How much does it cost to manage your properties? How much time do you need daily for the job? It doesn’t matter if you’re a property manager or a DIY landlord, having a good mechanism for organizing your business is crucial. Sure, you can do it using hundreds of papers and hand-scribbled notes, but that’s quite outdated already. What you need is a good software tool that helps in accounting, managing rental history, and other real estate activities.
There’s no doubt about how helpful a property management software program can be, but how to efficiently use it? The market for property management software offers dozens of variants nowadays. Of course, they’re suitable for different business types because they possess different features. Nevertheless, there are general functions that you should be taking advantage of if you want to utilize property management software for your business effectively. Check out some useful tips below.
1. Track Maintenance Requests
Tracking tenant maintenance requests with property management software, like Console Cloud real estate software, is a very important part of any landlord’s business. Many landlords are forced to hire employees because they don’t have the time to keep track of what’s going on inside their properties. By using a property management software, your tenants’ requests can be tracked and monitored in real time, and it can give you accurate reports when there are problems, like issues with electrical or plumbing systems.
Many landlords use this software because it’s a very simple process that doesn’t require the landlord to talk to their tenants personally. If you own rental properties in Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, or just about anywhere, you may find that your tenants have a lot of complaints about something. You may need to have a conversation with the tenant about how to handle the problem so that they feel comfortable living in your property. Using property management software for your tenant maintenance requests can make the process of managing your tenants’ issues much easier.
2. Conduct Quick Property Inspections
Property management software helps you keep on top of repairs and maintenance as never before. If you’re a property manager, you can do a lot of things using this rental technology tool in terms of property inspection. For instance, you can perform spot checks on newly built or previously rented homes, as well as perform move in or out inspections. You can also keep track of new additions to the property, or take a look at the condition of older homes.
Running routine inspections of the property at regular intervals is, of course, also possible. Your clients can use the information gathered to help make decisions about the ongoing maintenance, repairs, or improvements of your property.
Also, most property management software programs contain property inspection templates to help you maintain accurate and concise property reports. With just a few mouse clicks and a few minutes of your time, you can create your own property report that’s detailed and complete, and which will give you an edge over other property management companies. A property report template is an excellent way to ensure you’re providing accurate information in your property report, which will ensure your clients receive the best possible service from you.
3. Collect Online Payments
Property management software allows property managers and owners to take advantage of online services and secure transactions for their rental properties. The best part about this is that you can set up monthly deposits, monthly rental payments, and even lease agreements online. It also allows you to keep track of your properties in a virtual manner.
By using property management software’s online services, you can keep tabs on the current status of your rental properties and what’s happening with your rental payments. The best thing about this service is that you can keep track of your rental property payment collection regardless of where you’re located. You can manage the collection from a remote location using your laptop or any mobile device.
Tenants can pay rent right from their phones or computers with property management software. Property managers and landlords can also receive the payments within minutes. When keeping records online, the monitoring of payments just becomes easier. That means running financial reports in an automatic manner also becomes possible for you.
4. Enable Online Application For Tenants
Rental property management software simplifies tenant application process in two ways. First, there’s no need for cumbersome paper applications anymore. That means you can avoid lost paperwork and reduce application errors by transitioning to online applications. Second, a property management software program will give you an efficient method of managing all applications coming from all prospective tenants.
The best thing about the online tenant application feature of most rental property software tools is that it gives a landlord or a property manager a way to easily access online application timelines for every prospective tenant. As a landlord or property manager, you can also update the statuses of applicants with just a few clicks.
5. Screen Tenants
When renting a property, tenant screening can be a long and exhausting process. By using a rental property management software tool to screen your tenants and make sure that you have only great tenants for your business, you can rest easier, knowing that you have a safe and secure environment in which to put your money.
With the help of rental property management software, you can easily and accurately find out if a person is eligible for rent. You can find out if they’re a permanent resident of the city or not. In addition to this, you can also find out how long they’ve been living there. You can also find out about their credit history, if they have any past arrests, or have been involved in any legal case. By doing this, you can ensure that you’re dealing with the right people.
6. Use Rental Property Management Software For Accounting
The accounting feature of rental property management software helps track and manage expenses, cash flow, and more, while being able to easily calculate mortgage payment and even the payments that are owed to tenants. Some software programs will also offer you reports in real time, or will automatically calculate rent based on current market value. This is important because some of the expenses that are recorded in the accounting section can sometimes be tax-deductible, so you want to make sure you have a way to make those deductions in the future.
Another option that will allow you to keep track of your expenses is to use real-time tracking features. This will help you see what’s going on at all times, such as when you have to make a late payment and the reason why, and the difference between the date you made the payment and the date you receive your rent. This will help you make sure that you’re taking proper steps to ensure that you don’t miss any payments or expenses, and will also help you with tracking down any missed payments or deductions.
If you’re having problems with being able to pay your bills on time, then, this may be what you need to make sure that you’re not spending more money than you should, so you may want to check into this feature. Also, if you’re thinking about using your rental property for other business purposes, then, it may be better to consider having your accounting features that record expenses and deductions for those businesses as well.
7. Market Your Vacant Properties
The key to minimizing vacancies is to promote your properties. To achieve that, you need a sound marketing strategy. The good news is that today’s leading software solutions for property management employ automation for detecting vacant properties and advertising their availability immediately.
A vital marketing feature of rental property management software is the ability to manage vacant properties. You can keep tabs on the number of vacancies, how many of them have been filled, what percentage filled or remain unoccupied, the number of properties left for leasing, what tenants have moved in, and the cost per rent of each vacant property. This information can help you formulate a marketing plan that will help you make your rental properties more attractive to potential tenants.
A good property management software tool brings that following benefits with just a few clicks of your hands:
- Announcing available properties through professional e-blasts
- Social media advertising for your vacant properties
- Easily customize outreach efforts
- Add videos and photos of your properties easily
8. Securing Sensitive Tenant Information
Securing sensitive data using property management software is a great way to protect valuable assets, such as a client database, the information within it, and sensitive financial information. By using this type of software, you can create, manage, and secure all of the information in your property management system so that only authorized individuals have access to it.
A secure property management application should be designed using the latest encryption technology and using a password system that will only be known to you. This software must also have the capability to provide you with information security monitoring to ensure that the information is being stored correctly.
Conclusion
A property management software program can be the key to expanding your business if you’re a small landlord who’s dreaming of doing so. It reduces the amount of time required on administrative tasks, especially on paperwork. That means you can have more time to devote to business development pursuits. As a result, you can increase the number of properties you’re managing. To efficiently use property management software, make sure to follow the tips mentioned and discussed above.