WeconnectU celebrates a key milestone

This August – just over four years since our inception – WeconnectU officially reached half a million property units under management on our cloud-based platforms.

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The last 18 months have seen us onboarding over 30 customers every month – a good sign that property managers are actively looking to become more compliant, manageable, scalable and profitable. We’ve also added over 7000 body corporates and homeowners’ associations to the list of property managers already handling their portfolios with WeconnectU’s solutions.

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We are incredibly proud of how far we have come as the solution of choice for South Africa’s property management professionals, with some of the biggest names in the sector now using our software as an integral part of their businesses.

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Our road to success

“WeconnectU was born out of our own frustrations managing a large portfolio of properties,” says Danie van der Merwe, who founded WeconnectU in collaboration with his brother, Johann. “We were stuck using multiple systems to handle all the elements of our business, none which integrated or was designed with the workflows and challenges of property management in mind. We created WeconnectU as our way of solving these operational challenges, not just for ourselves but for all the property managers facing the same frustrations we did.”

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This user-centric, solutions-focussed ideology remained at the forefront of WeconnectU’s product development, informing every new tool or function added to the cloud-based platform over the years.

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“We started out in community management, as the fastest-growing sector in the industry and one of the most complicated and heavily-regulated,” says Danie. “We were the first solution of our kind to bring all the tasks and stakeholders together on one, transparent, cloud-based platform.”

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With a custom-built financial module, intelligent dashboards for client and business KPI monitoring and management, built-in compliance support and unprecedented levels of reporting, WeconnectU made waves in the industry from day one. Soon, requests to add rental management and inspection and maintenance management solutions began to flood in, and Danie and Johann realised WeconnectU had far greater problem-solving potential.

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“We put our minds towards creating a fully integrated ecosystem that could handle the complete range of property management services, end-to-end,” says Johann. “We added rental asset management software that addresses the entire value chain, from portfolio management to tenant vetting, bank-integrated account management and lease management, as well as integrated inspection and maintenance management via RedRabbit.”

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The intention wasn’t just to add functionality, however.

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“Property managers often get so bogged down in day-to-day admin that they have no capacity to focus on other elements of the client experience,” says Schalk van der Merwe, the third brother who recently joined the team. “We wanted to make it possible for property managers to deliver a similarly rich and valuable experience to financial asset managers, and be able to effectively communicate that value to clients.”

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The WeconnectU team set about achieving this through a combination of time-saving operational efficiencies and automated reporting that goes far beyond the basic financials.

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“Our reports cover every element of the service delivered by property managers, from financials to inspections and maintenance, to tenant vetting and much, much, more,” says Schalk. “We’re also making it possible for property managers to provide investment updates and reviews, market trend analyses and portfolio recommendations, making it very clear how much value they add to clients’ investments.”

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New product launches

WeconnectU has come a long way in just four years, but our work is far from done. Tobie van der Merwe, our Business Development Manager, made some exciting product announcements at our special online event hosted on the 9th of September.

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Here is a sneak peek at what’s cooking for each of our three solutions, solving even more of the complex challenges faced by South African property managers with simple, elegant and user-friendly technology.

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Community Management

‍MeetingSpace

A fully compliant online community meeting management module that runs alongside Zoom and Teams, including a built-in quorum calculator, live voting and real-time results.

• Upgraded KPI Dashboard
• Greater top- and mid-level manageability, with new capabilities to launch bulk processing across portfolios. See more and do more in even less time.
• Owner Portal
• A mobile-friendly Owner Portal that empowers homeowners with easy access to information, reducing the need to contact managing agents with mundane queries.

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Rental Asset Management

• Rental Asset Management Report
• Inform and educate investors on their assets’ performance through comprehensive asset management reports that demonstrate the value you add through investment optimisation.
• Credit Report
• Partnering with Experion, we’re busy creating our very own, custom Credit Report designed to be the most comprehensive on the market, making tenant selection easier and safer.

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RedRabbit Inspection and Maintenance Management

• Tenant Maintenance Request Portal
• A mobile-friendly portal through which tenants can report all maintenance issues, eliminating the need for calls and emails and enabling more accurate, detailed and transparent reporting.
• Maintenance Contractors Portal
• A mobile-friendly Contractor Portal makes emails, SMSs and WhatsApps obsolete through integrated instant messaging, file and photo sharing, job cards and tickets, project acceptance and more.

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These are just a few examples of new technology WeconnectU will be rolling out in the next few months. We’re committed to ongoing innovation and solving real-world problems for Property Managers and Rental Asset Managers. To find out more, email james@weconnectu.co.za.