The rental industry is booming around the world. Millennials aren’t buying houses like their parents and grandparents once did.
Instead, they’re adopting nomadic lifestyles and renting apartments, condos, and even houses. And this isn’t a location-dependent trend. We’re seeing this all over.
In America, 27% of Americans were renting homes (as of 2016). Then in Germany and Switzerland, you have approximately 40% of citizens choosing to rent.
Now, while this is bad news for home sellers, it’s excellent news for those renting out properties.
So if you’re in this market and are looking for ways to enhance the customer experience and streamline your processes, then online rental agreements are worth looking into.
Let’s take a look at some of the benefits associated with online rental agreements.
1. Rent Properties Faster
If you’re a seasoned real estate professional, then you know the process of renting out properties can be tedious and slow-going.
You have to email and print documents, sign documents, scan documents, and return documents. Then if you’re using snail mail with a prospect who doesn’t have a computer or internet access, then you have to wait even longer.
With online rental agreements, you can quickly send the prospect to your platform or website to sign up. For instance, with eversign, you can email documents for the applicant to review and sign digitally.
Then once it’s complete, you’re alerted via email.
2. Maintain Max Occupancy
A high vacancy rate is a rental agency’s worst enemy. It’s like having a store filled with empty shelves.
You want to keep your rental properties filled for as long as possible so you can continue collecting money. Each time someone moves out, you lose monthly income and have to spend money on ads.
Replacing occupants can be costly – as you may already know.
However, you can’t keep your tenants hostage. So when push comes to shove, you’ll want to have the freedom to market your vacancies.
With online rental leases, you automate the lease signing process. You’re able to quickly screen and approve applicants without too much effort on your part.
Post an ad, send respondents to your online leasing documents, and then receive the completed documents. It’s an excellent way to quickly fill your vacant properties.
3. Minimize the Chances of Human Error
One of the key benefits of automating your business processes is to reduce the potential for human errors. Since you don’t have to consistently write up and prepare documents, you don’t have to worry about this issue.
Everything’s prepared and edited once and then inserted into your workflow.
You can scan and upload all of your lease agreements to be digitally stored. This means you and your tenants can view and access the documents anytime.
Then on the tenant side – an automated leasing process ensures they don’t mistakenly skip an area that requires initials or a signature. The platform will alert them so no areas are left unsigned.
4. Improve the Security of Leasing Agreements
There’s always the possibility of your office documents being seen or stolen by unauthorized individuals. This places your business and your applicants’ sensitive data at risk.
It becomes much harder for this to happen when you’re using an automated platform. For one, it requires you to have the correct credentials to enter.
And two, it’s only accessible to those you grant access to (such as the email recipients of your leasing agreements). Better security means fewer chances of a breach, which can be devastating to your finances and reputation.
5. Save Money and the Environment
If you’re looking for more ways to stand out to your prospects – why not go green? Not only will this attract positive light to your brand, but it’ll also help save you money.
The less paper, ink, stamps, and envelops you must buy, the better.
In America alone, offices use enough paper to build a 2,794-mile wall. If you’re able to reduce the use of paper, then you’ll spend significantly less over the years.
And at the same time, you’re lessening your carbon footprint. With online rental agreements, you can make this happen.
6. Offer a Seamless Tenant/Applicant Experience
Whether you have new applicants or current tenants reapplying – you can make the process seamless using online leasing agreements. No need for your current tenants to come down to the office to sign paperwork.
They can do it all virtually. And the same goes for your new applicants. Once they see how simple it is to apply and get accepted for a rental, they’ll be more inclined to stay with you for years.
You’re in the customer service business so it’s essential to make all of the interactions with your agency a good one.
7. Automate Lease Renewals
We’ve already touched on how important having a good experience is for your agency. One way to live up to this expectation is to automate the lease renewal process.
You can set it up so that once their lease contract ends, it automatically resends a lease renewal. This goes to their email address and is available 24/7 to read, sign, and send.
This will help to identify whether tenants are planning to renew so you can prepare to fill a vacancy if necessary.
8. Appear as the Professional You Are
If you’re a new rental company, then making a great first impression is everything. But even if you’ve been in the business for years, updating your processes with automated systems can make you look better in the eyes of prospects.
Online lease agreements are modern and convenient – surely, today’s renters (primarily millennials) will appreciate it!
As more people turn to the internet to find new homes to rent, you’ll be able to capture more leads with your online application.
Then once they’re approved, they can sign their rental leasing agreement and stop by to pick up their keys.
9. Easily Customize Your Agreements
Not all rental properties and renters are the same. This calls for the need to develop unique leasing agreements. You can do this easily when you’re using digital forms.
Instead of writing up an entirely new agreement, you can just tweak the document using a word processor.
Once you’re all done, you can upload it to your digital signature platform.
As a rule of thumb, you should make different forms by type of property. Then leave certain areas blank so you can fill those in with the required details.
For example, you can leave the length of the lease blank if you offer six-month and 12-month leases.
What to Look for in a Digital Signature Platform
Now that you can see the many benefits associated with eSignature platforms, it’s time to search for one. There are a number of them out there but knowing which to choose is essential.
There are key features you want in the platform you purchase. For instance, the first thing you want to ensure is the security of your documents.
The last thing you need is for a hacker to come along and breach the trust of your tenants. You also want to ensure that the authentication process is legit to ensure your documents are legally binding.
So the first step is to identify whether the platform has legal validity and compliance. And you also want top-tier security features, such as auto-expire for documents and permanent deletion of documents.
Another great feature to have is a document editor. Once you upload your PDF to the platform, you should be able to make adjustments as needed. For instance, you may need to add an extra area for a signature.
There’s an audit trail, which allows you to see which documents are still awaiting completion.
Then if you want to hasten the creation of documents, you should be able to use templates. Some may include dropdown menus, checkboxes, and custom text so you can make the document with the necessary requirements.
It’s also essential to have a contact management system so you can easily track your prospects and tenants.
Last, if you’re working with a team, then they need to have access to leasing agreements and other documents. The platform you integrate should allow you to create multiple accounts for easier collaboration.
Using Online Rental Agreements for Your Agency
The beauty of lease agreement automation is that it’s easy to implement. You don’t have to go through an extensive process to get things up and running.
With eversign, it’s as simple as signing up to the platform and then uploading your documents. You can add contacts and send the documents to those who need to sign.
Everything’s easily managed right within your platform.
Whichever digital signature platform you decide to use, make sure that it’s secure and includes all the necessary features you need.
Then come back and let us know how automating your leasing agreements is panning out!