Chasing signatures and funds before keys change hands
Keys should not move until four unrelated things are true. Every party has signed, including the guarantor. The funds have cleared, which is not the same as having arrived. A policy names the manager as an interested party. The utility account shows a transfer confirmed in the name of the resident. Each of those facts lives in a different system, and none of the four knows about the others. The addenda that belong in the envelope differ with the age of the building and the state, so one checklist copied across a portfolio will be wrong somewhere.
The management system is authoritative for money and knows nothing about the phone call where the owner approved the repair.
A management company runs two ledgers that must never mix: the money it holds for owners and tenants, and its own. Everything downstream of that separation is regulated, which shapes what automation is allowed to touch.
- DocuSign
- AppFolio
- Twilio
When this is the wrong thing to build
Pick something else if you take move in money through a portal that posts on a schedule of its own. A chase that cannot see cleared funds will either hold keys on money already paid or release them against a payment that reverses a week later.
The constraint that shapes it
In most states property management is licensed brokerage activity, which means the company operates under a broker and its handling of client funds is supervised, with segregation from operating money and periodic reconciliation expected. More on how this sector works.
A list of things that are missing, worked until it is empty. Read what this shape is, or start from one of these.
- Chasing a compliance file to complete
- Chasing a referral fee through to a closing you cannot see
- Asking for the replenishment before the retainer runs to zero
- Chasing medical records until the set is complete
- Getting a deposition on the calendar of every party
- Chasing the warranty credit the distributor has not issued
- How do I stop releasing keys before the funds clear?
- Why is a lease envelope stuck waiting on a guarantor?
- What addenda have to be attached to a residential lease?
- How do I confirm a resident moved the utilities into their name?
- How do I collect proof of renters insurance before move in?
Back to property management, or see how this is priced and scoped.