Commercial property landlords deal with a lot of moving parts, so they need an effective, efficient system if they’re going to run a successful business. When an operation outgrows spreadsheets and whiteboards, many landlords are tempted to buy into a property management software platform.
For a lot of family offices and small to mid-tier operators, it’s not long before they throw up their hands in frustration and run back to Excel because they’re overwhelmed by all the features in that shiny new property management system.
But there’s a better way. A new breed of dedicated commercial lease management software offers only the features you need in a simple, easy-to-use interface.
This might be overstating the obvious, but make sure the software you select is easy to use and that it fits your budget. Even if the demo makes it look easy, take a good hard look at what’s happening on the screen and ask yourself if it makes sense. Complexity and high costs are two red flags signaling that you’ll just end up changing systems after the honeymoon ends.
That’s a huge hassle. So you might as well skip the mistake and get it right the first time.
The first thing you should do is figure out what you want the software for and what your biggest challenges are. For most family offices, the big hurdles are:
• Remembering annual rent escalations for each tenant
• Knowing when leases expire
• Having the ability to collect rent electronically
• Getting easy access to lease documents
• Building a consolidated contact list of all tenants
• Sharing information with trusted team members
Those essential features give most operators everything they need to efficiently run a commercial real estate portfolio. And lease management software offers all that in a low-cost, user-friendly package.
Those essential features give most operators everything they need to efficiently run a commercial real estate portfolio. And lease management software offers all that in a low-cost, user-friendly package.
Unnecessary features and a confusing user interface are two of the biggest issues with many programs. Having a smorgasboard of options is awesome — unless you don’t need those features and it makes the program too complicated.
Another thing to look out for is what’s included vs. what the vendor will nickel-and-dime you for in additional features. When you see a demo that wows you with a lot of whiz-bang functionality, be sure to ask the sales rep if it’s all included in the base price.
And no matter how cool all those customizable features seem during the demo, ask yourself if you’ll really use them. The ability to personalize aspects of the user experinece is a nice selling point. But will you ever need those options?
Purpose-built lease management software does the trick for most commercial real estate owners and managers, and it doesn’t come with the added burden of configurable dashboards and options that get in your way.
To learn more about how Leasecake can help you simplify commercial real estate lease management, schedule a demo with Max today.
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