The property management industry is all about working with what you have to keep your commercial and residential premises in as good a condition as possible.
Day to day, this means making difficult decisions about where to allocate resources, while always being prepared for potentially expensive issues to arise.
From roofs and HVAC units to facades and parking lots, the best approach to property management lies in proactive maintenance and inspections. These are proven to identify problems in time for them to be rectified, while preventing minor issues from becoming critical failures.
The proactive approach to asset management is being aided by a revolutionary new tools and software, from drones to analytics. These advances are speeding up inspections, cutting inspection costs, and providing property managers with a more holistic view of the buildings they are responsible for.
In this post, we’re going to be looking at why drones are becoming a go-to tool for asset managers.
Accuracy and Objectivity
When you’re making big decisions about expenditures and maintenance, it’s vital that they’re based on an accurate and objective understanding of the situation at hand.
Getting aerial photos and videos of the situation, whether it’s a damaged roof or a malfunctioning HVAC unit, provides property managers with the facts they need in a fraction of the time compared with conventional data gathering methods.
Better still, aerial photos and videos are a permanent record of an inspection that doesn’t leave room for human error. With precise payloads and smart software, the accuracy of insights has never been more secure.
Cost-effective Repetition
A vital part of any proactive maintenance process is persistence. Property managers need to see how a situation evolves over time in order to prioritize resources. From parking lots to chimneys, small problems can escalate when left unchecked. The challenge is maintaining persistence in a way that’s cost-effective and consistent.
Fortunately, regularly scheduled drone flights give property managers an affordable way to keep tabs on the condition of vital structures throughout the year. Compared to having maintenance crews spend expensive hours accessing and documenting hard-to-reach areas, the same data can be gathered in a fraction of the time when using drones.
Automated Insights
If we look for a moment beyond the novelty of adding drone technology to your property management toolkit, what you’re really doing is upgrading your ability to gather data. Increasingly, this data is being collected with a degree of autonomy and seamlessly being integrated into conventional workflows.
The latest drone technology can carry out precise inspections of, for example, a rooftop, in a way that’s repeatable. The flight path can be recorded and repeated at regular intervals with the touch of a button, for smarter inspections that provide genuine insights.
Now even the process of generating these insights is being taken to the next level. With AI-assisted anomaly detection and expert analysis such as DroneBase Insights Roof Reports, anomalies in structural images are spotted and reported so you can take the necessary action.
Speed and Safety
Aside from accuracy, cost savings, and the insights you need to make better decisions, drone technology provides asset managers with a safer way of maintaining properties.
Inevitably, issues will occur and inspections will be required in areas that are hard for crews to reach. Rather than risk dangerous, time-consuming climbs, drones offer a safe and speedy alternative.
Falls from ladders as a result of working at height is among the biggest causes of workplace injuries in the U.S. There’s now a proven and effective technology that in many cases removes the need for staff to be put at risk.
Successful asset and property management is all about gathering accurate information in order to make sound, cost-effective decisions. With the rise of drone technology, it’s never been easier to achieve those goals. Learn more about DroneBase’s property management solutions here.
