The ability to automatically collect management fees was one of the most desired feature requests for Buildium’s property management software. A colleague and I dug deep to understand the root of the problem and designed a solution.
We started with contextual inquiry. We visited a few local property management companies and had them walk us through their workflows. The core problem that emerged was that collecting management fees stood in the way of paying property owners. Property managers have time pressure to deliver checks to their owners as soon as they can after tenants pay rent. So we designed, tested, and refined a way to be able to pay owners sooner, setting aside the money that needed to be set aside for management fees and bills. See clickable prototype of the design.
