Happy Thanksgiving!

Released on November 21st, 2018

This week’s video update:

Happy Thanksgiving!

We just wanted to stop and take a moment, going into this holiday season, to say how thankful we really are.

We’re thankful first to all of our users, for being part of this vibrant community and giving us the chance to help you with your business.

We truly are honored.

And finally, to the whole community of rental professionals worldwide: we’re always inspired by your passion.

All of us here at NowRenting wish you a very happy Thanksgiving, and we look forward to speaking with you after the holidays.

Streamline Tenant Management Today with NowRenting

Simplify tenant management with our cloud-based software.

No Hassle · No Obligation · No Surprises

Happy Thanksgiving!

Released on November 21st, 2018

This week’s video update:

Happy Thanksgiving!

We just wanted to stop and take a moment, going into this holiday season, to say how thankful we really are.

We’re thankful first to all of our users, for being part of this vibrant community and giving us the chance to help you with your business.

We truly are honored.

And finally, to the whole community of rental professionals worldwide: we’re always inspired by your passion.

All of us here at NowRenting wish you a very happy Thanksgiving, and we look forward to speaking with you after the holidays.

How to End a Lease

Published by Matthew Talamini in on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2018

Welcome to the NowRenting Help Center

What can we help you with today?

    > How to End a Lease

How to End a Lease

From the Leases page, find the Lease you want to end and click its Details link. Then click the End this Lease link at the top of the page.
NowRenting End Lease Navigate

If there are outstanding charges (such as the unpaid August and September rent shown below) the security deposit will go towards paying them. The ending balance is calculated, and it will show how much of the security deposit should be returned to the tenant, or whether the tenant still has outstanding charges.

NowRenting End Lease Security Deposit Covers Owed Rent

To schedule the Lease to end on a particular date, select the End on a specific date option, then select a date from the calendar.

If necessary, you can add any last charges here, such as fees for damages or cleaning, and they will be subtracted from the security deposit.
NowRenting End Lease Damage Fee

The amount of the security deposit returned, as well as any charges, will be listed on the Lease’s Balance History page,
NowRenting End Lease Security Deposit Return History

How to Manage Your Lead Assignment Roster

Published by Matthew Talamini in on Tuesday, September 18th, 2018

Welcome to the NowRenting Help Center

What can we help you with today?

    > How to Manage Your Lead Assignment Roster

How to Manage Your Lead Assignment Roster

NowRenting’s Lead Assignment Roster lets you set up automatic lead assignment. Your team will have leads assigned to them automatically, as they come in. If you haven’t given your team user accounts on NowRenting yet, see here for instructions.

To access the Lead Assignment Roster, click Leads in the top navigation bar, and then Assignment Roster in the dropdown menu.


To set up automatic Lead assignment, first you have to add users to the roster. Do this by clicking Add Users.

You’ll see a window with a list of your users. Select the ones you want to add to the roster and click the Add Member button. If you don’t see the user you’re looking for, you can type their name into the search bar at the top of the window.

Using the Lead Assignment Roster

  • Use the Assign Leads Automatically toggle to turn automatic Lead assignment on and off.
  • Click and Drag a user’s row to change their order in the roster.
  • The control in the Share column allows you to set how many Leads a user will receive during each round.
  • The minus icon lets you remove a user from the roster.

The user highest on the list will get the first new Lead that comes in. They’ll get as many new Leads as the number in the Share column, and then the next new Lead will go to the next on the roster.

For example: In the screenshot shown above, Henry will get the first new Lead, then Mark, then Mark, and then Henry again, and so on. Mark gets two Leads in a row because his Share number is set to 2.

(Note: Leads that are manually created using the Add Lead button on the Leads page are always assigned to the user who created them, regardless of whether that user is in the roster or not.)

Real Estate Marketing Trends

Published by Matthew Talamini in on Tuesday, February 20th, 2018

Welcome to the NowRenting Help Center

What can we help you with today?

    > Real Estate Marketing Trends

Real Estate Marketing Trends

Which real estate marketing trends would it be advisable for you to watch out for in the year ahead? What would it be a good idea for you to the spending plan for and wanting to execute?

While there are apparently incalculable strategies and apparatuses to browse, a couple of emerging as the ones to take after. Each of these is important to organizations of all sizes and can fundamentally enhance the viability of marketing endeavors throughout the following a year.

All in all, what are these critical methodologies? Here, in no specific request, are the eight real estate marketing trends we trust each firm should observe nearly in 2018:

1. Expense Bill — Related Content and Advice

It’s difficult to exaggerate the effect that the U.S. impose charge go toward the finish of 2017 could have on the real estate industry in 2018.

As indicated by a current review from Realtor.com, 87% of individuals who intend to purchase a home and 43% of individuals who plan to offer a home this year say the duty changes will impact their approach.

Customers are ravenous for data about what the bill is, the manner by which it will affect the market, and whether it ought to adjust their decisions. Real estate firms are splendidly situated to advance in and help fill this request by providing master counsel and substance.

2. Virtual and Augmented Experiences

One of the difficulties with real estate marketing is that purchasers, as a rule, need to see the item—the building, home, space, flat, and so on.— Face to face before profoundly captivating.

Fortunately, a large group of innovations are making it significantly simpler for individuals to “see” real estate carefully. A few cases incorporate Matterport, a device that makes prosperous virtual/visual voyages through properties, and Pandora Reality, an enlarged reality encounter supplier that presents what development tasks will look like when finished.

These are only a glimpse of a more significant problem. Substantial innovation firms, for example, Apple and Google discharged toolbox a year ago which made making virtual and expanded offerings substantially less demanding. That should make these encounters significantly more reasonable and available to real estate firms in 2018.

3. Included Listing Advertising

After some time, computerized stages, for example, Google and Facebook have developed into pay-to-play channels for organizations. As anyone might expect, real estate-particular channels are presently following this model.

As shoppers have progressively swung to locales, for example, Zillow and Trulia to discover properties, those organizations have pushed gradually toward charging to be displayed unmistakably. This move isn’t an awful thing. The push toward paid arrangements constrained Facebook and Google to create new apparatuses to help sponsors, and it’s doing likewise for real estate stages. In 2018, putting resources into highlighted posting advertisements will probably give advertisers access to new units and focusing on alternatives that were never accessible before.

4. Marketing Automation Platforms

If exclusive you had additional time you’d be doing considerably more with your marketing program. You’d likely be drawing in more individuals, growing more substance, and accomplishing more personalization, correct?

All things considered, while it’s difficult to make additional time, it is conceivable substantially more efficient with the time you have. That is the reason marketing computerization programming stages are so significant for real estate firms.

Like what you are perusing?

Take after MDG Advertising and dependably be up to date.

With the correct frameworks and setup, it’s presently conceivable to robotize numerous marketing assignments, including following leads, running email trickle battles, and conveying focused on pieces at the perfect time. Furthermore, the uplifting news for advertisers is that these instruments are set to wind up plainly considerably more intense and more reasonable in 2018.

5. Propelled Social Ad Campaigns

It’s not news to most real estate advertisers that web-based social networking is a successful publicizing channel. Be that as it may, numerous organizations still don’t completely see how amazingly intense these stages have progressed toward becoming.

A large group of crisp offerings from the real systems—including new/enhanced retargeting, geofencing, and unit alternatives—have made it conceivable to contact gatherings of people more correctly and more proficiently than any time in recent memory.

The way to exploiting this is to create propelled social crusades which make utilization of the full scope of devices and organizations. Firms that progression up their amusement in 2018 and put resources into refined social methodologies are probably going to see a noteworthy ROI on their spend.

6. Hyperlocal Content Creation

The expanding capacity of social and inquiry stages to precisely target purchasers given correct area opens up a useful open door for real estate firms: hyperlocal content.

Content that is gone for individuals who are in, or intrigued by, particular areas, for example, neighborhood guides, nearby market reports, and so on.— Is very viable because the restricted concentration serves an imperative need.

What’s essential to recall with hyperlocal content is that it includes two sections: building up the correct pieces and conveying them to the opportune individuals. Real estate firms that ace both creations and focus on will have a capable apparatus in 2018 to achieve lucrative crowds.

Filling out rental applications

Published by Matthew Talamini in on Tuesday, February 13th, 2018

Welcome to the NowRenting Help Center

What can we help you with today?

    > Filling out rental applications

Filling out rental applications

There are a lot of misunderstandings out there regarding rentals and in general about real estate. These need to be cleared out to make sure that the everyday people who are living or looking for rentals can fulfill required documents without any hassle. The question we’ll answer today is that who exactly needs to fill out the rentals application.

General Rule

The common misconception is that the person who pays the rent of the real estate property is the one who should fill out the rental application. However, that is not the case. Anyone who lives at the property needs to fill out the form as well. All above 18 people living at the property as well as someone who co-signs the lease of the real estate property but doesn’t live there needs to fill out the form. Similarly, anyone who moves in the property at a later point must also fill out this document. Minors are out of the scenario. This is because you cannot hold minors responsible for any sort of agreement in any case.

Other scenarios

This ideal situation may lead to questions for different circumstances. Let’s tackle them one by one.

Firstly, there is the scenario of multiple people living in the real estate property but they share the same income. Here, both the adults must fill the rental application but the background details, like the credit history, need only be given of the person who earns and pays the rent. This applies to couples, parents with an adult child, and all other situations involving one person who earns and another adult.

In another scenario, you might be giving out your property to a family where the parents permanently live in the property, but the kids are mostly away at college. Although the children aren’t permanently residing here, they still need to fill out the application if they are above 18 and come to stay for two weeks or more. In another case, the parents could be co-signing a property for their college kids to stay in. If this is your situation, you will get the rental application for your real estate property filled out by the parents who are co-signing the lease, by the student, and any other adult who would be living in the same property. This way if the parents don’t pay you your rent in time, you can demand the children who live there for the payment.

The most confusing situation is when there are room-mates involved. The same rules apply here; you get the rental application filled out by every adult room-mate. The issue arises when either one room-mate changes place before the end of the agreement, or one of the room-mates is replaced with a new person without informing the landlord. To eradicate this issue, you should get the application signed by all current room-mates and inform the tenants that in case a new person comes in, they must also fill the form.

Keep all these scenarios in mind to make sure you never get in real estate trouble regarding rentals again!

Managing Your Rental Properties – Marketing Your Rental Homes

Published by Matthew Talamini in on Wednesday, January 17th, 2018

Welcome to the NowRenting Help Center

What can we help you with today?

    > Managing Your Rental Properties – Marketing Your Rental Homes

Managing Your Rental Properties – Marketing Your Rental Homes

When it comes to rental real estate, marketing a rental home, screening and selecting tenants and managing rental properties should usually be left up to professional property manager or property Management Company. However, there are those of you real estate investors out there who, like me, enjoy being intimately involved in every aspect of your rental properties. Like many of you, I have personally managed my portfolio of rental properties for several years now. The three most significant challenges people come across have appropriately been marketing their rental homes, selecting the right tenants and managing the landlord-tenant relationships. So, let’s get started.

Research Current Rental Rates In Your Area

First things first. You have to get to know the rental rates in your area. One of the biggest mistakes landlords make is not thoroughly researching what the market rental rates are in their area. Many landlords just ask for the same or a slightly higher rent than what their last tenant was paying. This approach, especially in the current real estate market, does not always reflect the direction that the local market has gone in. So, you have to do your research. Start online and see what others are asking for properties similar to yours. Most rental properties are not advertised online so you will want to get to know your neighborhood. Starting in the subdivision your rental property is located in, you should become fully informed of each and every home for rent and what the asking rent is.

Call Each And Every Home For Rent Sign You See And Speak With The Owner Or Property Manager

Ask them what they are asking for rent and ask them why. Asking why many times will give you free information as to the local market. If you have no comparable houses for rent in your subdivision expand your search slightly. Take a 5-mile radius and drive around and see what other homes are for rent in the area. The more research you do, the more calls you make, the more accurate your understanding of the going market rate in your area will be.

Set Your Rent At A Competitive Level

Once you know that the asking rent in your rental property’s particular area is said $1100 to $1300, you need to figure out what your asking rent is going to be. Obviously, you want to get as much for your property as possible. However, you do not want to extend your vacancy more than necessary. You should also be able to explain to a prospective renter why you are asking what you are asking. If you have done your research ahead of time, you should have no problem answering those questions. Resist the temptation to set the rent based on what your mortgage payment is. Your mortgage payment has absolutely no bearing on the rental market in your area. A better way to set the rent is by taking an average of what the comparable rental properties asking rent is.

So, if there are 4 properties in your subdivision that are exactly or almost exactly like your rental, equally distributed between $1,100 and $1,300, an excellent asking rent would probably be around $1,200. I say “around” because everyone likes to feel like they have gotten a deal. So, you probably want to ask slightly above what you are really looking to get. In our hypothetical scenario, that might be $1,225 or $1,250. Your goal here is not to be automatically excluded from consideration by your rental prospects because yours is the most expensive rental in the neighborhood. You also do not want to give the property away. This average rental rate approach continues to work very well for me.

Begin Advertising Your Rental At Least 30 Days Out

Once you know what the going rental rates are in your rental’s subdivision or area, it’s time to begin advertising. Ideally, you will want to research your local market rents and start promoting your home rental at least 30 days, but preferably 60, before your anticipated vacancy. The best place to begin advertising is by advertising on home rentals ad websites. In most cases, rental prospects searching online are usually conducting their searches 30 to 60 days out from their anticipated move date. Getting a head start by advertising online is essential. As prospective tenants are turning to the web more and more to begin their search for a rental house and the exposure the web offers is precisely what you need to get started. Your advertising plan cannot stop there though.

Anyone driving in your property’s neighborhood should know that your property is for rent and they should know how to immediately get in touch with you. Your property’s signage should be legible and placed in highly visible areas of your property. The inquiries and leads generated by signs on your rental property are as good as the ones generated by online ads. That is why your plan should include both.

Hold Open House On Weekends

Let’s face it. No one wants to spend their weekends waiting for prospective tenants to knock on the door. However, holding an open house is an extremely useful way to show your property to everyone that is interested in a convenient window of time. You can advertise your open house online and eliminate the need to make special trips out to your property to show it to one individual who may not show up. Open houses also let you speak with prospective tenants in person and “sell” your rental home’s features more effectively. Seeing your home rentals in person is so much more effective than viewing pictures online. Another thing about open houses is that they “tweak” people’s understanding of the local rental market by allowing them to talk to many prospective renters in a short period of time.

That helps people understand firsthand what the market range of the people coming through really is.

When you combine thorough research and preparation with a smart marketing plan, you can dramatically decrease the length of your home rental vacancies. The advice is simple. Create your marketing plan with the four objectives discussed and follow it. You will be very happy with the results.

10 Realtor Tips For Real Estate Marketing

Published by Matthew Talamini in on Thursday, January 11th, 2018

Welcome to the NowRenting Help Center

What can we help you with today?

    > 10 Realtor Tips For Real Estate Marketing

10 Realtor Tips For Real Estate Marketing

Every real estate agent is interested in realtor tips regarding the best marketing tools for the industry. The goal is to become a realtor with marketing success. Each agent will need to find what works best in the locality and what reaches their target market. As a realtor, you are the one who will have to decide what tools will work for your situation. It is always a good idea to check on occasion to see what the top marketing tools available are and if you are not using them consider them in your market applying the tools that fit.

What are the top 10 realtor tips for real estate marketing?

  1. Website
  2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  3. Blogging
  4. Direct mailing
  5. Seminars
  6. Referrals
  7. Realtor Newsletter
  8. Virtual Tours
  9. New Gadgets
  10. Implementation

In the world of high-speed internet, social media, online sales, and electronic gadgets along with other high tech tools having a real estate website is not an optional tool in the industry any longer.

Once you have established a realtor website, you can’t stop there you must apply SEO and add various other tools that will get you the best ranking possible by the search engines. There are many individuals and companies available to put their expertise in this area to work for you. You will not need to have to know how yourself.

Blogging is a great way to improve your website ranking on the major search engines. The key here is to use the blog appropriately and consistently.
Direct mailing is not a thing of the past. It has been used for a long time, and with the new technology, there is no wonder some would question the use of maintaining direct mailing as a continuing marketing tool for real estate.

Seminars presented in your community for home buying realtor tips allows you to position yourself as the expert you are and provides the best marketing advantage for a realtor.

Referrals from your past clients are one of the most effective and powerful tools for a realtor. Most realtors who have become a realtor of choice have received this status based on past client referrals and simply their word in the community regarding the excellent service you provided.

The value of a realtor newsletter cannot be overlooked. The realtor newsletter should be available online and as a paper production as well.

Virtual tours should be available on your website. About 90% of realtor clients first start their search for an agent and house online.

It is essential to keep abreast of the new technology and gadgets available in the market. You should pay particular attention to what your clients are using and put into practice the tools that will give you added exposure to your clients.

Implementation is the last realtor tip to consider. This tip is not optional. Implementation assures you will follow through with using the tips you have identified as needed to help you become a realtor of choice.

The 3 “L’s” of Real Estate

Published by Matthew Talamini in on Tuesday, December 19th, 2017

Welcome to the NowRenting Help Center

What can we help you with today?

    > The 3 “L’s” of Real Estate

The 3 “L’s” of Real Estate


The most frustrating aspects of real estate market can be broken down into three parts: Listings, Leases, and Leads. Or, as we at NowRenting like to call them, the three L’s of real estate! Here’s how we can help you out:

Leases

Our leases component is a major assistance tool for landlords and realtors. We can help you generate leases from a variety of templates. Our lease component turns applicants into tenants in no time due to our electronic signature feature. According to Rentalutions.com, electronic leases are signed almost 2x quicker than the traditional process. Our ACH feature feature also allows you to collect rent electronically for FREE (due to NowRenting’s partnership with Stripe!) making it convenient for tenants to pay their rent. Landlords can smoothly export all rent transactions to Quickbooks without missing a beat.

Leads

NowRenting eliminates the frustration of gaining leads. Tell us about your dream tenant and we will provide you with unlimited leads that match your criteria! Gone are the days of sifting through junk leads. Our listings feature syndicates with multiple other realtor sites, making your property visible to everyone searching for rentals. Simply filter through your leads in the leads dashboard and easily communicate directly in the application! Once you’ve gotten your pre-qualified leads you can easily turn them into applicants via our application portal!! Zillow states that finding leads is the hardest part of rental real estate. With our leads feature, finding leads is a breeze!

Listings

Anyone who has had to list properties knows that listing properties is time consuming and monotonous. Our listings feature allows you to list an unlimited number of properties with ease and convenience into our database. This component lets you connect listings to your profile and market your business. According to Forbes, realtors can increase sales by 31% by spending less time listing properties, and more time gaining business.

What more could rental professional need? NowRenting has all of the answers to your rental frustrations.

5 Reasons to Use Technology in the Real Estate Business

Published by Matthew Talamini in on Wednesday, December 6th, 2017

Welcome to the NowRenting Help Center

What can we help you with today?

    > 5 Reasons to Use Technology in the Real Estate Business

5 Reasons to Use Technology in the Real Estate Business

Decrease Frustration

Wasted time turns into frustration. Decrease daily real estate industry annoyances with new real estate technology. The Pew Research Center recently published a study claiming productivity increased by over 46% at a real estate agency with added technology support. Why is this? Well, implementing useful technologies offers agents an alternate route to overcome frustrating barriers. Simply put, add new technology and increase productivity!

Save Time

The average realtor spends countless hours a week manually listing properties. Realtors can employ NowRenting.com, a digital rental assistant to take over the leads, listing and leasing process. This tool allows realtors to spend more time selling and showing properties to converts vacancies into signed leases! Jeremy Wackson of Zillow claims, “The internet really opened the doors. Agents are freed up to help get the deals done.”

Grow Business

Realtor Magazine claims that 55% of consumers say they are more likely to do business with a real estate agent who uses technology. Technology is a sign of efficiency and being up to date on everything going on in the market! Using technology signifies a modern approach to a changing industry.

Stay Competitive

The real estate business is a highly competitive industry. Taking advantage of digital technology helps realtors stay competitive by reaching a more comprehensive volume of prospective consumers. Forbes states using technology will increase sales by 31% just by increasing exposure.

Gain Effective Advertising

Technology offers a modern advertising outlet. Social media site such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram allow people to advertise their services quickly, efficiently, and (most importantly) cost effectively. According to the national realtor’s association, over 91% of realtors use social media for advertising purposes. These digital outlets promote their business with ease.

Three Things to Do To Find More Qualified Rental Leads

Published by Matthew Talamini in on Monday, October 23rd, 2017

Welcome to the NowRenting Help Center

What can we help you with today?

    > Three Things to Do To Find More Qualified Rental Leads

Three Things to Do To Find More Qualified Rental Leads

Listing rental properties is hard. But, going through leads and trying to find the most qualified renter is even harder! There is an endless list of things to consider when trying to find the best possible person to rent property to. Should the renter have a certain financial standing? How will you know if your tenant will be reliable? Finding the perfect renter is time consuming and overwhelming. Here are a few things to focus on when trying to find more qualified leads for your rental property.
One way to find more qualified leads is to always make sure to ask possible renters for a referral from previous landlords. This is your chance to see what other landlords have to say about their tenants! You can find out if this particular tenant pays their rent on time, if they are disruptive, if they respect the property, and even the kind of lifestyle the renter has . There is immense value in the information that a landlord can offer regarding a possible renter. Depending on what a former landlord has to say regarding a tenant, you can choose to continue to consider renting property to them.

Another way to obtain more qualified rental leads is to request possible renters for a background check. Background checks can tell you if your possible renter has been convicted of a crime, or if they have been previously evicted from another property. A background check will also tell you if the renter is in the middle of any legal issues or battles. You can see if your possible renter is being sued, owes child support, or any other trends of non-payment and financial issues. Then, you must ask yourself; are you willing to rent to someone with certain convictions or legal issues?

One final thing to consider that will make finding a more qualified lead listing is the prospective renter’s credit score. A credit score reflects the likelihood that someone will pay back a loan. Knowing a lead’s credit score is key to knowing if they will pay their rent on time in full and even if they can actually afford the amount of rent you are requesting. A tenant with good credit will have good financial standing. The better the renter’s financial standing, the more qualified of a lead they become.

Once you have sifted through these three important considerations, you are prepared to select the most reliable renter. All you need to do is screen your possible renters based off personal preferences to narrow down your list of leads.