How to Choose the Best Property Maintenance Software in 7 Steps

Most North American Owner-Operators and Property Managers commonly use off-the-shelf Property Management Software (PMS) from major providers like Yardi, RealPage, MRI, AppFolio, and Entrata. These PMS solutions cover various aspects, including leasing, rental payments, maintenance, work order management, accounting, turns, and inspections, and include resident and staff-facing tools and interfaces. 

While some PMS options offer comprehensive solutions for revenue-generating operations like leasing, none specialize in providing in-depth expertise or software support for efficient cost management in maintenance. As a result, NOI-focused operators are adopting specialized Property Maintenance Software that seamlessly integrates with their existing Property Management System.

The Growing Need for Property Maintenance Software

The demand for property maintenance software is rising, propelled by the challenges property managers face in managing growing portfolios. The absence of suitable software often leads to inefficiencies, errors, and missed opportunities for profitability. Property maintenance software allows property owners, operators & managers to gain critical visibility and cost-saving efficiency in their property maintenance operations. While this varies by software, it can include improved resident experiences, coaching residents to troubleshoot or self-solve, remote diagnosis, scheduling, centralized communications, and automated or eliminated workflows, just to name a few.

7 Steps to Find the Best Property Maintenance Software for Your Unique Operations

Think of this article as your personalized roadmap to exploring software options. With each and every step, you're not just evaluating – you're uncovering which property maintenance software is the perfect fit to transform your business.

Step 1: Define Your Needs

Before you even begin researching, it's essential to pinpoint the primary challenges your team would like to address. Whether it involves efficiencies in work order management, improving resident experiences, or gaining more visibility into your maintenance operations to better control spending, a good handle on the pain points will help you evaluate which software is the best fit for your property maintenance.

Common maintenance operation challenges among Owners and Property Managers include:

• Lack of visibility into issues, which requires staff maintenance expertise and time to dig into the issue to assign a proper resource.
• Addressing limited visibility into the asset's performance (what's breaking & why) to drive strategic capex planning.
• Technicians receive limited information, which requires a diagnostic trip and then often an added trip for parts or supplies.
• Overstretched technicians, which leads to vending more work orders at a higher cost
• Residents expect a quick solution despite providing limited information, to help prioritize and solve the work order quickly.

Here are some questions to ask yourself or your team:

• What are the primary challenges faced by our maintenance teams on a daily basis? By our residents? By management? 
• Are there specific pain points that, if addressed, would significantly improve our property maintenance operations? 

Step 2: Evaluate Effectiveness in Driving Property Maintenance Outcomes

Assess the value of the software in improving property maintenance outcomes. Consider the tangible impact on maintenance outcomes – from resident satisfaction to overall operational efficiency. Look for a software solution that not only meets immediate needs but also sets the stage for continuous improvement. For example, capturing data that helps your team begin implementing cost-saving preventive or predictive maintenance. During your research, ask yourself questions like: 

• Does the software integrate with our system of record? Or replace our system of record for maintenance?
• Will the tools enhance our maintenance efficiency?
• Will the tools increase our maintenance team’s productivity? Improve our ratio of units to maintenance staff? 
• Will this software improve overall resident experience and satisfaction?
• How could this software impact our technician recruiting and retention?

Step 3: Assess the Impact on the End-to-End Resident Maintenance Experience

Prioritize a user-friendly design, as poor maintenance experiences rank among the top three drivers of resident churn. There needs to be more than an intuitive front-end experience (like a chatbot) to boost resident satisfaction & retention; residents must experience better ongoing communication and faster, more effective resolutions to their issues. You may want to ask: 

• How does the software impact the resident experience? Will residents have to download or learn new tools? 
• Will rollout or ongoing support of the new tools require a significant investment of time from property management? 
• Will the software improve communication with residents around their service requests?
• Could this solution replace other maintenance request channels the team has in place - call centers, emails, or walk-ups sent to property management? 
• How will this solution support after-hours staffing? Can the tools handle emergency requests, or will residents still need separate resources for emergency maintenance requests?
• Will this solution help us resolve issues faster for our residents?

Step 4: Evaluate the Software’s Integration Capabilities

Seamless integration is one of the most important aspects of any new software adoption. Assess whether the software integrates with your existing tools and evaluate the potential impact on your residents and maintenance teams. The following questions can help ensure that your property maintenance software painlessly integrates into your current system of record. 

• How does the software integrate with our existing property management software (PMS)?
• Will our team - property staff, technology team, marketing, etc. - be responsible for driving any part of the implementation?
• Will maintenance teams need to download new apps or learn new tools or processes to leverage the tools?
• Will training be provided for property management and maintenance teams? 
• Will this require our residents to change how they access maintenance support?
• Will the maintenance data collected by this new software be available within our existing reporting system?

Step 5: Review Available Customer Support and Training Resources

Highlight the importance of reliable customer support and comprehensive training options. Ongoing support is crucial for successful software implementation. Consider reaching out to fellow owner-operators or property managers about their experiences with the software in question. Some questions that you can ask them or the software company include: 

• How easy was it for other property management and maintenance teams to learn the software? How long did the rollout take?
• How responsive is the vendor's customer service in addressing questions or issues?
• What feedback have residents, technicians, and clients provided regarding their experiences with the software?

Step 6: Define Necessary Security and Compliance Standards

Consider the software's security features and compliance standards and assess how they align with your requirements. Explore how secure software protects sensitive property data and ensures robust data storage and recovery mechanisms. When it comes to security measures, you may want to ask: 

• What security features does the software offer to protect sensitive property data?
• How does the software comply with industry standards and regulations?
• What measures are in place for data storage and recovery in case of unexpected incidents?

Step 7: Analyze Potential Cost and ROI

Evaluate the cost of the software in relation to the expected return on investment. Consider not only upfront costs but also long-term savings and benefits. Choosing a solution that aligns with your budget and offers substantial value for your property maintenance operations is essential. Before deciding which property maintenance software you want to invest in, take the time to research the following questions. 

• How does the cost of the software align with our budget constraints?
• What upfront costs should we anticipate, and are there any hidden fees?
• Does this fit into our budget? What offsetting savings or ROI from the software could be used to rationalize a new line item?
• If the software promises cost reduction or revenue lift, how will we measure this?
• Regarding long-term savings and benefits, what does the software bring to our property maintenance operations?

Meet Max: Mezo’s AI-Powered Property Maintenance Software

One of Mezo's key features is a turnkey, 2-week, seamless integration with popular property management systems (PMS) like Yardi, Entrata, Appfolio, and Revela. This integration ensures a smooth transition for maintenance technicians and residents, eliminating the need to adapt to new technologies and minimizing disruptions. Technicians and residents begin benefitting from day one without new apps or technology to learn. 

Founded in 2020, Mezo combines advanced AI with decades of property maintenance subject matter expertise to innovate property maintenance for Multifamily, Student-Housing and Single-Family Owners and Operators. Mezo's technology coaches residents to troubleshoot and self-solve when possible, capturing data to deliver accurate, robust remote diagnostics to your maintenance team, recommended skill sets, repairs, parts & tools needed, and more. By eliminating inefficiencies that exist in traditional property maintenance, Mezo's platform is simultaneously improving the resident experience, supercharging maintenance teams, and delivering unparalleled cost savings & operational data to owners. 

Mezo has been recognized as IMN’s 2022 Landlord/Owner Technology of the Year, BuiltWorlds 2023 Top 50 Building Tech, Proptech Breakthrough Award Property Maintenance Platform of the Year, and Chicago Inno’s 2023 Fire Award Winner. Mezo is backed by industry leaders such as Chicago Ventures, Building Ventures, and 81 Collection. For more information, visit Mezo's website or contact our team at sales@mezo.io.