As a leading financial management company, Mirabel seeks out the best returns for its clients. With real estate investment seen as a safe harbour offering great returns during times of financial uncertainty, the company is making inroads helping its clients invest and see returns from property rentals – which is 100% in line with PayProp’s value.
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Mark Julien runs the property management side of Mirabel. He began managing his own properties while working as a stonemason, earning his Red Seal in masonry during his work on the Parliament of Canada and the various buildings that make up the Parliamentary Precinct in Ottawa. By 2017, after receiving an Accredited Residential Manager qualification from the Real Estate Institute of Canada (REIC), Mark decided to manage property full time and joined Mirabel.
He recalls looking for something to keep control of daily admin tasks, rent management and reporting, but says none of the traditional property software solutions could do what he needed. Then he was introduced to PayProp.
“Just from the initial pitch, PayProp sounded like what I was looking for. PayProp is a novel technical solution.”
“I had researched client management and property management software, and none of it had the rent management report-generating features we needed until we found PayProp.” Mark Julien, Owner & Property Manager
Getting going
Getting started with a new system can be a challenge, but with PayProp it was a positive experience. The onboarding process involved PayProp’s Toronto-based team exporting Mirabel’s property data to the PayProp platform, while Mark received unlimited free training from PayProp’s support team to get him up to speed with the new system.
Right away, he started seeing the benefits of using PayProp, he reports.
“With my old system I would be creating reports from spreadsheet templates, updating them with monthly income and expenses, exporting them as PDFs, then e-mailing clients to explain what had gone on that month. After that, I’d have to move funds around using online banking and I would do that for each property. More steps, more spreadsheets, more e-mails and more hands-on manual admin which used to take a few hours,” he explains. “PayProp allows you to do all of it in just a few minutes, it’s so much more streamlined – a huge timesaver.”
Mark has been able to use all the time saved in this way to generate some impressive results. Since implementing PayProp, the number of units managed by Mirabel has increased by 200%, with the business seeing a 155% increase in rent roll.
Client benefits
While initially Mark was looking for a back-end system purely to streamline his admin, he has also found that PayProp brings many benefits beyond time-saving automation. “There’s value in PayProp at various different points. Right away I saw the value in what the platform does with record generation. But having an app for owners and a portal for tenants goes beyond [that] and is something extra we can offer to clients and tenants,” explained Mark.
PayProp also adds to the company’s professionalism with branded tenant invoices and landlord statements as well as instant access to property details whenever an investor or tenant calls. As Mark runs the entire property management side of the business, he relishes having a tool like PayProp as it gives him the assurance that he can always put tenants at ease and reassure landlords that their investment is in safe hands.
“I started the property management business from nothing. Having a sophisticated tool like PayProp means we are taken more seriously,” says Mark.
“It makes me feel like I am in control of the process rather than staving off chaos as so many in the property management sector appear to be doing.” Mark Julien, Owner & Property Manager
Looking forward
When Mirabel started offering property management services, most of the company’s clients were small landlord investors needing someone to manage a single unit. However, as the company has grown it has attracted larger multi-unit investors and block management landlords. As a result, it is important that their rental management software can handle both sets of clients seamlessly. “We’re moving from single homes to multi-unit properties. I see that as being a transition that I want to continue,” Mark continues. “I don’t see success in terms of quantity, but instead want to continue to work with more serious investors, adding units to their portfolios and increasing the number of units we have under management.
“It’s key to have a platform that can match our vision, which is what we have found in PayProp.” Mark Julien, Owner & Property Manager
Attracting new clients in a competitive market has also become easier since Mirabel started using PayProp. “Speaking to new investors about PDF property reports, accepting different forms of payments and how the dispersal of funds works really gives them confidence in our ability to manage their properties,” said Mark. “I can really sell what our business offers because I know PayProp’s capabilities and it is helping us to attract new investors.”
