How New Technology Helps Property Professionals

Posted on July 5, 2011 by editor
Posted in Buy To Let Property, Social Media In Property, UK Property Market Comment Tagged developers, Helps, how, landlords, new, Professionals, property, Technology

I was thinking recently about all the new ways we communicate via the various bits of new technology available these days. Much of this has filtered down to property professionals who can use it to make their investing lives more concise and less time consuming. Today I thought I would share with you some of the things I either use or have come across for landlords and investors that might help save you time or money.

SMS ( that’s texting to you and me!)

SMS has emerged as a major new way to interact with tenants and to save money. At sign up tenants leave a mobile number and agents use it in many ways. Lots of the larger agents have adopted this method as a way of keeping track of who has not paid their rent. Most tenants are genuinely unaware that anything has gone wrong and will put it right straight away with a phone call to the office. Those who don’t are the ones worth spending your energy on in chasing the money.

SMS also allows a landlord to keep a record of all that is said as a point of reference, should it be needed in future.

Texting is also used to match tenants to properties available, all of which can be done automatically once entered into a system for contact. On a lower scale, if you run multi-let shared accommodation it is very easy to send one text to all members in a household so there are no discrepancies with miscommunication. Way better than email.

Even the DPS uses SMS now to speed up deposit repayments for both landlords and tenants. Their text service delivers alerts straight to the mobile phone of the person involved which helps landlords and tenants keep on top of the repayment of their deposits.

Switched on agents have added an immediate text back service to their sale boards so property searchers can see details of a property on their phone whilst passing by outside a property.

APPS

Recently I have discovered some phone apps that are worth a mention too:

Imfunalet app allows full inventory control whilst at the property including recording video of condition and all sorts of other clever stuff.
The Rent Protector app also allows comments and photos to be added to your inspection for an indisputable future record.
Legal 4 landlords app allows landlords to gather information on prospective tenants in the UK, and specifically, if they’ve previously been listed as tenants from hell in the past. ( Genius!)
Augmented reality apps also show where rental or sale property is listed in their neighborhood.

Social Media

I have seen Twitter used as a marketing tool for the rental and sale of properties. I’m not sure how successful this is, but some claim it to be. Twitter can also be used as another communication tool to keep contact with tenants.

Facebook can be utilised to to check the lifestyle of prospective tenants. If they have a profile anyone already on Facebook can go and visit their profile ( if its not locked) and figure out what they may be like as people. Are they party animals, have they whinged about where they live or their landlord? Do they have a vindictive nature or questionable morals? A lot can be gleaned from their interactions with friends if they are active users.

How have you used new technology? Share your thoughts with our readers in the comments below so we can all benefit. Don’t forget we had a whole week of blogs around Social Media In Property too.