If you work as a rental property manager, then you have a lot on your plate to think about and consider every day. Working to reduce risk within your business is one of those things, and perhaps one of the most important. Luckily, “an integrated risk-reducing solution can help you mitigate risk and bring your budget under control.” Learn more about these solutions by reading on.
How You Can Better Reduce Risk for Rentals
Anton Systems has a lot of experience within property management of all kinds, and so we know that managers have to worry about the risk associated with this industry. “Screening, paper leases, missed calls and maintenance issues are all risk creators and budget blowers that can hinder portfolio growth.” However, even if you know of and recognize these risks, you may not know how to manage them… or may just not have time. So, what do you do?
Asking any experienced rental property manager how they can best mitigate risks will likely result in the answer “tenant screening.” This is a crucial process, after all, and nailing down this process will allow you to eliminate the potential issues of bringing in renters who could prove problematic. Luckily, some due diligence can reduce risk greatly, so as long as you make sure to develop a strong screening program, you should be fine.
What would you say is your ‘ideal’ renter? Whatever the answer is, the best way to identify these people and to encourage them to live or work on your property is to establish an effective screening process. If you are lax with this area of property management, then you will fine much more ‘lax’ standards of the people who start to rent from you. Maybe you previously had no hand in the process, but this should at least change inasmuch as you sit down with your team to draft a new way to select who should be allowed to rent from you.
Another way to reduce risk within your work is to ensure that leases are all contained within an electronic system. Yes, many people still like to do things in an older-fashioned way, but paper leases are much less secure. They’re easier to lose or to damage, and they’re less accessible than if they were uploaded to a secure database. If you can find a software system that you trust and understand, then you can manage all of this data and information without trouble… and without losing anyone’s files.
It isn’t as important as the reason above, but using paper leases is also more tedious and time-consuming for you and your staff. Even with a pristine filing system, you’ll surely have lots of papers to sort through, and getting information to and from renters (and anyone else who needs it) takes longer than ever. You’ll harm renter relations if you take too long to do these tasks, and it can ultimately harm your business. “Use electronic record keeping to provide consistency and lower the risks of working with paper, i.e. security breeches, lost pages, and time issues.”
If a lot of your business comes through the phone, then you had better make sure that someone is there to answer when it rings. If someone is calling to ask questions about one of your listings and nobody answers, then that is a failed conversion. There will always be people who prefer to get in touch over the phone, so you can’t neglect this channel, even if it isn’t your primary way that potential renters keep in contact. Make sure that at least one person is always available to answer the phone during business hours, and, ideally, after hours, too. If there is a time-sensitive question, then the person may call rather than e-mail, and someone from your team should be there to answer.
Finally, make sure that you have a solid maintenance plan in place. To reduce risk within your business, you need to ensure that some of the ‘riskier’ events don’t take place. Much of these fall under the umbrella of maintenance. For example, if you don’t quickly address reports of leaks, then it could turn into a flood between floors. “Best in class maintenance software is streamlined, time efficient and customizable for large or small projects.” This is why we recommend Budgetrac Property Management Software for all of your rental management needs. Whatever issues you may face in your work, Budgetrac will help to prepare for them and to streamline each and every one of your tasks.