App You Need for Starting a Property Rental Business
Starting any kind of business can seem like a daunting task for anyone, but we are fortunate to live in an age when there are plenty of tools that we can use to simplify the tasks ahead. Starting a rental property business is a sure way of securing passive income, but most people fail to see the complexity it entails. There are tasks such as property listing, property management, accounting, tenant screening, and more that few people know how to tackle efficiently. If you’re planning on starting a property rental business, here are some apps that you need.
Property Listing
Listing a property is more work than it seems because in order to maximize your reach and to get the best chance of finding tenants, it’s important to list your rental property on multiple platforms. Not only this, but you have to create your listing properly by posting it with the correct details, photos, a rent estimate, facilities, and many other important details. Apps like the Zillow Rental Manager even allow users to post their listing to multiple websites simultaneously.
Rental Property and Inventory Management
While it’s going to be easy to keep track of bookings and payments for the first few transactions, it’s going to get significantly more difficult once your property starts getting traction. Instead of having to constantly juggle data in your head from day to day, a rental property management app like Buildium can help you keep track of your bookings, tenants, leases, rental payments, and late payments.
Payment Processing
Not every tenant is able or willing to pay in cash. In fact, the number of people who prefer cashless transactions is growing. Every business owner worth his salt understands the importance of providing customers with multiple payment options. Not only does payment processing software expedite your transactions, it also eliminates human error and it makes it easier to keep track of and organize your finances.
Bookkeeping
Bookkeeping software such as Quickbooks works incredibly well with payment processing programs because this helps you get a better sense of your finances. It’s much more convenient than using an actual ledger, or even a spreadsheet. This also helps make it easier to prepare tax reports come tax filing season.
Communication
You’re going to need a means to communicate with both your staff (internally) and your customers (externally). Internal communication apps such as Slack allow owners to coordinate with team members and staff quickly and privately. Some internal communication apps even integrate well with project management software like Asana.
External communication is important as it allows you to communicate with your customers, whether it’s for customer service concerns, email campaigns, or automated communications that help retain the interest of customers. MailChimp is a popular choice for this.
Bonus
While you may already have a list of trusted contractors to call for your property’s maintenance and repairs, it’s important to have contingencies in place for when your contractors are unavailable. Thumbtack is an app that makes it easy to find a local contractor in almost any area of expertise. This is particularly useful for when you need an emergency repair that your contractor of choice cannot attend to.
