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Company Spotlight

Optimize Your Property Management Workflow

When Running a Long-Term Real Estate Investment Business, Workflows Must be Clear By Kori Covrigaru Between contractors prepping the rental, marketing the property, tenant communications, and everything in between, it is easy for workflows and processes to become muddied. There are numerous people, resources, and steps to each process, but it is possible to streamline your processes and increase your profit. PlanOmatic worked with a client who had an issue during renovations. His contractors could not get access to the properties. This issue delayed projects, causing a massive income loss through added days on the market. PlanOlabs looked at their data and found that the access issues were in the same region. They were within the same zip code and managed by one individual. Once they learned that, they solved the problem and reduced the access issues from 30% to less than 10% of the time. How can you increase your profits through optimized workflows? Use the Data to Make Informed Decisions When running a long-term rental business, you have goals but need a real community to help you understand how to meet those goals. What processes are your competitors utilizing that you are not? Having data at your fingertips allows you to make informed decisions for your business. “Big clients are getting bigger with aspirational goals to scale,” said Tim Rose, Director of PlanOlabs, as he explained that they meet these goals through competitor data provided by PlanOlabs. Automate Rental Listing Marketing Automate your marketing materials. Work with a photography company specializing in rental listing photography. With PlanOmatic, in one appointment, the photos and assets are taken for the listing photography, floor plans, and 3D walkthroughs all at once. After the appointment is complete, a simple API integration allows the rest of the process to automate. Simplified Leasing Process Today’s renter wants ease. With tools like Zillow Rental Manager or Apartments.com Property Management Tools, you can screen potential tenants, approve them, and have them sign a lease online. With the popularity of 3D virtual walkthroughs, fewer tenants insist on in-person walkthroughs, so this online experience provides a seamless transition from prospect to tenant. Set up Online Payments Once a tenant has signed a lease, they want the seamless experience to continue. Offer online payments, so tenants can automate their bill payments, and you do not need to wait for checks to arrive. Instead, watch your bank account grow. Digital Maintenance Tickets Continue the seamless experience with digital maintenance tickets. Manage maintenance requests from a dashboard. Tenants can go online and submit a ticket with photos and then stay in the loop to know when the repair will be completed. Property managers can easily manage multiple properties, tenants, and maintenance tickets from a single dashboard. Perform Competitive Analysis When you have a single-family rental business, you have big goals: large portfolios, new builds, and a seamless operation. But to reach those goals, you need to understand what your competitors are doing. “This is a common threshold where they start to feel pain. How are we going to meet these ambitious goals? How do we lay out a solid workflow or process foundation? We use our data, ask vendors, and go to our other clients, so we can help them come up with some answers,” Rose said. Optimize Your Property Management Workflow Many property management marketing departments have a workflow process as in the BEFORE column, which is 11 steps long. After optimizing your workflow, it can be trimmed down to three steps through automation. Rose explains how PlanOlabs supports property management companies in optimizing workflows. “What is the objective of the process you are looking to refine? Look at who is responsible for that piece of the process. Next, look at handoffs. When one person is done with their part of the process, how do they hand it off to the next person in line? Once we understand who is part of the process and when those handoffs happen, we can look at the task. What can be automated?” Using tech-driven solutions reduces manual effort, increases profit, and improves tenant satisfaction. Everyone wins.

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Create a Marketing System for Any Budget

Make the Best Use of Your Marketing Dollars to Create a Major Impact By Kori Covrigaru As the end of the year is coming to a close, your budget may be running low, or the looming recession might have your CFO reducing budgets for 2023. Now, you must decide how to get the most from every marketing dollar. When working with a reduced budget, utilize this four-pronged approach to marketing: Analyze, Streamline, Automate, and Delegate. Analyze Your Current Marketing What brings returns on investment (ROI)? Once you understand which marketing activities bring in leads, conversions, and sales, you will know what to prioritize. To begin, set up goals in your analytics platform. Utilize tools such as Google Analytics or Hubspot to track which activities influence leads and conversions. The key to proper tracking is setting up a conversion page. In GA4, you can set up event conversions in the Configure tab. Toggle the event as a “conversion” to track those actions. Every marketing activity you test should be tracked for effectiveness. For example, PlanOmatic conducted a study in North Carolina to track the effectiveness of 3D tours for reducing days on market in SFRs. It found that adding a virtual tour to a listing decreased days on market in Charlotte by 8.1 days. Assuming it costs $100/day to hold a vacant SFR, adding a 3D virtual walkthrough saved $810/listing in this particular market. That is a substantial return on investment. What activities bring the most exposure? While ROI is important, exposure matters, as well. Which activities bring your business the most impressions and brand awareness? Analyze your listings. PlanOmatic found that listings with these features get more impressions and conversions:  •         Professional Photography  •         Virtual Tours  •         Floor Plans In short, review those listings! Which ones get the most exposure? What do they have in common? In that analysis, you will find the magic formula for reducing your days on the market and increasing your ROI. Streamline Your Marketing Processes After reviewing your marketing activities, you will understand which ones are worth keeping for 2023. Now it is time to streamline. First, test & choose a project management platform to organize all marketing activities. To be an asset, you will want the platform to:  •         Automate recurring processes  •         Assign tasks internally and externally  •         Share resources Second, review your marketing activities from a birds-eye view. How can you streamline them? Look at each task individually and study the SOP. For example, PlanOmatic uses one appointment to get assets for photography, virtual tours, and floor plans. So, in just one appointment, they can get three major components of your listings done at once. Automate Marketing Tasks Review this checklist to help identify where you could be automating your marketing tasks:  •         Are you automating email nurturing?  •         Are you manually adding social media posts to each platform?  •         Are there APIs that could automate marketing processes?  •         Are you manually assigning tasks to your team?  •         Are you using syndication services for listings?  •         Are there any manual steps in your lead-to-renter process? How many processes are you currently conducting with manual steps? If you have identified at least one process with manual steps, look closely. Can you automate them? Before working with PlanOmatic, many marketing departments manually downloaded photography assets, uploaded them to their listing syndication site, and published them. With PlanOmatic, a simple API integration automates most of this task, saving many hours each month. Delegate Through Outsourcing Finally, it is time to review what tasks can be outsourced. With lower spending, maybe you do not usually consider outsourcing, but it is the right direction if potential subcontractors:  •         Have tools you cannot access.  •         Have a skill that your team does not.  •         Can do the task faster than your team. If you are unsure what to outsource, try the Eisenhower Matrix. Look at the list of activities you created when analyzing your current marketing. Add the marketing activities that provide the biggest impact on the Eisenhower Matrix. Anything added to the Urgent/Not Important column should be delegated. This quadrant is a great place to start when deciding what to outsource. Many marketers will face tight budgets for 2023, but that does not make it impossible to run successful marketing campaigns! Utilizing this four-pronged approach, you can determine the best use for your marketing dollars and create a major impact.

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Seven Rental Features to Reduce Vacancies

Create an Experience Your Tenants will Love By Kori Covrigaru Highlights •          SFR tenants stay over double the amount of time that multi-family renters stay. •          3D tours and digital leasing processes remove the friction of finding a new rental home. •          Properties with family-friendly features like good school districts and pet amenities have more appeal. Single-family rentals (SFR) have less turnover and more demand than multi-family homes. SFR tenants typically stay in their rental for 5-6 years instead of two years for the average multi-family tenant. But the key factor in ensuring tenants stay longer is creating an experience they love. In this round-up, we have discovered the top seven features SFR tenants want in their rental. 1. Add 3D Walking Tours According to Poplar, people prefer proactive listings that allow them to virtually tour your property. It takes a lot of time to schedule walkthroughs, travel to multiple properties, and make a decision. Being able to save time when searching for a home is important, so make it easy for prospective tenants to understand the layout and condition of your property without having to tour in person. 2. Pet-friendly Design Choices SFR renters are pet people, so make sure your rental is pet friendly. Allowing pets is not enough. You also need to ensure your home is ready for tenants with pets. They want fenced-in yards, custom pet nooks, and storage space for leashes, pet food, or litter boxes. 3. Include Parking Tenants do not want to have to deal with lugging groceries from three blocks away. Make sure you have parking options for tenants. This is usually easy enough in suburban environments, but some homes do not have driveways or garages. If that is the case, arrange a permanent spot for tenants nearby, so they do not need to worry about street sweeping day or an unexpected snowfall. 4. Invest in Great Schools When you are renting single-family homes, your tenant is likely a family. So, choose to expand your SFR portfolio into good school districts. This gives families who might not be able to buy into the school district a way to get their kids better educational opportunities. These tenants are extra motivated to find a home they can stay in long-term so their kids can stay within their school, so turnover will be fairly low. 5. Smart Home Automation Tenants want smart home automation for convenience and sustainability. They want to adjust their thermostat, get dishwasher status updates, and open the front door from their phone. Adding smart home automation like a Nest thermostat, smart appliances, and a keyless entry option are all big wins for tenants. 6. In-community Property Managers According to Jeff Pintar, President of Pintar Investment, single-family rental tenants stay for 5-6 years, on average. Pintar said, “Residents with a better experience want to stay longer.” He says that residents want a community, not just a house. So, hire a property manager who is active in the local community. They could be the coach of the youth baseball team or on the PTA. Pintar says, “The personal relationship is really powerful.” 7. Streamlined Leasing Process Develop an optimized leasing system that makes it easy for tenants to choose your property. The system should accommodate for quickly responding to inquiries, scheduling tours, and allowing them to sign the lease online. How can PlanOmatic help you create a positive tenant experience? Start your tenant-landlord relationship on the right foot with informative listings. PlanOmatic provides rental photography, 3D walkthrough tours, and floor plans all within one appointment. You get your assets within 48 hours, so you can market your vacancy fast. Find out how PlanOmatic can help you reduce your listing’s time on the market.

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The Future of Rental Listings

How to Stay Ahead of the Competition By Kori Covrigaru As a single-family rental (SFR) investor, you have likely seen an increase in competition. The demand for SFRs is up, but with demand up, more investors are adding SFRs to their portfolios. As a result, investors need a way for their listings to stand out. According to Realtor.com’s 2022 Housing Marketing Prediction Report, there will be a higher demand for rentals. In addition, the ever-increasing competition in homebuying makes an SFR look even more appealing, especially to those who cannot compete with the all-cash, quick-close, over-asking offers that home sellers receive in today’s environment. The report also noted that renters are looking for larger units. With more remote workers and families pursuing rental homes, SFRs are having a moment. Today’s renter wants outdoor space, storage, a work-from-home (WFH) area, and enough room for their families. According to the CoreLogic Single-Family Rent Index, SFR growth has consistently grown for the past ten years and increased by 12.6% in 2022. With the increase in demand for SFRs and expected rent growth, more property investors are focusing on this market. So, how do you maximize your investment and ensure your rental properties spend less time sitting on the market? 3D Tours Today’s renter is tech-savvy and wants convenience. They crave online payment options, amenities, and digital communication options. With 3D Tours, you give a great first impression to this type of renter. 3D Tours show that you value a potential renter’s time. In addition, they can make more informed decisions because you provided more information up-front. PlanOmatic recently ran a pilot program with a national property investor to test the effectiveness of 3D Tours on their listings. These were the results (averaged across markets): •          Decreased days on the market by 15.25 days •          Increased listing impressions by 34% •          Increased leads by 6.5% Sites like Zillow, Redfin, and Apartments.com spotlight listings with 3D tours with a special icon, highlighting these listings over standard listings with photos only. When you add a 3D Tour to your listing, you show potential renters the essential characteristics of your brand. •          You understand their time is valuable, so you offer a time-efficient option to tour the home. •          You are tech-savvy and may offer the convenience of online payments, maintenance ticket submissions, and simple online application and lease signing options. •          You are professional, and your renters will not experience the landlord-tenant relationship where personal feelings come into play. Add Floor Plans to Your Listings The typical SFR renter is pursuing a lifestyle where they do not want to maintain a home, but they do want all of the benefits of one: outdoor space, room to grow, good school district, and a WFH area. This renter has a high education, promising career, and roots. They stay in their rental long-term, which is excellent for investors. With a long-term tenant, investors spend less money on turnover, renovations, and marketing. Dori Nolan, SVP of national client services at Berkadia, was quoted by GlobeSt.com as saying, “These renters are looking for a home feel. They want flexibility, and they do not want the burden of owning a home. The turnover of these homes is less prominent as well. I think what we have found is it’s less than 50%. They are living in these build-for-rent homes longer. Apartment renters tend to jump around more than single-family renters.” Because this type of renter is looking for a long-term home, they need more information up-front. So, be sure to add floor plans to your rental listings. Floor plans allow renters to visualize their family in the home and how to lay out their new home. When you work with PlanOmatic, you get floor plans, photography, and 3D tours all done in just one appointment. The PlanOmatic process is efficient: •          Our PlanOtechs measure each space in the home. •          Then, they photograph each area for the 3D tour and rental photography. •          Assets are delivered within 48 hours. You can receive them via email or with a straightforward API that automates the entire process. How to Capture Today’s Single Family Renter’s Attention Single-family renters are different from multi-family renters. They want a long-term commitment (without the stress of buying), flexible spaces, convenient technology, and up-front information. Make it easy for potential renters to decide on your SFR with 3D walking tours and floor plans. Visit www.PlanOmatic.com/our-services/pricing/ to learn about our all-in-one photography services.

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Rental Property Marketing

Expanding Your Rental Pool and Decreasing Turn Time By Kori Covrigaru In any industry and in any economic climate, strategic marketing is key. This is especially true in the real estate industry, specifically with regards to marketing rental properties. With tens of thousands of rental properties on the market at any one time, and small investors competing with larger-scale investors, making a property stand out above the rest requires a strong campaign to attract qualified applicants. At PlanOmatic, we offer the tools and technology to do just that. Below are six reasons why you should include floor plans in your marketing campaigns. 1. Assure Accurate Advertising A little white lie never hurt anyone, but a little house is a different story entirely if the resident expected something larger. When you are marketing your rental, it is critical to accurately represent the size and layout of the space. Square footage alone can be misleading, but coupled with a floor plan, a renter should have a clear image of the layout of each room. 2. Quick Turns With tight inventory, the rental market remains highly competitive for residents. In this high stakes market, renters are applying without ever stepping foot in the space. This is risky… No one wants to be surprised by an open concept bathroom. Floor plans put sight-unseen applicants at ease and allow you to rent the property at record speeds. 3. Reduce Showings A floor plan shows renters immediately if a closet is not big enough or if a garage will not accommodate the beloved F-250. We know not every property is for every renter. It is best to filter out the uninterested prospects before losing time on a showing. 4. Expand Your Renter Pool Homes purchased and renovated by families often age into income properties after the children have flown the coop. This could leave investors with an over-improved home that can be difficult to rent at a recovering rate. A floor plan gives prospective renters the ability to understand the property’s layout in-depth with the flexibility of doing so on their own time. This, in turn, increases leads from out-of-range prospects who might otherwise feel uneasy about committing to a property remotely. Showing non-local prospects an online floor plan will expand your rental pool beyond your neighborhood bubble. This increases your access to a group of renters who can possibly afford to spend more monthly. 5. Showcase Unique Features At some point in the shopping process, all houses start to look the same to renters. The neutral palette and builders-grade finishes can leave prospects snow blind after a day of online rental browsing. Stand out on the market by showcasing the differences in your properties. There are important features of a home that do not photograph well like garages, closets, mudrooms, laundry rooms, or storage spaces. Floor plans allow you to show the important, but less glamorous, parts of a home that make it more valuable. 6. Promote Accessible Properties Floor plans are a simple way to illustrate handicap accessibility. A well-drawn floor plan should clearly mark all stairs and will show the size of a space. These attributes are useful in knowing if the home can be easily navigated by a wheelchair. Floor plans for rental marketing is an easy decision. Not only do floor plans attract a larger pool of quality leads, but they also shorten the turn time of the property.

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Sparrow: 3D Study

Executive Summary By Kori Covrigaru PlanOmatic, the biggest and fastest provider of Property Insights and marketing services for the single-family rental industry nationwide, partnered with their client, Sparrow, a leading provider of well-kept single-family rental homes nationwide, to measure the impact of using a Matterport 3D Tour for rental property marketing. Challenge Sparrow had 2 main challenges to address in this study: 1. They needed to determine if there would be an ROI if they invested in 3D tours on all properties nationwide. The ROI would be measured in lead generation, self-showing tour activity, website views, and days on market. 2. They wanted to pilot the operations and technology needed to roll-out 3D. Could PlanOmatic perform the 3D service in Sparrow markets? Could the Sparrow IT team accept the 3D tour and include it in the feed to their website and to Zillow? Solution The data showed that using a Matterport 3D tour to market a property online has a significantly positive impact on leasing activity. Additionally, we confirmed that the operations and technology needed for a nationwide roll-out is ready to go. Details ROI The data showed a positive impact on leasing activity, specifically: • Zillow Leads per day per property increased 18% when a Matterport Tour was used to market the property in Charlotte, NC, compared with properties that only had photos • Website page views per day per property increased 66% in Charlotte, NC and increased 58% in Dallas, TX when a Matterport Tour was used to market the property, compared with properties that only had photos • Days On Market decreased 25% in Charlotte, NC and decreased 9% in Dallas, TX when a Matterport Tour was used to market the property, compared with properties that only had photos. Operations & Technology The PlanOmatic team was able to perform the 3D service in all markets for Sparrow, while keeping a consistent turnaround time and meeting the standard SLA expectations. The Sparrow IT team was able to retrieve the 3D tour URL, embed it into the Sparrownow.com website, and also include it in the feed to the Zillow Group Rentals Platform. We confirmed that the 3D tour was visible on the following websites: • Sparrow • Zillow • Trulia • HotPads 3D Tour Concentration One additional finding from the study is that 3D Tours are gaining traction in the Single Family Rental Marketing space. In 2021, in Maricopa County (Phoenix, AZ), 3% of all available Single Family Rental Homes used a 3D tour to market. In 2022, that number has more than doubled to 8%. Here is the current 3D Tour concentration of each marketin the study: % of all available Single-Family Home Rentals that have a 3D tour San Antonio, TX — 15% Charlotte, NC — 12% Phoenix, AZ — 8% Dallas, TX — 6% Method We tracked 233 properties across four markets: Charlotte, NC, Dallas, TX, Phoenix, AZ, and San Antonio, TX. We created a test group in each market by adding a Matterport 3D Tour on approximately half the properties in each market, and compared that to a control group (the other half) that received the normal marketing services from Sparrow’s existing solution. We created this test group and tracked the properties from January 10, 2022 to March 23, 2022.

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