Time saving tips
Do you see your future as a real estate investor or are you already a real estate investor? If so, it is time to think about the efficient management of rental matters. The more clearly the processes and tools are in place, the less time is spent on daily activities. In the following, we will talk about how the use of rental real estate management software can help to use time more efficiently.
Focus on the task at hand
We use e-mail, Excel, and accounting programs in our work on a daily basis. More and more work conversations are also communicated via Messenger, WhatsApp, and text messages. A calendar and reminders help you plan tasks. So many people also use project management software. We store files on our hard drive, sometimes in cloud-based folders. In principle, these same tools are also suitable for organizing rental matters, but moving between programs inevitably takes time and switching often involves distractions.
For example, if you open Messanger to communicate with the tenant, there might also be messages from friends waiting there. You will go on reading their messages unnoticed until you forget the original task completely. It can take up to 25 minutes for a person to be able to refocus on a job that was interrupted, according to Gloria Mark, who works in digital interference research at the University of California.
Using a single environment to manage rentals reduces the chance of getting sidetracked and increases productivity.
Spend less time on rental tasks using Rentguru
Average time spent per rental unit in a month (hours)
All Your information in one place
When using many different tools, it often happens that we don’t remember in which channel our necessary information is stored. Did the tenant send their water readings last month by email or via WhatsApp instead? Did the lease get stored on your hard drive or is it in your email?
A single web-based tool ensures that all information and communication with the tenant is in one place. Yes, it may require a little discipline at first. The tenant may still wish to communicate through the channels he or she is accustomed to, but fortunately all kinds of files, including screenshots of conversations made in other environments, can be uploaded in the Rentguru environment to save everything in one place. After a while, tenants also get used to the fact that it is more convenient to keep rental communication in one place.
Automation and reminders
There are many tasks we do every month or every week. For example, we ask for water meter readings from tenants. Rentguru’s settings allow you to delegate this task to the tenant, so that a reminder to submit water meter readings will automatically be sent to them on a monthly basis. Rentguru also allows you to automatically issue rental invoices and collect rental payments. If you wish, you can also order the payment receipt notification by e-mail, so you don’t need to visit the bank separately.
Reminders can also be set about the expiration of the lease, as well as when it’s necessary to renew the insurance, perform a function test on the smoke detector, or call a chimney sweep.
Convenient conclusions of Rental Agreements
An oral agreement is legally valid, but in the event of any disagreement, it is a good idea to have the agreements in writing. For example, in the case of an oral agreement, it may be difficult to prove at a later stage whether the contract is for a fixed term or for an indefinite period. Disputes may also arise as to how long it is necessary to give advance notice of a wish to terminate the contract, whether the apartment can be co-rented or whether the apartment can be subleased, whether pets can be kept on the rented premises, or whether smoking is allowed. If these things are fixed in writing, disputes will also take less time.
Rentguru’s rental real estate management software has a form reviewed by a lawyer, in which it is convenient to add the necessary data of the other party, the validity of the lease agreement and other possible specifications of the lease agreement, and then send the agreement to the other party for digital signing.
