Quote from @Madelyn Felix:
Thank you, JD.
In-person showings just aren't efficient. And you can't accommodate everyone's schedule. It takes longer to lease in-person-and it's expensive.
I think the evictions are a tenant screening issue more than an issue with self-guided tours vs in-person.
The way we screen tenants tells us all we need to know 99% of the time. Our default rate is very low-even with self-guided tours.
In that case, I guess I don't understand why you would even want to spend money on any such system. If you've already got 99% of what you need to know under current conditions, what good could some cameras add to that equation?
Respectfully, I disagree about the screening process. For us, screening takes place from the time we (someone from the office) speaks to the potential tenant, through the showing, and the application process. We don't really incur any significant extra costs by having someone physically show the property because someone's already working, and we batch showings. I would never want to just screen someone on paper.
Maybe the difference is in turnovers. We only do single family homes, so it's not an apples to apples comparison, but the average national turnover rate is about 40%. 4 of the last 5 years our turnover rate was under 6%, and in the last 10 years we've never had an eviction. If you have a significant turnover rate, then I guess I could see the appeal of remote showings, but I also suspect the lack of personal touch contributes to turnover.
Anyway, as far as camera systems, I would think a simple Blink system and wifi would work for what you want to do, with something like the Schlage encode for a locking system. I'm not aware of any systems that work without wifi as you'd have to have some kind of cellular reporting system like a SimpliSafe or similar.
