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The rental market may be ever changing, but one thing that always remains is tenant turnover. There will be a point in your journey as a landlord where you need to find new tenants. When this happens, you may want to have a plan for onboarding your tenants in a way that is easy and enjoyable for you and your tenants. Having a good tenant onboarding system helps select better tenants, and nurture long last relationships. Here are 5 steps to a smooth onboarding process.
A point of inquiry is a location or place in which a potential tenant may find you. This could take place on your website, classifieds, or listing pages. Points of inquiry are important because this is your opportunity to maximize exposure, while removing potential interest that may not be the best fit for your investment property. To achieve this it’s best recommended to be transparent about all costs, rules and requirements from tenants. It’s also helpful to provide up to date pictures. If you’re going to be listing through your website, it’s best to use a tool which allows you to presentable, functional and easy to use listing capabilities to help maximize the point of inquiry results. You can learn more about our property listing software here.
After a tenant reaches out via your point of inquiry, if you’re interested, the next step will be a viewing or application, & in many cases both. Having a system in place here will help provide a great first impression to your potential tenants, giving you the upper hand should your desired tenant(s) be looking at multiple rental opportunities. There’s many different ways in which you can handle these, but the important part is using technology. Using technology will help improve accuracy, efficiency, and aid in making more informed decisions. There’s many great tools for this but I will go through 2 scenarios in which Tenantcube users most commonly
Apply to view - When using apply to view, you’re essentially saving the viewing for tenants who would qualify in the first place. This is best used if you want to show your property only to serious candidates.
Apply after viewing - This a very common method, and excellent if you want to get to meet somebody before accepting their application. When using a tool like Tenantcube, if you’d like to invite someone to apply after a showing, simply ask for their email address. You plug their email address into Tenantcube for the selected a selected properly and they’ll easily input their information, upload any documents and submit it back into your dashboard style application manager.
Verification is important. If a tenant, for example, was placed in a home they simply could not afford, the situation could easily become costly for both sides. It is important to verify areas like employment, references, identification. It’s also recommended to run a credit check. You can usually get this through a bank, credit reporter, or within your onboarding software.
It’s also important to make sure that all required insurances are in place. Insurance helps protect both landlords and tenants against a wide range of potential damages that may arise during the course of a residency. It’s best to understand what requirements you have with respect to these insurance and to make sure they are discussed prior to and documented inside the leasing agreement.
Technology makes life easy, that may be part of the reason we use it so much, and it’s certainly part of the reason why it’s being adopted so quickly by property managers and renters alike. If you decide to go the route of digitizing the onboarding process, it’ll most likely make sense to incorporate it into your daily operations as well. This is going to make life easier for you, and your tenants will love it, but only if they use it! What’s the best way to ensure that your renters use the tools? Take a moment to explain it, help them install it, and assist in any setup. Taking a couple extra minutes for this means streamlined & digital payments, work orders & document exchange. Your tenants will love you for this.
You may have heard the term customer success? It’s a term businesses use for ensuring the success and satisfaction of their customers post purchase, tenant success is the same idea. You’ve gone through all the hard work and the first 4 steps of onboarding your new tenant, now the idea is to reduce the frequency of this process.
The best way to do this is to have a tenant success plan, starting from the moment a person becomes a tenant in your rental. Make sure they know the best channel to be used if they need to reach you or have a concern, and make a couple calls early on to ensure they’re happy and settling in well. Tenant success will be an important part of getting the most out of your investment, using techniques which can nurture a strong long lasting relationship is an important part of this process.
Tenant onboarding is a key component of protecting your rental, our team at Tenantcube specializing in helping develop and implementing the right tools to deliver an unforgettable tenant onboarding experience, you can reach our team at info@tenantcube.com if you’d like us to help you design and implement your own onboarding process.
This article offers general information only, is current as of the date of publication, and is not intended as legal, financial or other professional advice. A professional advisor should be consulted regarding your specific situation. While the information presented is believed to be factual and current, its accuracy is not guaranteed and it should not be regarded as a complete analysis of the subjects discussed. All expressions of opinion reflect the judgment of the author(s) as of the date of publication and are subject to change. No endorsement of any third parties or their advice, opinions, information, products or services is expressly given or implied by Tenantcube Inc. or its affiliates.
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