This article provides guidance on entering a Property in HomeKeeper. Properties can include land you own, homes you're building, homes purchased through buyer-initiated programs, properties in your portfolio, properties in your pipeline, or homes that were sold out of your program. Additionally, the Property Object includes information about each Property's characteristics, features, listing information, neighborhood information, current status, and related Service Files (owners and renters). 

Step 1: Create a New Property

Navigate to the Properties object and select “New Property”. 

Step 2: Enter Property Details 

1. On the “New Property” page, complete the Property Details Section. 

• Status HomeKeeper tracks the entire life cycle of a property in your portfolio--from prospective acquisition to sold out of the program. You may update the property status throughout its tenure in your program. Statuses include but are not limited to prospective acquisition, land only, under construction, for rent, available for sale by program, owner occupied, sold out of program, etc.
• Source of Home - This field helps you identify how the home or land first entered your portfolio. This field remains constant throughout the property's tenure in your program. 
• Purchase Price - This is the price that your program paid to acquire this property or land not the price of the property for a prospective buyer. If the property was gifted to your program, then you can enter $0. 
• Planned Number of Units - This field tracks the number of homes or units that are planned for the property or land. You can use this field to report on your pipeline and track multi-family properties.

2. If applicable, enter partnership, portfolio, date, and image. 

• Partnership - This field allows you to note any entities or organizations that your program partnered with to develop this property. 
• Portfolio - Use this field to identify any non-physical groupings of properties that your organization identifies. You can edit the picklist to add your organization's portfolios. 
• Date Placed in Program - This field records the date that the Property was placed in your program. This is a date determined by your program--examples include date of first sale or the date your program purchased the Property. It is important to determine how your program defines this date and to be consistent with how data entry for this field is completed. 
• Image URL - Add a URL to an image of the property to see that image on the Property record.

Step 3: Enter Additional Information

Your organization can enter additional information about your Properties on the “New Property” page. Additional sections include: 

• Property Status: You can select a tenure (rental or ownership) and link the property to a current occupant's Service File. Additional fields like fees and the homeowner are automatically populated from an occupant's Service File.
• Property Value: All fields (including “Original Unrestricted Market Value”) in this section will auto-populate. Information is collected as you enter data about the property through appraisals, sales, and resales on the Property and Service File objects. 

• Listing Information - If your program makes listings available for properties, then you can add links and information about listings in this section. You can also create and connect a contact for the realtor selling the property. 

• Property Characteristics - This section allows you to log property information like the Property Type (condo, multi-family, land, apartment, etc.), Square Footage, and the Number of Bedrooms and Bathrooms. You can also include Legal Descriptions and information about the land's unique parcel number.  

• Features: Log information about the physical aspects of the Property. This section also helps you list features of the homes that may be attractive to potential buyers, and information about accessibility and green attributes.  

• Neighborhood Details: Track community schools, Census Track and Block Group information. The “Development” field allows you to log the complex or subdivision. 

• Utilities: The final section allows you to record whether utilities are private or public. You can also determine the type of heating and cooling for the home. 

Step 4: Save the property

Choose “Save” or "Save and New" (to add another property).

The Property Related Tab 

The Property Related Tab allows you to track all of the records related to the Property in one place. You can view or add related records to this page. 

Related lists on the Property include: 

• Appraisals - In your program, you can add and track appraisals throughout a property's life cycle. Appraisals can be captured at acquisition through sales and improvements. 
• Assessed Values for Property Taxes - Track property taxes. Log information about the assessed value of the land, property, and the total assessed value. 
• Services - You can view the Service File of the owner of the property. 
• Fees - Log any fees (land use, replacement reserves, condo fees, etc.) that your program charges for this property. 
• Development Costs -Track and view a history of your program's expenses to the property. You can use your final cost certification to enter data here. 
• Improvements & Adjustments - These transactions require an associated Service File. This Related list helps your program track improvements or adjustments made by the owner. You can use this section to calculate any increases or decreases in the seller's resale price based on their maintenance of the property. 
• Housing Opportunity Allocations - Track subsidies and expenses associated with the property. 
• Monitoring Events - Track stewardship efforts between a purchase and a resale. Examples include late payments, inspections, improvement requests, occupancy or insurance certifications, etc.
• Files - Salesforce offers a limited amount of storage. We do not recommend relying on the file uploader. If you want to keep files, you can customize a page layout to add a URL field on the Property Details tab. The URL field will allow you to include links to files saved with your program's cloud storage provider.  

Cloning a Property

For Properties with similar features, you can save time by cloning a Property and updating the address and other key information. 

To clone a property: 

1. On the Details page of the property you want to copy, click the dropdown next to the “Change Owner” button. Click “Clone”. 

2. Edit the “New Property” page. Update the address and any other unique characteristics of the Property. 

3. Save the cloned Property.