As a fan of online document technologies, I am pleased to see the rise of document management software solutions to assist apartment property managers. In an article titled “Virtual Filing Cabinets “in Apartment Finance Today (Nov/Dec 2008) several technologies are mentioned. Yardi, Intuit and Real Page include document management solutions within their property management applications. There are other packages such as Domin-8 that work independently from property management software.

Some of the advantages of these applications include the possibility to move your property management office a few steps closer to the ‘paperless office’ dream. Practical reasons include speed of delivery of leases to new or continuing residents, offsite storage and backup of vital legal documents in case of crisis, less physical space required to keep physical paper leases and other key required documentation such as HR paperwork and more.

Since the Electronic Signature Act of 2000, electronic leases are increasingly popular and practical for both tenants and property mangers as the ease of signing a lease can be as simple as clicking on an “I Accept” box.

As these applications grow more and more user-friendly and capable of matching the flow of operations within apartment property management, look for these technologies to be adopted in increasing numbers by savvy apartment owners looking to streamline their operations and save precious office space.

If you are using a document management solution that you are pleased with, I’d be interested to hear about. Comment here or shoot me an email at Pete@ConsultPete.com or 925-719-3569.

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