Whether you have one rental property or hundreds, it’s very easy to lose important records and spiral into frenzied state. As a landlord, being disorganized can be very costly in the long-term. Although the challenge may seem daunting, becoming more organized is not as terrible as it sounds! Here are some of our recommended organization tips for landlords.
Prepare a filing system for each property.
Our first organization tip for landlords is to have a dedicated folder for each property. Avoid mixing records from numerous properties in one folder, as it gets extremely confusing to find things later on. Keep them separated from the start to save time later!
We recommend keeping electronic copies of all rental-related documents and records for several years for tax and legal reasons.
Have a dedicated finance folder.
So now that you have your separate property folders, next you need to organize all of your activity relating to finance and tax separately from maintenance. Try to log all expense receipts and other financial activities as soon as you can so nothing is missed or forgotten.
This makes records easier to find and refer to in the future.
Always make digital copies.
Having immediate access to important records can make you more organized as a landlord. If you have hard copies document, scan them and store on your computer or cloud storage drive, too. This way, you have an extra copy if the hard copy is lost or damaged.
This also allows you to pull up a digital copy of the record from anywhere in the world on a moment’s notice using your smartphone.
Sync your calendars on all of your devices.
In order to stay on top of your commitments as a landlord, be sure to sync all of your calendars on all of your devices. This can come in handy when you have a busy day of viewings or meetings.
Also, don’t be afraid to set routine reminders on your phone for when you need to get certain tasks done, as it’s very easy to forget!
Create a list of utility and maintenance providers.
One of our important organization tips for landlords is to have a list of service providers. Ensure that you write down your utility providers for each of your properties. This will make it a lot easier for you to contact them in an emergency.
The list should include the provider’s name, direct contact, phone number, and the area they cover.
Go digital.
If you migrate to property management software such as PropHub, you can trust that all of your records are secure in one central place, ready for you to refer to at all times.
If you go digital, you can save a lot of time, money and resources.
Our property management software is built with landlords in mind. Register free to access a range of features to help organize and manage your rental properties, all in one place.
See here to read our previous article about the benefits of property management software.