rentview

April 27, 2012

Landlord accounts and maintaining them

If you have a number of properties on the go, it might be best to hand over accounting duties to a chartered accountant or a management agent. It will cost you, but you can be confident that they’ll be maintained correctly. Also if your agent uses Rentview all your accounts will be viewable at the click of a button for you. If you’d prefer to do them yourself, you have the choice of either writing them out or using Microsoft Excel. It is a matter of comfort, but Excel does have advantages over manual accounting.

Spreadsheets store huge amounts of information & can be corrected easily

Have an inbuilt calculator function

More secure through password protection and back-up copies

Less cumbersome and easy to carry around if stored on a memory stick

Rent Arrears Notice

The rent is late; there’s no sign of it being paid and you can’t get in contact with the tenant. What can you do? Depending on the relationship with the tenant, a gentle written reminder stating that it is late and providing contact details may be enough. Unfortunately, many times this won’t be the case and you may have to go down the route of issuing a 14 day rent arrears notice.

Residential Tenancies Act

Under the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, this notice must be in written form, specify the date the notice is served, the amount of rent due that has not been paid and if the amount isn’t paid with 14 days of the date of receiving the notice, a 28 day notice of termination may be issued. The safest way to issue this is through registered post, but there is an easier alternative. Rentview will automatically generate this notice for you and sent it to the tenant at the appropriate time, taking the hassle out of drafting the document and sending it. Visit the website for this and many other services.

Here is an example of a rent arrears notice

You also might be interested in –

PRTB Adjudication process & Rent payment issues and tenants

Please feel free to comment, share, tweet or follow us.

Thanks for reading!

by Andreas Riha

April 13, 2012

Best Places to Market Your Rental

If you have a property that’s ready for rental, you need to find tenants for it. You want the property rented quickly; therefore you need the maximum amount of people possible to see it. The obvious place to market your rental on is the internet. But the internet is almost unfathomably large, so where exactly should you start? The first place is undoubtedly the property portals; daft.ie, myhome.ie etc. They are the first sites people think of when looking for a property. Next up, social networking sites. They are very much the ‘flavour of the month’ for marketers. The two key sites are Facebook and Twitter. Set up profiles on both, where you can advertise the property, share links to daft.ie or myhome.ie and generally engage with potential tenants. Twitter isn’t as good for providing a lot of detail on properties, so it’s more effectively used by giving brief updates or sharing links. Like or follow the profiles of other property management and estate agent companies. People who are browsing the pages of other companies will be looking for a whole range of companies and so will click on your page if they see it.

We could talk about the virtues of social media marketing all day, but in doing so would miss out on less tech savvy potential tenants. These people may be technophobes, just aren’t familiar enough with the internet and the technology needed to access it or simply don’t like the internet. For these reasons, attention should be given to the more traditional outlets. Newspapers, the radio and leaflets are all effective ways of communicating the message to people.A sign outside the property can catch the attention of passers-by, who either could be looking for a property themselves or know somebody who is. These signs should have your company logo, phone number and website to make it easy for potential tenants to get in contact. The same can be applied to notices in bulletins boards in local shops, community centres, libraries and colleges. Finally, if you want to be particularly creative you could wear a large sign around your neck with a picture of the property and some key details about it. It may get more laughs than potential tenant interest, but it certainly would be attention grabbing!

Please feel free to comment, tweet or follow us.

Thanks for reading!

info@rentview.com

April 10, 2012

Tenant reference check questions

As much as landlords want their property rented and off the market, they want the right tenant and not one that will end up costing them more than if they left the property empty.

Reference checking is one way to ensure an A+ tenant rents the property. There are three key reference sources; bank/building society, employer and previous landlord. While confidentiality clauses will prevent detailed information from being discussed, banks can provide proof of financial stability and capability to pay. Similarly, employers can provide financial information that indicates a tenant’s ability to pay.

Employment Reference

A typical rule of thumb would for the rent not exceed the tenant(s) income by 35%. Aside from financial information, employers can provide personal information; what is the tenant like to work with, confirmation of details such as current address, job position etc.

Landlord reference

Possibly the most important reference is the one from a previous landlord. This will provide you with key information that may make or break an agreement. A few questions will reveal what rent was paid, if it was paid on time and what the person was like as a tenant.

Some useful tenant reference check questions to ask:

Was the tenant unreasonable in any way?
Why did the tenant move out?
How long did the tenant rent the property?
Was the rent paid on time?
Would you rent to this person again?
Were there any complaints from other tenants?
Did they cause any major maintenance issues?

What are the tenant reference check questions you would ask?

by Andreas Riha

March 29, 2012

Payment of rent

The payment of rent on time from a tenant to a landlord is the golden rule in the rental industry. It is the most basic of expectations that rent will be paid on an agreed date. It may not be possible to keep a 100% record, but tenants should make every effort to pay on time and to save for emergency situations so the rent can still be paid. A simple way to ensure with relative certainty that it will be paid is to set up a standing order. With standing orders, money is transferred directly from the tenant’s bank account to the landlord’s, which removes the hassle of a manual payment.

Missing the payment date

Paying on time is a common courtesy, which should be enough of a reason to do so, but sometimes tenants need a little push. So if the rent does not arrive on its due date, a phone call may be enough if it is a genuine mistake, but if not, a landlord must notify the tenant in writing followed by the relevant action in your region. I would recommend seeking professional assistance at this stage is needed.

Outsourcing the management of your property

One of the benefits of renting a property through a letting agent is that they take over the responsibility of managing the payment of rent. Now whilst there is a fee for a full management service and rent collection, it is well worth it as they take over the stress. This can be a very stressful and time-consuming task and if not done so correctly it can result in being very costly. Time spent chasing tenants could be used much more effectively and as a result many leave it to the professionals.

Late payment penalties

There are ways to discourage late payments which both landlords and agents can make use of. The obvious one is having a fee for late payments, many leases which have a financial penalty clause for late payment of rent. Another option is to charge a slightly higher rent but give discounts for on time or early payments.

By Andreas Riha

February 17, 2012

Happy Tenants

Image credit DieselDemon

You’ve done the hard work – made an agreement with a landlord to let and/or manage their property, made sure everything is in order with the property, advertised it and found suitable tenants. Time to put the feet up and relax? Unfortunately not. The next task is to keep the tenants happy, which will hopefully encourage them to renew their lease. But how do you do this? If you’re the theory-loving type, there are plenty of books and articles on Customer Relationship Management. If not, the following will be of some help (although it is recommended to also do a little research into the area).

Know the lease and property they’re renting inside-out

For agents with a number of properties on the go this may be difficult, but it really is worth it. Knowing the finest details will help to clear up any queries or issues much quicker than if you don’t know them. It will also show tenants that you are serious about their welfare (in relation to the property at least!) and will give them confidence that you will be able to help when needed.

Communicate with them regularly

We’re not suggesting that you should become fully fledged friends with your happy tenants, but be sure to keep in contact with them. Answer their calls and messages promptly, and keep them updated as you solve problems. If you don’t, they may think nothing is being done. The tenant is not going to know that you’re waiting on a quote or approval from the landlord unless you tell them. Questions from tenants can build up very quickly so find a way of prioritising them.

Ensure consistency in each relationship

Maintain the same level of service for every tenant. Related to the above points, this means having good rent collection practices in place, enforcing rules fairly etc. The word of mouth phenomenon is very powerful, especially when it comes to negative stories, and you don’t want to be on the receiving end of it! Consistent practices will mean only positive stories are spread about your agency.

Get feedback

This can be done either informally or formally throughout the tenancy or when it’s coming close to the end. Informally could be a quick phone call to check what they thought of the service and how to improve it. The formal route could include a more detailed questionnaire, but keep it straightforward and not too long. We know they take effort to complete, so if the budget allows it throw in an incentive of a cash prize or voucher to encourage tenants to fill it in.

Be nice!

Simple good manners go a long way. Be polite and approachable in your dealings with tenants. In times of frustration, try to keep a cool head because anger generally doesn’t solve anything, and is unprofessional. To take it up a notch, send them a card from the company on their birthday. Nothing extravagant is needed; a small card from the local newsagents will be enough to put a smile on their face. Again if the budget allows it, you could consider ordering company-specific standardised cards which may work out cheaper in the long run.

Remember happy tenants means occupied properties!

Other blogs which may interest you –

Final inspection and return of your tenants deposit & Tenants complaints about neighbours

by Andreas Riha

February 10, 2012

Students and renting:Part Two-Paying the rent

Rent

Firstly although this may seem quite obvious to most, students must ensure that they are financially able to afford moving out from home before they even think of logging onto Daft, Myhome or any other property website to start viewing your potential accommodation. You will be surprised at the amount of tenants in the property market who after one or two months of paying rent realise they are unable to meet the monthly requirements in rental payments. If you are unable to pay the rent on a consistent basis there is a chance of possible eviction from the property and an increase in rent or late fee based on the poor punctuality of payments.

To avoid any of these issues make sure and set a budget for your intended stay in the accommodation and match that with your sources of financial income whether it be a part time job, financial support from your family or student loan can do the trick! Getting into issues over missing your rental payments is the last thing you want as a first time tenant as it will affect your future opportunities of securing high quality rental property on the market and the ability to provide credibility to financial institutions in the future. Obviously sometimes students can find themselves in trouble with rental issues over simple mistakes and sometimes easily avoidable issues such as:

A lack of documentation detailing rents paid and upcoming rents
Inconvenient payment methods between owner and tenant
Paying the rent on time
Poor communication between landlords/estate agent and tenant

Above (Two different snap shots of the Rentview property management software that allows tenants to see communication from property manager and upcoming/past rental payments.)

Rent is usually paid on a monthly basis for most of property you are going to find this summer, on occasion a landlord may require you to pay on a weekly basis and I suggest you avoid this as speaking from experience (paying cast to a landlord) it is extremely inconvenient. Unfortunately there is no set method in the industry for collecting rent, you may be asked to do any of the following:

Pay the rent in cash
Deposit rent money into the owners bank account via your local branch
Transfer funds via the internet into landlord or agents account
Set up on a standing order with the agency or property owner

During my time renting I have experienced all four of the above methods for payment and a standing order set up by the agency or landlord is the best option to avoid missing your rent. Organising cash for a bank deposit or collection from the landlord can often result in someone not having the money on time, this has happened to me when house sharing with four others and it resulted in a 50e penalty fee. If you decide to house share with other students be careful about who choose to live for this reason as it can be unfair having to suffer from the actions of others.

If you are one of the tenants fortunate enough to move into a property where the agency is using the Rentview cloud based rent and property management system you will be provided with the following features through your agency account :

1. Access to your schedule of rents for the lease period

2. Comments from your property manager on your rent schedule

3. Automated receipts sent via e-mail when rent is marked as paid

4. Agency and property contact information

To access the information all you need is broadband connection and a desktop,latop or mobile device to login and stay up to date on your rental payments and communication from the property manager. This will help you ensure that the rent is paid on time and monitored efficiently so as to avoid any potential extra costs, communication errors and or disputes over payments. That’s all for today folks I hope you enjoyed the read and I hope students will find this information useful as they start to plan moving out for the first time. Please share the blog if possible and let me know your thoughts and comments on twitter @cormac_nugent!

In the next post I will cover further issues relating to your rent payments during a tenancy including proof of your payments and rent receipts, rent increases by the landlord during a tenancy, rent books and much more!

January 29, 2012

Why a letting agent must have a smart phone

Smart phones; necessary for a letting agent!

With now more iPhones sold than babies born, not having a smart phone and being a letting agent is not a option. A letting agent without a smart phone is like a carpenter without a saw. It is now a vital tool needed to carry out your daily tasks and continue to bring in revenue.

With the huge amount of apps available, I have selected the top 10 tools of the trade to stay ahead of the competition…..

Google calendars

While answering your phone on the go for a letting agent is as common nearly as blinking your eyes, it’s easy to forget who called 5 minutes ago. Now when you take a call take note and set a reminder on your calendar. Allow it to remind you with an alarm alert with required notice. This way you won’t forget where and when you had to be somewhere.

Hootsuite

Keep up to date with your social media marketing with this great app. HootSuite is a social media communications dashboard used for online brand management. It publishes to websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Foursquare, MySpace, and WordPress. It also publishes to Flickr, Tumblr, and YouTube via HootSuite Apps. It is also a Twitter client. So keep all your social media followers up to date with the latest listings, offers and lettings completed from one location. Bye bye multiple entry updates!

Camera & Pic Stitch

The smartphone has replaced the digital camera, well the ones with a 5 mega pixel plus have anyway. With the iPhone 4s having a 8 megapixel camera with flash, there is no longer any need for a separate digital camera. You can now take several snaps and mail them back to the office and get them published on your website NOW rather than wait until you return to the office. Edit your photos and light effect on your smartphone and even stitch them together to provide your potential tenants with 360 degree shot.

Genius Scan

Have you ever needed a copy of a document such as a tenant reference or ID whilst out at a viewing or lease signing? With Genius Scan you can take a snap shot of any paperwork and have it stored on your phone in seconds. Send it on via email, fax or even edit the document all on your smartphone. This is a must when conducting viewings and gathering copies of references from potential tenants.

Rentview inventory app

With this app you can now record the full contents of a property in images and voice notes through your smart phone. Take photos through the app, speak into your phone and when you get back into the office you now have a full inventory with images and text. All your images and voice notes are complied automatically into a full inventory report. Bye bye end of tenancy deposit disputes, hello happy landlords and tenants!

Nav Free

Sat Nav. Why pay €50+ for a sat nav app when you can get this great one for free? Picture this, we have all been there; your current location is on the south side of the city and your next showing is taking place on the north side of the city. You are in traffic and the only route you know, you just realise is a traffic black spot ahead. You have an appointment in 20 minutes 4 miles away and you have only moved 250 meters in the last 5 minutes. At this rate you won’t get there on time and possibly lose the potential let due to your own no show. With a built-in Sat Nav, easily find another route quickly and get there on time.

Dropbox

With Dropbox you can access all your documents located on your office computer. Need a copy of important documents relating to a rental property; like a copy of a signed lease, proof of ownership, registration documents or anything else you can think of? Now with Dropbox, you can have these documents to view or forward at your fingertips wherever you are located. This can save vital time for you to stay on the road and close more deals.

Email

With so many of your potential viewers now choosing to email you for a viewing time, rather than pick up the phone it’s a must to have constant email access. Out of the office all day conducting today’s viewings and checking your emails when you return to the office to set up for the next day may result in you not having viewings tomorrow. More and more property hunters now choose to email rather than call to set up viewings.

Daft.ie

Keep up to date with what’s available on the rental market and ensure you update your listings daily with Daft’s free app. Available on the iPhone and Android.

Letting agency software

Now with Rentview, you can access all the information you need on the go relating to your property portfolio. Instantly retrieve any clients information you may need on the go. Copy of accounts, recent payment history, yearly accounts, issue rent arrears notice, transfer utilities and so much more. Also with the Rentview tenants referencing system you can find tenants authentic previous rental reference once they have been on the Rentview system.

I hope that these apps will find there way onto your smartphone and if you are an agent and don’t have a smartphone you now know why its an essential tool.

Andreas Riha

Email andreas@rentview.com

Facebook Rentview

Twitter Andreas_Riha

www.Rentview.com

December 15, 2011

Here is a short overview on how a letting agency can set up a Google ad campaign directing visitors to your website. The visitors we aim for here in the video are Landlords who are looking for letting or property management agents in the area the rented property is based.

Through Google ad words you can set up a direct marketing campaign with a limited budget. You can set an ad campaign up from as little as €2 per day. Each adword costs different, so for example an adword/term such as “Property manager Dublin” may cost as much as €2.50 to appear on the top listings of the search term. You can set a maximum spend on an adword/term where it will limit the cost per each one or all of your words/terms. If another company have a higher budget they will appear above your own ad. The lower your bid the lower your ad will appear, the ads will also appear on the right hand side of the search term.

You only pay for a click through, so for instance if your keyword / term appears 50 times in a day but only gets 1 visitor through to your site well then you only pay for 1 visitor. You can track all your keyword / term search results in your adword dashboard.

You can also set the landing page of the visitor to your site. So for example if you are aiming your ad at attracting new landlords to your site well then its best to land them on your services page. You can copy and paste the url from the page you would like your landlords to land on from the url bar and insert it in your ad when setting this up.

Its always best to track your costs and results of marketing and with Google adwords you can do that exactly. Think clever and spend clever 😉

I hope this video helps, but if you have any questions please feel free to connect with me.

Email; andreas@rentview.com

Twitter feed; @Andreas_Riha

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

December 15, 2011

Rentview’s radio advertisement for Newstalk.

Listen to the Rentview Radio Ad.