The Secrets To A Good Tenant Experience
Tenants are people too. And they deserve to have an enjoyable experience when looking for a home. Watch this video and learn the best ways to make your tenant feel comfortable, happy, and secure in their new home!
RentCheck is the property management solution that helps property managers save time on inspections with easy self-guided inspections that anyone can do from their smartphone. Know more here https://www.getrentcheck.com
---
The Secrets To A Good Tenant Experience With Lydia Winkler
I am sure you have had the statistics about the median net worth of US homeowners versus renters. When you look at something like $255,000 for a home, the stats are $6,000 or $6,300. Having your security deposit docked and taken away from you can be a major deal.
It is like you are robbing someone of their freedom to move. I also think the landlords and property managers have, depending state by state, whether it is two weeks to give the security deposit back or a month with an itemized list of deductions. If you have everything you need that day the resident moves out, give it back to them that day. That is what we are trying to do. You should be able to get your security deposit back the day you move out.
You should be able to. When we talk about the opportunities PropTech has to offer, it is of the most fundamentally broken processes and it is disproportionately impacted. Frankly, the owners of real estate tend to be very wealthy. This is the way society works. The tenants are marginalized and the median net worth. A tire chunk of your net worth is tied up in a security deposit and not getting it back can be destructive. If your credit is hurt, you cannot pay your rent.
If you cannot get your security deposit back or a part of it back, what are you supposed to do? We have serious issues with homelessness. It is good to see some types of solutions coming out in the market. What do you see state by state? Do you see any major trends or is this more or less the same problem throughout the US? Does it vary state by state tremendously?
It is the same problem. We have everything from variant class A properties to Section 8 housing to condominiums in San Francisco to rural homes in South Dakota, all using RentCheck. The common denominator is that inspections are essential to property management but they continue to be an ongoing hassle because property managers want to scale their business.
You can't expect a renter to be perfect right off the gate, but you can certainly educate them of what the expectations are.
Like with every other industry, there is a labor shortage and they do not have the capacity to have boots on the ground to do these routine inspections, which is why PropTech, has become the behemoth that it is and why residents are the future. Involving the resident in resident empowerment is the future of property management.
What do you see when it comes to the types of claims that are made against tenants? Where does damage tend to occur? Are there certain pieces of the home, furniture and fixed assets that are constantly in dispute and where the damage tends to occur?
It is typically around cleanliness and the most used areas which are kitchens and bathrooms. That is where tenants are getting docked. Not cleaning out the refrigerator is a big one and also, drains. Regular maintenance and how you mitigate that is you lay out what the expectations are. How do you do that? It’s by regularly getting visibility on your units. That is all about education. You cannot expect a renter to be perfect off the gate but you can educate them on what the expectations are.
I am sure there are many cases where having pets are certainly a big hit on the security deposit because pets can cause a lot of damage. Is that a trend that you are seeing?
People ask all the time, “What if your resident gets a pet? How do I know that they are having a pet legally?” It is the same thing. You could tell when you are going to inspect the unit tomorrow and they happen to leave their pet with their friend while you inspect the unit. It is the same thing. I do not think that is going away.
I am referring to the fact that having a pet is more likely to cause more wear and tear, which as a result is going to mean more damage done to the units. Having a pet legally, not illegally.
It also depends on the pet. You could say the same thing about a toddler.
You do not charge toddler fees. You cannot discriminate and say, “You cannot have toddlers,” but you can charge pet fees and have rules around whether you are allowed pets or not.
This is an issue but we have also seen, especially depending on the type of unit, that pet-friendly places are booming. There are pets in condo buildings and multifamily areas, pet designated areas and pet washing stations. All of this we have seen as a trend. Even with RentCheck’s product offering, we are not just doing unit inspections. We are building out multifamily area inspections so property managers can get proper documentation, making sure the elevators have been cleaned, the mail room is organized and the bike storage room is orderly. It’s a way to organize all of their buildings and properties and have a checklist for managing what they look like, who is doing what and who is getting what. Especially in COVID, that has been a big concern for our customers.
COVID, especially, there were already a lot of concerns about apartment affordability like moving costs, rents arising and stagnant wages. Many renters are left in the worst of situations. Interesting stats, 78% of US workers are living paycheck to paycheck. That is a shocking fact. 60% of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings. COVID is compounding problems. It is a sad fate that we are in. We have got a lot of owners, landlords and investors reading this show.
Renting a home is the most expensive and most intimate consumer experience.
What advice do you have to use your product RentCheck? How can they rethink their security deposit process and then move in and move out inspections? Some people have owner-operated properties so those guys are interested. In other cases, it is something you outsource to a property manager. Speak to owners as well who have property managers. Is there something that they can do and push their property managers to do?
First, in general, by having a more transparent process, you are going to avoid disputes with your residents. If you are providing and doing a thorough move and inspection and share that with the resident, they then know this is what it must look like when they move out if they want their deposit back. Also, for owner-operators, a picture is worth 1,000 words. Owning a property is a major asset.
If you are regularly getting inspections from your property management company, you feel better about your investment and know that your asset is being well taken care of. Why wouldn’t do that? It does not cost you much to have the resident do this. It also helps build the relationship between residents and their property managers because there is less tension. Everyone is on the same page about what the unit looks like and when something is getting fixed.
Do you see any correlation between the types of assets? Are more damages done in lower-income or affordable housing Section 8 versus class A? Any trends you see there?
No. Messy people exist in all economic brackets. I will say that. People get creative when it comes to getting their residents to do inspections. We handle all of the reminders and education about the inspection. That is our bread and butter. It is involving the resident and explaining to them why this is important. Text message reminders, email reminders, you name it. We have also seen property managers. Whoever completes the inspection on time is entered to win a gift card, $20 off their rent or we have some with affordable housing.
Before the government comes in and does their annual inspection, they have their renters do a rent check inspection. This way, they get ahead of damage before and there are no surprises. They pay their residents to do that, which is great. There are a lot of things. Other companies are all about rewarding renters for doing things. That is going to only increase. That is another trend in PropTech as well.
We are investors in a startup called Stake, which gives cash back to renters as they pay their rent back on time. Tenants love it. They are part of the process. There is a reward and an alignment of interests, which tends to not happen often in a property, which is a shame. Property managers have a lot of power in these situations. The assumption is that the larger the property management firm, the more processes they have and the more organized they are. Is that true? Property managers are trying to cut costs and operate more in a lean way so perhaps they do not have procedures and policies in place. There is inconsistency and pretty poor move-in and move-out in inspection processes. Do you see that trend? That is the intuitive assumption.
I see that trend with big property management companies as well, no matter the size or they are just not efficient. A lot of people are approaching RentCheck because they want to scale their business. They are growing, depending on the size, whether it is 10 to 100 doors each month. They want to scale. They cannot do that if they are still having someone walk the unit with a resident, fill out a paper checklist and then goes nowhere. No one can access it. No one remembers where it was or they are giving a resident a paper checklist to fill out, return and then never get it back. You get into this, “He said, she said, they said,” argument at the end of the lease. It is a mess.
In general, with property management companies, whether you have 10 units or 20,000, you want a system that you trust on both sides. You want your renters and team to trust the system in which you are operating. Historically, that has not been the case. The other thing is, back to residents and how property managers have all this power when you think about the experience as a renter, renters spend the majority of their income on rent.
This is what they are spending the most money on. Renting a home is the most intimate consumer experience. Consumers are also used to documenting and reviewing all these other things in their life. After they take a Lyft, they rate their driver. After they stay in an Airbnb, they rate their hosts. Renting a home is no different but it is the most intimate consumer experience.
It is where you spend the most time. It is where you feel safe, fall in love and see your children. It is the most expensive and personal consumer experience of all time. If you can involve the renter in the process or educate them to be a better renter and treat the property better, property managers are going to love that. They already do. They want happy customers, which is the resident. They want their renters to leave good reviews and stick around, at least the good ones.
Subscribe to Zain Jaffer: https://bit.ly/2SWhYW5
Follow the PropTech VC Podcast:
Listen on Apple - https://apple.co/2Izoznu
Listen on Spotify - https://spoti.fi/2STWDwq
Listen on Google Play - https://bit.ly/2H7s6c0
Follow Zain Jaffer at:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/zainjaffer
Website: https://zainjaffer.com/
Current Ventures: https://zain-ventures.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zainjaffer/
A Common & Easy Market Entry Point for Beginners in Real Estate & PropTech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CReicXz8844
Real Estate is not only a Sophisticated Capital Business but a Hands-On Business: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP7XveYVnKc
Let’s Know the New Side of Real Estate: Multi-Family Apartments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H08Hz5GJ82E
About Zain Jaffer
Zain Jaffer is an accomplished executive, investor, and entrepreneur. He started his first company at the age of 14 and later moved to the US as an immigrant to found Vungle, after securing $25M from tech giants including Google & AOL in 2011. Vungle recently sold for $780M.
His achievements have garnered international recognition and acclaim; he is the recipient of prestigious awards such as “Forbes 30 Under 30,” “Inc. Magazine’s 35 Under 35,” and the “SF Business Times Tech & Innovation Award.” He is regularly featured in major business & tech publications such as The Wall Street Journal, VentureBeat, and TechCrunch.
Important Links
- RentCheck
- Stake
- https://Bit.ly/2SWhYW5 - Zain Jaffer’s YouTube Channel
- https://Apple.co/2Izoznu - The PropTech VC Podcast
- https://Spoti.fi/2STWDwq - The PropTech VC Podcast
- https://Bit.ly/2H7s6c0 - The PropTech VC Podcast
- https://Twitter.com/ZainJaffer
- https://ZainJaffer.com/
- https://Zain-Ventures.com/
- https://www.LinkedIn.com/in/ZainJaffer/
