With thousands of property companies all over the country vying for business, efficiency is key. Issues such as software crashing, the burden of completing mundane administrational tasks and the pressure to conform to key legal requirements call all slow your business down. It becomes crystal clear that although many property software programs look the same and claim to have all the functionality your business will need, sometimes this is not the case.

Property Software is not intended as a tool to assist Estate Agents and Letting and Management Agents in their day to day operations but is far more a system and framework within which the daily business of Letting & Management is cared for by the property software. Administrational tasks are monitored by a myriad of checks and cross checks and backed by the Client Protection Schemes.

The difference between a highly successful agency and an average agency is the quality of the staff in that company and the role that the software plays so as to serve and enhance the staff’s productivity. In this way, the maximum time is spent on customer service and business development rather than chasing mistakes, worrying about legal and compliance issues, or God forbid correcting errors in the software system itself.

When choosing your Property Software there are many key variables to take into account;

• If you had not received a valid gas check certificate, would your property software send a letter to the tenants advising them not to use their gas appliances until they’ve arranged a check?

• Does your property software already include and police all the requirements for anti-money laundering, has it already taken into account the new deposit holder scheme requirements and HMO licencing?

• Can your property software give you immediate breakdowns of branch by branch performance and even negotiator performance to highlight staff training requirements?

• Can you mail merge to groups such as managed property landlords and produce letters without having to click back and forth between screens?

• Does it record where all the keys to your properties are and ensure you have control over them at all times?

With many companies providing Property Software packages from off the shelf software to bespoke systems, researching and listing your key requirements and any legal requirements will help you in making the right choice. Your software should care for your daily business needs, reduce the time spent on mundane administrational tasks and prevent costly mistakes by checking and cross checking the information in the database. This will result in your staff having more time to for customer service and business development.