Rental Convenience

Applied Property Management Co.

By Joel Nelson on Aug 31, 2016 in News

Applied Property Management Co. takes pride in spreading fast, convenient service across a portfolio that consists of thousands of apartment units which include market rate, subsidized housing and commercial spaces in New Jersey.

Making life easier for residents and staff lies at the heart of Applied Property Management’s mission.  “Our company practices a paperless approach, starting at the very beginning—applying to live here,” says Raymond Lucena, a Yardi^® specialist with Applied Property Management, the property management arm of Hoboken, N.J. developer Ironstate.  The company’s residential leasing process is 100% online, from marketing, applying and screening through lease signing and payments.  “It’s a user-friendly experience, which is a lot different than relying on paper as we did previously.  If you search our properties through Google, for example, you’ll go directly to our property websites via RentCafe^®.  Our lead conversion rate is higher in the four years we’ve been using RentCafe because applications can be completed almost instantly.”

Applied Property Management’s philosophy of paperless convenience extends to residential service.  “About 92% of our market-rate residents pay rent online; we expect that to reach 99%,” Lucena says.  “Eventually we want to duplicate this degree of participation in our commercial space.  We want all residents, vendors, and retail managers to manage work orders, ledgers, payments and everything else electronically.”

Applied Property Management went mobile as well as paperless in the search for greater efficiency.  “We equipped our leasing agents with tablets and mobile devices.  When they’re showing a unit, they can launch the application, screen the prospect through Yardi Resident Screening™, and sign the lease on the spot, without waiting for paper documents to come through,” Lucena says.

Staff technicians can receive, prioritize and document maintenance and inspections in the field with the mobile-enabled Yardi Maintenance™ and Yardi Inspection™ solutions.  “Not having to pick up paper work orders saves them a huge amount of time, and they can stay where they’re needed, not in the office,” Lucena says.

New applications for end-to-end procurement and mobile deal pipeline management, along with online payment and service options for its commercial tenants, are under consideration.  Applied Property Management has already automated billing and collections for residential water usage with Yardi Energy Solutions™.