Do you own and manage more than one property?

The more rental properties you have, the more responsibilities you have to keep up with. Acquiring additional properties means that you have to answer to more tenants, which can be a lot of work at times. And, if the properties are not located near each other, then the situation can be even more challenging.

If you start to feel overwhelmed, you may want to hire a property manager to take some of the pressure off of you.

Where is your rental property located?

The further you live or work from your rental property, the harder it can be to manage the on-site needs. It can be very difficult to respond quickly to complaints and requests if you’re not within a short drive.

Do you have a plan of action if a tenant has a major issue while you’re away on vacation? And, what if you’re in an area with no phone or internet service for an extended period of time? Remember that that African safari trip you’ve been planning for months? Who will help your tenant(s) with that unexpected major plumbing leak while you’re gone? Who will help get them situated into temporary housing until the issue is resolved and water damage repaired?

Costs and stress can add up fast. Trying to save money as a DIYer has the potential of actually being very expensive in the long run. This is especially true if you’re not well prepared for the unexpected. Rental property insurance will help with some of the financial burden. But, dealing with large issues takes more than just an insurance policy. If you hire a property manager with a good track record, they will help tend to your properties in the necessary ways. This can help mitigate a lot of your risk as a landlord and rental property investor.

Do you work full-time while being a part-time DIY landlord?

If you are working full-time in a different profession while serving as as a DIY landlord on the side, things can get tricky. Consider hiring a property manager if your day job doesn’t allow you to drop everything to deal with urgent issues. It may be the difference between the success or failure of your investment.

Being a landlord comes with a lot of responsibilities and requires a lot of attention. Nobody wakes up expecting to field a new issue today at one of their properties. But, it’s bound to happen eventually and catch you totally off-guard. A property manager can take away some of these responsibilities. They can work with you to maximize your return investment.

Are you new to being a landlord? Or, just to owning property?

If this is the first time you’re investing in real estate, hiring a property manager is the safe play. This will help you learn more about the process and allow you time to decide if you want to become a DIYer later on. Learning through the process of making ignorant mistakes can be very costly. For someone who is just starting their real estate investment journey, hiring the wrong handyman or letting months pass by before filling a vacancy can quickly eat at your income. Remember the bank loan you need to pay on the other end.

Of course, hiring a bad property manager can also be costly. It’s important to carry out your due diligence so that you can choose the right one.

What does your financial standing look like?

When you hire a property manager, they generally operate on a fee basis and can be costly depending on a few factors. This includes the size of your property, the location of your property, and how many rentals you have. It also depends on what you’re hiring them to manage. Do you just need help with tenant placement services on a one-time basis? Or, do you need full property management services, including maintenance and repairs.

Assess your finances thoroughly and carry out due diligence on any prospective property managers.

Whether you prefer DIY mode vs. hiring a property manager, the PropHub platform allows you to easily switch between either mode at any time. Register for free to learn more about how the power of choice drives everything we do at PropHub to help every landlord succeed.

To read our previous blog post about how to find good tenants, see here!

The post When Should I Hire a Property Manager? appeared first on PropHub.

We want all landlords to benefit from managing their rental portfolios in a smart and efficient way. Automation can be a scary word. However, introducing it into your business strategy can be one of the best things you can do. As workloads start to increase and tenants request (or report) more, you may be under serious amounts of pressure to become more efficient.

Automating Lease Renewals

Evergreen leases can be easily automated through sophisticated property management software, like PropHub.

When you upload lease information onto our system, our software automatically sends out notifications before the lease expiry date. It also offers one-click options for electronic renewal. Or, tenants can request short-term extensions if they don’t want to renew for another full year. All of this without the hassle of any paper or scanning by any party.

Organizing Maintenance Requests

As a landlord, you should avoid lengthy, unorganized email chains, as well as back-and-forth phone calls or text messages. Instead, have all of your tenant and maintenance communications in one place.

You can manage and view all of your maintenance records right within PropHub on any device. Update alerts and notifications can also be managed per each user’s personal preferences.

Simplifying Rent Collection

Automating the rent collection process means that you guarantee easy rental payments. You set up the rental amount and due date — our software handles the rest to collect payment from your tenant(s).

If a tenant has missed a payment, you will receive instant notifications. And, you can auto-add late fees to the total amount due per your setting configurations. You can also turn on notifications for on-time payments, too.

Tracking Your Expenses

Staying on top of your expenses is vital for any business. One of the benefits of property management software like ours is that you can use it to track and manage your expenses securely. Plus, you receive powerful analytical insights from our data mining engine that helps highlight trends and improvement opportunities that may be too deep in the weeds to otherwise notice.

PropHub understands how to deliver a seamless property management experience through technology and automation. If you’re interested in automating your property management business and elevating it to the next level, start by registering for PropHub today!

You can also read our previous post about creating a tenant screening checklist for landlords here.

The post 4 Benefits of Property Management Software appeared first on PropHub.

If you’re a landlord struggling to maintain your rental property, follow these tips to help you avoid costly tenant damage.

1. Conduct a thorough tenant screening.

Ensure that you carry out an extensive background check to see patterns of behavior. And, ask previous landlords for references whenever possible. Carrying out the proper checks beforehand may alleviate future tenant damage, especially if potential tenant has a past pattern.

2. Be specific in the rental agreement about tenant damage.

Address any actions that are more likely to cause damage in the tenancy agreement. Actions can include smoking, lighting candles, having pets, or using a water bed. A lot of the time general wear and tear and tenant damage can be accidental. Be sure to provide notices and guides to avoid such accidents and keep your property intact.

3. Create a guide to help tenants avoid the predictable damage.

It’s bold to assume that all tenants will know how to care for or use appliances within your rental property. Even if you’re certain everyone knows to clean the dryer lint filter after every cycle, you’d be overlooking a large portion of the population that’s never had an in-home dryer before. Try to create a rental orientation guide on these normal and obvious things to help with avoidable tenant damage. The more they know, the less unnecessary headaches for you to deal with.

For instance, tell your tenants to use furniture pads and soft-bristled vacuum attachments for hardwood floors. And, request that they avoid using sticky tack on walls, as it often destroys wall paint or wallpaper once removed. Sure, some of this is to reduce the impact of normal wear and tear items. But, remember, the small things cost you, too, and you can’t recoup from the security deposit on all these things.

4. Carry out routine property inspections to catch tenant damage early on.

Schedule time with your tenant where you can inspect the property and assess its overall condition. It’s always useful to conduct routine inspections to find early issues before they get serious. That is, before they become more expensive and more complicated to fix. Of course, don’t overdo it either if you have a good tenant, as some may see walk-through inspections a burden. Good tenants should want to renew the lease for another year, so don’t hassle them too much.

5. Consider tenant damage to furnishings and finishes.

Wanting your rental property to look its best is completely understandable, and this may help you charge more for rent. But, do try and pay attention to the furnishings and finishes that you choose for your property. Expensive furnishings and finishes are much harder to maintain, which can cause unnecessary trouble for both you and your tenant. Fancy finishes simply increase the likelihood of tenant damage. You can try opting for more heavy wear options such as: hardwood flooring over carpet, more durable countertops over soft marble, plastic shower walls and surrounds instead of grouted tile, and leather couches instead of fabric upholstery.

Need more assistance with screening potential tenants, creating effective rental agreements, and staying current with ongoing maintenance and repair work? Register free to let PropHub help you start achieving a seamless rental management experience today.

The post 5 Tips for Avoiding Tenant Damage to Your Rental Property appeared first on PropHub.

In particular, the cloud movement has been a game changer for the lower-budget smaller firms and DIYers. Of course, the cloud footprint can be incredibly beneficial for businesses of any size that want to achieve more with less. However, cloud systems are not created equally. And, “cloud” conversion doesn’t mean the legacy clunkiness factor just suddenly disappeared — quite the opposite. In fact, many cloud PM systems are really just the old clunky programs disguised as something that they’re not: modern, efficient, well-designed systems wells suited to meet 21st century needs. So, while cloud is an important factor for your software selection criteria, it is certainly not the “end all, be all.”

What’s Different About PropHub?

PropHub has a wealth of features that will appeal both to the landlords and the tenants, making everyone happy with easy-to-use tools that make things run more smoothly and keep costs down. And, property management firms get even more to help them with their more complicated operations and growth marketing needs. By combining all of these tools — landlord, tenant, and property manager — into the same platform, we’re able to maximize the efficacy of the software and make interactions between all parties seamless and simple.

One-Click Listings

Listing properties has never been easier. With saved templates, photos, and web copy, as well as auto-fill fields such as policies, rents and fees, all you have to do is click that you have an open unit available at a certain property, and all the information will be presented online in moments. Tenants make inquiries directed straight to your inbox.

Online Applications and Review Process

Prospective tenants first fill out an online application. Next, it goes through our review process and matched according to the qualification specifications that you’ve set. You can specify rent-to-income rates, credit scores, criminal backgrounds, eviction reports, and more. The software really does the first (and hardest) step of the process for you. The toughest work is done before you ever see the application, which helps you focus attention on only the most qualified leads.

Electronic Leasing

You can do all of the leasing online, too, without the tenant ever needing to set foot in the office. Our property management software delivers the lease to the tenant and the tenant can sign with an e-signature. And if you have properties in multiple states? Our lease library has all the applicable laws preset and ready for you to add to simply and easily. 

Renters Insurance

PropHub property management software even offers renters insurance in case of fire, water damage or burglary. These policies reimburse for costly damages and loss of personal property so everyone can have peace of mind. More research on coverage information is available from online service sites like Toggle (by Farmers).

Rent Collection

No need to knock on doors or make phone calls–the property management software will contact your renters on the same day every month asking for the rent payment. You can track if the renters are on time, how much they owe, and the renters can even set it for automated payments so that they’ll never miss a deadline. The rent collection software even reports on-time rent payments to credit bureaus, so they can build credit.

Maintenance Tracking

Tenants can make maintenance claims online through the maintenance app. No more needing to call the office to report a leaky sink or broken air conditioning. Plus, front office management is removed as the bottleneck that holds up the process. Simply set up online work orders to go directly to the maintenance crew for faster turnaround.

Online Bill Manager

This isn’t just about making life easy for the tenants – it’s about making your life easy, too, and we do that through tracking your expenses and bills. Everything from water to gas to sewer to cable to HOA dues. We keep track of everything and help produce monthly, quarterly, and annual reports.

Documents and Records Management

Property management involves a lot of paperwork. We help cut down on all this hassle by collecting and storing everything in the cloud. This includes applications, leases, HOA bylaws, bills, maintenance ticket photos, and more. Everything is stored in one easy-to-use system and accessible from all mobile devices anywhere in the world.

Automated Alerts

Need to know when someone isn’t paying their rent? Get an automated message. Need to know when taxes are due? Get an automated message. Need to know when maintenance is pending? Get an automated message. You get the idea. You can set alerts for virtually anything controlled by various preferences to your liking.

Market Estimates

Want to know if you’re charging the right amount in rent? Our calculator keeps track of properties all around you and lets you know if you’re too high or too low. You can optimize your rent and your vacancy rate with this easy-to-use tool.

Investment Portfolio

Looking at a new investment property? Our property management software uses various tools, formulas, and predictive modeling techniques to help you systematically crunch data across millions of records without lifting a finger. PropHub helps you quickly discover the most interesting and compelling property opportunities to add to your asset management investment portfolio. Automation at its finest at your service!

Sign up today to experience the PropHub difference.

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