What Is Property Management Without Tenants?

According to the National Renter Survey, "One out of four (26%) single-family tenants plan to stay in place five years or more." But this means that almost 74% plan to move on. Strong tenant management practices can help you avoid the costs of tenant turnover.

Maintenance is for the Tenant and the Property

If your company is only focused on maintaining units, you're taking the wrong approach.

Maintenance is for properties, but it also ensures the well-being of your tenants, keeping them physically safe and comfortable and giving them pride in their home. Maintenance can be more costly to your business if you delay it: according to the US News, simple practices such as inspecting caulk, fixing plumbing leaks, and cleaning the gutters can save your properties from serious and costly problems later on. They'll also save your tenants from the worry and annoyance of a large repair project.

You can use software products to help you maintain homes in top shape for your tenants:

• Allow tenants to submit online service requests so that they no longer need to play phone tag
• Create a maintenance schedule and share this with tenants through a tenant portal
• Make inspections easier using mobile inspection technologies, and add photos and video to inspections to make them more accurate
• Use work order software products to place orders, track their progress, and document their completion
• Analyze property trends to anticipate and plan for maintenance needs

Track Documents For Your Tenants

Whether your tenants have a shoebox full of rental documents or file them impeccably online, they will appreciate it if you can be organized in your document management. With online document management tools, you can upload content, organize it according to properties and tenants, and easily access documents offline as well, so that you can show your tenants' relevant documents when you perform home inspections or make other visits. As you'll be storing information about tenants as well as properties, you need to ensure that this data is secure. According to Small Business Computing,

"even a small-scale cyber-attack is enough to ruin a small business."

Property management software not only helps make documents accessible, it can help secure that data for your tenants.

Online Processes Add Convenience

From the time your tenants enter your property management business to the time they move on to a new rental property in a new city, your primary focus needs to be on making life easier for your tenants. This reduces frustration and turnover.

• Add an online tenant screening process that increases your efficiency at bringing in new tenants
• Track prospective tenants as leads, sending them information about properties that fit their requirements
• Create a full-service tenant portal on your website, with options for easy online payments so that tenants never need to worry about whether their rent is lost in the mail

Property Management Requires Strong Communication

Property management isn't just about moving down a checklist. According to the Seattle Times, "a majority of unpleasant issues faced by landlords and tenants seem to sprout from the soil of communication breakdown." As a property manager, you are challenged to connect with tenants and understand their needs. Strong communication practices help you develop a connection with tenants. Here's how property management software can help:

• Develop a tenant portal with a strong FAQ and detailed information about items such as changing account charges
• Add information about logged repairs and maintenance schedules so that tenants know you've heard their requests and you're acting on them
• Create a document management system so that you can easily find the items your tenants need

Avoid complaints, evictions, and even tenant lawsuits with strong communication practices.

Could Your Company Benefit From Tenant-Oriented Software?

If you struggle with the details of day to day property management and find that you can't quite keep up with tenants' needs, property management software can get your business on track. Anticipate tenants' needs with proactive maintenance schedules and fulfill tenants' desire for 24/7 service with tenant portals that answer questions and provide online rent payment options.

What is property management? It's a dance between the needs of the property, the needs of your tenants, and the abilities of your property management employees.

Our property management software helps you put tenants first. See how when you schedule a free online demo of Propertyware today!