SOMAK Efficiently Manages and Grows Community Association Portfolio

A Bit of Backstory

SOMAK Property Management was established by the Carrier Family, whose success in premier custom home building laid the perfect foundation for property management. Mike and his family realized that associations and owners need a reliable partner in their property manager, and they set out to offer excellent services to their customers. Today, Mike Carrier is the Founder and President of SOMAK Property Management. The business has been growing since the beginning, Mike has continually added new managers and support staff, but remains an active manager over the portfolio in addition to overseeing company wide operations, including managers, support staff, and maintenance.

Why AppFolio?

Prior to switching to AppFolio, SOMAK was using separate programs for accounting, maintenance, and communication. Their choice to move to AppFolio was in large part due to the online payment system, and web-based access to all information. After the switch, SOMAK has continued to quickly implement additional features such as work order reporting and tracking. AppFolio has made Mike’s work easier, centralizing all facets of his business into an easily accessible program available in the office, field, or home.

Interview with Mike

We asked Mike to share with us the ways in which AppFolio has centralized his business, and has made managing community associations easier and more efficient.

How has AppFolio helped you increase the efficiency of your business?

"The ability to access information on a central platform from any device has proven invaluable. Processing payments online with AppFolio has saved us from hiring an additional bookkeeper altogether. Site inspection reports have streamlined the inspection and reporting process to the point where our maintenance manager is saving 3-8 hours in reporting and documentation time, rather than spending time on taking notes and transcribing them to another format like Word. The maintenance staff can access work orders in real time to improve efficiency for our clients. We’ve given board members access to view their properties online. This allows our boards to have more immediate information, reducing the time we have to spend responding to phone calls and emails. Our board members are confident in our abilities, and appreciate the transparency AppFolio provides. Even the unquantifiable benefits are real; we’ve really been able to simplify our complete service line to all clients.

With AppFolio, we now have maintenance staff, support staff, managers, and owners all working within one platform. We hope to add 400-600 units in the next 12 months without needing to add any additional staffing."

Are you able to track and manage your boards and communicate with all customers easily using AppFolio? How are you saving time preparing financials and reports?

"Identifying board members within AppFolio is great. We are updating the board member information for all properties and having this information handy cuts down on the need to look up the information. The ability to communicate through AppFolio, and track emails and text messages has greatly improved our communication to all residents.

In addition, the reporting has been greatly improved for our associations. AppFolio’s reports are clear and easy to read while being customizable to exact board specifications. Many treasurers access the system in real time, thus reducing specific requests for information. I’d estimate each manager saves 1-2 hours per week on the reporting and financials process. With four managers, this adds up to 8 hours weekly."

How are you streamlining your payments process for your portfolio?

"AppFolio’s online payments and automatic deposits have saved us at least a part-time bookkeeper on the payroll. I’d estimate 15-20 hours weekly are saved through online payments. Additionally, the checks we do still receive are more easily applied to the proper accounts because we can search name, address, and unit number depending on what information is available on the check. This has been a great time saver.

SOMAK Property Management is one of the few association management companies offering a free online payment system to residents. This has decreased overall past due balances owed to our clients. We’ve developed a reputation of being honest and forthcoming during our growth using tools such as online real-time access for board members. AppFolio has allowed us to be one of the only companies in our market that has never had a client terminate a contract since we began years ago."

Can you share more about your online maintenance and mobile inspections process? How is AppFolio assisting your team with these processes?

"SOMAK is saving tremendous time with the mobile inspections. Previously, inspection personnel had to take photos and handwritten notes, then transfer those to a common document like Word or Excel. Inspection personnel are saving 15-30 minutes per inspection. At 25 inspections monthly, this translates to 6-12 hours a month. Additionally, the fact that reports are available in real time helps the portfolio managers distribute or follow-up without waiting on the document to be ready, speeding up their turnaround time."

Would you recommend AppFolio?

"I would recommend AppFolio to anyone looking for an all-inclusive management software. The program is very intuitive to use and offers all components needed to properly manage your properties.

The main reason for my recommendation is because AppFolio is continually updating their system. Work orders, inspections, violations, and board member roles are all features that have been added because of user suggestions. AppFolio partners with their customers to drive changes to their product; this is relevant and important to us at SOMAK Property Management and allows us to continue improving our services."