The more time I spend in the property management software industry (it’s been over seven years now), the more confident I get in the level of service and the quality of the product that we offer our clients.  Just recently, an intelligent, thoughtful prospect who’s experienced managing very large portfolios with some of the most popular (and expensive) programs on the market today, told me that “nobody is really happy with their software.  The problem we are trying to solve is complex and requires a complex solution.”  While I can truly appreciate the complexity of the problem, I don’t agree that the solution needs to seem complex to the average end user, even if the actual processing being done behind the scenes is in fact quite complicated.

Yes, our product is broad and deep in what it can do.  It processes complex financial transactions while following GAAP and produces sophisticated financial statements.   It handles the myriad rules that go into filing Annual Rent Registrations with the DHCR (this is unfortunately not as easy as simply determining the April 1 legal rent).  It handles building wide MCI increases by calculating retroactive charges and caps on future increases.  These are all complex problems which our users solve with relative ease in an elegant and efficient fashion each and every day.

So how do we do it?

 First, the program is designed with our specific client base in mind.  For New York based managers, there is no need to re-invent the wheel.  We work with thousands of property managers in New York, and guess what, it turns out that you are all more or less dealing with the same basic inefficiencies on a daily basis.  Generation of Rent Stabilized Renewals.  Processing of monthly report packages.  Handling Section 8 tenants.  Tracking HPD violations.  Calculating and billing Porter’s Wages.  All of this and much, much more is handled by our system without the need to customize a thing.  After the setup of a few basic properties behind the scenes, it just works.  Right out of the box.  As if it was made just for you… because it more or less was.  MDS focuses on the New York market and includes the features on everyone’s wish list that are typically complex, expensive custom jobs (if they are available at all) with national providers.

Next comes training.  Yes, despite the elegance and inherent usability of the program itself, training is definitely required.  As I mentioned before, our program does quite a bit for you, so there is quite a bit to learn.  However, through a step by step, well planned approach, we can teach you our program without it feeling like an overwhelming experience.  Our typical installation will usually include between 24-30 hours of total training time broken across a series of onsite and online sessions.  Yes, you can be up and running with far less time, but you can be truly humming along with just 24 hours of training.  If you think that sounds like a lot of time, consider the fact that my competition is consistently coming in with estimates of three times as many hours for a comparable system.

The final component of delivering on our promise of solving your complex problems in an easy way is our support staff.  Our maintenance agreements include not only software upgrades, but access to our top notch, local support team (this is another big difference between us and our competition- support is included with maintenance).  These guys usually know what you are talking about before you finish your sentence.  Preferential Rents?  No problem- they’ve been down that road many times before.  Mitchell- Lama Surcharge calculations?  Yup, that too.  Our team is friendly, available and knowledgeable.  Usually, just one quick call can save you hours.  Plus, since this service is included in your maintenance contract, so why not take full advantage, turning our team into a “force multiplier” for your existing staff.

Yesterday, I received word from the prospective client that I mentioned earlier that after an extensive review, he would be moving ahead with us.  I am truly excited to show him that it is possible to not only be satisfied with your software, but to be truly happy and even enthusiastic about your software provider.  I really don’t think that that’s too much to expect after making a big investment in time, energy and capital.

The flood of property management software systems coming onto the market today is making it more and more difficult for a consumer to make an educated decision as to which product will best suit their needs.  Here are five things to watch out for when shopping for property management software:

1.  Vendors That are New to the Market.

It is a monumental task to design and test a comprehensive, enterprise level accounting system.  Unless you want to be a guinea pig, stick to the companies that have been in the market for 10 years or more.

2.  Companies Touting “Web Based” as a Main Selling Point

Self service resident portals are great.  Remote connectivity is a must.  However, the backbone of your system must be a bulletproof bookkeeping, accounting and financial reporting engine.  Online web portals are relatively easy to create and any system can be setup for outside remote access.  Especially if you are a self managed cooperative or condominium development, this can be an easy trap to fall into.  The board falls in love with the pretty online resident portal and low price tag, while the professional managers get stuck holding the bag with a system that cannot handle the true work required to make things run smoothly on the back end.  Ouch…  Better questions to ask are: How do adjustments to tenants’ accounts affect prior period reporting?  Can I generate a rent roll from last year and have it be accurate?  Does the system handle cash and accrual simultaneous accounting?  Do you print 1098’s for owners?  Can I perform bank reconciliations on multiple bank accounts per entity?  Are resident balances tracked in a true open item format?  These are much more difficult, complex problems to solve from a programming standpoint and will affect your day-to-day operations more than the way your new system is being delivered to users.

3.  Vendors Unfamiliar with Your Local Market

This will become obvious the first time you make a call for assistance and ask something like “how should I be tracking preferential rents for rent stabilized units?”  If you have to explain what that means, you are in big trouble.

4.  Unlimited Free Service

Well, like it or not, the truth is, you get what you pay for.  There are plenty of vendors operating on the low end of the property management software market that sell their product cheap and include service for “free” or at ridiculously low rates.  The fact is, robust property management software requires a good ratio of skilled technicians to users to ensure a high level of service.  Free service is either unsustainable (aka, the provider will eventually go out of business) or extremely poor (“I had to wait a week for them to call me back, and when they did they couldn’t help me”).

5.  Never Ending Annual Licensing Fees with No Option to Buy

Having the option of getting into a high end system without tremendous outlays of cash upfront can be very attractive and in some cases makes sense.   However, keep in mind that you may not want to pay these fees forever and that the longer you are on a system of this nature the more data you have to lose if you do eventually decide to change vendors.  In my experience, it is very common for a client migrating to our product to keep their old system “alive” in the background in order to avoid the additional expense and hassle of converting every last bit and byte of historical data.  Without the option to buy, you are left with the choice of kissing access to your history goodbye, paying for two systems simultaneously, or converting your data.  Sure, you still own the raw database after discontinuing service, but it isn’t in a format that can be realistically accessed by an average user.

To be sure, it’s a jungle out there when you are new to the property management software market!  Hopefully, avoiding these potential pitfalls will help you to choose a system that will be a good fit and long term investment for your business for many years to come.

Last night, the New York real estate community anxiously waited to see what the Rent Guidelines Board would do with one and two year renewal rates for the approximately one million rent stabilized apartments in New York City.  In addition to the standard one and two year percentage increases, on the table was an additional fuel surcharge which would be applicable to residents living in certain buildings.  As it ends up, the board approved a 3.75% increase and 7.25% increase for one and two year renewals, respectively.  The board did not wind up voting on the additional fuel surcharge.

So, how does this affect a user of the MDS Explorer property management system?  In the end, since there was no additional increase for fuel surcharges, it is a relative non-event (from a user's standpoint at least).  The system is already flexible enough to handle the latest guidelines as they are currently written.  Simply go to  Utilities> Lease Renewal Properties> Define NYC DHCR Renewal Properties.  From here, you can add the new one and two year percentage guidelines.  It is important to note that all of the historical sets of guidelines are still being maintained.  Therefore, the system is smart enough to use the proper rates for whatever period you are printing DHCR rent stabilized lease renewal packages.

Again, as of now, there was no programming change required to accommodate the new guidelines.  However, rest assured that in the event that the RGB  does throws us a curve-ball, MDS will have you covered.  We already had programming time allotted to immediately handle any programming changes that may have been necessary.  We will continue to keep abreast of the situation to ensure that you don't skip a beat. As a property management software company focused on the local New York market, these regulations affect nearly all of our clients and we pride ourselves on adapting faster than any other vendor in the market- usually within 7 days.