Progress Update

So here we are exactly two weeks into the private beta and we have had a few issues but all is well. We have made some major improvements to the homepage of the tool, making it simpler for new users to create an account, as well as login. We have released some minor changes throughout the site as a whole and made modifications to the sites publicly accessible pages.

We are actively developing and have slated to release the project and task management components as well as our first round of marketing components and reporting components. If you have not signed up to participate in the beta, you can do so now by visiting our online property management application.

Property Stampede Releases to Private Beta!

Well it is now the 15th, and we know that a lot of you are thinking... Did they do it? Well we are proud to announce that we released the first version of our Beta. Countless late nights and very understanding wives allowed this to happen.

So what do we have? Currently you are able to sign up as a beta tester and try our software for free. Please note that this is a private release, so you have to request a pass code by going to our online property management application, which we will email you as we offer more invitations. This allows you to enter that code and create an account and start using the beta software right away for free!

With the pass code, you have complete access for at least 120 days to our online property management application. You can add your units, including residential, commercial and industrial units, add amenities to both properties and the units, create both draft and active leases, make notes on the leases and the units, add your tenants, receive payments, and have access to complete integrated accounting software.

All this plus realtime charts such as occupancy rate, cash flow and account balance, displayed right on your dashboard so you can easily view your company's key statistics.

Please note that this is our first beta, and there will be much more to come! Your feedback is the key to turning Property Stampede into a truly great product.

Are you ready to join the stampede?

Book Review: The Unofficial Guide to Managing Rental Property by Melissa Prandi

“The Unofficial Guide to Managing Rental Property”

by Melissa Prandi, M.P.M.

WOW. I was excited about this book right from the start. I mean the author is a Master Property Manager (M.P.M.) with over 22 years of experience and a past national president of the National Association of Residential Property Managers (NARPM). The cover even boasts “For When You Want More Than the Official Line”, I’m hooked, tell me more!

This book is great for newbies who are either looking to get into the rental property management business or for small time rental property managers looking to either grow their business or just to get more organized with their business. It’s filled with tons of great general information about managing rental property. It has a bit of everything from deciding whether or not to get into rental property management to finding tenants, problems with tenants, maintenance and upgrades, and even investing and growing your property portfolio. For those who get scared off by the amount of work involved in being a rental property manager, or just don’t know if it’s the right choice for them, there is a chapter dedicated to finding and hiring a rental property management company. This section is conveniently located at the end of the book. Coincidence?

Throughout the book there are highlighted sections or tidbits of information listed as bright ideas, watch out, money savers, and even quotes and experiences from other rental property managers. These sections each have their own little icons which correspond to the type of information provided. Who said this book isn’t fully illustrated?

Also at the end of this book are its appendices. Many rental property management books have various forms and important information (the kind you want to refer back to) scatted throughout the book in its corresponding chapters with only an index to guide you. What was that page again? This book does not have that problem. It has a section for each set of information available for quick reference. It has a great resource directory of websites, a list of other books that they recommend, and a section of important documents. This book does not however have a ton of document examples, but it definitely gives you a place to start.

Overall as an unofficial guide this book hits its mark.

When All Seems Lost in Real Estate, Buffalo Makes Top Ten?

I read an article this morning on Buffalo Rising stating that real estate in the Buffalo Metro Area is on the rise. I was slightly skeptical, only because we were one of the cities in the country that did not experience the burst of the bubble because our home prices have not gone up more than 2-4%. But Buffalo Rising states that CNN Money has listed Buffalo/Niagara region as one of the top ten fastest growing real estate markets currently. Also on the list was Rochester and Syracuse, putting 3 upstate and western new york cities on the list.

My theory is that because the Buffalo/Niagara region has been at a steady real estate price growth for years, that we catch the eye of real estate investors. Investors currently do not want to invest in neighborhoods where home prices have fallen or foreclosures are at risk or eminent. They want to invest in areas where risk is low, prices are stable and climbing and neighborhoods are solid. After thinking about it, I am not so skeptical anymore, Buffalo is a great place to invest in real estate. Lets just hope that this does not lead to our own local real estate bubble!

Progress Update

I wanted to take a moment to tell you how our progress is going. We are on time for our May 15th release! Our May 15th release is going to be a private beta, so if you have not requested access, please visit our website @ http://www.propertystampede.com before we close signups.

What will be in this release?

• Advanced Property Management: You will have the ability to add, edit and delete properties, units, leases and tenants. You will also be able to have thorough accounts of events by utilizing our notes feature, which allows you to document a note on either a property, unit, lease or tenant.


• Full Accounting Records: You will be able to setup your chart of accounts to your needs, view general ledger transactions, enter manual transactions, and create manual invoices. All of your leases will automatically generate the appropriate ledger transactions for rent, security deposits and all other charges to a tenant.


• Tenant Portal: Your tenants will be invited to create accounts so that they can view rent due, their lease details, and submit service requests.


• Document Storage: Our system is designed to allow you to upload images, videos, pdf documents, word documents, excel documents, and more. You can assign these documents to a property, unit, lease or tenant. For example, one of our clients like to have a copy of all of his tenants driver's license. So he can scan it and upload it to either that tenant's record or lease.


• Management Dashboard: When you login, you will be greeted with a management dashboard providing you with a quick snapshot of your businesses statistics and health. For example, on this page will be a widget that displays the top 10 tenants that owe you money, another widget that displays your recent income per month and projected income per month, and more.

Now I realize that the above is not the vision I have portrayed to you all as to all of the features and services that our product will offer. That is because we are working in a fashion where we release our product early and update it often. So with that said, I would like to list the features that will be released in the near future.

• Alerts System: Soon we will be releasing system alerts that you can custom create to alert you or a staff member of specific events. Our alert system can be configured for many different types of events and can be setup to alert you by popping a message to you the next time you login, by email or by cell phone text message. For example, in the event of a priority 1 service request from a tenant, you could have a text message sent to you and your maintenance staff.


• Marketing Components: In the coming weeks you will see the release of our first marketing components. Marketing components to come include:
  
  
  
  • a flyer generation tool,
  
  
  • a classified ad tool (which will help you create listings optimized for sites like craigslist),
  
  
  • a public company profile that lists current promotions and your properties (this profile will be also search engine optimized for the keywords of your choice),
  
  
  • our rental listing engine,
  
  
  • bulk vacancy feeds (some listing engines like citycribs.com offer a user to manage their vacancy ads through what is called a bulk feed, ultimately it is a file that has all of the information about your listings, all you have to do is activate the feed that matches your service provider, then we will give you the link to the feed to provide to the service provider and we will take care of the rest!)
  
  


• Reporting: It will be reporting heaven, including such reports as your rentroll, balance sheet, profit and loss, bad debt, maintenance reports and more (as a beta tester you will help us determine what reports are most important to you). You will even be able to have reports automatically sent to your email inbox daily, monthly, quarterly or annually!


• CRM: Under our "Organize" tab will be an easy to use CRM. Providing you with contacts, tasks, notes, and a calendar.

That is a chunk of the complete vision... One thing that we intend to release but have no timeline for, is the ability to manage and market vacation rentals. So once again, if you have not signed up for our beta, I suggest you do because time is running out and I look forward to seeing you all on the 15th!

Sincerely,
Christopher M Mancini
Co-Founder, Property Stampede LLC