Managing rental properties with chatbots

Rental property management can be a challenging business. There are empty properties to fill, repairs to make, tenants to manage, and a lot of other small things that require attention. It is easy enough to do for a single property, but its complexity increases fast when managing multiple properties.

Having an efficient communication system is crucial to keep the properties running smoothly and profitable. In this article, we’ll take a look at how new technologies can help property managers do just that.

Improving communication with tenants

To keep a property running smoothly it is important to spot potential problems early, especially when it comes to maintenance. The challenge is that the tenants who live on the property and are the first ones to notice these issues are unlikely to inform the property manager until they become a problem for them.

In communication terms, this happens because, from the tenant’s perspective, contacting the property manager only makes sense when the effort needed to reach out is lower than the nuisance being caused by the issue. Therefore, the property manager is only likely to learn of things like leaks in water mains or issues with appliances when they lead to a total failure. (i.e. when the appliance stops working completely or the pipe breaks).

Lowering communication barriers

If a property management company is able to reduce the effort required to contact them it will discover issues early and get the chance to fix them before they turn into more costly problems. Messaging platforms offer a great tool to communicate with tenants since they are widely used and people tend to check them regularly.

They also have the great advantage of offering an asynchronous communication platform where the sender and receiver of the message do not have to be online at the same time. However, they work better if both sender and receiver are simultaneously active and can ask each other follow-up questions.

From a property management perspective, they can be great tools if the company has enough manpower to keep the account responsive and active almost 24/7. If it doesn’t, automation can help. Today’s chatbots are incredibly powerful tools that can provide 24/7 support at just a fraction of the cost of a human employee.

If programmed well chatbots can also be used to arrange repair and cleanup services with the company’s partners and provide reminders to tenants on rent payments and other administrative tasks. The possibilities are endless and if you would like to learn how your company can save money and keep tenants happy by using chatbots, our team will be happy to help. You can reach out to them by using the form below.