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Jun 14
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Fill Units Quicker with Property Management Software

By Property management software No Comments

For any landlord, vacant units are a detrimental expense.

They absorb valuable time and money without any kind of recompense.

So, it’s vital that you figure out how to minimize turnover. The sooner you fill units, the better for your bottom line and your peace of mind.

Property management software can offer substantial help in your quest to fill units efficiently. Features like advertising tools, digital documents, online maintenance management, and automated reminders help landlords stick to processes that are expedient. They also ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

It’s important to move quickly, but it’s just as important to do things well the first time around. Cleaning up mistakes can be quite costly.

Property management software can help ensure you do things properly with expedience.

Rental Advertising Tools

Advertising your properties effectively is the first step to filling units quicker. It typically requires an extremely time-consuming process of placing your listings on multiple realty and rental websites.

Most property management software, though, contains rental advertising tools that make this process much easier.

Many platforms allow you to syndicate your available listings to a variety of websites across the internet. Check that the key sites like Apartments.com and Realtor are covered. Zillow also may be a solid option, but just know that they charge you to market on their site.

By using listing syndication, you can create a single listing in your property management software that you can then export to all key listing sites at once. With these advertising tools, you get maximum exposure while saving hours of manual effort.

Online Lease Signing

Far too often, paperwork is part of the delay in filling a unit. Digital documents get rid of this cumbersome issue. No more waiting on tenants to sign documents and make things official. No more lost paperwork. No more waiting on things to be mailed.

Property management software makes signing a lease easy and convenient. You can also set up reusable lease templates through your platform. Many platforms assist in template creation so that you can create the best templates. Working from effective templates will save you lots of time.

Keeping your lease agreements in the cloud is a good idea. It supports the organization and saves you time. Filing away hard copies isn’t as reliable. On top of that, in the cloud you can keep everything in a centralized location, making critical documents readily accessible to you and tenants immediately. This is vital when you’re trying to reduce turnover. The more you cut down on potential delays, the faster you can fill units.

And it’s not just about leases. Rental applications can go straight from a tenant’s laptop to submission. When crucial documents can be accessed and stored online, it saves everyone valuable time and effort. It truly make all the difference in the busy world we live in.

Online Maintenance Management

Another key part of filling units quickly is maintenance management. Maintenance is one of the most difficult parts of being a landlord, but property management software will make it simpler.

Think of it this way: Often, when you tend to maintenance issues quickly, it minimizes the potential damage to your property. The longer a leak goes unattended, for example, the more water damage you’ll have to contend with down the road. Property management software makes swift all of this easier because it helps you manage and sort requests in real-time as tenants submit tickets on the platform.

If you keep your units in good condition and stay on top of maintenance, it will make them infinitely easier to fill quickly. Property management software is key to maintenance management because it keeps communication all in one place and helps you efficiently take care of requests.

On most platforms, you can also set up automated reminders. These will come in handy in multiple situations, including when a tenant is about to move out. If you have a reminder that immediately provides the checklist of things you need to do to clean and prepare the unit, you’ll reduce turnover. Little things add up to big things.

Tenant Screening

This is arguably the most important piece of reducing turnover. You won’t retain great tenants if you don’t have good ones from the start. You should complete credit, background, eviction history, and criminal history checks on every potential renter to get a full picture of who they are. You want the highest quality tenants possible, and tenant screening will make it more likely you get them.

Your property management tool will provide pertinent information about potential tenants, including national data on their criminal records, past evictions, and credit history. Some software solutions go even further and support you as you manage applicants. That includes obtaining custom data (for example, the breed and age of a pet) and managing the status of numerous applicants. Some tools even let applicants upload supplementary forms as a part of their application, which is a great way to obtain copies of paychecks or bank statements.

Despite all of this, it’s still possible that an occasional less-than-stellar tenant might slip through the screening cracks, but these measures will generally ensure that you’re only taking on tenants that meet your standards.

Ultimately, tenant screening features reduce turnover because great tenants don’t damage property, pay rent on time and in full, and communicate proactively. The less time you spend tracking down late payments or working on property damage, the more time you can spend on tasks like advertising and enhancing your property.

Conclusion

Filling units quickly is a priority for every landlord. Property management software can help you fill units promptly with quality tenants.

Features like advertising tools, digital documents, online maintenance management, and tenant screening ensure you save time while taking care of everything you need to reduce turnover.

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Jun 14
Love0

Should Landlords Ever Waive Late Fees?

By Landlords No Comments

How to Be Firm but Fair with Overdue Rent Payments

Your tenant has just come to you about a late rent payment he made last month. He’s wondering if you’d be willing to waive the fee, despite the agreement on the lease. It seems like an honest, isolated mistake.

Should you make an exception and waive the fee? Generally speaking — no, you should not.

While a single overdue rent payment may not seem like a huge deal, it is important to remember that it is a breach of a legally binding contract. Late fees, therefore, serve as a justified consequence for tenants when they do not hold up their end of the agreement. Whatever your rent collection and late-fee policies are, they should be clearly stated in the lease. Doing so is the best way to deter any miscommunication or disputes that could arise should you need to enforce them.

Waiving Late Fees Is a Slippery Slope

We all know how it goes — if you give a mouse a cookie, he will ask for a glass of milk. If you give him the milk, he will want you to waive his late fees every time he pays his rent late…or something like that. You get the idea.

If you decide to waive a fee one time, you risk making the tenant think that you are willing to do so again or that he can disregard other aspects of the lease. What may start as a request to waive a single fee for late payment may result in the tenant asking you to overlook your “no-pet policy” to accommodate a new pet capuchin that he has adopted and has already moved into the space.

Of course, not every tenant will take advantage of your lenience (and a thorough tenant screening process should help minimize that likelihood). Still, it’s a genuine possibility, and you should always be wary of it.

Depending on the proximity of your tenants to one another, they may talk amongst themselves about how their rentals are going. If word gets around that one tenant received special treatment on a fee waiver, you can bet that other tenants will expect the same for themselves.

While being gracious with your waivers can boost your image in the eyes of certain tenants, it can appear to others that you are playing favourites. In some instances, adopting inconsistent late-fee policies may even result in liability for housing discrimination.

In addition, being waiver-happy can be extremely costly for you down the road. Should you ever evict your tenants, you won’t be able to collect judgments for any fees you’ve agreed to relinquish.

Shouldn’t Tenants Get a Second Chance When Their Rent Is Late?

Not all your tenants are looking to pull a fast one on you. You’ll have plenty who are well-intentioned and pay on time, every time, without any trouble. Now and again, however, life happens, and even the best tenants can be put in challenging situations.

So, is it fair to waive their fees but enforce them for others? On one hand, you don’t want to punish your most reliable tenants. On the other hand, they’ve still breached a contract despite a favourable and proven payment history.

Fortunately, there are compromises you can make to uphold your business’s standards while remaining an empathetic landlord.

Late-Fee Solutions for Tenants and Landlords

The key is to aim for consistency. The most applicable rule of thumb is that you should do all that you do for one. Should you wish to implement waivers for some tenants, the best way to do so would be through a blanket policy addressed in your lease.

For instance, considering a one-time late fee waiver after a certain number of consecutive, full, and timely payments is an effective way to enforce fees while allowing your more established renters to catch a break when they need it. In doing so, every one of your tenants will fall under a strict, uniform policy.

The specifics will be up to you, but having a policy like this provides your tenants with an opportunity to prove that they are accountable enough to deserve a waiver.

Late Fees Aren’t Personal

Enforcing late fees doesn’t make you a villain. Your tenants broke a known rule, and you are simply enforcing the consequence. At the end of the day, renting is a business. Any lease terms or additional policies that you have put in place are there to protect that business, and you should approach making any exceptions to those guidelines with caution.

Of course, it’s easier said than done. It can be hard not to give your tenants the benefit of the doubt when they delay their rent payments. While it’s nobody’s favourite part of the job, it’s a critical one. Implementing a consistent late-fee policy can play an integral role in sustaining your long-term success.

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Jun 14
Love0

Fixed-term Leases and Alternative Lease Structures

By Leasing No Comments

Almost everyone is familiar with the standard year-long, fixed-term lease.

It’s a staple in the rental business community.

However, it’s not the only type of lease.

There are many kinds of leases available depending on different situations and landlord decisions.

This article will focus on the three major kinds of lease structures: fixed-term, periodic, and subleases.

Let’s take a look at all three and what they mean.

Fixed-term Leases

Fixed-term leases are the most common kind of residential lease structure. They solidify the tenant’s occupancy and monthly rent for a specific period of time—typically six months, a year, or two years. Fixed-term leases give you a lot of stability and provide reliability in terms of a consistent rent payment amount for tenants.

Advantages:

One of the major advantages of fixed-term leases is that you set terms for an exact amount of time and no one has to worry about those changes. There are rules in place that both parties know will hold true throughout the lease.

Fixed-term leases also mean that you get consistent rent payments for the entire lease.

Furthermore, these kinds of leases ease the burden related to finding new tenants quickly (an issue that’s sure to come up when it comes to more temporary lease agreements).

Disadvantages:

As a landlord, though, fixed-term leases prevent you from changing the terms of the lease for the entire rental period. You cannot implement new rules, fees, or conditions during the term of the lease unless both parties consent to an addendum. This lack of flexibility can cause issues if circumstances change or you realize you forgot to input important rules in your lease.

Likewise, you cannot raise the rent during the term of the lease, even if your property value goes up.

You also cannot end the lease before the lease period is over. Once again, this can be a disadvantage because if the value of the surrounding area suddenly increases or you add improvements to the property during someone’s lease.

Finally, these kinds of leases can make it difficult if you get stuck with a bad tenant and need to evict someone. Evictions are costly and time-consuming, especially when it comes to a fixed-term lease.

Periodic Lease

Periodic leases are also called month-to-month leases. They allow you and your tenants to terminate the agreement without penalty, assuming proper notice is given. Make sure you explicitly state what constitutes proper notice for vacating the premises and if rent increases could be a part of the deal.

Advantages:

The major benefit of month-to-month leases is that you have a lot of flexibility regarding whether or not you keep tenants in your rental. If you want them to vacate, you just give the agreed-upon notice and then the tenant will need to leave by that time.

These kinds of leases also make it considerably easier to implement policy changes, increase the rent, or make adjustments to the lease.

Disadvantages:

The primary disadvantage to this lease type is naturally the exact opposite. Tenants can leave whenever, as long as they give proper notice. This means turnover could become an issue for you. Periodic leases don’t offer nearly the same stability as fixed-term leases.

Subleases

Subleases are a unique type of apartment lease that only applies if your tenant sublets to someone else during your tenant’s lease. A sublease agreement means that the original leaseholder agrees that a tenant not on the original lease will now reside in your rental. They will also be responsible for paying the rent and maintaining the unit.

By and large, a tenant can sublease rental properties unless the lease or state law prohibits it. If the lease restricts subletting, the tenant cannot sublease the property. If the lease allows subletting with the landlord’s permission, the landlord must allow it within reason.

Advantages:

Allowing subletting can make your property more appealing to people who may need the flexibility. This widens the pool of people who will consider renting from you.

When it comes to a sublease, the original renter is responsible for getting someone to take over the original lease. This means you don’t have to spend extra effort trying to find someone to replace the tenant.

Lastly, original tenants are typically responsible for subtenants. Depending on the subleasing agreement, the original tenant may be responsible if the subtenant doesn’t pay rent, damages the property, or causes other problems. This obviously takes a large burden off of you.

Disadvantages:

As a landlord, you’ll have to figure out how to screen subtenants. Otherwise, you won’t know the calibre of tenants subleasing your property. The original tenant may find someone to cover the rent, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be a great tenant.

If the original tenant is responsible for the subtenant, obtaining late rent payments from the original tenant may be difficult. It can also create tons of extra work for you to track down the original tenant for damage repairs if the subtenant doesn’t pay.

The subtenant could breach the original lease in other ways, like being too loud or sneaking a pet in when you have a no-pet policy. In some states, your original tenant can evict the subtenant. But, sometimes, you may have to intervene, and that will be loads of extra effort and time.

Conclusion

Each of the three prominent lease structures provides certain advantages. Month-to-month leases generally offer the most flexibility for landlords. Fixed-term leases provide the most stability and reliability. Subleasing can make a property more appealing and give tenants more flexibility.

All landlords have different wants and needs, though. It’s important to assess what lease structures will work best for you and move forward with that in mind.

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