How Do You Generate Unique Notices for All Tenants?

Question

I help manage around 160 units, and we recently needed to create notices alerting tenants to changes in the fees they pay along with their rent.

Each notice needed information unique to the tenant (their name, address, rent amount without the fees, and their new monthly payment amount with the new fees). I'm embarrassed to admit I did most of the work manually, which took way longer than it should (many hours of copying and pasting spread out over multiple days). How do y'all generate notices with unique information for each tenant while also not consuming a ton of time? I imagine a mail merge is an option, but is there anything else that may be better?

Thanks!

Joe Norman · Answer

Mail merge is definitely your best bet. All office software suites (Microsoft Word/Excel, Mac Pages/Numbers, Google Docs/Sheets) offer this functionality. As Scott points out you can also do this with most rental management software, and IMO at 160 units you're way beyond the point where it makes sense to put the time and money into investing in one of these tools. My team and I just did a ton of research on the options available, cost, pros, and cons - if you'd like me to send me your notes just PM me with your email address.

Scott M. · Answer

Haha, not sure any of them are easy @Nathan G. Appfolio (what we use) is a pain to set up but like you, once it is set up, works great.

Nicholas Darracq · Answer

I use Buildium and recommend the software. I can't even imagine the workload having 160 units without PM software. Do you reconcile your trust account by excel/ hand every month?

Drew Sygit · Answer

Don't go cheap on the PM software!

It is a nightmare to change software and you ALWAYS lose data:(

We also use Propertyware, which is extremely customizable. Rent Manager is a close 2nd.

Appfolio is easy to use, but doesn't have as much customization as the 2 above.

A very easy to use option is Buildium, but it has very little customization.

Zach L. · Answer

Thanks all! Sounds like I should do some research on property management software to see which one may be the best fit. I appreciate the thoughts!

Chad Hale · Answer

@Zach Lunchick The above posts cover your options. Every solution will require some setup / investment time, but once done saves you time for the rest of your real estate life. I spent more hours than I care to admit setting up online applications, now that it is done everything is collected and stored automatically. When converting from a prospect to tenant, all of their information (that they entered) copies over to the tenant info with a few clicks. I no longer have to try an interpret handwriting on applications or do data entry. I use RentManager software fwiw.

Nathan Gesner · Answer

I use Propertyware and it has a built-in Mail Merge function. Not the easiest to set up sometimes (formatting is particularly wonky) but it's great once we have something built.

Scott M. · Answer

With 160 units I would hope you are using management software of some kind? If not, look into it, it will blow your mind lol. Most management software made for those with that number of units and up will have document creation/signing modules built in. We simply select the tenant, type of notice and done. Everything is put in automatically.

That would be the best solution.

if you are not using management software where is all the data kept? Excel? Quickbooks? Paper? If you are using management software, what one?

That would be the best solution.

if you are not using management software where is all the data kept? Excel? Quickbooks? Paper? If you are using management software, what one?

How Do You Generate Unique Notices for All Tenants?

How Do You Generate Unique Notices for All Tenants?

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