Your phone buzzes with an urgent text from a tenant about a broken pipe. At the office, three leasing agents spend their morning going through the previous night’s applications, asking each other, "Is this person real?" Meanwhile, you're still collecting rent via paper check, and delinquencies are climbing.

Property management involves many moving parts—from attracting applicants through tenant retention—that can quickly become overwhelming without the right tools. Fortunately, today's technology can take much of this burden off your shoulders.

"Most people are looking for technology that's going to make their life easier and not going to be a heavy lift," says Richard Philpot, a sales leader at Findigs. "So, what can I take off my team's plate that's going to make us much more efficient?"

According to market research, the U.S. property management software market was valued at $1.5 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow at a rate of 7.7% through 2030. A report from MordorIntelligence found accounting software (90%), payment processing tools (81%), and specialized property management software (79%) lead adoption rates.

Whether you're still doing a lot of work manually or trying to fine-tune your tech stack, choosing the right solutions for your business can be challenging. This guide explores the technology solutions that today's property managers need to save time, boost occupancy, and reduce headaches.

Tenant screening: deserving of its own platform

Tenant screening technology helps you find qualified renters quickly while freeing up your team to focus on building relationships and closing leases. When done right, it connects you with renters who pay on time and take care of your properties, all while cutting hours of repetitive work from your team's week. 

With fraud on the rise, using the right technology has become more critical than ever before. Smart screening platforms allow teams to maintain sales momentum, without losing hours of every day to collect and authenticate documents.

"With manual screening, a really talented leasing agent might be able to manage three different prospects at once—reaching out to each one, trying to capture documents, reviewing them all. Maybe they come into the office, give you their driver's license, you're scanning stuff," explains Josh Lin, VP at McKinley Apartments and Properties.

By implementing automated screening through Findigs, McKinley was able to double their leasing agents' productivity from three to six prospects. Their team estimated they saved 15,000-20,000 work hours annually across their 14,000 units. This freed up their leasing agents to focus on showing properties, building relationships with prospects, and increasing their sales throughput overall.

While many property management systems offer basic screening capabilities, today's challenges often call for a dedicated solution. Basic screening functions built into larger platforms may lack the specialized technology needed to detect sophisticated application issues or handle complex verification scenarios.

A complete tenant screening platform should include:

Fraud protection

Rental fraud is on the rise, with 93% of property managers experiencing fraud and 71% seeing an increase. The availability of technology and AI has made it easier to mix real and fake information to create convincing fake identities. As fraud gets more sophisticated, the most effective detection tools look at the whole application process, catching inconsistencies that might slip through one-by-one review. 

Identity verification

Modern identity verification goes beyond basic photo matching. Advanced systems use multiple verification layers, including barcode scanning on IDs, cross-referencing records from reliable sources, device verification, and analyzing behavioral patterns during the application process. When these layers work together, you get a clearer picture of who's really applying—giving you confidence to approve legitimate applicants quickly while flagging the ones that need a closer look.

Income verification

Direct connections to banks and payroll providers offer the most reliable income verification. These secure connections let applicants share verified financial information without manual uploads. For applicants with non-traditional income sources, advanced document analysis tools can verify these materials accurately.

Document analysis

Document verification examines both visible content and hidden metadata in uploaded files to confirm authenticity. This is particularly important for documents like offer letters, which don't follow standardized formats like bank statements.

Pet screening

Pet screening helps property managers track animals residing in their properties, collect appropriate fees, and maintain records for insurance purposes. It also helps properly classify emotional support animals and service animals that may be exempt from certain restrictions or fees.

Leading tenant screening platforms

Findigs offers comprehensive screening with DecisionAssist, which automates the screening process based on standard criteria. Unlike competitors, Findigs handles every step without requiring intervention from your staff, while providing approve/decline decision guidance on every applicant. 

Our system examines both what applicants submit and how they submit it, catching potential issues that others miss. In a recent analysis with McKinley, Findigs looked back at residents who had faced eviction. The results showed their system would have flagged 44% of those applications upfront as potentially problematic.

Other tenant screening software options include Vero, which focuses on identity and income verification; Snappt, which specializes in document fraud detection; ApproveShield, which offers customizable screening criteria; and RentSpree, which collaborates with TransUnion for background checks.

The key difference? While Findigs’ competitors handle many situations, property managers still need staff available for scenarios they can't process. Findigs makes it so on-site teams don't have to touch applications at all, regardless of complexity. It's not just a tool that helps your team—it's a tool that takes the work of screening off their plate, freeing them to focus on more valuable work.

Core property management software

Core property management software serves as the central operating system for your business, handling essential functions like lease management, tenant communication, maintenance tracking, financial operations, and reporting. These platforms help coordinate all aspects of property management in a single system, including:

• Tenant and lease management
• Owner accounting and reporting
• Work order management
• Document storage and e-signatures
• Online portals for tenants and owners
• Marketing and vacancy listings

Popular options include Yardi, RealPage, AppFolio, and Entrata. While these platforms offer many integrated functions, many property managers find that specialized tools often provide more advanced capabilities in specific areas.

Property management systems offer many solutions under one roof, but specialized providers often develop deeper functionality in their specific focus areas. This is why many property managers use a core system supplemented by best-of-breed solutions for critical functions like tenant screening.

AI in property management: beyond the buzzword

Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing how property managers work. While "AI" is often tossed around in marketing messages, there are concrete applications delivering real value in property management today.

"AI is definitely leading the charge as far as what's top of mind for everybody,” says Philpot. “Property managers are looking at how AI can help them make quicker decisions with their data. Right now, some companies have sophisticated BI tools and data warehouses, while others are running SQL queries to get basic reports. The goal is to automate that analytical work and gain better visibility into their portfolio performance."

Here are few additional examples of how AI is being used in property management today:

• Document analysis: AI tools can extract key information from leases, applications, and maintenance requests in seconds rather than minutes or hours of human review. This includes identifying document tampering that might be invisible to the human eye.
• Fraud detection: AI systems analyze hundreds of data points from each application, flagging suspicious patterns that traditional screening might miss. For example, AI can detect when information has been copied and pasted rather than typed naturally, a common indicator of fraud.
• Maintenance prioritization: AI can predict which maintenance issues are likely to become emergencies based on historical data, helping property managers allocate resources more effectively. For instance, a small plumbing issue in a certain building might be flagged for immediate attention based on previous flooding patterns.
• Pricing optimization: AI analyzes market data alongside your property's performance history to recommend rental rates that maximize both occupancy and revenue. These systems can adjust pricing recommendations based on seasonal patterns and neighborhood-specific trends.
• Chatbots and virtual assistants: Beyond basic FAQ responses, today's AI assistants can schedule property tours, qualify leads, and answer specific questions about available units. They can hand off to human agents at exactly the right moment in the conversation.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Property management CRMs help teams track prospects from initial interest through move-in, creating a structured process for nurturing leads and boosting conversion.

Leading property management CRMs include:

• Funnel: Specializes in multifamily properties with strong automation features and pre-built workflows that guide leasing agents through the entire leasing process.
• Knock: Focuses on lead management with powerful analytics that help identify your most effective marketing channels and optimize spending.
• Yardi RENTCafé CRM: Integrates closely with Yardi property management software, creating a unified data flow between marketing, leasing, and operations.
• LeaseHawk: Uses AI to qualify leads and includes tools for tracking prospect follow-up performance and conversion rates.

These platforms typically feature automated follow-up sequences, tour scheduling, performance dashboards, and integration with property management software. The top systems can track the entire customer journey, helping property managers understand which marketing channels deliver the highest-quality prospects.

Maintenance requests

Unit 1607 has a plumbing issue? No problem—it’s going to be taken care of with little effort on your end—at least that’s the goal of technology handling maintenance requests.

Maintenance management platforms help property managers track, assign, and resolve maintenance requests efficiently. The typical workflow includes:

1. Request submission: Tenants submit requests through a portal or app, including photos or videos of the issue
2. Triage and assignment: Requests are categorized by urgency and assigned to staff or outside vendors
3. Work completion: Technicians document work performed and materials used
4. Closing and follow-up: The system records completion and may request tenant satisfaction feedback

Leading maintenance tracking platforms include:

• Property Meld: Focuses on streamlining maintenance coordination between tenants, technicians, and property managers with strong communication tools.
• BuildingLink: Offers comprehensive maintenance tracking with robust reporting features and vendor management.
• SiteWorks: Specializes in preventive maintenance scheduling and inventory management.
• Latchel: Provides 24/7 maintenance coordination services combined with software, handling tenant communication and vendor dispatching.

These systems help property managers reduce response times, control costs, and improve tenant satisfaction by providing visibility into the entire maintenance process.

"Maintenance has gotten much more expensive, and it's harder to find talent," Philpot notes. "Property managers are looking for tools that make their teams more efficient with vendors and invoices—that's something I'm hearing about constantly."

Rent collection

Digital payment platforms have revolutionized rent collection, offering convenience for tenants and reducing administrative work for property managers. These systems typically include:

• Multiple payment methods (ACH, credit/debit card, digital wallets)
• Automatic payment reminders
• Late fee calculation and enforcement
• Payment tracking and reporting
• Rent ledger maintenance for tax and accounting purposes

A few of the top rent collection platforms include:

• Zego (formerly PayLease): Offers comprehensive payment solutions with strong integration capabilities across multiple property management systems.
• PayYourRent: Features flexible payment options and robust reporting with competitive processing fees.
• Rentler: Combines payment processing with credit reporting, helping tenants build credit history through on-time rent payments.
• RentTrack: Provides automatic credit reporting to all three major bureaus, offering tenants a valuable incentive to pay through the platform.

Property managers using digital payment systems report lower delinquency rates compared to those using traditional collection methods. These platforms also reduce the administrative burden of processing physical payments and manual record-keeping.

Accounting systems

While some core property management systems include accounting functions, dedicated solutions may offer more robust features for financial management.

Property management accounting differs from general business accounting in several key ways:

• Trust accounting for security deposits
• Owner draw management
• CAM and NNN reconciliation
• Unit-level cost tracking
• 1099 preparation for owners and vendors

Popular property management accounting solutions include:

• AppFolio: Offers comprehensive accounting features specifically designed for property managers, with strong reporting capabilities.
• Buildium: Provides owner portals, bank reconciliation, and detailed financial reporting tailored to property management needs.
• Quickbooks Property Management: Adapts the popular accounting platform with specialized features for rental property accounting.
• Stessa: Focused on individual investors, offering automated income and expense tracking with tax-ready reporting.

These specialized systems help property managers maintain accurate financial records, automate routine tasks, and produce detailed reports for owners and stakeholders.

Analytics and data management

Analytics platforms can pull data from multiple systems (property management software, tenant screening, maintenance records, etc.) to create a comprehensive view of performance. This approach helps property managers identify correlations that might otherwise remain hidden.

Lin, the VP of McKinley Apartments, explains how they're using data to make better decisions: "We analyzed over 200 evictions and skips we had, put it through all of the application data that we had, mashed it up and said, 'All right, if we take credit score requirements up a certain amount, what percentage of your evictions and skips you experienced would have been avoided?'"

This data-driven approach represents the future of property management. Instead of relying on intuition or industry standards, forward-thinking property managers are using their own data to optimize operations.

Analytics tools can help you:

• Optimize rental pricing based on market conditions and demand patterns
• Predict which applicants are likely to become reliable, long-term tenants
• Track marketing channel effectiveness based on actual move-ins, not just inquiries
• Measure the ROI of technology investments through concrete performance metrics
• Identify patterns in maintenance issues to implement preventive measures

Security deposit alternatives 

Security deposit alternatives have grown in popularity by offering tenants a more affordable move-in experience while providing property owners with protection that often exceeds traditional security deposits.

"Security deposit alternatives and lease guarantee products... there's still a lot of conversation around that," says Philpot. "People are concerned with understanding the differences in how quickly they get payouts to those companies. Is it an insurance product, is it a surety bond product? And how can they get the results that they want much quicker?"

These products typically work in one of two ways:

• Insurance-based models: Tenants pay a non-refundable monthly fee (typically 5-10% of what a security deposit would be)
• Surety bond approaches: Tenants pay a one-time fee (often 15-20% of the security deposit amount)

Several companies offer security deposit alternatives with varying features and benefits. Rhino, TheGuarantors, and LeaseLock have established themselves in this growing market, each with their own approach to replacing traditional deposits.

For property managers using the Findigs platform, Termwise offers a seamlessly integrated deposit alternative that combines the benefits of an insurance-based model with an exceptional user experience. 

Eligible residents can opt in directly from their Findigs dashboard, replacing the traditional security deposit with a low monthly payment. The system maintains transparency throughout the lease term, with clear payment requests for any damages beyond normal wear and tear, while property managers benefit from a streamlined claims process for unpaid damage or missed rent.

Feedback from renters using Termwise has been overwhelmingly positive, with families and individuals highlighting how the monthly payment structure freed up crucial funds for moving expenses and eased financial pressure during the relocation process. Many renters report that Termwise made quality housing more accessible by eliminating the burden of a large upfront deposit.

For property managers, these alternatives can give you an edge in competitive rental markets by reducing move-in costs for qualified renters. They can also free you from the headaches of security deposit management and compliance concerns. Key considerations when evaluating these services include coverage amounts, claim process simplicity, payout speed, and tenant satisfaction with the offering.

Automation vs. centralization

Many property managers are centralizing operations—moving tasks from individual properties to a central office. However, there's an important distinction between centralization and automation that's often overlooked.

Centralization changes who does the work, moving it from on-site staff to a specialized team. Automation changes whether humans need to do the work at all, or how they’re involved, using technology to handle tasks with little to no manual intervention. 

"Centralized does not equal automated," Philpot emphasizes. He explains the difference: "For example, one company we worked with moved all of the people that were on site handling screening to a centralized location. They made it so instead of 50 people having to touch applications, now they had eight people. That’s centralization. But with Findigs, you can now make it so instead of using eight people on screening, you can now move them to sales and leasing-—which is where the automation piece comes in."

Centralization can improve consistency and allow for specialized expertise, but it still requires human time and attention. True automation eliminates the need for manual work entirely, freeing your team to focus on high-value activities that technology can't handle.

You'll likely want to use both strategies together—centralizing operations for consistency and then automating where possible for maximum efficiency.

Building your tech strategy

When developing your approach to property management technology:

1. Focus on your biggest pain points first. Is fraud causing costly evictions? Are maintenance requests overwhelming your team? Tackle the areas where technology can make the biggest impact on your operation.
2. Consider integration needs. Your systems need to talk to each other. "Making sure all these systems work cohesively together is challenging sometimes," notes Philpot. "For instance, in screening, if a prospect is using AI chatbots to schedule tours, you need those tools to communicate with your application system. When a renter says: 'I want to apply,' your link needs to be pushed through that chatbot. Then once they fill out your application, it needs to talk to the CRM to update the guest card in the property management system."
3. Balance all-in-one vs. best-of-breed. Property management platforms offer convenience, but specialized tools often deliver better results in specific areas. Consider where you need exceptional performance versus acceptable functionality.
4. Think about measurable outcomes. The right technology for you should deliver concrete improvements in occupancy, bad debt reduction, time savings, or tenant satisfaction. Establish baseline metrics before implementing new tools so you can measure their impact.

Bringing in the best mix of technology solutions can dramatically improve your property management business, cutting costs while improving tenant experiences. By focusing on your specific needs and choosing tools that deliver measurable results, you'll be well-positioned to succeed in today's competitive rental market.

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