AI Property Management: Tools, Benefits, and Challenges for the Industry

What is AI in Property Management? 

AI property management is a business strategy for real estate or property management companies to simplify and improve their processes through software-powered property management automation. It streamlines operations by automating tasks like resident screening, maintenance scheduling, and rent collection, enhancing efficiency and decision-making.

In its current state, artificial intelligence best serves property managers by supporting and expediting administrative tasks. It’s essentially calendar clearing, in that it gives property managers more time to focus on their business. In fact, Croskey has implemented AI solutions into his business and noted how much extra free time his property managers have to be property managers.

Croskey says, “Now, with the time we have, our property managers call an owner every day just saying, ‘Hey, how’s it going?’” 

Croskey’s team is able to devote more time to elements of a great resident and investor experience. It’s ironic to think that AI is helping you forge stronger relationships with clients, but it’s true. With more time to devote to opening lines of communication and being proactive in doing so, PMs can build that experience that’s the primary differentiator in modern property management. That’s what it means to work on the business. 

“Can AI replace a property manager? No. Because at the end of the day, what is a property manager hired for? To provide solutions for crazy problems. And that's what we do. But if your whole day is filled with all this admin work, how are you going to have the energy and time to solve crazy problems? Use these tools to unload as much admin stuff as possible, so you can really focus on the property manager’s true value proposition, which is solving crazy problems and helping owners make money.” 

The bottom line: AI has enormous potential to help save time if used correctly.

How to Use AI in Property Management 

So, how do you actually use these programs to cure your team of their grunt work pains? Let’s look at some of the top business areas and use cases for AI property management.

AI for Tenant Screening

AI tools can streamline the screening of potential tenants by automating background checks, credit evaluations, and rental history analysis. Tools like TenantCloud analyze applicant data to predict lease default risk, ensuring property managers select reliable tenants more efficiently.

AI for Reducing Maintenance Costs 

AI can predict and prevent maintenance issues by analyzing data from Internet of Things (IoT) devices and past maintenance records. Tools like Building Engines use AI to schedule predictive maintenance, reduce downtime, and lower repair costs by addressing issues before they become costly problems.

AI for Generating Listing Descriptions 

With the rise of natural language processing (NLP) tools like ChatGPT and Jasper, creating unique marketing collateral has never been easier. These tools can generate compelling property descriptions quickly, allowing property managers to focus on other tasks. Copy.ai also assists in crafting listings and marketing content, saving significant time and effort.

AI for Automating Lead Generation

AI-driven platforms like Manychat and HubSpot can automate lead generation by engaging potential clients through AI-generated text and chatbots. These tools help capture and nurture leads, ensuring that no opportunity is missed.

“Maybe once a year, take your templates, throw them into one of these AI tools, and say, ‘Hey, can you rewrite this?’ You’re just kind of freshening up,” Croskey says. 

“You could ask it to rewrite something with a more friendly tone or add some comedy to it or different things. And so now, each year, the point of the message is the same, but you're kind of making it new and exciting.” 

AI for Property Analysis and Search

AI tools such as Keyway's keypilot and Saleswise AI provide in-depth property analysis by aggregating and analyzing market data, investment potential, and neighborhood insights. These tools help property managers make data-informed decisions on property acquisitions and market trends.

AI for Fraud Detection and Compliance Monitoring

AI systems like AppFolio can detect fraudulent activities and ensure compliance with regulations by monitoring transactions and resident activities. These tools use machine learning (ML) algorithms to flag unusual patterns and potential compliance issues, safeguarding property managers against legal risks.

AI for Leasing

AI assistants such as EliseAI automate leasing processes by answering prospective residents’ questions in real-time and scheduling tours. This enhances customer service and increases the likelihood of lease conversions by providing timely and accurate information.

AI for Accounting

AI-driven accounting tools such as Buildium automate financial tasks like rent collection, invoice processing, and financial reporting. These tools ensure accuracy, reduce manual errors, and provide real-time financial insights, improving overall financial management.

AI for Scheduling Maintenance Requests and Showings

Tools like Reclaim.ai offer smart scheduling solutions for maintenance requests and property showings. These AI tools prioritize tasks based on urgency and availability, optimizing time management, and ensuring timely responses to resident needs.

“The biggest problem with any basic scheduling app is the concept of priority, right?” says Croskey. “Apps without AI integrations simply look at free and busy times. For example: ‘Oh, this person wants 30 minutes. Let me find the next open spot for 30 minutes and plug them in there.’ But let's say you wanted an hour with me. If I didn't manually intervene, you probably wouldn't be able to get the hour for like two weeks because finding an hour-long spot is not going to happen. But I want to give you priority, so I had to override my account and say you know what, let's do 8 a.m..” 

AI for Marketing

AI tools are revolutionizing marketing efforts for property managers. ChatGPT and Jasper can create blog content, social media posts, and email campaigns, while Synthesia helps produce high-quality marketing videos with AI-generated avatars. Evolv AI enhances digital experiences by identifying drop-off points and improving the renter's journey. 

“If you are still wasting your time writing creative property descriptions, you just need to stop,” says Croskey. “Nobody reads them anyway. I’ll buy you lunch if you actually leased property because someone said, ‘You know what? That marketing description was phenomenal. That’s why I want to lease this house.’ Nobody has ever said that so why would you spend a lot of time on it?” 

Best AI Property Management Software You Should Try

Croskey has used several AI platforms to help with administrative and communications work. Here are some of his recommendations:

• ChatGPT and Jasper: For content creation and marketing collateral. These tools can generate high-quality written content quickly, enabling property managers to maintain a strong online presence with minimal effort.
• Grammarly: To maintain consistent and effective communication tones across various platforms. Grammarly ensures all written communication is polished and professional, helping property managers avoid misunderstandings and maintain a positive brand image. Note: There’s a free version, as well as a handy Chrome extension.
• Reclaim.ai: For smart scheduling based on priorities. Reclaim.ai optimizes your calendar by automatically adjusting meeting times and task schedules to prioritize important activities, ensuring that critical tasks are never missed.
• Keypilot from Keyway: For property research, investment analysis, and contract drafting. KeyPilot leverages AI to quickly analyze vast amounts of data, providing actionable insights that help property managers make informed investment decisions, and draft precise contracts.
• EliseAI: To automate resident communications and improve customer service. EliseAI enhances resident interactions by providing instant responses to inquiries and efficiently managing follow-ups, which improves resident satisfaction and operational efficiency.

These tools collectively enhance various aspects of property management, from resident interactions and maintenance scheduling to marketing and financial management, making operations less time-consuming and more effective.

Benefits of Using AI in Property Management

Automating Routine Tasks

AI algorithms can automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks such as rent collection, invoice processing, and scheduling, freeing up time for property managers to focus on more strategic activities for their property management company.

Enhancing Resident Communication and Satisfaction

AI-driven platforms provide real-time responses to resident inquiries, automate follow-up communications, and schedule property tours, significantly improving residents’ experience and satisfaction.

Reducing Operational Costs

AI helps reduce operational costs by optimizing resource allocation and predicting maintenance needs, performing predictive maintenance to reduce downtime and costly emergency repairs.

Generating Accurate Financial Reports

AI-powered tools can automate financial reporting, ensuring accuracy and compliance while providing real-time insights into financial performance.

Predicting Maintenance Issues

AI analyzes data from IoT devices and maintenance records to predict and address potential maintenance issues before they become major problems, saving time and money and reducing stress.

Improving Marketing Strategies

AI assists in creating engaging marketing content and optimizes digital experiences to enhance lead generation and conversion rates.

Screening Residents More Effectively

AI-based resident screening automates background checks, credit evaluations, and rental history analysis, helping property managers select reliable residents more efficiently.

What You Shouldn’t Automate with AI in Property Management

While AI can solve various issues and make work better, there are still functions that are better accomplished by a human being. Indeed, if used incorrectly, AI can do more harm than good. Here are two common pitfalls of over-dependence on AI.

Creating Business Policies and Procedures

Croskey says, “The reality is that if you don’t have your policies and your procedures, there is no tool on Earth that is going to save your bacon… Look at McDonald’s. At one point, somebody had to roll up their sleeves and make the process of how to build the Big Mac. It probably took quite a while to do that, but now that it’s done, they haven’t changed the Big Mac for at least 40 years."

Property management AI can help you repeat your processes, but can’t create them for you, and it can streamline them, but not optimize them for success. 

Overreliance on technology is kind of an innate vulnerability with tools so robust. Croskey is quick to clarify that such a mistake can lead to notification overload, where you can’t keep up with everything that all these tech tools are delivering to you. You still have to be aware of what’s going on in your business.

Training Personnel

The veteran PM also notes that, just like with any new tech, proper training for the team is of critical importance. 

“Really do your team justice by providing them training, providing them opportunities, not just saying, ‘Okay, starting tomorrow, we're using Jasper, have a nice day.’”

For training, Croskey recommends the non-AI tech tool, Loom. You can create screen recordings and build a library of training materials for your team. 

“Loom does provide transcripts of the videos, too,” Croskey says. “You could take those transcripts and say, ‘Hey, ChatGPT, Could you write me a summary of this?’ And it will do it. So now you can put that summary in your email.”

Challenges of AI in Property Management

Data Privacy

Implementing AI in property management requires handling large amounts of highly sensitive resident data, raising concerns about data privacy. Ensuring compliance with data protection regulations and maintaining resident trust are significant challenges.

Security

AI systems can be vulnerable to cyberattacks, posing a risk to the security of resident information and property management operations. Robust cybersecurity measures and regular updates are necessary to protect against potential threats.

Cost

The initial investment in AI technology can be high, including costs for software, hardware, and training. Smaller property management companies could find it challenging to justify and afford these expenses.

Complexity

AI systems can be complex to implement and integrate with existing property management processes. The learning curve for property managers and staff can be steep, requiring significant time and resources for training and adaptation, and checking in to make sure these processes are integrated properly.

Lack of Human Touch

While AI can automate many tasks, it lacks the personal touch that human interactions provide. Maintaining a balance between automation and personalized service is crucial to ensuring resident satisfaction and effective property management.

Future of AI in Property Management

As of now, the strategies above outline how Croskey and other PMs are finding value in artificial intelligence. AI will continue to evolve, and the technology is going to build more advancements for PMs in the future, especially with integrations with property management software.

“Right now, all the AI is around language because I think it’s probably easier,” Croskey says. “I think the next step is going to be the math and numbers side, being able to look at your numbers, your portfolio, your financials, and start making recommendations from that.”

Croskey predicts that AI could aid in ROI analysis and decision-making, essentially doing analytics of data points associated with specific properties and identifying trends and associations within your portfolio that can help you increase the profitability of your doors. 

The last place you’ll see AI reach, according to Croskey, is the maintenance realm.

“There's a reason why nobody has really fully nailed down maintenance,” he says. “There are just so many variables and one-off things that it's hard to get a machine to learn that. For example, work orders come in, and the tenant says, ‘Oh, my toilet is leaking.’ Well, is it leaking from the floor? Is it leaking underneath? Is it just running? So there are three variables right there. Is it a low-flow toilet? Is it not a low-flow toilet? There are variables there. There are just all these things that can be going on that make maintenance hard. So I think that maintenance is going to be later in life.”

Final Thoughts 

AI property management tools are nothing to be afraid of and can be a massive support to streamlining business processes, workflows, and day-to-day operations. Many leaders in property management are already leveraging AI apps and products to make their work better.

The true benefit of AI is that it can automate busy work and repetitive tasks – freeing you up to be strategic, focus on relationships, and build better resident experiences. AI tools help PMCs keep up and compete with commoditization, as well.

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook to stay up to date on these AI conversations. We’ll keep the conversation going and continue to deliver the best insights from experts across the industry.

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Hear more from Wolfgang Croskey and other PMs who have used AI on the Triple Win Property Management podcast.