An increase in housing prices and mortgage rates has caused many potential buyers to seek the next best thing to buying a home—renting one.
If you’re an SFR company that scoops up homes and leases them out to tenants, this is a good thing. But at the same time, you’ll have to make quicker decisions and take more efficient actions than ever to stay competitive.
Let’s look at two common time-wasters SFR companies face and how to overcome them.
Challenge #1: Zig-zagging across the region to various properties
In SFR—just as in the real estate industry in general—location is the name of the game. It’s what buyers and renters look for more than anything else, and they are often willing to pay a premium for that spot with the best schools or less than five minutes from work
So, it can be tempting to build a portfolio filled with properties in a wide variety of “great locations” without considering the logistical challenges you’ll face.
Instead, focus on investing in properties in one specific geographic area. That way, you’ll
- Save research time. You’ll be able to thoroughly research the ins and outs of one neighborhood, including crime rates, demographics, and home and rental values. That means when a new property pops up on the market, you’ll be able to take decisive action about whether to buy—without needing to pull data or make a site visit.
- Save maintenance and management time. It’s inefficient to make repairs at a property in one town and then drive 55 minutes to attend to another. If you’re hiring these jobs out, it’s not efficient for property management companies either—and they’ll charge you a premium.
Note: if you already find yourself with SFR properties stretching across the tri-state area, tech can be a real time-saver. Consider using an app like SiteCapture with templates to help make sure you gather all the necessary data in the first place—and never have to make repeat trips to the site.
Challenge #2: Minimizing time between tenants
If your company holds 100 properties, and it takes days or weeks to turn over each property between tenants, you face a sizeable loss of income each year.
Reducing the time from one renter to another—or “turns”—is essential in the SFR game.
But there’s so much to be done in this critical period: collecting payments, inspecting the property for damage, making repairs, and cleaning. Then, once the new renters are ready to move in, there’s a move-in inspection and walkthrough, too.
So, what can you do to make things run smoothly and reduce turn time?
- Create standard operating procedures (SOPs) and workflows. Creating move-out and move-in checklists helps streamline the process because each technician, subcontractor, and employee will know exactly what to do next without checking in or waiting for instructions.
- Use technology to stay organized, simplify, and automate. An app like SiteCapture allows inspectors to easily and quickly collect essential data and high-resolution photos. You can customize templates for them to fill out each time—and you’ll be able to see any problem areas in real time since the information automatically syncs back to the web app for you to review.
Saving time with SiteCapture
In the SFR industry, time is of the essence when it comes to saving money, increasing revenue, and providing the best experience for workers and tenants alike. SiteCapture saves you time on all aspects of the rental cycle, from move-in to maintenance to move-out.
To learn more about how SiteCapture can help your SFR company, sign up for a free demo today.
