This is the first part of a larger series that goes through the current and future state of property management technologies as we see the industry adapt.
Owning and renting out real estate has been a pathway for wealth for millions of people. It makes sense too. Properties are great investments where you get to give someone a home while creating a stream of passive income for yourself. However, as with pretty much everything these days, things are changing and technology is at the forefront.
How things are done today.
Online rent payments, electronic leasing, and a maintenance portal. These three make up the bulk of what is currently known as property management tech. They are simple to set up and can go a long way in separating you from someone who relies on pen and paper.
Online Rent Payments
Probably the most ubiquitous of the three. Online rent payments are a must. Residents want the ease of being able to pay you online and set up an autopay. Almost 74% of people under the age of 45 pay bills online according to the National Multifamily Housing Council. Why not let them pay their rent the same way?
More importantly for you, industry data shows that it also makes them way more likely to pay on-time.
Residents who pay rent through an online system are 5 to 6 times more likely to pay on-time.
Online payments have the added benefit of automatically reminding your resident about their upcoming payment. Again, making it more likely that you get paid on time.
In case they miss a payment, most systems can be configured to automatically add a late fee for every past due day. Streamlining the entire rent collection process from start to finish.
If you’re looking for a provider after reading this, you’re in luck. Rent payment services are numerous with almost everyone claiming to be better than the other. Truth is, most are great. I recommend going with a reputable company that offers rent collection for free. Typically these services will charge your resident a nominal transaction fee.
Our company, Green Doors, is a good option if you want a full featured rent collection system. We go a bit further by automatically balancing your books when a new rent payment comes in and showing you how your investment property is performing — but that’s a blog post for another day.
Electronic Leasing
Gone are the days of 15 page lease papers you need to get your resident to sign. With the emergence of electronic document signing, it’s as simple as sending an email. Major providers like DocuSign and HelloSign let you create lease templates that can be easily pre-filled with the residents’ information.
Organization is zen
What’s great about electronic leasing is that everything is kept on record for you. You don’t need a desk filled with documents. Just send an email and when it’s signed by all your residents, it’ll automatically save itself so you can get to it anytime.
Most property management softwares will allow you to add a resident and their lease details, click a button, and poof! A lease will get created and sent out.
Again, you’ll find a lot of choice here when you start doing your research. I would throw a little caution though, since electronic leasing is a legal process, the more well-known brands are your best bet. Some of the smaller names may give you a discount or even offer it for free, but you are signing a legal document, and you want to make sure it’s done the right way.
At Green Doors, we wanted to let you choose the electronic leasing provider of your choice and so we decided to integrate with all of them. DocuSign, HelloSign, PandaDoc, you name it — we have it. Either way you go, we’ll be able to work with them and send that electronic lease out to your new resident at the push of a button.
Maintenance Portal
Rent payments and electronic leasing are pretty well understood. However, in my experience, most people wonder if providing a maintenance portal is all that necessary.
It is. Let me explain.
Nothing is worse for a tenant than having something go wrong, calling your landlord, and not being able to get ahold of them. I have had this happen to me multiple times and I know how it feels. It’s frustrating and annoying.
According to Buildium’s Annual Industry Reports — for the last 5 years straight, lack of communication around maintenance consistently ranks as the #1 reason tenants leave.
Getting maintenance right is the single most important thing you can do to attract and keep quality tenants. Tenants want to know that their landlord is attentive and will take care of them when issues arise.
Having online maintenance lets your residents put in a request, detail out the issue, and get immediate feedback that someone is on it. This helps alleviate some of their anxiety about getting it fixed.
Tracking maintenance requests online is great for you too because you can stay super organized, keep all of your expenses in one spot, and then go back and see your overall maintenance costs.
If you’re looking for a software that gives you and your tenants online maintenance, frankly, Green Doors is a cut above the rest. We go so much further than the status quo that it doesn’t really fit into this Current Tech blog post. We’ll post a ton more about it. But for now, you can learn more on our site at greendoorspm.com.
To Summarize
In this day and age, residents flat out expect these capabilities. It makes it quite a bit easier for you too because everything is organized. The good news is that if you don’t have this set up yet, there are plenty of tools that can help you get started.
Our company Green Doors does it too — shameless plug. But the key point is, if you’re not doing it, you should start.
