4 Critical Skills No One Tells Landlords They Need

When I started my journey as a landlord, I was pretty naive about what I would need to know. The skill I was most worried about was having a good sense of the right properties to purchase to optimize my investment. While understanding the real estate market was important, once I bought my first property I quickly learned there were so many other skills I’d need to develop to be a successful rental property owner.

That’s when my real education in property management began. As I learned these lessons, many of them the hard way, I was frustrated by how few tools existed for rental property owners and managers like me. While there were expensive solutions for property management companies with large portfolios of rental units, affordable tools to streamline and simplify the work for smaller property managers just didn’t seem to exist. So, I decided to do something about it and Tenantcube was born!

Each Tenantcube module addresses the key skills and tasks that I have struggled with during my tenure as a rental property owner and manager. They have been specifically designed to make managing rental properties easier and faster, so that we can all win back a little more time to spend with the people we love doing the things we enjoy. Here are a few examples.

The Common Landlord Struggle: Communications

Whether it’s going back and forth with people who are interested in renting your property, conversations to express expectations with existing tenants, or resolving issues with problem renters, knowing how to communicate effectively is a critical skill for making your life as a landlord easier.

How Tenantcube Helps With Communications

A big part of effective communications with potential and existing tenants is keeping track of the many conversations that are happening so you can respond promptly. To make this easier, when I designed Tenantcube I created simple tools and systems to allow landlords to quickly check-in from anywhere using any device and see if responses are owed to anyone. Records of these conversations are all stored securely for the future, so if you ever need proof of an exchange you’ve had with a tenant, it’s just a quick click away.

For landlords who would prefer to have someone else take on tenant communications for them, Tenantcube has optional add-on services and can even become the first point of contact for all your tenants’ questions, concerns and property maintenance issues.

The Common Landlord Struggle: Sales and Marketing

Unfortunately, very few properties rent themselves. Creating interest, excitement and demand for your rental investment is a huge part of being a landlord. The many fantastic, free online resources and tools to help those without a sales and marketing background build up their skills are a great place to start. Some of my favourites include The Real Estate Investment Network website and Bigger Pockets.

How Tenantcube Helps With Sales and Marketing

With just a few clicks, Tenantcube helps landlords create stunning mini-websites for their individual property listings to help potential tenants picture themselves in the space. Tenantcube makes it simple for interested tenants to apply directly from the listing to capitalize on that initial excitement.

But a beautiful property listing means nothing if people aren’t seeing it. To ensure as many potential tenants as possible see your listings, Tenantcube’s Ad Syndication feature allows you to automatically promote your listing on a collection of leading property rental advertising websites with just one click.

The Common Landlord Struggle: Organization

When landlords don’t have a solid system in place for tracking communications and documentation, they don’t just waste time; they can put themselves at risk legally. Whether it’s keeping records of tenant communications so you can easily find something that was agreed to years prior or securely storing things like copies of drivers licences and credit card information to ensure you’re adhering to data privacy legislation, having an organization system that works for you is essential.

How Tenantcube Helps With Organization

Tenantcube tools help landlords organize and consolidate the piles of papers, emails, text messages, and documentation into one streamlined system that they can access anywhere from their preferred device. It’s a huge weight off your shoulders to know all your tenant information is stored securely and available for you to access wherever and whenever you might need it.

The Common Landlord Struggle: Accounting

Even if you pass the responsibilities of accounting on to a bookkeeper, the time you devote to tasks like collecting and returning deposits, depositing monthly rent payments and keeping track of expenses quickly adds up if you don’t have the right systems in place.

How Tenantcube Helps With Accounting

Tenantcube has been designed to help you automate time-sucking tasks like deposit and rent collection and expense tracking, to give you more time for value-add activities, like determining the ROI on potential property renovations and future property purchases. Speaking of that, be sure to check out my recent blog post on that very topic.

Sign up for a no-obligation 30-day trial of Tenantcube today. You can even start by using our Freemium version!

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