What a Property Management Company Needs Online

The three audiences

Owners and councils are deciding whether to hire you. They want scope, fees, credentials, and evidence you handle properties like theirs.

Tenants and residents already live in a property you manage. They want to report a repair, pay, and find out who to contact. They did not choose you and cannot leave.

Prospective tenants want available units and application requirements.

The site should serve all three without making any of them navigate the others' content, which usually means clear separate routes from the homepage rather than one merged services section.

The resident experience is your reputation

An argument worth making because it is frequently treated as an afterthought.

Residents did not select you and cannot switch. That makes them an audience with no commercial leverage, which is exactly why their experience is neglected and exactly why it damages you.

In strata work particularly, residents are also owners, and owners collectively decide whether the contract is renewed. A repair reporting process that frustrates people is a renewal problem building quietly.

What that section needs: a clear repair reporting route, what constitutes an emergency and the after-hours number, expected response times, how to reach a specific manager, and payment options.

None of that is complicated and most management sites bury it beneath the sales content.

What owners and councils actually compare

• What is included in the fee and what is charged separately.
• The fee structure itself, whether a percentage, a per-unit rate, or a flat fee.
• How many properties or units each manager handles, which determines the attention they get.
• What happens after hours and who answers.
• Reporting, what they receive and how often.
• The contract term and how to exit, which is a genuine concern given how these relationships end.
• Insurance and licensing, stated with the registration.

Portfolio size per manager is the item most likely to differentiate you and least likely to be published. A firm confident about it should say so, since the alternative is being compared purely on fee.

Fees

Rarely published in this category and the case for it is the same as anywhere.

An owner or a council building a comparison cannot place you without a number, and a firm absent from the comparison loses without being considered.

What can be published: the fee structure, a typical range, what is included as standard, and the common extras with their charges. Stating that a formal proposal follows a review of the property covers the variation.

The extras deserve particular clarity, since undisclosed charges are the most common source of complaint about management firms and being upfront is a differentiator rather than a risk.

The strata dimension

Where the sale is to a council rather than an individual, which changes the process.

Councils run a selection process, compare proposals, and are made up of volunteers with varying experience. That means the site is read by people who may never have hired a management firm before.

What helps: explaining what a management agreement typically covers, what the council remains responsible for, how the transition from a previous firm works, and what information you need to quote.

The transition question is the most useful. A council reluctant to change because they imagine it is difficult is exactly who a clear page on the process converts.

Requirements for licensing and the regulatory framework differ by province and are worth stating accurately, since councils check.

Portals

Most firms use a third-party portal system, which creates a specific site problem.

The login is on a different domain, looks different, and frequently confuses people who assume they are in the wrong place. A short page explaining what the portal is, what it does, and how to get a login reduces support calls considerably.

Also worth stating: what can be done in the portal and what still requires a phone call, since a resident who cannot find the right option assumes the system is broken.

Vacancies

For rental management, the vacancy listings are a genuine traffic source and are worth handling properly.

Each unit as its own page with photographs, the rent, availability date, and application requirements. Removed or marked when let, since stale listings produce enquiries and irritation.

Anything published about tenancy terms should reflect the applicable residential tenancy legislation, which is provincial and changes, so pointing at the authoritative source is safer than restating rules.

The rest

A genuine after-hours contact, since that is when the relationship is tested. Named managers with contact routes, since being unable to reach a person is the most common complaint in this sector. And clear separation of the owner and resident sections, which is the structural decision everything else follows from, in the same way audience separation works in writing for a trade audience versus a homeowner.

Frequently asked questions

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