When you think of technology that changes lives you probably don’t think of property management software—at least not immediately. I myself when faced with deciding which technology makes the most difference in my own life would definitely default to my car or a washer/dryer combo. However, property management software, despite its relative anonymity, has indeed changed many lives for the better, especially landlord lives, property manager lives and the lives of those involved with property associations, etc. Even renters and unit/home owners’ lives have been changed due to the fact that renting and buying from those who use property management software is a “different—more evolved animal” than renting and buying from those who still run processes manually.

Article Discussion

In this article, I would like to discuss some of the benefits that property management software technology can provide. I would also like to discuss a far more “explosive” technology that has impacted the entire world with its benefits. The technology? Nuclear power. “Hmmmm????” you might say, “the two technologies don’t exactly seem related.”

My answer to you my dear friendly reader is that in a general sense they really have more common ground than you might suppose. With both technologies, it seems sure that the well-deserving inhabitants of our dear planet Earth (if not all then definitely some) have saved a good amount of both time and money and who doesn’t want more of those precious commodities?

What is nuclear power good for?

If you think like I used to think, then you are probably assuming that nuclear power is used for creating mortal explosions that start Stalin-Era type Cold Ward scares. However, nuclear power decidedly extends beyond the horizon of weaponry and reaches out towards more peaceful applications. Thank goodness!

For example, according to an interesting online source1, nuclear power is good for producing electricity. There are many ways to produce the power that keeps us warm, comfortable and surrounded by light. Using fossil fuels or hydro/wind power are both viable options2 for generating electric power. However, it would seem that nuclear power has some clear advantages over its sister authorities. Nuclear power for instance has less impact on the environment and in many cases is less expensive to “manufacture.” Why? Well, according to the same online source, “The energy in one uranium fuel pellet—the size of the tip of your little finger—is the equivalent of 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas, 1,780 pounds of coal, or 149 gallons of oil.”3 Wow! Power in a nutshell!

What is property management software good for?

Not all property management software options are equally comparable in terms of the features and benefits that each option provides. With the right property management software however, landlords, property managers and those involved with property associations can take advantage of some pretty impressive features and benefits.

Property Management Software Features and Benefits

Property management software4 can provide a sort of scheduled directional map for landlords. In other words it can tell landlords when and where there is a vacancy in an apartment, rental unit or a condo and can also help property managers keep track of upcoming vacancies. With the right property management software, landlords can also take advantage of a program that will easily calculate and/or track security deposits, rent or purchase payments and fees. With the right property management software, you can also waive any individual fees that you think are unnecessary or invalid for certain individuals.

Another difficulty for landlords is finding the time and the organizational means to keep track of maintenance requests and make sure that the requests are met satisfactorily. With property management software, landlords can easily keep track of requests for maintenance and improvement.5 With the right software, landlords can also take advantage of an in-system email application. This email application can be used to send information to leasers or renters. Property management software can also be used by managers of property and those who are involved with an association of units or homes.

What are the similarities between these two helpful technologies?

The similarities between the technology that changes nuclear power to electricity and the technology that streamlines many landlord processes simply lie in the fact that each of these two technologies saves people time and money. Nuclear power that is generated into electricity saves people time that they don’t have to spend lighting fires or candles and money that people don’t have to spend on more time consuming and human labor intensive tasks like using coal or other sources to generate electricity.

The property management software saves landlords time that they might have spent hiring apartment complex managers or simply doing the administrative tasks themselves. Property management software also saves them money that they would have used to pay managers for the time that they used to spend performing routine and monotonous tasks.

1 http://www.nei.org/index.asp?catnum=2&catid=106

2 http://library.thinkquest.org/5217/produce.htm

3 http://www.nei.org/index.asp?catnum=2&catid=106

4 http://www.buildium.com/Whats_New/Whats_New.shtml

5 http://www.buildium.com/Landlord_Software/Landlord_Edition.shtml#trackRequests

Are you paying more than you need for your mortgage? If you’ve had a mortgage for a few years, do you know even what your interest rate is? Once the initial mortgage deal is done, you tend to forget about it. The payment goes out of your account with alarming regularity. If you’re on your lender’s standard variable rate, there’s no doubt that you can save money by re-mortgaging.

There’s nothing complicated about arranging to re-mortgage your property. People are doing it all the time. Apart from the simple fact that you can save money by shopping around, there are other reasons for re-mortgaging too.

Someone whose family is growing may feel they ought to look for a bigger house. If the children are settled in local schools and rising house prices prevent a move within the area, they may consider improving their current home to provide more space and better facilities. A re-mortgage could provide the money to carry out these alterations.

Buy-to-let owners might be in the same situation as you. If they arranged their mortgage a few years ago, they’re probably paying much more than they need to. By re-mortgaging they may be able to carry out necessary repairs to the property or maybe some improvements, which would potentially improve the rental income. It may even be possible to increase their property portfolio, providing the deposit and legal fees for their next investment property.

Someone paying in the region of £540 a month for their mortgage could have that figure reduced to £353. This is because you can save 2.25% on the interest rate by switching from your lender’s SVR to one of the special discounted deals which are around at present.

There are lenders who will provide a re-mortgage package which is free of fees and who make no charge for valuing your property if you’re re-mortgaging. Amazingly some will also pay for standard legal work too.

Transferring your mortgage should take about 6 weeks from start to finish. Your current lender may charge a fee to release the deeds, typically around £300 and there could be a funds transfer fee of £25.

There are three basic types of mortgages. These are the traditional repayment mortgages and the newer interest only mortgages, plus another option – the flexible mortgage.

When it comes to interest, there is more choice available. A standard variable rate mortgage means that the rate of interest fluctuates according to economic pressures and just how much your lender values your business. Recent levels have been near their lowest for 50 years

With a fixed rate mortgage, the rate is fixed so that you know exactly what your repayment will be. Unfortunately with this type of mortgage there is normally an early repayment charge, so if you find a better mortgage at some time, it could be costly to get out of the current one.

Then there’s the capped-rate mortgage. This sets an upper limit which can be charged for a fixed period. If economic conditions are favourable, then the lender may reduce rate and therefore the monthly payments will fall. Because of the security that this offers, the interest rates tend to be a little higher on one of these deals.

For the best savings in the short term, discounted rate mortgages are the ones to look for. A reduction from the lenders variable rate is made for a fixed period of time. There may be a 2% offer, which means that if the lenders variable rate was, say, 6.5%, then as long as it remained at that, your mortgage interest rate would be at 4.5%. These rates are normally offered over two or three years. The interest rate is not fixed. If the lenders SVR increases, then so will your interest rate, but for the term of the agreement, it will remain 2% lower than the SVR. The early repayment charge may apply if you decide to move your mortgage elsewhere before the end of the agreed period.

Tracker mortgages, Cashback mortgages and Flexible mortgages are also available. There are plenty of products around and the re-mortgaging market is competitive at present. There’s never been a better time to make that move.

For more details on these products and some excellent advice, the easiest move is to find an on-line broker. They will have all the information at their fingertips and will search a wide range of companies to find a deal that’s right for you. There are some good on-line discounts available too.