5 Tangible Benefits of Using a Technology Oriented Professional Property Management Company

Being a landlord is much more than handling tenant turnovers or overseeing rented units and tenants.

Thorough property management (and the underlying investment/asset management) also covers consultancy, market insight and knowledge, tax reporting, accounting, effective marketing, leasing paperwork, legal and legislative compliance, document management, property inspection and prospective tenant assessments. All this can be overwhelming for any individual, especially landlords who still have to chase their monthly checks from tenants.

That’s why many property owners turn to professional property management services who are licensed real estate brokers, and skilled in managing all these needs. But more than just that, property managers who are adept with technology can get more done, and more effectively, and as the saying goes- time is money.

Specifically, smart use of technology can mean fewer days vacant, more competitive rents, faster rent collection cycles, more timely vendor payments and most importantly (to property owners), faster funds disbursement each month.

Here are 5 tangible advantages of hiring a professional property manager well versed in technology to manage your needs effectively.

1. Online advertising reach

A major benefit of tech savvy management professionals are the listing features we leverage, allowing us to broadly and effectively market rental units, by syndicating listings to highly trafficked listing platforms (such as Trulia, Zumper, Zillow, HotPads and many others)- and in doing so, providing professional listing information, photos, videos and virtual tours.

2. Value-add landlord and tenant tools

Effective professional property managers also develop platforms that cater to specific needs and portfolio profiles. For example, here at RD House, our management platform allows us to do things like assign utility bills to tenants in single family properties, and to apportion utilities across multiple units in multiplex properties. At the

same time, all of our clients and tenants have access to our Resident Center and Resident Mobile App for online payments/deposits and personalized web portals with lease documents, bills, financial reporting, account transactions, communications and more. We also provide real-time 150-point photo documented move in and move-out inspections. Because we leverage the platform across all our properties, we’re able to provide them much more inexpensively than an individual landlord could.

3. Marketing muscle

This is the real strength of professional property managers. In addition to advertising rentals on high traffic platforms, social media savvy professional managers syndicate listings to social media, and RD House has working relationships with corporate relocation and employer housing professionals. We also know what property/unit amenities and features are most desirable and how best to market properties/units based on their specific attributes.

This alone has a very tangible payback for our clients: our average vacancy (days vacant on market including turnover) is just 22 days. That means your property is generating rents more days in a year.

4. Legal and legislative compliance

Washington state, King County and cities within the Seattle Metro all have landlord/tenant and rental property regulations and requirements, ranging from tenant screening criteria, security deposit handling, rental property registration and inspection, maintenance response and mitigation requirements, and much more.

Professional property managers provide a wealth of experience and skill in effectively navigating these, and often belong to industry groups that keep them engaged in the

latest information. At RD House, for example, we’ve helped our clients understand and navigate an unprecedented wave of new or amended Seattle rental regulations, including the RRIO (Rental Regulation and Inspection Ordinance), First in Time Tenant screening and acceptance requirements which went into effect on Jan 1, 2017, and caps on move-in fees (which the Seattle City Council passed in January 2017, despite RD House lobbying against this alongside other industry leaders)- nonetheless, our software platform easily tracks and manages the extended period payment options which this legislation mandates, inline with our leasing and tenant accounting processes.

5. Customer Service

The importance of customer service for any business can’t be over emphasized. When people receive great customer service from a business, a ripple effect happens through word of mouth and recommendations. In the property rental arena, satisfied tenants stay longer and renew more often, saving a significant amount of turnover and vacancy costs. RD House has one of the highest tenant retention rates in the market, and has been awarded excellence in property management services since 2014, driven by our client and tenant service, flexible and mobile-enabled tenant and owner portals, ePay and direct deposit services and online maintenance request tools.

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RD House is a Seattle property management company that specializes in property management for residential homes and small apartment buildings in the Seattle metro area. We work smarter to be a team you can trust to manage all the aspects of your real estate property management the right way, and our mission is simply to provide better results with residential, multifamily, commercial and association property management.

We call it Simply Better Property Management.