RentWise Property Management

TENANT PORTAL
OWNER PORTAL
MAINTENANCE
(208) 949-3083

      

Taskmasters: Who Are They and Why Do We Use Them?

 

Property management is a multifaceted industry. Between onboarding new clients, resident applications, inspections, maintenance requests, and more- our days are busy! Have you ever wondered how we get it all done? I’ll share one of our secrets with you: utilizing a preferred vendor, Taskmasters. Our mission is to provide excellent service and do it with the highest quality of tools and technology. We strive to be the best. And using a specialized service such as Taskmasters allows us to focus on our property owners and residents and meet their needs in record time. 

So, who are they? Taskmasters Idaho provides additional expertise to our arsenal of professionalism and efficiency. RentWise manages many types of properties. We believe our vendors are the best in the business and take our service to the next level. Furthermore, Taskmasters specializes and assists with a wide variety of property management services, here are a few that we may utilize: 

Sign/Lockbox placement or drop off

Notice services such as placing 24-Hour and 3-Day Notices to enter the property with the resident

Move-out condition report

A final move-out condition report is indisputably one of the most important functions of a property manager. An unrushed, thorough condition report after a tenant vacates a property is in the best interest of all parties involved. Not only does the report include a floor-to-ceiling inspection with a written survey, but it also includes photos of any notations made. This allows us to compare the initial move-in condition report to the final move-out documentation. 

Exterior Surveys

Visual surveying of a property needs to be completed from time to time. This helps us to address any compliance issues and allows us to act quickly to remedy the situation.  Exterior surveys include a photo of each property and a compliance form sent to us if there are any issues spotted. Additionally, while this survey is being completed, there is no disturbance to the resident or owner and it is a quick and efficient way to confirm that the property is kept in great condition. 

Pet Checks

We love pets! However, sometimes pets can cause damage. A pet check includes a photo of the pet as well as a visual survey of the property for any damage. This protects our residents as well as the property owner. 

Vacant Property Checks

Keeping an unoccupied home safe and secure between showings is imperative! Conducting vacant property checks helps to provide our property owners with peace of mind that their investment remains in tip-top shape for the next resident.  The checklist includes: plumbing checks and testing functionality, ensuring that the home is secure and locked, confirms that utilities are on and functioning, removing any flyers or debris from the front entry, verifying signage, visually inspecting for pests. 

Our motto here at RentWise is “Less Hassle, More Happy”. We believe that you should love what you do and have fun doing it! Not only do we love our clients and our residents, but we also love our team of vendors too! Let us show you how hiring the right property manager can be a game-changer for your investment! We can’t wait to connect with you! Read more about our property management services, and give us a call at (208) 949-3083!

Benefits of having a Virtual Property Management Company

One trend that you may have heard a lot about recently is having a “Virtual Office.” As your property manager, we strive everyday to ensure that we are providing outstanding, convenient, unmatched service to our clients and residents. We are able to continue to do this by being a virtual business.
There are many reasons why going virtual is beneficial, here are 5 reasons below:

The ability to manage properties
anytime, anywhere

Being virtual affords us the ability to assist and manage our properties from anywhere in the world. The market is always changing. We are able to update property metrics and listing information instantaneously. We are able to market properties quickly and update our social media information. This is a surefire way to know that the business can continue running smoothly no matter what is going on in the world around us. 

Keep operating costs down

We do not have a brick and mortar office. This allows us to source the funds elsewhere that we would otherwise be spending on building upkeep; such as maintaining reasonable property management fees.  We invest in the highest quality of applications and technology to provide a seamless experience for our investors and residents. This includes a revolutionary owner and tenant portal to pay rent, submit requests and view importation documentation. 

Communication

Communication is one of the largest components of successful property management. Being virtual allows us to take this to another level. We have the ability to reach all of our clients and tenants at once.  We are able to send out financial reports and updates to our investors in real-time. This makes it easier for property managers to make recommendations and maximize your earning potential based on market trends. We always keep your bottom line in mind. Being virtual cuts back on vacancy times due to the effectiveness of electronic screening and leasing. 

Documentation

Our property management team has the ability to access all documents and records from their own workstation. This keeps our service consistent and efficient.  Any announcement, request, or interaction comes with a time stamp. As a result, we are able to keep thorough records and document each interaction as it happens, to avoid any misunderstanding.  Through our state of the art software, we track maintenance requests and send out status information quickly. Additionally, we are able to send out digital invoicing and collect rent digitally for accurate record keeping. All of this is done to maintain consistency and continuity for our clients. 

Health and Safety

Nothing is more important to us than keeping our clients safe and secure. The past few years have proven challenging for every industry. Here at RentWise, we were already running as a virtual property management company prior to COVID-19,  so there were no adjustments needed to continue our daily responsibilities. Running a virtual office minimizes daily staff, walk-in, and vendor contact. This is exponentially important as we are all able to maintain a healthy work environment by keeping our distance. Keeping ourselves as well as our residents, investors, and vendors healthy is a guarantee that we can continue providing consistent service without delay. Our virtual dynamic also affords us the opportunity to conduct training on a more frequent basis. 

 

It is our ultimate goal here at RentWise to be the best in the business. We take pride in our team and the properties that we manage. If you would like more information on how we can help make owning an investment property “Less Hassle, More Happy”- we would love to speak with you! Give us a call at 208-949-3083 or email courtney@rentwisepm.com

Paying Rent Online

Paying rent online has become the norm across the board these days however; the convenience of doing so comes at a cost for most tenants. While we here at Rentwise can’t control what the credit card companies and banks charge we do our best to mitigate any expenses we can. We do not upcharge these fees or charge any other fees related to paying rent online so having options is just one way we try to serve our tenants.

3 Ways to pay rent online:

Pay your rent with a checking account:

This is the most cost effective way to pay rent because it’s FREE! Simply log in to your tenant portal, plug in your checking account and routing numbers and you are all set! You can even set up auto pay if you don’t want to worry about paying your rent on time each month.

Pay your rent with a credit card:

This method comes with a 2.99% fee of the transaction amount. So if you rent is $1500 per month you would pay a fee of $44.85. We know some of our tenants like to rack up those air miles or maybe they are just short on cash one month, so this option is great for those satiations.

Pay your rent with your debit card:

This is a new feature that Appfolio just rolled out that enables a tenant to pay rent with a debit card, any amount, for a flat fee of $9.99. This is much more affordable than paying with a credit card so we are super happy about this change for our tenants.

If you would like to know more about how we can help make renting LESS HASSLE, MORE HAPPY please reach out to us! We are here to help! Call 208-949-3083 or email us at office@rentwisepm.com.

 

What will my property rent for?

What will my property rent for? The most asked question of any property manager I would venture to guess. (It’s either this or how much do you charge? That is an entirely different blog) Every investment transaction hinges on this factor so you can imagine how important it is to have the most accurate information as possible. We know there are a plethora of resources on the internet to assist any investor in determining what rents could be however, we would caution against making an investment decision based solely on the internet numbers alone.

Here are the 3 resources we recommend:

Rentometer – this website offers a rental estimate based on percentile and requires very little information about the property making it a quick and easy referral point, it is free to use up to a certain number of inquiries. We are not directly affiliated with this site but we do utilize it via a subscription service as a professional property manager which allows us unlimited access.

Zillow – oh how we have a love/hate relationship with Zillow but they are the largest resource for available rentals so it is a necessary evil to take a look. We find that Zillow is usually $50 to $100 within range.

A Real Life Property Manager – this is ultimately the BEST way to determine what your property will rent for. We as property managers have the most accurate real time knowledge and expertise to determine what a property will rent for based on the location, age, size, upgrades and nearby amenities. While online resources can consider a limited amount of these criteria, a local property manager who knows the area you are investing in is the best resource by far.

If you want to know more about our services or how we can help you get the most out of your investment reach out to us at 208-949-3083 or courtney@rentwisepm.com. Less Hassle. More Happy.

 

Self Showing Lockboxes

Self-showing lock boxes became very popular after several agents where attacked and even killed in our industry as well as the real estate industry. Unfortunately this has become something that happens more often than people probably know (or want to know) so we initially started using self-showing boxes for the safety of our staff.

Most property managers do not have the staff available to have more than one person at a showing at a time. I will admit that I have definitely felt a little “uncomfortable” during a showing from time to time. We also found that utilizing the self-showing services helped us rent properties much faster than before. We had a pandemic if you will, of missed appointments, no shows and difficulty coordinating schedules with all the other responsibilities we have as property managers.

Utilizing this technology enables us to be more efficient with our time and energy, focusing on qualifying tenants, managing maintenance and being more available to our existing clients and tenants.

Below are the questions and answers from an existing client who was concerned about our showing method. His reply: “Thanks for clarifying things for me. I can see both sides. It makes me more comfortable that you are able to work the lock remotely. It seems to provide some assurance that the access for people is not unlimited. Let’s continue the process as is. Thanks Mike”

Q & A’s:

Do you change the code after each showing? Each person that accesses the property is given a unique code to do so after they answer a series of questions about themselves and uploads a copy of their photo ID to the system. That is how we track who/when someone accesses the property.

Do you have to go there physically to do that or can you access the digital lock remotely? We assign lockboxes to the property remotely, and codes are assigned remotely.

Are there any cameras recording and/or warning visitors that they are being monitored? There are no cameras. There are several signs hung throughout the property to ensure that lights are turned off, doors are locked and they key is placed back in the lockbox. When we perform vacant house checks we have a checklist of several items we monitor to ensure all things are the way they need to be.

If someone duplicates the key while the rest in his party is viewing the house, would that allow them access at a later time? I can not say that this is not a potential issue however it has never happened. The viewing code is only good for 1 hour. When we perform vacant house checks one of the items we check is if there is a key in the lockbox. Typically several people are viewing this house over the course of a day or few days so we would be notified very quickly if a key is missing. Again, that has not happened. A potential applicant must go through a process to receive a code and most criminals do not go to that kind of trouble.

I am sure there are many more possibilities that I am not thinking about right now, like squatting, cooking up meth, stealing the appliances etc. Who would be liable for the damages and any claims arising from those activities? Either your home owners insurance or our liability insurance would handle any issues that would arise on that front. If we were to find a squatter in the property we would take the steps to have them removed asap obviously. Idaho does not have laws that “protect” squatters. We have not had an negative incidents to date using the self showing boxes. We have heard all of the stories and which is why we have taken steps to ensure that these things do not happen. Once an application is approved the lockbox is disabled and only vendors or staff can access it. That typically takes between 3 to 10 days lately.

Maybe things haven’t happened around here yet, but the “Big City” is moving into Boise as we speak. Watching Portland, Seattle,Chicago ……. inner cities and now suburbs burn and get looted without consequences makes me wonder how much to trust anyone. I have to assume that I bear all the risk? You do not bear all the risk, our insurance is aware of our practices and they are quit common across the united states with property managers. We have taken every precaution we can to ask the right questions, set the limitations on showings and we check our vacant properties on a regular basis.

If you would like more information about this or how we can help make owning an investment property Less Hassle, More Happy, we would love to speak with you. Give us a call at 208-949-3083 or email courtney@rentwisepm.com.

Building credit as a renter

Do you wonder how you can build your credit as a renter? Have you ever heard the saying; you must have credit to build credit? In order to get a loan, you need credit history; however, the only way to build credit history is to take on debt with credit cards and/or loans. What if your one of many who do not want to start off in debt in order to build your credit? Here at RentWise Property Management, we feel the same way! We are excited to say that RentWise Property Management has partnered with Appfolio and Experian RentBureau to report our tenant’s positive rental payment history to their credit without running up unnecessary debt. 

According to Experian’s RentBureau, they incorporate on-time rental payment data reported to Experian RentBureau into Experian credit reports. 

Rental payment information will be included as part of your standard credit report and may be incorporated into certain credit scores. The inclusion of positive rental payment history within Experian credit reports allows you to establish or build credit history through timely rental payments.

What this means for our residents is for every on-time payment made, within 24-hours Experian RentBureau receives a notification of another payment made. This data can be accessed by other management companies during the tenant screening process for payment verification’s and most importantly continuous on-time rental payment data may be incorporated within Experian credit reports used by credit granting institutions like banks, credit unions, auto finance companies, and telecommunication providers.

This partnership is just one of many programs that RentWise Property Management provides to our residents. So if you are asking yourself how can I get started building credit while renting a property, head over to our available property page by clicking here to see if there is a home that works for you today and start building your credit with your first on-time payment. 

If you would more information about this or any of our services contact us at 208-949-3083. Less Hassle. More Happy.