and then loads it into the second system.

The exact method and complexity of the integration will depend on the systems being integrated and what is needed from the integration. Some solution providers will have easy-to-use, one-click integrations while others will need custom-built ones.

Whatever the case may be, software integrations will typically demand some level of cooperation and communication between the developers of each platform being integrated to make sure everything is working as it should be.

Aside from the above methods to facilitate software integrations, open APIs can also be a powerful addition to any tech stack. The Property Inspect open API, for example, is freely available for developers to integrate and synchronise data between systems.

It’s typically the case that public APIs and open APIs are viewed as one and the same, but public APIs can tend to be more restrictive. This is why we’ve developed an open API, which enables unrestrictive integration options, providing both endpoints – or the touchpoints for each communication channel – for posting and pulling data, combined with the previously mentioned webhooks for triggering POST data to any custom endpoint.

The main priorities for any good open API are ease of use and accessibility, and our proprietary open-source technology helps facilitate exactly that, enabling standardisation across the real estate industry.

How do software integrations benefit the real estate industry?

The wider real estate industry can be considered fragmented because it consists of many different segments and players with unique practices and processes. There are a number of factors contributing to its fragmented nature. For example, the real estate industry comprises a variety of properties in the residential, commercial and industrial sectors, which each have their own regulations and market dynamics.

There are also a considerable number of stakeholders, from real estate agents to investors and property managers to lenders, and not least the buyers, sellers and tenants. Although the real estate industry is widely fragmented, many leaders and organisations are working together to drive standardisation and transparency. Integration providers are facilitating standardisation and will play an important role as the work of these cross-sector organisations becomes more commonplace.

Aside from changing perspectives, raising standards and driving transparency, property software integrations help real estate organisations and property professionals to:

Improve efficiency: Integrating different software solutions, tools and systems will enable property professionals to streamline processes, automate tasks and reduce manual work, resulting in improved efficiency and, as a consequence, improved productivity.

Enhance data management: Integrating data sources can help improve data management and reduce data silos. This can lead to better decision-making and more accurate insights, and aids compliance, too.

Enable seamless communication: Integrating communication channels can help improve collaboration and communication between teams and stakeholders, leading to more effective and efficient workflows.

Deliver better customer experiences: Integrating tools and systems can help improve the customer experience by providing an integrated experience. For example, integrating a property management system with a tenant portal will provide tenants with easy access to their rental information, maintenance requests and other important details.

Gain a competitive advantage: Technology and systems integrations can give companies an edge over their competitors by providing innovative solutions that meet the changing needs of their customers. One simple way this can be achieved is by digitising a previously paper-based process. It might well be a key differentiating factor.

How Property Inspect integrates with leading real estate platforms

Fixflo

Fixflo is a smart, web-based repairs and maintenance management solution redefining how repairs and maintenance issues are managed at home and in places of work. Its cloud-based software enables property managers to improve efficiency and remove the barriers to fast and effective maintenance resolution. Doing so, businesses leveraging Fixflo’s platform can go the extra mile and exceed client expectations with a lightning-fast service.

Additionally, regulatory compliance is a huge factor for Fixflo’s users, with the software storing a comprehensive, highly-detailed audit trail of all repairs and maintenance issues so providers ensure they’re always on the right side of regulatory guidance.

Customers using Fixflo benefit from seamless syncing between their Fixflo and Property Inspect accounts, whether that’s actions, properties or assets, creating a much more streamlined process for documenting and distributing crucial information in an instant.

Overall, Property Inspect’s integration with Fixflo simplifies the process of identifying and monitoring repair and maintenance issues by assigning them to specific categories, saving time and manual work. This fundamentally enables easy management of suppliers. What’s more, users will also benefit from instant notifications when an issue is flagged as resolved, so it can be logged into their account.

Integration features

Actions: Control actions and categories, enabling users to segregate and control the actions that particular teams must take to resolve the issue. This improves organisational oversight, ensuring any action is swiftly resolved.

Syncing: Smart syncing of actions helps users predefine which category the maintenance or repair issue falls under, so users can quickly and easily control access permissions on a job-by-job basis, so the accountable team is assigned the appropriate task at all times.

Suppliers: Granting users control over suppliers’ actions greatly benefits the effectiveness of their operations, enabling them to customise which actions are applicable, as and when it is needed. This improves accountability and communication with suppliers, ensuring that all tasks are completed efficiently.

Open Communication: Our integration with Fixflo enables open communication between the two systems, so any issues that are updated in Fixflo will also be communicated to Property Inspect. Using these real-time status updates prevents them from being lost or forgotten in one system or the other, so all stakeholders have full visibility.

Properties & Buildings: Save time and manual administration by streamlining property/asset management across all devices and platforms, reducing the workload for users and eliminating the risk of error.

MRI Software

MRI Software is a leading provider of real estate software solutions that help property owners, investors and managers to optimise their operations, manage properties and analyse market trends.

The company provides a wide range of software products, including property management, accounting and financial management, leasing and occupancy, facilities management and investment management solutions.

MRI Software’s solutions are used by a broad range of customers, including commercial and residential property owners, real estate investors, lenders and government agencies, among many others. Overall, the company’s suite of software is designed to streamline operations, improve decision-making and drive greater value from real estate assets.

The Property Inspect app is available for MRI Software’s 45,000 clients in over 170 countries through the MRI Partner Connect program, building on Property Inspect’s ambition to speed up the property process and drive cultural and operational change in a fragmented industry. As a result, the workflows and processes of property professionals will be more connected, making a real difference for businesses across the world.

Through App Connect, MRI customers can now connect all of their property service providers, including Property Inspect, so they can collaborate, outsource and centralise their property documentation, inspections and certificates, providing in-house reporting tools to streamline the wider process.

To learn more about Property Inspect integrations, visit our Integrations page.