Lumi Capital jest menadżerem inwestycji, deweloperem i zarządcą nieruchomości komercyjnych i mieszkalnych przeznaczonych na wynajem. Firma, z siedzibą w stolicy Estonii – Tallinie, prowadzi działalność na terenie trzech krajów bałtyckich: Estonii, Łotwy i Litwy.
Lumi Capital is an internationally trusted investment partner for many leading private and institutional investors. They function as a local operating partner who takes care of sourcing, deal negotiations and execution, as well as management of the assets until exit.
Lumi targets four main real estate investment categories:
Additionally, Lumi’s portfolio is spread over three different countries, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Overall, this means that Lumi Capital manages an extremely diverse portfolio: several asset classes with very diverse tenants in three different countries.
Before adopting Moderan software, Lumi had a small 1-2 project portfolio that they managed the traditional way, with Excel spreadsheets.
Raiko Uri, one of the Managing Partner at Lumi, says: “With Excel, you can never be really sure that you have the correct information. Someone overwrites something or makes their own version of the file and finally, no one has a clue which is the correct copy. And you can only dream of getting automated reports or reminders from a spreadsheet.”
Raiko also points out that Excel lacks automated analytics and that there is no proper way to track lease or property history. Piecing such information together from multiple spreadsheets was virtually impossible. Also, cost calculations in Excel required a lot of manual labour.
But what about other lease management software? “Other solutions that we have explored are either too primitive or too complicated – implementing the latter would take too much time and money,” he says.
Lumi Capital was one of the earliest adopters of Moderan and uses it to manage their mixed portfolio.
Lumi started using Moderan in 2015 and today they use the full capacity of premium package, with integrated accounting (to Erply Books) and utility costs calculation. All of their lease information is now in one place and easy to manage and track. Implementing Moderan was easy.
Raiko Uri says they would recommend Moderan for a small or medium-sized real estate company. “If you have a few buildings and one person managing it, you do not need software. But as soon as you have more than one person and more contracts, spreadsheets do not cut it anymore. Organizing and storing your information becomes more and more important.”
If Lumi had to choose a software today, they would again choose Moderan. “For small to medium-sized portfolios, we just have not seen a better alternative to Moderan. It does everything it is meant to do, and more. Very good return on the investment.”
“You cannot expect one tool to do everything. Rather you have to see how it fits in your toolbox. We use separate software for tenant communication, building maintenance, etc. For example, our accounting software Erply is integrated to Moderan and they complement each other very well,” he adds.
COVID-19 put lease management to the ultimate test. Some tenants wanted to end their leases, others applied for temporary relief or rent reduction. It was crucial to get a quick overview of any contract, compare and analyze it and make corresponding changes to contracts and bills. For example, it is one thing, if the tenant was paying high rent and asking for a reduction; entirely another, when they are paying little as it is.
Moderan made all this possible. “Moderan transparency saves our team hours of work each month and gives management the peace of mind that all is under control. Both are invaluable when you want to attract leading industry professionals to your team.”
Lumi sees a clear trend that the leases are becoming shorter and more flexible. This has been further validated by Moderan data analysis. Moreover, both the commercial and residential real estate tenants expect more services and improvements (e.g. energy-saving solutions), and an active hands-on approach from their landlords.
Raiko Uri: “The landlord can’t just hand over the key and come back in five years to see what’s left of the place. They have to proactively manage and develop both the building and the tenant community. We have to stay two steps ahead of these expectations.”
“Professional and proactive property management is clearly a selling point. For example, we can charge higher rent for an apartment compared to a private owner because our team is always there for the tenant. Tenants are willing to pay for such peace of mind.”
Moderan co-founder & CEO Kristi Hakkaja says that Moderan has always grown in cooperation with its customers’ real needs and ideas. “We love working with ambitious real estate management companies. Lumi has been an ideal customer that has a long-term view and wants their operations to run efficiently.” Kristi adds that most software companies do not care to work with smaller customers but you can start using Moderan with just one user. We’re glad to see and enable their growth.”
“For small to medium-sized portfolios, we just haven’t seen a better alternative to Moderan. It does everything it’s meant to do, and more. Very good return on the investment.”
