Dingo and Joomla, two open source products that are extremely low cost, would be an excellent start to help automate a property management operation.  While Dingo and Joomla would be a good start, it’s likely that eventually more ingredients would be needed to make this a fully effective system.  At first glance, you would need the following functions to build a low-cost, easy-entry, online property management system.

Broadcast/Publish News (Joomla)

Broadcasting/publishing of public information, both to renters and to property owers/managers.  A way to attract both renters and potentianlly building owners.  This is the basic function of the Joomla portion of a website.  It does this well, is easy to learn and maintain.

Task Management (Dingo)

Taking care of rental properties is not something you want to attempt with sticky notes.  Face it, you will have multiple groups asking lots of different things.  There must be a central way to record everything to make sure nothing slips through the cracks. In addition, you will need a way to delegate to others and just as important, a bread crumb trail so you know who said/did what when.  If you are involved in getting things fixed, there are other important issues like liability, insurance, security and getting people paid.

Display The Properties (Mosets Hot Property)

Potential renters will want to see an inventory of available properties with images, features and all relavent information necessary for renters to make this decision: Do I want to go look at it?

Contact People to Follow-up  (Joomla)

A contact management system to keep track of property owners, managers and renters and everyone else in the loop.

The above are some snips from a 7 page PDF that covers this topic.   If would care to read more, the entire PDF can be obtained by clicking Manaaging Rental Properties with Dingo and Joomla