Being a landlord, you have a lot of responsibilities to manage on a daily basis. In addition to managing your tenants and keeping them happy, you have to stay on top of your finances, business operations, documents, vacancies, repairs, and law changes. 

If you’re not using the right technologies, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and frustrated.

If you’re looking for ways to make it easier to run your business and find reliable, low-maintenance tenants, the following technology can help.

1. Online rent payments reduce late payments

It’s no longer the standard to require tenants to mail you a physical rent check each month. Today’s tenants now expect their landlords to allow them to pay rent online. This is something the Fort Worth property managers from Green Residential know extremely well and implement on behalf of their clients. By making online rent payments available to tenants, they’re more likely to pay on time, you never have to cash a physical check, and you can offer automatic payment options for those who wish to have the rent deducted from their account each month. To get people to sign up for automatic deductions, you can offer incentives, like a small discount.

2. Virtual 3D tours lessen your workload

Ever since the pandemic hit, real estate agents have been embracing virtual 3D property tours. Even though it’s no longer necessary, it’s still convenient, and that’s why it’s still in practice. In fact, it’s hard to see this changing anytime soon.

With a virtual tour, you have a couple of options. The first option is to record a walkthrough from a first person perspective and upload the video to your property management website or YouTube account for people to watch. The other option is to set up cameras in every room and use special software to create a 360-degree virtual tour. With this type of tour, people can click and drag the screen to move through the home as they wish, viewing each room at their own pace.

One big benefit to 3D tours is filtering out potential tenants who are not a match. If people view a property online and it’s not a good fit, they won’t bother scheduling an in-person showing. That will cut down on wasted time for you.

3. Mobile applications keep you organized

Whether you use a project management application to keep track of your tasks, or you use scheduling/calendar software to keep track of repairs, maintenance, and inspections, mobile apps will keep you organized. The last thing you want is to miss an important meeting or lose track of a repair.

Apps are the easiest way to keep track of in-person showings, open houses, maintenance appointments, and meetings with tenants. If you have a Google account, you can use Google Calendar to schedule your meetings and appointments. Good project management applications include Basecamp, Asana, and Monday.

4. A tenant portal will increase tenant satisfaction

Your tenants will have various needs throughout their tenancy, and not all will be emergencies. When you provide them with a portal where they can submit a request to you, it will be easier for both of you. When your tenant communications are contained within the portal, it’s easier to respond to tenants without having to use email or call for simple things. It will also train your tenants into using the portal to communicate rather than texting you all the time.

Since people in general love self-service, a tenant portal will be well-received by your tenants if you haven’t already put one in place. It’s a win-win because it allows you to streamline your operations, and makes tenants happy.

A tenant portal is great for collecting rent online, fielding maintenance and repair requests, and sending out official notices to tenants in a way that’s easy to track, and managing the conversation. Since portals tend to have threaded comments, it will be easier to document and print in case you need to bring your communications to court.

5. Smart technology can save you money

If you pay the electricity bill for your tenants, installing smart technology, like appliances, thermostats, and lighting systems, can help reduce energy consumption and therefore lower your bills. Since most tenants won’t conserve energy when they aren’t paying the bill, it’s your best option.

Use technology to make your investments more profitable

Creating a profitable real estate investment business is hard work, and technology can help immensely by keeping you organized and helping you take better care of your tenants.

The more you streamline your operations with the right tech, the more profitable you can become!