Tech for Property Investors: Digital Tools You Need
FEATURED POST
Many people get into property investing in the hope of generating a new passive income.
But as many first time landlords and agents discover, it can be quite a hands-on job in which constant monitoring and organization can be key to success.
Fortunately, an array of digital tools now exist that can help to make property management easier and more efficient.
By adopting this tech, you can reboot your real estate management strategy and more easily stay on top of tasks like repair scheduling, tenant screening and bookkeeping.
Below are a few examples of tools to consider.
Portfolio management software
For those juggling portfolios of properties, specialist portfolio management software is essential.
These tools can act as digital command centers for tracking all of your properties from one place. Examples include tools like Appfolio and Buildium that allow investors to monitor rent collections, maintenance requests and vacancy rates.
Automation and data analytics are integrated into these applications to encourage proactive decisions - you can keep track of rising expenses, lease renewals and late paying tenants with automated reminders and graphs.
Take your time to shop around for the right solution.
Real estate CRMs
Used by real estate agents, customer relationship management (CRM) software focuses on organizing communication with buyers, sellers, landlords and tenants in one place.
You can also manage all of your marketing from here - including online listings, social media posts and email campaigns. Follow Up Boss and PropertyBase are two popular platforms to choose from. While such tech is designed for agents, some landlords may find this software useful for independently managing marketing and tenant communication.
It could be particularly useful for tasks like property flipping when managing viewing and potential buyers without an agent.
Tenant screening tools
Tenant screening tools are essential for helping you to take on the best tenants.
These tools can help you to run a digital background check into each applicant’s credit score, criminal record and eviction history. This can help you to avoid any bad apples, saving you from the headache of chasing up rent payments or disputes with tenants over damage.
Tenant screening isn’t foolproof, but it can greatly reduce the risk of taking on a bad tenant, and using modern tools, you can carry out the process quickly while complying with fair housing laws.
Lease agreement generators
Having legally tight documents in place is important for protecting yourself as a landlord.
You no longer have to hire a legal writer to create these documents for you - there are many lease agreement generator tools online that you can use to quickly put together a robust contract. These online tools have various templates that you can choose from that can be targeted at different state laws.
You can then customize everything from pet policies to late payment penalties to create a contract fully tailored to your wants and needs. This can be saved online and updated when necessary.
Property listing sites
One tool that cannot be overlooked is property listing sites.
Directories like Zillow and Realtor.com have become the place where everyone now does their house-hunting. It’s essential to list your properties on these sites and to optimize your listings with high quality photos and detailed descriptions.
Such tools can often be integrated with CRMs allowing you to manage ads on multiple listing sites from one platform.
Take your time to compare other listings so that you can build a strategy to make your property stand out such as highlighting unique features and trying to match the photo quality of other listings.
Online valuation tools
It’s also possible to use online tools to provide an estimated valuation of your property.
These tools work by comparing the recent sale prices of similar sized properties in your area. While they won’t replace the accuracy of a professional appraisal, they can give you a rough idea as to what your property’s price tag is.
Other types of valuation tools can be used to help set rental rates or to help you calculate mortgages - consider experimenting with these tools too.
Virtual tour tools
Virtual tours can allow potential tenants or buyers to view properties from their couch.
Platforms like Matterport and Zillow 3 allow you to create immersive virtual walkthroughs of your property using 360 degree photography. You can also conduct live virtual tours via Zoom - allowing you to provide a live commentary as you explore the property via live video.
While many local clients will still prefer an in-person viewing, providing the option of virtual can be great for attracting out-of-town prospective tenants and buyers who may be looking to move to the area.
This is something worth considering if your property is located in a trendy area that many people relocate to.
Smart thermostats
A growing number of landlords are offering to pay their tenants’ energy bills as a way of making their rental properties more attractive.
The problem with this is not knowing how much energy your tenants are using. Installing a smart thermostat is a solution that is recommended if you are going to be paying for energy. This allows you to track energy usage in real time so that you can budget for bills and also identify energy-guzzling appliances that may need replacing.
Tenants can also use this thermostat to track their own energy usage.
To motivate tenants to use less energy, you could even offer rewards like a December rent discount if they keep energy spending under a certain level.
Accounting software
No tech roundup is complete without mentioning accounting software.
It’s important that you pay the appropriate amount of tax on your property earnings. Accounting software can help you to calculate all of this and also help you track your expenses.
There are specialist real estate accounting programs that you can use, or you can simply use a general accounting application like Quickbooks.
Modern accounting platforms come with all kinds of handy features including snazzy analytics tools to more easily visualize your income and spending over time.