BREAKING PROPERTY NEWS – 27/09/2021
Daily bite-sized proptech and real estate news in partnership with Proptech-X. Today, Stanton looks at the Inventory Hive and TDS’s latest features, and Mark Hayward leaving Propertymark.
Inventory Hive & TDS – 360° property images now accepted via online evidence portal
A year ago today, Inventory Hive and The Dispute Service started working more closely together to transform inventory reporting in the private rented sector for the better. As they mark their one-year anniversary, they reveal what’s next for inventories.
Over the past twelve months, users of the Inventory Hive app have benefited from a host of features that have streamlined inventories and property inspections. From 360° camera technology and automatic compliance prompts to best practice guides, webinars and new virtual CPD accreditation training, property professionals have entered a new era of inventory reporting.
“The 360° photos taken via the Inventory Hive app can be uploaded to the TDS online evidence portal, which is far quicker and easier than emailing large files,” explained Richard Abbots, Founder and CEO of Inventory Hive. “This is just one reason why we continue to work with Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS) and their innovative approach to lettings and deposit management.”
Inventory Hive has also announced a game-changing new feature, which will allow users to integrate floorplans, video links, hotspots, and embedded photos into 360-degree video tours of properties.
“This makes virtual tours beautifully simple – and efficient,” added Richard. “Where it traditionally takes hours out of a day to drive to a handful of properties to conduct show-rounds, agents can now manage multiple viewings in a range of locations remotely whilst simultaneously monitoring engagement. Clients can view properties conveniently on their device from any location too. The cost savings and environmental benefits of that are numerous.”
To date, the joint work has brought a combination of the market-leading paperless software from Inventory Hive with the expert industry knowledge from The Dispute Service to better protect both tenants and landlords.
The software reviews from letting agents, landlords, inventory clerks and tenants speak volumes of how invaluable digital inventories are in today’s rental market.
As the industry has been forced to embrace digital much faster over the past 18 months than expected, the PRS has seen the huge time, cost and carbon-footprint reductions that come from digital inventory technology.
“It’s been a pleasure working with and learning from the team at TDS. We believe the key to introducing relevant and purposeful features is understanding best industry practices. As a result, we’re doing all we can to help make unnecessary deposit disputes a thing of the past,” Richard added.
Steve Harriott Chief Executive of The Dispute Service added: “We know the value of an inventory in reducing disputes, so we are excited by the continuing innovation that Inventory Hive is making to their product.”
In recent years, the InventoryHive platform has shown its thirst for innovation with the release of 360° camera integration with Ricoh Theta and Insta360 devices. This means photos can be captured and tagged into relevant rooms/spaces within a property directly from their App. Plus, the introduction of image recognition AI for meter reading populating and integrated pre-arrival document serving.
Agents and landlords can learn more about the power of using 360° photos in tenancy deposit disputes at the Inventory Hive webinar taking place online on the 25th of October.
Mark Hayward to retire from Propertymark
Propertymark’s current CEO, Nathan Emerson
Formally the CEO and then holding the title of Chief Policy Advisor, Mark Hayward is to leave Propertymark at the end of the year. Propertymark has in the past eight years gone through a number of changes and has seen a concentration of power and an alignment of organisations with it during that time.
At present with Nathan Emerson as CEO, Propertymark is going through a golden age of listening and putting the grassroots membership front and centre. It will be interesting to see who fills Mr Hayward’s shoes. My hope is that it is a less stale, male and pale person, maybe a person who is a generation younger and perhaps of a different gender would help get a balanced view of what modern agency is going to be in the 2030’s.
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