From the outset she was tasked with managing over 600 doors with zero experience. But Lisa rose to the challenge with hard work and a smile, discovering that she enjoyed the work, and went on to found her own company, Valor Real Estate Services, 10 years ago.
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“It has been one heck of a rollercoaster,” Lisa says. “But it’s been really interesting, the things I’ve learned over the years. Property management truly is an ‘improvise, adapt, overcome’ industry.”
“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”
But Lisa’s biggest test in that regard came with the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, she suddenly needed a contactless system for handling money to limit how many people came into the office.
Lisa wanted nothing more than to automate the repetitive, time-consuming payment process so that she could focus on her family, staff, and clients.
But while researching property management software, she found that many needed her to enter too much data manually.
PayProp proved to be the exception. Unlike solutions from legacy software providers, its bank-integrated automation and audit log allowed Lisa to set her business’s bookkeeping on autopilot. She also likes the ability to ‘set and forget’ powerful payment and allocation rules specific to her business needs, which can change from year to year.
As it turned out, PayProp’s browser-based rental payment platform not only allowed staff to safely conduct business from home, but also proved popular with clients.
Because trust accounts on the platform are bank-integrated and auto-reconciled to the right payer, payee, property, and purpose (with the aid of live account balances and smart software recognition), Lisa can pay her owners faster
than ever.
We save about five days a month on bookkeeping just because of PayProp. We used to pay our vendors on the 10th and our owners on the 15th. Now everybody’s paid by the 10th and they’re elated. How can I put a dollar amount on that? Lisa Cohen-Adkinson, Owner & Broker
Building a resilient rental business
Valor Real Estate Services was put to the test once again in September 2022 when Hurricane Ian made landfall.
This time, Lisa was prepared with PayProp. While automation kept the rental payment process running as smoothly as always, she used the time it saved her to check in on owners and tenants, inspect over 30 properties, and arrange repairs for the few homes that were badly damaged.
Eight months later, Florida is slowly but surely recovering from the costliest storm in the state’s history, and Lisa’s professionalism and compassion during the cleanup has helped her grow her business like never before.
Our company has doubled in size since the end of September 2022. Clients are leaving positive Google reviews that prospects are paying attention to. They want to know who’s actually handling their properties with care. PayProp has absolutely helped us grow. Lisa Cohen-Adkinson, Owner & Broker
Tried, true, trusted
PayProp has helped Lisa to be her clients’ rock in a crisis. Having award-winning automated technology as her autopilot allows her to be there for everyone she works with, keeping them happy and safeguarding their investments at all times.
I’m very happy with the platform and the customer service. I always know things will be taken care of when I need something. It’s not often you come across a company with such high standards of quality as PayProp. That’s what we at Valor strive to be every day. Lisa Cohen-Adkinson, Owner & Broker