Order in the portfolio
Each property has its own list of installations and dates, but you view the whole on one timeline.
Manage inspection dates across your properties
Keep track of responsibilities across properties with different owners. See how to assign inspections to locations and the people responsible for them.
By ProbeList · Illustrative workflow with sample data.
Different owners, different service agreements
A property manager who looks after properties belonging to different entities works under several contract scopes at once. In one building they are responsible for inspections of the installations, in another only for the common parts, and elsewhere they coordinate contractors chosen by the owner. On top of that come team changes, holidays, and taking on further assignments.
ProbeList lets you treat each property as a location with its own list of installations, due dates, and notes. You can describe the scope of your duties towards a given owner in the location’s note, so you do not have to reconstruct it from memory before every conversation.
Communities and cooperatives take a similar approach, as we describe in the housing cooperatives example, but a manager has an extra layer: the relationship with an owner who expects specific information.
Four questions you want to answer without searching
When was the last inspection in this property?
You open the location and see the date of the last inspection, its result, and the person who carried it out. You do not have to ask an employee or dig through email.
What in my portfolio is due this quarter?
The agenda or month view shows inspections from all properties on one timeline. Filters by location and person let you narrow the list to one owner.
Does a newly taken-over property have gaps?
Once installations and inspections are recorded, you can immediately see which items have no cycle set or are past their date. That helps you begin the engagement from an orderly state, not from surprises.
Who covers for a colleague who is on holiday?
Inspections have an assigned person. You change it in a few moments, and the history of earlier inspections stays with the location.
Taking over a new property
Five steps from signing the contract to the first reminder
You repeat the same pattern with every new assignment.
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Gather information from the owner
Ask for the list of installations, the details of the latest inspections, and contacts for the companies that carried them out. Mark whatever you lack in a note so you can come back to it.
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Create the location with contact details
Enter the address, the contact person on the owner's side, a phone number, and an email. In the notes record the scope of the contract: what you are responsible for and what stays with the owner.
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Enter the installations as inspection items
Each installation or device is a separate item with a note, for example about the servicing company. The brand and serial number will help when a fault has to be reported.
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Set the cycles and the property manager
For each inspection choose the interval and the nearest date. Assign an inspector, a team member who is responsible for this property and for carrying out its inspections.
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Record the result after the first inspection
The result, date, and inspector close the first cycle and open the property's history. From then on you see its state in the same way as all the others.
Keepers, cover, and shared knowledge
In a property management company knowledge is usually spread across people: one knows the buildings in the north of the city, another handles office blocks. If that knowledge is only in people’s heads, a change of property manager means someone has to rebuild it from scratch.
In ProbeList you invite colleagues to the workspace with the administrator, inspector, or observer role. Dates and history sit with the locations, so a new property manager opens the property and sees what has been done and what still lies ahead. Before you send an invitation, consider what data will be visible in the workspace the new person is joining.
A conversation based on facts, not impressions
Owners usually ask about the state of a property when something happens. It is good to have the inspection dates and their results at hand then, and not just an assurance that all is well.
ProbeList does not assess technical condition and does not issue opinions. It stores what you record after each visit: the result, the date, the inspector, and notes. From that data you put together information for the owner, and the expert assessment is still made by a specialist.
Benefits
What a property manager can expect
Inspection dates and service history stay with the property when responsibility passes to a different manager.
Arguments in a conversation with the owner
Concrete dates and inspection results replace general assurances that everything is fine.
Fewer matters discovered after the fact
Statuses and reminders help you notice an approaching or overdue date before the owner does.
Smooth cover arrangements
Changing a property's property manager comes down to assigning the inspections to someone else.
Repeatable onboarding of assignments
You apply the same five-step pattern to every new property.
A clear scope of duties
Notes on locations show what you are responsible for and what stays with the owner.
A month in a company managing a dozen or so properties
At the start of the month the manager reviews the agenda and sees that inspections are approaching in three properties. Two are ordered from contractors straight away, and the third is moved to the following week when the right person on the team becomes free.
In the middle of the month the owner of one property asks when the installations were last checked. The manager opens the location, reads off the dates and results, and passes them on in a short message.
Towards the end of the month a new property is taken over. The team goes through the five steps of the onboarding list, and the location joins the portfolio with cycles set and a property manager assigned.
For your own calculation
How a portfolio grows along with the plan
These are example assumptions for your own calculation, not data from any manager.
| Portfolio stage | Locations | Inspection items | Active inspections | Smallest fitting plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start | 2 | 4 | 8 | Free |
| After a year | 12 | 24 | 48 | Basic |
| After a few years | 35 | 70 | 140 | Premium |
The calculation: locations × 1, inspection items × 2, and active inspections × 4 per property, compared with the limits on the pricing page.
What ProbeList does not cover, and how to choose a plan
ProbeList does not split inspection costs between owners, does not keep accounts, and does not issue invoices. It is a tool for due dates, history, and the team, so it works well alongside the system in which the manager keeps the finances.
The number of properties, installations, and inspections decides the choice of plan. We describe them in detail on the pricing page, and you can change the plan at any time, so you can start smaller and grow it along with your portfolio.
Pitfalls in running a property portfolio
Notes without the contract scope
Without a record of what the manager is responsible for and what the owner is, every dispute about an inspection starts with searching emails. One sentence in the location’s note saves hours.
Adding a property with no property manager
A property that nobody looks after is the first in which overdue items will appear. Assign at least one person to each, and change them when someone is on leave.
Waiting for the owner's first question
It is best to complete the history and dates before the owner asks about them. A few hours in the first week after taking over brings order for years.
Choosing a plan by the number of properties alone
The limits also apply to inspection items and active inspections. Count all three so that with the next assignment you do not find the plan is too small.
FAQ
Questions from managers and portfolio administrators
Can I run properties of different owners on one account?
Yes. Each property is a separate location with its own installations, dates, and notes, so they are easy to tell apart. It is worth starting location names with the owner or the address so the filters read clearly.
How do I record what I am responsible for in a given property?
Describe the scope of the contract in the location's notes, and add remarks on individual installations about who services them. That way a new property manager sees the limits of responsibility at once.
Will ProbeList prepare a report for a property owner?
The app records dates, results, inspectors, and notes against each location. You prepare the information for the owner from that history, and its form depends on what you agree with the client.
What happens when a property's property manager leaves the company?
Dates and history stay with the locations, so you only need to assign the inspections to a new person. You set their role in the workspace, and earlier entries do not vanish with their predecessor.
When will the Basic plan stop being enough?
When you exceed 20 locations, 50 inspection items, or 100 active inspections. Which limit comes first depends on how extensive the properties are, so count them using the pattern from the table above.
Is it necessary to invite the owner to ProbeList?
No. The owner does not need an account if you do not want to share data with them. If you do invite them with the observer role, remember that an invitation applies to the workspace, so check what data will be visible in it.
Will ProbeList replace the system I use to settle accounts with owners?
No. It is meant for planning recurring inspections, reminders, and a history of actions. You keep settlements, invoices, and accounting where you do now, and ProbeList adds organized due dates to them.
See also
Examples from related areas
Start with two properties
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