Becoming a More Profitable Rental Property Owner

The typical real estate owner is looking to turn a profit. Is it easy to do so? Sometimes yes, sometimes more work is involved.  While it seems that profitability is a ‘given’ when you purchase a rental property, that’s not always the case. We’ve discovered a few fundamental (and easy!) ways to increase your profitability. 

Many of these simple changes, or improvements in how you manage your property, are something you do in your personal home. Why not do the same with your rental properties? It may seem that the investment in technology or products are too expensive to make money. Over the long haul, you’ll see a return on your investment. Consider the following tools of the trade to make more money on your real estate investments.

 

 We’ve all heard that time is money…These steps will save you both.  

 1 - Reduce turnover… Keep your best tenants. How? Provide a personal touch, great service and time saving tools. How do you personalize a rental experience, to create a favorable tenant experience? Simple touches like an email to your tenant on their birthday or reaching out to ask about how things are at the property,give the tenant a personal experience. Other options include proactive property or landscape improvements. Sprucing up the property with a new tree, bush or plant improves the overall property. Tenants appreciate a personal touch in service, and a legitimate interest in improving their ‘home’.

    2- Little things… like a programmable thermostat or ceiling fans. Why do little things  improve your profitability? A set of tenants will seek out landlords who are energy conscious, or a bit more technologically focused. They also seek landlords who help them save money across the board. A programmable thermostat helps monitor usage, enabling tenants to better manage utility bills. Tenants save money by having more control over their energy use. This ‘little thing’ attracts tenants. Ceiling fans, too! How great is it to use a fan during transition months, when the AC is too cool, however, a ceiling fan breeze is just right. Saving energy here as well.
 By providing the little things to improve your tenant’s living environment, the tenant will stay longer,   reducing turnover, and saving you money.

 3- Collect Rent Electronically

Remembering ‘Time is Money’… save time and make money with Online Rent Payments. Tenants want to pay online. Many tenants pay electronically for other services such as electric and gas payments – why not rent? Asking tenants to write a paper check, or to pay in cash, is an inconvenience.

Schedule My Rent provides a simple, easy and time efficient way to take rent electronically. It saves both tenant and landlord time and effort, and reduces the issues with mailing a paper check. Both tenant and landlord know exactly when a payment is received – no lost checks, late checks or uncertain payment timing.

Schedule My Rent’s landlord software has an ideal tenant portal, making sign-up a synch. Roommates are able to split payments, saving each tenant time. Schedule My Rent allows users to establish automatic withdrawals on the same day of the month for rent payments.

Electronic payments reduce costs for business and real estate owners. It’s a simple process, see how electronic payments work.

 4 -  Maintenance mastery… Some of our landlords report paying hundreds, or thousands of dollars in extra service calls due to a reactive maintenance approach. What’s that? Well, if a landlord avoids spending money by waiting until it’s time to call a repairman, that’s reactive maintenance. Get ahead of issues and repairs by proactively maintaining air conditioners, replacing filters, cleaning vent systems, and roof maintenance.

Tenants are not always savvy at diagnosing minor fixes for potentially expensive repairs. By spending a few extra minutes to schedule maintenance, your appliances and property life will increase, as will your property ROI.

  5 - Save the trees…
Paper-based management systems for your business add complexity and increase the time you spend managing your business. Think about the elements of a paper-based approach – there’s the receipt of paper invoices, receipts and check payments. Escape filing, scanning, and shredding by using electronic tools, such as Schedule My Rent. We automate the rent collection and communication process – saving you time (and money!).

By replacing check payments, we save you time – no more driving to the mailbox, bank, or to your property to collect rent. You’ll love the ease of having money automatically sent to your bank account. We save you time by offering electronic communications surrounding rent payment due dates, late fees, reminders, and receipt of rent payment.

 As a property investor and owner, the objective is to make a profit, and reduce the amount of time doing so. As we’ve described above, a few simple improvements can save you time and money, increasing your profitability.

Landlord Software: Michelle’s Story

When Michelle bought her first rental property 2 years ago, she was aware of some of the challenges property owners face. She learned some of the ins and outs quickly, like who to call for the best repairs at the best prices. She improved her property and eventually bought another. But one landlord task was particularly stressful for her – collecting rent.

“Collecting rent became a pain,” Michelle commented. She felt as though she was hassling tenants for rent payments. She wanted an easier way.

Often, Michelle’s tenants would tell her they had sent a check via mail, but Michelle didn’t receive the payment. It seemed like it was the tenant’s word against hers, with neither party winning. “Is the tenant telling the truth about sending in a payment, did the post office lose the envelope, or are they stalling for time?” Michelle wondered. It’s challenging to determine if a check is truly lost, or if the post office delivery really does take longer than she thought.

In some cases, Michelle felt like she would not receive a rent payment unless she went to her tenant’s apartment to meet them and collect payment. This wasted Michelle’s time, with her already full schedule. Isn’t there a better way?

While researching her options, Michelle discovered Schedule My Rent. She was excited to find the online landlord software easy to use, and at a price she was happy with. Schedule My Rent’s tenant portal allowed her tenants to quickly see what is due and easily pay rent online. She realized this is what she was looking for: online rent payments, made easy.

Michelle now recommends Schedule My Rent’s landlord software to her friends who own property. She loves how easy it is to collect rent electronically, and so do her tenants - a win-win. It’s your turn to discover what Michelle has discovered, the perks of collecting rent online. 

As we hear feedback from our landlords, they share what they love about electronic rent payment. The things that float to the top of their list include those shown below.

Top 10 reasons to collect rent online

1.        It’s a time saver. Why drive to the post office to collect checks, then stop at the bank to deposit them? Or even less appealing – drive to your tenant and collect the rent directly.Both options take too much of your valuable time. Online rent collection is so simple, and helps devote more time to growing your property investments.

2.        Stress no more. Just like Michelle above, you can forget about the stress involved in collecting rent. Rent payments show up in your bank account on time, with no work on your end. No more wondering if checks will arrive and following up on late payments. It’s easy and stress-free.

3.        Happy tenants = Happy Landlords. Our tenants love the ease in signing up for electronic payments, and knowing their rent arrives each month with no effort. They enjoy renting from a landlord who makes things easy. We’ve discovered that most landlords are expected to offer electronic payments as a service to their tenants. Schedule My Rent provides a simple way to offer this service.

4.        Security. With electronic payments, your personal information isn’t changing hands as it is with paper checks. Your tenant’s address, name, and account number are confidential, and our bank-level encryption keeps your personal data safe. 

5.        Quick payments. With electronic payments, money moves quickly, from the tenant’s account to the landlord’s account – this makes it easy for both parties to know the status of their accounts. No delay waiting for someone to cash your check, or waiting to receive payment. With Schedule My Rent, we always move money fast and don’t charge for a quicker processing time, like some of our competitors. 

6.        Not just for rent. With Schedule My Rent, we make it easy for landlords to collect payments beyond rent, such as late fees, one time utility payments, etc. 

7.        Who’s paid? Visibility and a record of who’s paid is critical to managing your business. Schedule My Rent has the best property dashboard in the business. It’s easy to see payment detail across all your properties, whether it’s 1 or 100. You have complete visibility at the click of a button.

8.       Record keeping.  Though not exciting, it’s nice to have an electronic record of who has paid, the date they paid, and the amount. No manual entry into a spreadsheet. It’s all online with Schedule My Rent.

9.        Issue resolution. With electronic payments, both tenant and landlord have the same transaction history – there’s no dispute over payment details. We make sure to let you know if a payment fails, and ensure the tenant can try again.

10.  Payment flexibility. With Schedule My Rent, we’re able to split payments between roommates. 

Take advantage of all the benefits of paying online. It’s so easy, you’ll wonder why you didn’t consider it before. Try www.ScheduleMyRent.com today.