Multi-family properties
Expert Reviewed

Relief from Appliance Management While Managing Your Properties

SmartHQ Pro Editorial Team
Written by
SmartHQ Pro Editorial Team
Content Team | SmartHQ Pro, GE Appliances company
12
min read
5 FAQs answered

TL;DR

  • High-density property managers often run in reactive mode, chasing appliance repairs and manually changing settings in vacant and transitioning units. The real cost is maintenance labor, which is limited in hours, so a growing door count means more unit visits than the day can hold.
  • Appliance management that plugs into the property management software already in use adds oversight without adding a new routine. Managers monitor the status and performance of each unit from a mobile or desktop device, including vacant units and common areas, and remote diagnostics can assign tasks to the most appropriate person automatically.
  • Relief grows with portfolio size. Remote monitoring and control, including shutting off power to specific appliances remotely, remove unnecessary diagnostic visits and on-site work orders and reduce tenant frustration when something breaks. The measure of success is how quickly residents see an issue resolved.
  • SmartHQ™ Management gives property teams real-time monitoring and control across a portfolio, alerts that become tasks with an owner, priority, due date, and notes, and batch commands that replace room-by-room setting changes.

Hundreds of multi-family units are optimal revenue at optimal occupancy, but tough on maintenance, and tougher on both maintenance and financials when units are unoccupied and constantly transitioning tenants. To maintain gold-star standards for residents of high-density residential units, property managers are usually in reactive mode, chasing appliance repairs and manually changing settings on appliances in vacant, transitioning and shared-space areas. Plus, there are the frustrations and costs of tenant disruption when units aren’t working, and the inability to rent a unit due to an appliance needing repair. If you don’t already know the alternatives to the reactive appliance management and maintenance model, you don’t know what it’s costing you, but you do know it’s inefficient and frustrating.

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The Primary Problem is Having an Existing Property Management Software That Doesn’t Include Proactive Appliance Maintenance Management

High-density residential property managers already have a property management software in place that meets their priority needs for managing operations and billing for large volumes of units. If proactive appliance management isn’t already a module of the software, it’s a major pain point, and the property manager may be assuming that it can’t be relieved within their existing system. Or, property managers without an existing property management software will be challenged by finding a system that includes comprehensive appliance management.

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Property managers in search for appliance-management, appliance-monitoring and maintenance-automation software expect to increase the time of their routines, in addition to time they spend on their existing property-management system. What if the appliance-management and maintenance automation solution plugged into the existing software and reduced overall time of management, monitoring, diagnostics and maintenance?

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GE SmartHQ Pro has become a highly welcomed pain reliever with a comprehensive appliance-management solution that plugs into any existing property management software, and which proactively manages maintenance for appliances of any make and model. How effective is the solution? What aspects of “appliance management” does it include? And how much relief is realized? The pain and relief really comes down to labor.

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“If You’re Not Focused on Labor, You’re Not Focused.” - Sweetzer, GE SmartHQ Pro Customer

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At any given time, your available maintenance labor is what it is … limited in hours and less efficient when stretched beyond scheduled hours. When your number of doors under management exceeds the number of hours in your day, it's time to rethink the management systems you use to stay on top of the ‘tech tasks’ of those units.

Managing the volume of assets in each of your units with GE SmartHQ Pro enables owners and managers to ‘do more managing’ with ‘less management labor’ - from remote diagnostics and monitoring to seasonal climate control and scheduled maintenance. From your mobile or desktop device, you can monitor the status and performance of each of your units, saving you time, resources, and the inevitable complications associated with performing on-site property work orders. Fine tuning your approach to property management solutions with SmartHQ Pro yields more time and less frustration as your inventory of properties grows.

When you invest in property management technology as a whole, your focus on property labor investment will also change for overall management cost reduction.

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The Proactive, Open Integration, Appliance Management Pain Reliever

“Open Integration” – Words that are music to the ears of property managers wanting to reduce appliance-management and maintenance costs without adding labor. GE SmartHQ Pro plugs into existing systems:

  • Integrates with other software systems to provide one, easy-to-use dashboard (with no new logins)
  • Offers a customizable appliance-management solution within the larger property-management solution.
  • Hardware integration with GE portfolio of over 450+ smart products plus appliances of other brands and select hardware like locks & alarms
  • Remote diagnostics allow systems to automatically assign tasks to the most appropriate person
  • Eliminates unnecessary diagnostic visits  
  • Prevents issues from escalating (or occurring) through real-time, remote monitoring of all units, including vacant units, common areas, and entire property remotely.
  • Critical functions like turning off power to specific appliances can be done remotely

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The Measure of Relief

Especially for owners of high-density-residential properties … the more units you have, the greater relief you’ll realize through direct reductions of hours and costs … but also the reduction of tenant frustration. The measurement of a more efficient property management solution is found in the experiences your residents have when they’re faced with an issue that impacts their comfort, their convenience, or their bank accounts. This is the moment when residents and property management ‘feel the pain’ and want it to be resolved quickly.

When these issues arise (and they always will) - it’s how you as the property manager have prepared your business with solutions that connect each of your managed assets together into an appliance management framework.

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Most managers work reactively, chasing repairs and manually changing settings on appliances in vacant, transitioning, and shared-space units. Maintenance labor is limited in hours and less efficient when stretched, so once the number of doors exceeds the hours in a day, those manual routines pile up. Unit downtime and tenant disruption add to the cost.

Yes, appliance management can plug into existing property management software rather than replace it. The goal is one dashboard with no new logins, so managers do not add time to their routine. SmartHQ Management offers open integration so it can fit within the larger system.

Managers can monitor the status and performance of every unit from a mobile or desktop device, including vacant units and common areas. Remote diagnostics can eliminate unnecessary diagnostic visits and assign tasks automatically to the right person. Critical functions such as turning off power to a specific appliance can also be done remotely.

Vacant units matter because an appliance needing repair can keep a unit from being rented, and managers otherwise change settings by hand between tenants. Real-time remote monitoring covers vacant units, common areas, and the whole property, helping prevent issues from escalating. Seasonal climate control can also be handled remotely.

Measure it in labor hours saved and in how residents experience problems. The more units you manage, the greater the reduction in hours and costs, along with less tenant frustration. Residents feel the pain when an issue affects comfort, convenience, or money, so quick resolution is the test.

SmartHQ Pro Editorial Team

SmartHQ Pro Editorial Team

Content Team | SmartHQ Pro, GE Appliances company

SmartHQ Pro writes for property managers, service technicians, and RevOps teams working with connected appliance technology. Guides like this one draw on SmartHQ™ Service's field data and direct input from GE Appliances' service engineering team.

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