A Salt Lake City property management company recently spent just one hour auditing the tools their 15-person team was using. The result? They uncovered a mess: multiple project systems with no integration, duplicate document storage, and triple-entry of the same tenant data across different platforms.
The team was losing 12 hours per employee, per week, doing repetitive tasks, switching between disconnected apps, and hunting for lease documents. That’s over 9,000 hours a year—gone. At a conservative rate of $35/hour, that’s $315,000 in productivity wasted annually.
But here’s the kicker: Within one quarter, they cleaned it up. Streamlined communication. Integrated the tech stack. Set up automations. The results were real—faster turns, better reporting, and fewer headaches.
Let’s break down where most Salt Lake City property management firms are leaking IT budget—and how to stop it using smarter Managed IT Services tailored for your industry.
Money Pit #1: Communication Chaos (Cost: $4,500–$6,200/month for a 10-person team)
You’ve got team members bouncing between emails, RingCentral, Slack, Teams, group texts, and sometimes even sticky notes on a desk. Conversations about lease renewals, tenant notices, or emergency repairs are scattered across five platforms.
The cost: Wasted time. Your team spends 3–4 hours weekly just searching for information. That’s up to $72,800/year down the drain for a 10-person property team.
Real example: A local SLC firm had tenants emailing requests, vendors texting updates, and internal conversations happening in Slack. It was impossible to trace who said what and where. New hires spent the first week just figuring out which system to check for updates.
The fix:
- Define one platform per communication type:
- Urgent issues: Phone or VoIP only
- Project coordination: Property management platform (AppFolio, Buildium, etc.)
- Quick internal messages: Slack or Teams—but not both
- Tenant and owner updates: CRM or ticketing system
- Enforce the rule: “If it’s not documented in the right place, it didn’t happen.”
Time saved: One SLC firm reclaimed over 1,200 hours/year just by creating clean comms workflows.
Reinvestment potential: That’s over $40,000 in recovered value—enough for team bonuses, upgraded mobile tech, or a new property dashboard rollout.
Money Pit #2: Disconnected Tools That Don’t Talk (Cost: $500–$2,000/month)
Your maintenance requests come through your PM software. Your leasing team works in a separate CRM. Accounting uses a standalone billing tool. And none of them talk to each other.
The result? Triple-entry, missed updates, and high stress during turn season.
Real example: A Salt Lake agency was manually entering the same owner data into AppFolio, QuickBooks, and their marketing platform. It took 15 minutes per client across 100 clients per year. That’s 1,500 hours lost—$52,500 in labor waste.
They implemented Zapier and basic API integrations. Now, one form populates everything from owner records to automated emails.
Time saved: 1,400+ hours annually. Error rates dropped. Morale went up.
Reinvestment potential: $50K+ in time savings could go toward property tech upgrades, energy audits, or new access control systems.
Money Pit #3: Paying for Tools You Don’t Use (Cost: $600–$1,500/month)
Let’s get honest: How many software tools are you actually using? That premium e-signature tool? The extra Zoom license? That scheduling app no one remembers installing?
What we see in SLC firms: Multiple file storage solutions (Dropbox AND Google Drive), overlapping project software (Monday AND Trello), VoIP redundancy (RingCentral AND Zoom Phone).
Real example: One SLC property company found $8,000/year in unused or duplicated subscriptions—just by checking credit card statements.
Your fix in 20 minutes:
- Review your last three months of bank/credit card charges.
- List every recurring software subscription.
- Cancel anything unused, duplicated, or unessential.
Reinvestment potential: Cut $8,000–$18,000/year and reallocate it to cybersecurity upgrades or backup systems.
Your IT Budget Should Be Fueling Growth, Not Frustration
Let’s do the math for a 10-person property team:
- Communication clutter: Save $36,400/year
- Workflow automation: Save $4,500/year
- Tool audit/cancellations: Save $6,000–$12,000/year
Total potential recovery: $46,900–$52,900 annually.
That’s not hypothetical. That’s real money sitting inside your IT stack—waiting to be freed up with better-managed services and smarter support.
Ready To Find The Gaps In Your Tech Stack?
Click here to book your free network assessment.
At Qual IT, we specialize in helping Salt Lake City property managers eliminate waste, simplify tech, and protect data—all without disrupting your team’s daily grind.
You don’t need more tools. You need better ones. And the right partner to help you sort the difference.
Let’s clean house and redirect that budget where it belongs—back into your business.
