How Technology Can Help Keller Rental Property Landlords

As professional Keller property managers, we have access to some of the best technology designed for our industry. With online portals and accounting software systems, we’re able to collect and pay rent electronically, document inspections and maintenance, and generate up-to-date accounting statements and financial reports. 

When you’re a landlord managing on your own, it’s unlikely that you can invest in technology on the scale that property management companies can. 

That doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of what is available. 

Evaluate your current systems and processes and see if automating some of those things can be done with online platforms and innovative technology. 

Here is how it will help you. 

Faster Leasing and Better Keller Tenants

Every day your rental property is not occupied is a day you’re losing money. Increase what you earn by leveraging technology to market, show, and lease your property. Leasing technology can help you in the following ways:

• • Marketing. When it comes to listings, you can spend a lot of time manually loading your rental ad on every platform. Look for ways to syndicate that listing instead. 
  • Showings. Self-showing technology is extremely important today. Tenants want the ability to see the home on their own, when their schedules permit and without an agent following them around the property. Use digital keypads or lockboxes to facilitate self-showings. You’ll find it results in faster, more frequent applications
  • Tenant screening.  A number of online systems can screen tenants for you, taking the risk and the hassle off your plate. For a thorough screening, we recommend using a Keller property management company. If you’re doing it on your own, however, you can utilize a platform that runs credit and looks at backgrounds for you.

With good technology, you can also price your home more accurately. The market drives your rental price. Get some good resources and reliable data that’s tech-driven and current. 

Improving Maintenance With Online Requests

We ask our tenants to request routine maintenance online, through their tenant portal. This provides a number of benefits for us and our tenants. For residents, it’s more convenient when they can simply fill in a request form instead of calling us. We’re more likely to hear about maintenance issues as they happen, reducing the chance of deferred and unreported maintenance expenses. It also creates a paper trail of documentation that demonstrates when the request was made, what we did about it, and how it was paid for. 

You can also request that your tenants inform you of needed routine repairs in writing. You don’t have a platform, but you can ask them to email you with as much detail as possible. Tenants can send pictures and be detailed in their description of the problem. This will help you diagnose the issue faster and send the appropriate vendors. 

Technology and Rental Property Accounting

If you’re keeping track of rents in a paper ledger or on a legal pad, it’s time to modernize. You’re running a business, and you want your business records to be professional and accessible. There are dozens of cloud-based apps and programs that can help you keep good accounting records. 

Tracking your income and expenses is important, especially at tax time. You’ll also want to clearly follow the security deposit account and how it’s returned. Invest in good software that will help your accounting remain accurate and transparent. Work with an accountant and have an audit every year or every few years. 

Self-managing a Keller rental property isn’t always easy. Technology can help you be consistent in your systems and efficient in the way you deliver services to your tenants. If you’d like to hear more about this, please contact us at Trend Property & Management. We manage homes in Keller, Fort Worth, Saginaw, Hurst, Weatherford, and the surrounding areas.