Revolutionizing Property Management Automation for Condo Associations
As community living evolves, residential communities—including strata councils, condo associations, and homeowner associations (HOAs)—are adapting to meet the growing expectations of homeowners and tenants. Condo associations are managed by an elected board of directors who carry out most of the association’s responsibilities. This includes maintaining an umbrella insurance policy, taking care of financial coverage for unexpected events, and maintenance of designated common areas. HOA boards are tasked with the similar responsibilities, and both often hire property management companies to help with day-to-day operations.
The push toward digital transformation makes property management automation more critical than ever. At Unify LIV, we provide solutions that empower condo associations and HOAs to streamline operations, enhance engagement, and effectively manage condo fees while delivering exceptional living experience to their residents.
What is Property Management Automation?
Property management automation refers to using technology to streamline and automate key tasks such as resident communication, financial management, amenity bookings, and maintenance requests. With Unify LIV, Condo Associations and HOAs can automate daily operations and access real-time insights on how common areas are used and managed.
The Importance of Automation in Property Management
Automation is a game-changer for multi-family residential communities aiming to deliver efficient services in today’s fast-paced world. For strata councils and boards of directors, automation frees up time for strategic decision-making and helps ensure compliance with community regulations. Data and insights provided by Unify LIV ensure transparent management of condo fees and operational efficiency.
Key Benefits of Property Management Automation
Understanding the benefits of technology is essential for any property manager looking to stay ahead. Here are some key benefits:
- Streamlined Operations: Automation reduces manual workloads for tasks like maintenance requests, resident inquiries, and financial management.
- Enhanced Resident Satisfaction: LIV features like automated notifications and real-time chat with property managers streamline communication and enable faster response.
- Cost Effective Management: Automated systems lower administrative and labor costs allowing associations to allocate resources and condo reserve funds more effectively.
- Data-Driven Insights: Gain actionable insights on property operation trends, amenity and infrastructure utilization, and resident engagement.
- Improved Compliance: Automation reduces human errors in regulatory tasks, ensuring condo associations stay compliant with local and government rules.
Assessing Your Current Processes
Before implementing new automation tools, it’s vital to assess your current processes to pinpoint the areas that can benefit the most from automation. Here’s how to start:
Identify Time-Consuming Tasks
Take a close look at daily operations. Which tasks consume the most time? These could be things like tenant inquiries, maintenance requests, or invoice processing. Can these tasks be automated? Identifying these pain points allows you to prioritize which areas to automate first.
Gather Feedback from Your Team
Your team’s insights can be invaluable. Engaging your property management staff in discussions about their daily challenges can uncover additional opportunities for automation that you might overlook.
Evaluate Your Current Systems
Do you currently use software to handle your property operations? Is the current system robust and comprehensive, or do you have multiple systems working in siloed? If you are exploring a new system, ensure the new solution offers comprehensive features that can address many of your operational challenges and ideally the one that can offer an all-in-one solution through integration capability.
Choosing the Right Property Management Solution
Choosing the best property management solution means selecting a platform tailored to the unique needs of condominium residential communities. Unify LIV is designed as an all-in-one solution addressing end-to-end property management needs:
User-Friendly Design
An intuitive platform that ensures ease of use for both administrators and residents, reducing the learning curve and enhancing adoption. LIV’s user adoption in the first month is over 90% on average with over 22,000 users daily using the app.
Seamless Integration
Effortlessly connect existing systems and IoTs such as accounting software, access control, and digital doorlock, providing a single platform to your residents for all-in-one service.
Comprehensive Automation Features
Look for a software that offers robust automation features. Unify LIV’s key features include:
- Automated Resident Communication: Send notifications, reminders, and updates to keep residents informed about maintenance schedules, community events, and more.
- Maintenance Request Automation: Streamline service requests with automated routing and real-time status updates for faster resolutions.
- Amenity Bookings and Community Events: Enable residents to book amenities online, pay online and receive instant updates on community activities and events—all from one platform.
- Parcel Management: Using AI capabilities, concierge is able to scan and track parcels in minutes enabling accurate parcel management and real-time resident notification avoiding deliveries piling up.
- Visitor Access and Paid Parking: Issuing visitor parking permit and access can be managed through the LIV App with a paid-parking option which can become a revenue generation for the condominium owners.
Enhancing Communication through Automation
Effective communication is at the heart of resident satisfaction. With Unify LIV’s automated communication tools, share updates about common amenities, maintenance schedules, community events, and policies effortlessly. Automating communications reduces administrative workload while ensuring residents feel informed and valued.
Automated Service Requests
Unify LIV simplifies service request automation, allowing residents to submit maintenance issues online. Property Managers can instantly route requests based on priorities to the correct service technician, and residents are kept in the loop throughout the process receiving real-time service update and resolution. Features include:
- Immediate acknowledgment of requests
- Online technician scheduling
- Automated updates on repair status with photos
- Real-time chat between Property manager and residents
Building Updates
Property managers typically send 5 to 10 building updates and notifications to residents each month. These updates cover a range of topics, including proper use of garbage chutes, monthly fire alarm tests, fire hazard and smoking policies, noise complaints, AGM notices, and general maintenance schedules.
With Unify LIV’s Building Update feature, managing these communications becomes effortless. Time-sensitive messages can be instantly sent out through app notifications and emails simultaneously, ensuring residents receive important information promptly.
Additionally, the integration of built-in Gen AI capabilities simplifies the drafting process. By referencing communication history and leveraging pre-built templates, AI assists administrators in crafting clear and professional messages in less time. This innovation streamlines operations, reduces administrative workload, and improves communication efficiency.
Real Time Chat
Residents can now use the in-app chat feature to communicate with property managers or administrators in real time, replacing phone calls, text messages, and emails. Routine inquiries can be handled by LIV AI Chat, while more complex issues are seamlessly directed to property managers through the app.
This communication channel prioritizes data privacy and security, with historical logs stored by unit, enabling operators to easily trace past interactions. By streamlining communication, this feature not only enhances resident satisfaction but also saves property managers time, allowing them to focus on more complex issues that require direct attention.
Using Data Analytics in Property Management
Unify LIV’s advanced analytics provide actionable insights into your community’s operations. From tracking common amenity space utilization to maintenance request trends to analyzing resident satisfaction and community involvement, actionable insights support condo associations to make data-driven decisions.
LIV’s home dashboard provides an overview of key metrics and insights:
- Overview of buildings, units and owner/ tenant demographic
- Total building update and notifications with open and engagement rate
- Total maintenance request submissions with resolved and pending requests
- Top amenity bookings and utilization stats with peak time
- Calendar view of upcoming events
Best Practices for Implementing Property Management Software
With Unify LIV, automating property operations is both straightforward and impactful. Whether you’re a member of strata council, condo board, or condo/ homeowners associations, our solution helps you streamline operations, enhance communication, and boost resident satisfaction. Below are proven strategies to make the most of your property management automation journey.
Start Small
Start by automating high-impact processes like form submission, building notification, maintenance request management or amenity booking. Gradually expand to promote features like real-time chat, LIV AI chatbot, community marketplace and events as your team becomes familiar with the system. Starting small ensures smoother transitions and sets the stage for long-term success.
Define Your Goals
Clearly defined goals are the foundation of successful automation. With Unify LIV, set measurable objectives such as reducing maintenance request response times by 50% or achieving 95% amenity payment collection (e.g., elevator booking, party room booking) efficiency through LIV Pay. These goals will help track your progress and refine your strategy as needed.
Train Your Team
Training key members of the association and property management team is essential to fully leverage Unify LIV’s robust property management platform. Transitioning manual offline processes to online workflows requires change management for the team to adapt their behaviors and habits. Feature related questions can be answered through 24/7 LIV AI chatbot, our help center, and tutorial videos. Unify’s customer success team provides high touch onboarding starting with a kick off meeting with key stakeholders and champion users to support smooth adoption. A well-trained team ensures your automation efforts reach their full potential and ensures they are capable of supporting the residents when the app is launched to the end users.
Create Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
Standardized processes are key to consistency and scalability. Use Unify LIV to document workflows, such as building update notifications or maintenance scheduling protocols, and ensure that every team member has a clear understanding of the system. SOPs also simplify onboarding for new staff and help maintain operational excellence.
Monitor Performance
Automation is an ongoing journey. With Unify LIV, monitor the performance of automated processes using built-in analytics tools. Evaluate key metrics like maintenance turnaround times, inquiry response rate, maintenance request types, amenity bookings, and resident engagement. Use this data to make informed adjustments and ensure continued success.
Conclusion
As we’ve explored in detail, adopting property management automation best practices is essential for modern property managers looking to enhance efficiency and save operational costs. From automating service requests to smart data analytics, the right strategies can transform your operations.
If you’re ready to take your property management strategy to the next level, we invite you to try Unify LIV’s AI-powered property management solution. Book a demo to see how we can address your challenges.