Software simplifies job of real estate leasing

MANILA, Philippines - While most individual investors recognize renting out property as a lucrative venture, their growth and profitability in this line of business is usually hampered by the lack of accurate and timely information.

Take the case of a real estate lessor who rents out 10 apartment units. At that number, it may be easy to track down rentals, repairs and maintenance work that need to be regularly done on each unit, who the legitimate occupants of each unit are, and utility bills.

But once the number of units doubles, the leasing business becomes an information-tracking nightmare for the small business owner.

A local Filipino software development company has solved the problem for small and medium-scale property lessors and managers by offering an out-of-the-box software solution.

According to Kendrick Ang, business development partner of Synthesis Innovations, the SyncProperty program for lessors is affordable because it is standardized and focuses on best business practices.

Initially developed in response to the needs of property managers and administrators of stand-alone residential condominium buildings in the Ortigas district, SyncProperty has won clients also among Makati condo and office lessors.

It was recently adopted by a property management firm with operations in Metro Manila, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Ang observes that majority of building administrators still employ the most basic of accounting software and thus spend a huge amount of time figuring out association dues, utility bills, not to mention pending payments, penalties, and a variety of other computations. Consequently, they are also prone to billing delays and inaccuracies.

SyncProperty, he says, consolidates all the data pertinent to each unit. “All managers have to do is key in the proper information into the system. The software will then take care of computing the statements and balancing the different accounts of building occupants,” he explains.

An equally attractive feature of SyncProperty is that it allows building security personnel to quickly identify the legitimate occupants of the units.

It can also track the ingress and egress of visitors, making it easy for managers to weed out intruders. All these add up to increased security within the building and heightened confidence among the unit owners and lessors that they are in a secure environment, Ang says.

“SyncProperty frees up managers from laborious, repetitive and time-consuming work so they can focus on analysis and long-term planning,” he adds.