Our world is becoming increasingly digital, and the real estate business hasn’t been left out.
Many landlords these days use property management software as the backbone for their business. Best property management softwareLinks to an external site. helps streamline your business, saving you time and money on countless tasks you’d otherwise have to complete manually.
And most of these platforms offer a landlord app, which is valuable because you can run a large portion of your business from your phone. Here are five reasons you should be using a landlord app.
- Rent Collection
Collecting rent the old-fashioned way can be rather inconvenient. You and your tenant must align schedules to collect a cash or check payment, which is always at risk of getting lost. Furthermore, paper payments usually require additional bank trips to deposit.
With a landlord app, you can receive online paymentsLinks to an external site. without any physical money exchanging hands. Your tenants can pay rent with credit cards, debit cards, or ACH payments, and you’ll receive a notification on your phone when a payment has been made. A nice bonus of digital rent collection is the option for automatic payments, which ensures that your tenants always get rent payments in on time.
- Lease Management
Manual lease creation and signing can take up a lot of time. Traditionally, this process required drafting up an individual lease, printing it, arranging a meeting with your tenant or sending the document through the mail, and getting a copy of the lease agreement to your tenant.
With property management software, you can create reusable lease templatesLinks to an external site. that automatically duplicate key information. Once that’s done, you can simply send the document over to your tenant in-platform, where they can sign electronically. What used to take days or weeks can be accomplished in minutes on your phone.
Additionally, you’ll never have to worry about digging up your hard-copy lease agreement. If you or your tenants need to pull up your lease for reference, it’s right there on your phones.
- Late Fees
Manually tracking down late payments and enforcing late fees can be frustrating and time-consuming. With a landlord app, late fees are made painless.
You can automate late fees at a set price and set up a grace period. If a tenant doesn’t pay on time, they’ll automatically be charged the late fee, and you don’t have to worry about having to hunt them down and listen to excuses.
You can also set up reminders for your tenants that go out when rent is past due. Handling late fees digitally saves you time and energy, and it also holds your tenants responsible.
- Maintenance Management
Maintenance requests are inevitable, and all-too-often they seem to come at the worst possible times. The question becomes: What’s the easiest way to handle maintenance requests for both you and your tenants?
Property management software with a good landlord app is the answer. Your tenants can easily submit maintenance tickets with descriptions and photos of the issue at hand. When they do, you’ll receive a notification on your phone, and you can assess the request and start handling it instantly. Great software will allow you to assign maintenance personnel to the problem in-platform.
A landlord app will help you manage all your maintenance tickets in a single, organized place. This can also help you keep track of which requests have been resolved.
- Tenant Communication
Many landlords don’t prioritize tenant communication, but this is a mistake. Good communication will make your renters happy, which increases the likelihood of retaining good tenants.
One of the nicest features of a mobile app is an in-app messaging system. This allows you to have an ongoing chatroom with your tenants about relevant topics without having to share personal phone numbers. You can also set automated messages to go out when rent is due, when a lease is about to expire, etc.
Use a Landlord App
Property management software makes your job as a landlord easier in every way. By having access to so many tools from the palm of your hand, you can manage your business anytime, anywhere.
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