The number one pain point we hear on leasing homes is this: “the time it takes is not worth the money.” While that can be true without additional help or a good system, we’ve found that with these tips any realtor can turn leasing homes into a lucrative business that’s streamlined, stress-free, and 100% worth the extra cash flow.
There are plenty of options available to you in this department—hire an assistant, a virtual agent, or better yet—a fully-managed platform like Sunroom. The nice thing about Sunroom? You don’t have to teach us anything, and we do it all.
Once you submit a property, you can rest easy. Sunroom takes care of everything—including listing marketing (photography!), installing yard signs and locks, property showings, tenant screening, and billing.
Operationalize your process and ensure consistency. Create a master checklist and try to have the process be the same for all leases. After a few leases, you’ll become more familiar with the process and be efficient. This could be something you end up delivering to an assistant if you go that route (or again, hire Sunroom because we require no training).
We know how it goes—clients are always looking for updates. With Sunroom, you can track real-time stats and tour feedback directly in the app. As for communications with the client, some agents prefer to be completely hands-off, and ask us to communicate directly with the property owner. Other agents want to be involved and be the direct contact. Either option works for us!
This one is simple. Better photos equal more potential renters, which equals a quicker process! Don’t stress about taking the photos yourself. Hiring a professional improves the quality, and dramatically cuts down on your dive time. With Sunroom, we’ll handle this for you!
Get your client’s home in front of prospects on Zillow, Realtor.com, and more! This is obvious, but without good photographs it can be difficult to execute. Along with this tip is another: Create a property condition report, so you can more accurately set rent prices and enrich your CMA report. Once you have the photographs and the rent prices, it’s easy enough to get the property listed on the syndication systems.
Ahh—the easiest way to free up your time. Use self-showing lock systems for frictionless tours. Renter typically like to tour evenings and weekends, which are peak times for home sales. This way, you can focus on your home sales and know that renters will be able to seamlessly tour a home at the same time.
Data shows that self-showing locks lease properties several days faster than the market. At Sunroom, we can install one for you. Alternatively, our team of in-house agents would be happy to show the property if you’d rather go that direction.
Here at Sunroom, we’re big proponents of automation. Not everything can be done by a computer or an online system, but a lot of it certainly can be. Leave a code box at the property for your client to exchange keys, without having to meet in person. For renter communications, Implement a CRM, or better yet, automate the communications with drip messaging through APIs like Twillio. For payment, instead of certified funds that need to be manually delivered, set up an online transfer system that's more advanced than PayPal or Venmo.
We promise—the idea that leasing homes isn’t worth the money is a myth. It can be done, and it can be lucrative. If you’re not sure where to start, reach out to us and we'll point you in the right direction. If you’re ready to automate everything, sign up here to get started!
