If you are a rental property owner, you know that managing every aspect can get overwhelming at times, especially if you own more than one property. You have to keep up with tenant requests, monthly rent payments, drafting leases, and more. Luckily, there are some great tools out there to help streamline the process of managing your rental property. For example, the technology we have available in 2021 is plentiful and includes great resources that can help you be successful.
Technology is used by almost everyone every day. Most people have mobile phones, computers, and other electronic devices that make life a little bit easier on a day-to-day basis. Using technology to help manage your rental property is no different. Up-to-date technology can help automate some of the processes of property management so that you don’t have to worry about it as often. You’ll want to explore different software, programs, and applications to see which will work best for your situation. Let’s go over some of the ways you can use technology to improve your rental property business.
Social Media Marketing
Making a presence on social media is a wise decision for any business. Most people these days use social media on a daily basis, so it’s a great platform to promote your rental property business. Similarly, a lot of property owners find new tenants by posting their property on different social media sites. Apps like Facebook and Instagram are great ways to share photos of your properties and spread the word about your rental properties to people who may be looking for a place to live.
While physical “for rent” signs may be seen by passersby, it’s a good idea to list your property on as many sites as possible to gain attraction. Other popular home listing sites include Craigslist, Zillow, Trulia, and more. Aside from posting your rental on these sites, it may also help to make your own business website. With content management systems like WordPress, it’s quite easy to build a professional-looking website to use for your business.
Project Management
If you have a large rental business, it may be beneficial to utilize a project management system such as Asana, Podio, or Google Calendar. Of course, there are tons of different systems that you can use, so just find one that you think is simple to use. Google Calendar is a free management system, so you may want to start there and get the hang of it before you purchase one that’s more expensive.
Project management systems can help self-employed landlords manage events such as rental property showings, tenant meetings, or scheduled maintenance appointments. This will make things much easier for you as a landlord who is constantly pulled in different directions each day.
Online Rental Payments
If you own many rental properties, it can be difficult to keep track of each monthly payment. If you have an online platform for tenants to pay their rent quickly, it can simplify things for everyone involved. With this method, you can give your tenants their own login information, and they can pay their monthly rent using an EFT, or electronic funds transfer. Along with that, if you experience a lot of late payments, you can have your tenants set up a payment method that will allow them to auto-pay each month. You may receive hesitation with this method, but you can always use incentives to increase compliance.
Accounting Software
Anyone who runs a business will want to keep close track of accounting matters. It can be extremely difficult to keep records of income and expenses without good accounting software. One of the best real estate investment tools you can use is an accounting program to help you keep track of all the funds passing through each month. This will make it especially easy during tax season since you will have all your records electronically saved.
A few accounting software programs that are widely used today include Freshbooks, Quickbooks, or even Microsoft Excel. Any of these programs can be extremely beneficial for record-keeping.
Final Thoughts
Managing your rental property business can be quite tough without the help of technology. Luckily, we have a lot of tools at our fingertips these days to help manage business matters. Utilizing social media, project management applications, online payment methods, and accounting software can tremendously help the complexity of renting out real estate.
