This article is presented by RentRedi. Read our editorial guidelines for more information.
When it comes to investing in real estate, you may be tempted to stay close to home, and this is understandable. You’re more likely to understand the market and feel more comfortable being nearby while looking for tenants or collecting rent. It may seem daunting, but several real estate investors find it lucrative to seek out markets in other cities or states in order to secure more affordable investment properties.
Now, there are several options available to you when it comes to the management of real estate investments: managing yourself, hiring a property manager, or hiring a property management company. Regardless of what you choose, chances are in our tech-driven world that some type of software will be employed to conduct business operations.
Setting up software or tech to manage your properties ensures that when it’s time to place a tenant in your rental and deal with finding tenants and collecting rent, you’re able to present yourself as a capable and professional landlord—even from miles away.
Tenants Can Apply to Your Rental Online
One of the first steps you’ll need to take after securing your long-distance rental property is to actually find tenants. Naturally, the easiest way to do this is to list your investment property on syndication sites like Zillow, Hotpads, Trulia, Realtor.com, or Doorsteps. People searching for apartments or rental properties frequent these popular sites. You can use property management software to syndicate listings with the push of a button. Keep in mind if you use sites like Zillow to post your rental, you will incur a posting fee. This has been rolled out by Zillow for all 50 states.
From these sites, applicants can request to apply to your rentals. Typically applicants will fill out a form with their name, phone number, email address, and a message. After you’ve collected this information,…