Being a property manager or a landlord can often feel like a 24/7, 365 day a year job. After all, you’re the first point of call when something happens at one of your properties. Whether it’s dealing with a leaking roof, tenant issues, or just a rogue animal that’s sheltering in your crawlspace, landlords and property managers in the Windsor area are always in need of tools to simplify their lives and make their jobs easier.
At Goldmar Property Management, we use a variety of tools to do our jobs, including phone and device apps that help us stay organized on the go. You don’t need the latest iPhone or iPad to do your job effectively, but having a device with smart capabilities will definitely help. If tenants aren’t able to reach you, it can foster resentment and potentially cause even greater damage to your property in situations where your swift intervention was needed.
Our Favorite Apps for Canadian Landlords and Property Managers
There are many different property management apps on the market today. Unfortunately, the vast majority are not compatible with the Canadian rental market. Either they don’t accept Canadian currency, or are not programmed to comply with individual provinces’ rental laws.
Despite the limited options, we’ve found a few that will work for Windsor landlords. Often, the companies that developed them are American, but their products are quietly compatible with the Canadian market.
Despite the lack of availability, here are some of the apps and programs we rely on most frequently.
RentCompass
RentCompass offers Canadians an easy and simple way to search for verified apartment listing. Instead of looking through unverified sources like Craigslist and Kijiji, apartment hunters can find their area’s legitimate rental listings all in one place.
For landlords, listing your unit on RentCompass is a no-brainer. It’s easy to list any of your units from the mobile or even Apple Watch app, and you’ll receive notifications directly in the app as interested tenants reach out.
Since it’s made in Canada (the company is based in Toronto), the app is completely compatible with the Canadian rental market.
PadMapper Apartment Finder
Another great rental listing app that’s popular all across Canada is PadMapper Apartment Finder. Using their website or app, it’s easy to search for apartments or homes in any region, narrowing down your search with filters like price, number of bedrooms, and whether you’re looking for a short or long-term lease.
PadMapper is an aggregate site that pulls listings from other sources, but with a Pro plan, you can add multiple listings at once, communicate with potential tenants, and even screen applicants using TransUnion credit reports. It’s a great resource for landlords and property managers who want to ensure that their listing is available to as wide an audience as possible.
Smart Property Systems
If you’re an investor who owns and manages rentals or a property manager working on behalf of another landlord, you may be interested in Smart Property Systems software. Their easy-to-use platform automates the management of multiple units, offering landlords or managers the ability to accept rent and communicate with tenants easily.
It operates as a subscription model, and starts at just above $15 USD per month. Pricing goes up based on how many units you’re managing within the app. They also offer business hours support, so you have access to professional resources if you ever have an issue with any of their features.
Mile IQ for Canada
Spending hours trying to work out what car trip mileage to expense to which unit? Getting this right may not seem like a big deal, but when you’re managing multiple properties, you’ll do anything to simplify administrative tasks like mileage tracking. Mile IQ makes it easy by allowing you to log accurate mileage reports, all on a simple iOS and Android app.
Just swipe to categorize a ride, and at the end of the month, quarter, or fiscal year, the app will generate a report that separates your mileage by project or unit. It may be called Mile IQ, but it can easily be switched to kilometres so it’s useful in Canada.
Dropbox
Tired of having to continually email files to yourself, or copy them using a USB stick? You need a cloud storage app like Dropbox. With Dropbox, you can organize documents that live both on your computer, and in the cloud. Make a change in one place, and it automatically pushes the change to the document across all your devices.
If you have a small number of files, the service is entirely free to use. You’ll start with 2 GB of free storage, and if you go beyond that, you’ll need to pay for a more premium subscription.
SwiftScan
Looking for easy digitization of receipts, documents, and more? You need SwiftScan. It uses your phone camera to cleanly capture documents so they can be saved as an image, allowing you to store them securely online instead of in a messy file folder, or even worse – your wallet.
Your scans are saved as either a JPG or PDF file, so they can be quickly and easily emailed, sent to the cloud, or even faxed. Once you incorporate the SwiftScan app into your everyday routine, it’s easy to keep things organized for expense reports, taxes, and more.
1Password
If you’re using the same password or a subtle variation for everything, stop right now. Instead of trying to remember all your various passwords, use 1Password.
This password storage solution makes it easy to set strong, secure passwords, then keep them in your own encrypted vault. Once you’ve set it up, you’ll just need to remember a single master password, which you can use to access your vault. Inside the vault, you’ll find space for logins and passwords, as well as dedicated areas to store sensitive information like credit card numbers, scans of passports, and other things you need to have but don’t want to leave unprotected.
1Password can be integrated into web browsers, and interfaces with your phone so you can use your device’s facial recognition software in place of your master password.
Looking for More Resources? Get in Touch with Goldmar Property Management
If you’re looking for more resources on property management, landlord-tenant relationships, and more, get in touch with the experts at Goldmar Property Management. We love to talk with both landlords and tenants in the Windsor area.
Think you might benefit from the help of a qualified property management team? Give us a call today.