If you’re looking for ways to optimize your rental business, property management software is the logical place to start. Property management software offers landlords many opportunities for increased profit and efficiency.
For instance, property management software includes many features that reduce costs. As a result, you can save money on expensive processes such as tenant screening and keep more of your overall revenue. Other features save you time on tedious or repetitive tasks so that you can pursue other goals, like updating your listings or communicating with tenants.
Here are five ways property management software increases profit and efficiency.
Online Rent Collection
Collecting rent online is the first way you can upgrade your rental business. With online rent collection, there’s no longer any need to make trips to the bank to deposit cash or checks.
Additionally, you don’t need to be present during the transaction to ensure that each tenant has paid in full. Your property management software will do this for you. You’ll also have access to automatically generated payment records that both you and your tenants can reference should a dispute arise.
Online rent collection is the first place to start cutting costs while increasing the efficiency of your rental business.
Online Lease Signing
Online lease signing is another way to optimize your resources and save time. Property management software lets you create or upload your lease, edit or modify it, share it with tenants, and sign the finished document entirely online.
This feature makes meeting individually with each new tenant unnecessary. Renters can still contact you with questions or concerns, but the bulk of the lease signing process can be done remotely, much more quickly than the conventional process.
As a bonus, online leases are typically more secure than printed ones. Wet signatures retain no information about the signer or when the signing took place, but eSignatures record the tenant’s email, IP address (physical location), and timestamp. Online leases increase efficiency while functioning as a safer alternative to paper leases.
Finally, online lease signing means there’s no need for the printed, paper document. This means saving costs on printer paper (leases are long!) and an overall more cost-efficient use of your resources.
Tenant Screening
Screening tenants without property management software can be tedious and costly. If you want the most accurate information, you’ll need to meticulously comb through county records and pay a fee. If you decide county records are not worth the trouble and stick with state or national records, you might find inconsistent or inaccurate information.
Property management software simplifies the tenant screening process. Enter basic tenant information, and your software can return detailed credit, criminal, and eviction summaries in moments.
Not only will you save time searching through records, but you also won’t have to pay the associated fees, which can add up if you have a lot of applicants.
Automation
Automation is another time-saver for landlords. Many regular tasks can be partly or fully automated with property management software.
For instance, routine communication and late fees are both easily automated with property management software. The latter allows landlords to automatically charge a predetermined late fee to a tenant’s account if they have not paid rent by a certain date. You can also dictate that tenants won’t be able to pay the next month’s rent until they have paid this fee in full.
A hands-off, automated approach keeps both you and your tenants accountable.
Listing Syndication
Many property management software solutions offer rental advertising as a secondary feature. Landlords can upload rental listings to the software and distribute them to popular listing sites such as Apartments.com or Zillow.
With listing syndication, the software can even post your listings to multiple sites simultaneously. This feature makes rental advertising extremely efficient because you don’t need to waste time uploading and managing separate listings on multiple sites.
The listing syndication feature of property management software helps you attract new renters even as you manage your current ones.
Save More with Property Management Software
Technology has come a long way toward solving landlords’ everyday problems. From time-saving features to automation to cost-efficient methods, property management software is the best way to reduce costs and maximize your rental business.
