During the 1980s, Great Western Management (GWM) developed 15 residential properties with subsidies from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) under its Section 515 Rural Development (RD) program. For decades, GWM managed those properties, along with a portfolio of commercial and storage properties with an accounting software program. Over the years, GWM noticed that RD reporting was taking more time because their affordable housing software did not interface with the USDA MINC reporting site.
Simple change, big impact
Candi Pearson, controller for GWM, explains how adopting Yardi Breeze Premier helped her team save hours of time and reduced potential compliance reporting errors.
“It feels like Breeze Premier sent Great Western Management 15 years into the future compared to how our team used technology in the past,” said Candi.
The biggest change for GWM is Breeze Premier’s ability to send compliance data directly to USDA. In the past, GWM’s team would hand-key data into their previous program as well as MINC. That created opportunities for conflicting data due to administrative errors and data changes over time.
Breeze Premier offers affordable housing providers the ability to report to MINC without entering data multiple times. The platform is easy to use and eliminates the possibility of inaccurate data entry.
GWM also replaced the administratively burdensome process of sending letters to households when it’s time for residents to recertify eligibility to reside in affordable housing. Breeze Premier includes automated email creation and delivery that eliminates the need to write, print and mail letters. Instead, the process is nearly instantaneous, paperless and automatic.
Not just for affordable housing
Most of GWM’s business is centered on commercial property management. The company of approximately 40 people manages more than 30 properties across western North Carolina and East Tennessee.
GWM’s properties include flexible workspace, market rate apartments, retail product storage and self storage for large equipment such as cars, boats and RVs.
“Breeze Premier works for our team across all these property types. Everything we do happens in Breeze Premier, including basic property management functions, accounting, tenant management and more,” said Candi.
Great for maintenance tracking
GWM’s maintenance team also found new ways to work more efficiently now that they’ve replaced paperwork with Breeze Premier.
Maintenance techs can now log in to see work that needs to be completed, plan their routes and even pre-purchase repair equipment before leaving for the day. Digital work orders also offer the ability to upload photos of completed work, invoices and notes from techs. This makes maintenance work more efficient and audits much smoother.
GWM’s auditors currently work from an office in Indianapolis. Digital property management files, including work orders and invoices, make it simple for auditors to access documentation from hundreds of miles away.
Easy to implement
One of the greatest benefits of our affordable housing software is how easy it is to implement and convert from other platforms.
“With online help from the Breeze Premier support team, we were able to get everything converted in just three months. Now, I’m a numbers person — IT is not my field of expertise. The fact that we got it done relatively smoothly is a testament to how easy it is to switch to Breeze Premier,” shared Candi.
Strong support matters
Candi also praises the Breeze Premier support team, which continues to assist GWM.
“I cannot highlight enough how wonderful tech support is. For example, the green box that lets us instantly chat with a live support person is wonderful. There is always someone there to help. I’ve also worked through issues via screenshare and by phone, and every single one of the tech people is exceptional. They need a pat on the back because they do so well,” she said.
