For any landlord, vacant units are a detrimental expense.
They absorb valuable time and money without any kind of recompense.
So, it’s vital that you figure out how to minimize turnover. The sooner you fill units, the better for your bottom line and your peace of mind.
Property management software can offer substantial help in your quest to fill units efficiently. Features like advertising tools, digital documents, online maintenance management, and automated reminders help landlords stick to processes that are expedient. They also ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
It’s important to move quickly, but it’s just as important to do things well the first time around. Cleaning up mistakes can be quite costly.
Property management software can help ensure you do things properly with expedience.
Rental Advertising Tools
Advertising your properties effectively is the first step to filling units quicker. It typically requires an extremely time-consuming process of placing your listings on multiple realty and rental websites.
Most property management software, though, contain rental advertising tools that make this process much easier.
Many platforms allow you to syndicate your available listings to a variety of websites across the internet. Check that the key sites like Apartments.com and Realtor are covered. Zillow also may be a solid option, but just know that they charge you to market on their site.
By using listing syndication, you can create a single listing in your property management software that you can then export to all key listing sites at once. With these advertising tools, you get maximum exposure while saving hours of manual effort.
Online Lease Signing
Far too often, paperwork is part of the delay in filling a unit. Digital documents get rid of this cumbersome issue. No more waiting on tenants to sign documents and make things official. No more lost paperwork. No more waiting on things to be mailed.
Property management software makes signing a lease easy and convenient. You can also set up reusable lease templates through your platform. Many platforms assist in template creation, so that you can create the best templates. Working from effective templates will save you lots of time.
Keeping your lease agreements in the cloud is a good idea. It supports organization and saves you time. Filing away hard copies isn’t as reliable. On top of that, in the cloud you can keep everything in a centralized location, making critical documents readily accessible to you and tenants immediately. This is vital when you’re trying to reduce turnover. The more you cut down on potential delays, the faster you can fill units.
And it’s not just about leases. Rental applications can go straight from a tenants’ laptop to submission. When crucial documents can be accessed and stored online, it saves everyone valuable time and effort. It truly make all the difference in the busy world we live in.
Online Maintenance Management
Another key part of filling units quickly is maintenance management. Maintenance is one of the most difficult parts of being a landlord, but property management software will make it simpler.
Think of it this way: Often, when you tend to maintenance issues quickly, it minimizes the potential damage to your property. The longer a leak goes unattended, for example, the more water damage you’ll have to contend with down the road. Property management software makes swift all of this easier because it helps you manage and sort requests in real time as tenants submit tickets on the platform.
If you keep your units in good condition and stay on top of maintenance, it will make them infinitely easier to fill quickly. Property management software is key to maintenance management because it keeps communication all in one place and helps you efficiently take care of requests.
On most platforms, you can also set up automated reminders. These will come in handy in multiple situations, including when a tenant is about to move out. If you have a reminder that immediately provides the checklist of things you need to do to clean and prepare the unit, you’ll reduce turnover. Little things add up to big things.
Tenant Screening
This is arguably the most important piece of reducing turnover. You won’t retain great tenants if you don’t have good ones from the start. You should complete credit, background, eviction history, and criminal history checks on every potential renter to get a full picture of who they are. You want the highest quality tenants possible, and tenant screening will make it more likely you get them.
Your property management tool will provide pertinent information about potential tenants, including national data on their criminal records, past evictions, and credit history. Some software solutions go even further and support you as you manage applicants. That includes obtaining custom data (for example, the breed and age of a pet) and managing the status of numerous applicants. Some tools even let applicants upload supplementary forms as a part of their application, which is a great way to obtain copies of paychecks or bank statements.
Despite all of this, it’s still possible that an occasional less-than-stellar tenant might slip through the screening cracks, but these measures will generally ensure that you’re only taking on tenants that meet your standards.
Ultimately, tenant screening features reduce turnover because great tenants don’t damage property, pay rent on time and in full, and communicate proactively. The less time you spend tracking down late payments or working on property damage, the more time you can spend on tasks like advertising and enhancing your property.
Conclusion
Filling units quickly is a priority for every landlord. Property management software can help you fill units promptly with quality tenants.
Features like advertising tools, digital documents, online maintenance management, and tenant screening ensure you save time while taking care of everything you need to reduce turnover.
