PropTech built on numbers an investor will trust
A property platform is a calculator with a login. Get the calculation wrong and no amount of design saves it, because the user already has a spreadsheet that agrees with them.
What makes property software different
5 things that decide this
- 01Your competitor is a spreadsheet that already works. A property platform has to beat the user's own model, and the first number they check is the one they can verify by hand.
- 02Property software is a marketplace with two sides who need different screens. SmartREI serves investors and realtors from one system, and the roles disagree about what should be visible.
- 03Automated pricing and tenant screening now carry legal exposure in the United States. Rules differ by state and city, and a model that sets rent is a decision your client has to defend.
- 04Money in property moves slowly and in large amounts, so a rounding error is not a rounding error. Store amounts as integers and record the currency on every entry.
- 05Operations break at the second property, not the first. TomoDomo runs several Swiss buildings from one dashboard, because a spreadsheet per site stops working the moment staff move between them.
The spreadsheet is the incumbent
Every property buyer already has a model. It is ugly, it lives on one laptop, and they trust it completely, because they built it and they can see every formula. Your product asks them to give that up for a screen that shows a total and hides the arithmetic.
So the calculation has to be inspectable. On SmartREI an investor enters purchase price, renovation costs, rental income, taxes and expenses, and gets return, cash flow and total cost back. They can also compare scenarios side by side, which is the move the spreadsheet is bad at.
Winning that swap needs one thing the spreadsheet cannot do. On SmartREI it is booking the adviser at the moment the investor decides, with the calendar and the customer record already in sync.
- 01Show the inputs beside the result. A number with no visible working gets checked by hand, then distrusted.
- 02Let people compare two properties before they commit to either.
- 03Put the human next to the decision. Advice a week later is advice after the offer went in.
- InputsPrice, works, rent, taxes, costs.
- ModelReturn, cash flow, total cost.
- CompareThis deal against the other one.
- DecideThe moment help is worth something.
- BookAdviser, calendar and record in sync.
- OperateRooms, residents, rent, maintenance.
Most property tools stop after the model. The money is made in the last two steps, where the decision turns into a booking and then into an operation somebody has to run.
Where we are useful
Investment analysis
SmartREI turns purchase price, renovation costs, rental income, taxes and expenses into return, cash flow and total cost, then lets investors compare scenarios before committing.
Coliving and multi-property operations
TomoDomo runs residents, rooms, bookings, payments and maintenance across several Swiss cities from one dashboard, with the guest journey automated from application to move-in.
Two-sided platforms
Investors and realtors on SmartREI, residents and hospitality managers on TomoDomo. Role-based dashboards, because the two sides need opposite defaults.
The systems around the property
Payments through Stripe, e-signature through Skribble, accounting through Abacus, scheduling through Calendly. Property software is mostly integration wearing a floor plan.
Algorithms that set rent or screen tenants are now a legal question
Two features that look ordinary carry real risk for you. Software that recommends a rent makes a decision about a person. So does software that scores an applicant. Both attract scrutiny a booking calendar never will.
The engineering answer is the same in both cases. Record the inputs, the version of the logic and the output, so the decision can be explained months later. Keep a person able to override it, and keep the override in the record too.
We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. What we will do is build the audit trail your counsel is going to ask for, before they ask.
- Log the model version alongside the recommendation. Without it, you cannot say what the software did last March.
- A recommendation a human always accepts is a decision. Design the review so it can genuinely go the other way.
- Rules vary by state and by city. Ask which markets your client sells into before you design the feature.
Property systems running in production
“They really help you understand the problem and deliver solutions in a short time frame.”
Johannes Peter · CEO, TomoDomo Coliving
Off-the-shelf property software against a build
Neither answer is right for everyone. The question is whether your edge lives in the part the product already does.
| Criterion | A packaged product | A build |
|---|---|---|
| The calculation | Someone else's model, and you cannot see inside it. | Your model, inspectable, and defensible to the investor checking it by hand. |
| Your workflow | You adapt to the product. Usually fine, occasionally fatal. | The software follows how your team already works, which is what TomoDomo needed across several cities. |
| Integrations | Whatever the vendor supports, on the vendor's schedule. | The accounting, signing and payment systems you already run. |
| Time to something usable | Fast. This is the real advantage and it is worth taking seriously. | Slower to start. Pays back when the product becomes the thing you sell. |
| When it is the wrong call | When your differentiator is the workflow the product forces you to abandon. | When you are still learning what the business is. Rent the tool first. |
The stack behind SmartREI and TomoDomo
Built with
Integrations we have shipped
Roles and access
Questions buyers ask us first
01Why do investors abandon property platforms after one session?
Because the number did not match the one they worked out themselves, and nothing on screen explained the gap. Show the inputs next to the result and let them adjust an assumption. On SmartREI the comparison view is what earns the second session, since a spreadsheet is bad at holding two deals side by side.
02Can you connect our platform to the accounting system we already use?
Yes, and it is usually most of the project. TomoDomo runs Stripe for payments, Skribble for signing and Abacus for accounting behind one dashboard. Name the systems early, because their access model sets the schedule more than the feature list does.
03How much property data do you need before we start?
Enough to test the calculation against deals your team already knows the answer to. Ten real properties with a verified outcome are worth more than a large dataset nobody has checked. That set becomes the regression test for every later change to the model.
04What does it take to run several buildings from one system?
A shared record of rooms, residents and bookings, and staff permissions that follow the person rather than the property. TomoDomo automates the guest journey from application through booking to move-in across Swiss cities, in English and German. The hard part is the handover between properties, not the property itself.
05Should we add automated rent pricing?
Only with a full record of what the software recommended and why. Rules on algorithmic pricing differ by state and by city in the United States. You may have to defend the number to a regulator or a court. Log the inputs, the model version and any human override from your first release.
06How do you scope a property build?
Scoping calls are free. Where we have to go into an existing codebase first, there is a paid two-week diagnostic. It ends in a fixed price rather than a range. We will not quote a schedule before we know which system holds your money and which holds your properties.
