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karina 
Updated on March 2, 2024 
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A skillful realty management company is one of every investor’s most important assets. Even though the real estate industry is auspicious, a proficient management team makes the investment worth it.
The reasons why property management is here to stay are the same reasons why this industry will never be replaced by advancing technology. Even though things like rental property management software make a property manager’s job easier, you still need real people tracking things and making important decisions.
Here are five reasons why the industry will still be around for a while.
#1: Realty management offers that human connection.
Your tenants don’t want to deal with a computer all the time. When something goes wrong, they prefer access to a person to help them fix their situation.
While software can connect tenants directly to the maintenance team, it doesn’t stop there. The software will make the process easier, but a maintenance team works best when someone else sets up schedules and puts together the stuff they need to get repairs done. That frees them up to do what they do best—fix things!
When your tenants are going to be late on their payment, how do they tell a computer that? Can a computer understand a challenging situation they may be facing that’s causing a delayed payment? Can software help them find a solution?
Not really. But a person can, and that’s what good property managers are for. They can be unbending when needed, but they can also be accommodating and help create win-win situations when there isn’t one in plain sight.
#2: It provides a second set of eyes.
When you were in school and had some paper or report to submit, did you ever give it to other people to review before turning it in? I always tried to do this, as it helped ensure my paper didn’t have any typos, misspellings, grammar errors, etc. Even now, with the all-powerful Spell Check, things get missed by software.
That’s why having a person review documents comes in handy. From simple things like misspellings to much more important stuff like leaving a “0” off the monthly rent payment on the contract, having someone available to double-check essential documents isn’t something we can do away with any time soon.
#3: It screens tenants in no way a computer can.
There are several quantifiable things examined when a property manager is interviewing a potential tenant:
- Income
- Tenure at current employer
- Credit score
- Rental history
- Criminal records or brushes with the law
But there’s more to screening tenants than just looking at the numbers. While they tell part of the person’s story, it isn’t everything. Good property managers know they are also looking for other things in the person.
For example, do they seem like a slob? If they don’t take care of themselves, they’re more likely to trash the home, which is a mess for the property manager and landlord to clean up later.
Are they polite and conversational, or do they seem entitled or like they have a chip on their shoulder? Realty management personnel know they have to be willing to work with tenants throughout the length of the contract. So if the potential tenant isn’t pleasant, that’s not a good sign.
A computer can’t judge these things! The closest thing it can do is look at personality tests and calculate the results.
#4: Realty management brings the community together.
Establishing a strong community may not apply to property managers taking care of single-family homes. However, this can be important for landlords who own multi-family properties, even if they’re just four or eight units.
Even though some people living in apartments may talk and get to know each other, most just keep to themselves. A proactive realty management company will do things to bring everyone together. For example, they may plan an ice cream social or pool party in the summer. They may put on a Thanksgiving potluck in November.
Things like that seem trivial, but they’re great for bringing a community together. Unfortunately, no computer can do that.
#5: It makes decisions software is unable to drive.
As buildings get older, they need work done on them. For example, windows need to be replaced, and a new paint job may be necessary. Also, the grass might die, and the yard will need reseeding.
A realty management team will alert the investor when these things should happen. A computer can’t look at the property and evaluate the paint job, nor can it determine when a new roof is needed. But a live person on the ground can and does.
That saves landlords from having to come out themselves and take a look. And even if they did, they may miss things because they aren’t around tenants or the property as often as the property manager.
Key Takeaway
In a nutshell, people in realty management don’t have anything to worry about. Even though computer automation is taking some jobs away, the human aspect necessary to manage properties isn’t something that can be outsourced to a robot.
Hence, landlords and property managers should look at software not as threats that will take away their job but as their allies to help them perform better.
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