If you’re a new landlord, you may be excited, nervous, and overwhelmed all the same time. Even though you’re keen to give your apartment complex your all, you still need to iron out some kinks.
For one, you need to learn how to stay organized. At first, this may seem daunting. But the good news is the more you work at getting organized, the better you will become.
This article will point you in the right direction of how you can stay organized. Take baby steps. Soon, you’ll end up with a system that’s effective and helps you stay on top of all your tenants!
1. Organize Paperwork in a File Cabinet
Yes, almost everything is indeed digital nowadays. But in the property management world, there’s still a lot of paperwork to keep organized.
If you haven’t done so already, get a file cabinet that holds all your paperwork. Of course, you must keep all your tenant information private, so make sure the cabinet locks.
Once you’ve picked out a locking storage cabinet, it’d be wise to organize your papers in individual folders.
Have a separate folder for the following categories:
- Lease Agreements
- Tenant Bank Statements
- Tenant Complaints
- Maintenance Requests & Records
- Insurance Information
- Financial Reports
- Miscellaneous Information
You can see why it’s vital to have a cabinet that locks. The last thing you want to deal with is theft. Your tenant’s personal information, like bank statements, could get compromised. If that were to happen, you’d get in big trouble and would also have a hard time retaining tenants.
2. Effectively Manage Your Emails
As a landlord, you are going to get a ton of emails. To ensure you don’t miss out on any important ones, you should set up a series of folders (like your file cabinet folders)!
Here are a few examples of email folders to think about creating:
- Needs Attention
- High Priority
- Read Later
- Junk
- Notes
Read Later Folder
Every day plan on going through your email and sorting them. If you have a Gmail account, you can skip organizing and have emails sorted for you. For example, say you’re subscribed to a landlord tips newsletter. Then, automatically have it land in “Read Later” or a “Newsletters” folder. That way, you won’t have to move it later on manually.
Needs Attention Folder
As for emails from tenants and potential tenants, put them in your “Needs Attention” folder. This folder will remind you that you should get back to their questions or concerns promptly. Usually, with these types of emails, replying within 24 hours will suffice.
High Priority Folder
As for the “High Priority” folder, these are the types of emails you need to hop on right away. They’re the most important, and you can’t afford to sit on them very long. Depending on how urgent the concern is, you could lose out on a new tenant or lose an existing one if you took too long to reply. And you wouldn’t want that to happen!
3. Have a Move-in and Move-out Checklist Ready to Go
There’s nothing worse than being unprepared when a tenant moves in or out. It’s likely your new tenant will get annoyed if you’re not prepared. And, you’ll get frustrated with yourself over your lack of organization skills.
Stay on top of things by creating a move-in and move-out checklist. An apartment-ready checklist will ensure you don’t miss any steps.
With a move-out checklist, for example, keep a record of a tenant’s damage. Make sure everything gets recorded and pictures get taken to back up the damage they caused. Keeping a list on hand will help you gauge which activities you still need to do. This is important to have on hand, especially before the move-out process is complete.
Besides having a move-in and move-out checklist, you may also want another checklist. This third checklist should outline what to do between tenants.
Conclusion
These are just a few tips on how to stay more organized. There are many more!
Specifically, here are a few more ways you can stay on top of things as a new landlord:
- Have a key box to keep track of keys
- Keep your desk organized
- Consider hiring a virtual leasing agent
- Keep track of property bills on online spreadsheets
- Put contact information on online spreadsheets
In regards to digital organization, yes, using a paper organization system in a cabinet is still vital. But, try to keep a record of things digitally as much as possible. For example, it’s easier to check an online spreadsheet on Google .docs, as opposed to having to find it and copy it from your cabinet.
Always be thinking of ways to make your life easier, and you’ll be the most organized landlord there is!