Meet Danielle Drozdek, property manager at Barsky Property Management. She oversees 83 residential units and 30,000 square feet of commercial/mixed space. Her business has been utilizing Breeze to manage its properties since 2018. Before using Yardi Breeze, she was completing all work manually in spreadsheets and separate accounting software, which became increasingly time-consuming and difficult as she was given more properties to manage. We asked her to share the secrets to the success she’s had on the platform around time management, resident retention, owner buy-in and more.
What challenges did you face before using Yardi Breeze?
I was doing everything in Excel or QuickBooks. When I first started, I was asking my boss for more work. He said, “Here’s a rental property. If you can handle this, I’ll give you more.” It only consisted of five units. It wasn’t anything major. Later as he was giving me more, I was adding to that spreadsheet to the point where it was color coded by property and very hard to follow. It got to the point where I was literally scrolling down this huge list to find what I needed. That’s when I knew it was time to switch over to property management software. I did a bunch of research on Yardi and a couple of other major players. It just seemed like Breeze best fit our needs.
All the owners I’ve worked with love Breeze. They like being able to access their portal and see everything they need in the reports.
What set Breeze apart from some of those other solutions?
I think Breeze is the most user-friendly software out there. That was a big thing. I also like the live chat option that’s available during work hours. If I ever have questions, the chat team is extremely helpful. I also like the way that Breeze is laid out. I think it’s better than both Buildium and AppFolio. Plus, Breeze was priced better, which also helped.
Have your owners expressed enthusiasm for Breeze?
All the owners I’ve worked with love Breeze. They like being able to access their portal and see everything they need in the reports. Thanks to the owner portals, they don’t need to bombard us with emails or calls. They can just see everything online, all in one place. It’s better for everyone.
If I were to be uploading invoices into QuickBooks, it would probably take me 45 minutes to an hour to do a stack. With Breeze, it takes about 20 minutes.
What’s changed for you since implementing Breeze?
Breeze definitely streamlined payment processing and made me a lot faster at my job. The majority of my tenants and homeowners pay online. I don’t have to spend time waiting for a check in the mail and entering it in the system. Breeze also helps with invoices for vendors and financial tasks. I can copy most reports at this point, especially the ones that recur on a monthly basis. That in itself saves a lot of time. If I were to be uploading invoices into QuickBooks, it would probably take me 45 minutes to an hour to do a stack. With Breeze, it takes about 20 minutes.
How has the adoption of the portals been with your residents?
The majority of them are actually pretty happy to be paying online and not having to write checks. Because we’re very close to Princeton University, most of my tenants are actually students. They don’t like writing checks. They’d rather just do everything online. In fact, even my older tenants are happy paying rent online.
Have you seen any increased resident satisfaction with regards to using the resident portal, online payments or maintenance requests?
Yeah, I have. I mentioned that my residents like paying rent online through their portals. But they also like being able to submit maintenance requests, track the progress of each job and follow any work status updates. Thanks to these self-service options, I have definitely noticed an increase in tenant retention and renewals.
Do you have any market concerns going into 2023?
With the housing market as it is, I think if people can’t sell their house, they’re going to rent it. So that means more clients and income for me. But at the same time, rental prices seem to be a little bit outrageous in some areas. If you know someone who struggles to afford rent, you know this is an issue. But hopefully, the economy is smooth sailing, and we don’t have another bad crash like we did in the past.
Thank you, Danielle Drozdek!
We’re so grateful Danielle Drozdek took time out of her schedule to talk with us! For more information or to see Breeze for yourself, please reach out and request a personalized demo.
