Owning rental property gives you the opportunity to generate additional monthly income. To make your real estate investment a success, you need to treat it like a business. This means tracking your income and expenses while also managing tenants and maintenance costs. This can quickly become overwhelming while also managing personal responsibilities.
Keep an eye out for these five signs that it’s time to start using property management software.
1. Empty Properties
If your rental property doesn’t have a tenant, then it’s losing you money. The longer your property sits vacant, the more potential income you miss out on. Because of this, it’s in your best interest to minimize vacancies. Property software can help you minimize vacancies by streamlining the marketing process. The more places you advertise, the more people you get your property in front of. This increases the applicant response rate.
2. Missing Important Dates
If you have multiple properties and find it difficult to keep track of the different important dates, then it’s time to start using software. When you sign a new lease, you can enter all of the important dates. Then the software will automatically trigger reminders when those dates are coming up. Look for a software that lets you build the lease right in the software and have the tenant electronically sign. This optimizes the entire process and keeps everything in one place.
3. You Want to Invest More
If you own one property and are ready to buy more, then you also need to scale up your management process. Investing in property management software helps turn your side hustle into viable investment business. The software eliminates repetitive administrative tasks, automates tasks, and moves rental payments online. Optimizing your property management reduces the time demand your investment has. This creates more time for your to research new properties or maintain a personal life.
4. You Have Cash Flow Struggles
If you find yourself struggling with cash flow struggles, then it is time to manage your rental property finances better. You can do this with rental property software. Manage rental payments with your software. Know when you have money available for payment vendors. Know when tenants are late, and you need to issue late fees. Use the software to allocate incoming cash towards current and future maintenance costs. This ensures you always have the available funds for maintaining your property and retaining its value.
5. You Don’t Have Any Analytics
How do you determine the success of your rental property year over year? You should have data that you can compile, track, and compare. This will tell you if rental profits, vendor costs, or maintenance costs are increasing or decreasing. It will also tell you what your final net profit is. If you have vacancies, you can track whether they are increasing or decreasing in length.
This data is also useful for comparing the performance of your property to the general local real estate market. You might find yourself disappointed with the performance of your property, but when compared to the market, you are doing just fine. Or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, you may think your rental property is performing well. However, when you look at the data, you find that its return is actually decreasing.
Start Using Property Management Software
As you can see, investing in rental property software can help you take your real estate investment to the next level. It will optimize processes and make it easier to own multiple properties. If you aren’t ready to do the research and purchase software on your own, working with a property manager can be an alternative solution. Property managers use software that can make managing your properties simple.
Contact our team today and let our skilled property managers show you how software can help your investment goals.
