Our Property Management Insights

As a property manager or rental property owner, you probably spend a lot of time qualifying each prospective tenant. You need to make sure they’re able to pay rent, that they don’t have a criminal background or other red flags (like poor credit), and that they’re a good fit on variables like pet ownership or smoking. Screening tenants is a challenge, and the stakes are high—poor screening could leave you facing a costly eviction.

The main reason to use any technology is to get more done with less effort, all while automatically tracking the results—and that’s absolutely the case with rental properties. Property management software, including tenant lead software, helps property managers save time while getting their vacancies filled faster with better quality tenants.

As you get ready to advertise a residential rental listing, you’re probably wondering what you can do to get the most value from your investment. After all, advertising can sometimes feel like paying taxes: it’s money you have to spend, but you can’t always see the benefit.

As a rental property owner, you might find yourself wondering whether you should hire a property manager. At first, it might seem like outsourcing your residential property management will just eat into profits, as you’ll need to start paying a property manager salary. But when a property manager is equipped with the right tools, you’ll not only save yourself tons of time, you might actually be able to increase your rental income.

When you get a lot of poor quality tenant leads, you’re not just giving yourself more work in having to sift through them all to find a good one. You’re also opening the door of opportunity for your competitors to get to the high quality tenant leads before you can. That’s a risk that a property manager can’t afford to take in today’s tight rental market.

Rental turnover costs are a serious challenge for property managers and brokers, especially when the turnover rate is high. According to the National Apartment Association, the average tenant turnover rate is around 40%. So that means if you’re managing 200 units, then 80 units will turnover each year. Those add up, meaning you’ll be turning 6-7 units every month. And the cost of each of those 80 turnovers chips away at the bottom line of your rental income.

When you add up your tenant vacancy costs, you’re likely thinking of lost rental income, which is easy to quantify -- you know exactly how much potential revenue you’re missing. You probably also automatically count in any mortgage payments or HOA fees that you’ll need to continue to pay even though the property isn’t earning any income. Those are hard costs that are easy to see.