4 Step Process to Automate Your Rental Listing Process

After finally renting out my first property, I knew something had to change. The seemingly endless emails, phone calls, and text messages from prospective applicants had me doing the work of an assistant rather than a real estate investor. 

To address this, I followed the below 4 Step Process to automate my rental listings.

Step 1 - Identify Your Objectives

The first step of trying to solution any given problem is to clearly define your problem and identify what objectives you need to meet to solve it. 

My problem was simple - the system I had in place to list my property was heavily dependent on my involvement and thus my time. 

My objectives were to limit the amount of interaction I had to have with prospective applicants, collect data on where my applicant leads were originating (i.e. Craigslist, Zillow, yard sign, etc.), and limit my involvement in the scheduling of appointments to see the property.  

The catch is - I didn't want to limit my interaction and involvement by reducing the amount of communication I had with prospective applicants and I didn't want to pay another party (Property Manager, Virtual Assistant, etc.) to facilitate the process.

Simple, right? Well, with the right tools, it can be.

Step 2 - Identify Your Tools

We all have skills that we can leverage to solve problems that we come across. It may be a financial analyst who can crunch numbers a typical person doesn’t even know exist. It could be a contractor who can quickly scope out a rehab budget by walking through a house. Regardless of the person, we each have a skill set that we can use to our advantage. 

Given my profession, my tools heavily revolve around process enhancements. My objectives required a tool that could not only facilitate, but automate the communication with and tracking of prospective tenants. Fortunately, I knew a tool that could do the trick.

Meet Microsoft Flow - a workflow automation tool that can connect to hundreds of applications (Outlook, Gmail, Google Drive, One Drive, DropBox - you name it) and is customizable to meet your specific needs.

Step 3 - Utilize Tools to Develop Solutions to Meet Your Objectives

I found that I spent the most time answering prospective applicants' initial inquiries, scheduling appointments to view the property, and waiting for prospective applicants' who didn't show up to their appointment. For this reason, I wanted to address each of these with a Microsoft Flow workflow.

Answering Prospective Applicant's Initial Inquiries

The first step is to develop a one-page property summary that provides all of the information on the rental, including a detailed description of the application process. Then, by linking Microsoft Flow to your Gmail account, you can have it monitor you email from incoming applicant leads. For each new lead that comes in, you can have Microsoft Flow reply back to the email and attach the property summary. And just like that, you no longer have to be answering the same questions over and over again. 

Scheduling Appointments and No Shows

Depending on what calendar you use (Apple, Outlook, Google, etc.), you can setup appointment slots that a prospective applicant can view online and select the appointment time that works best for them. By including a link to your appointment slots in your initial reply to their inquiry, you can eliminate the need to be scheduling any more appointments! 

In addition, you can have Microsoft Flow send them a confirmation email once they have scheduled an appointment and include instructions to confirm that they will be attending at least an hour before the appointment. This way, if they don't confirm their appointment, you don't waste your time waiting for them.

Data Collection

Lastly, throughout the process of receiving the initial applicant leads and scheduling and confirming appointment, you can have Microsoft Flow continuously track your leads on a spreadsheet. This will give you insight on where the majority of your leads are coming from, the quality of those leads, and much more. 

Step 4 - Reap The Benefits

With some upfront effort, you will have built a system of processes designed to automate your rental listing process. Now, you can list your properties, sit back, and let the workflows you developed do the heavy lifting.