Dora remembers when she started out in the ‘landlady’ business. It stretched the salary she was making nearly to breaking point when she invested in her first flat, fixed it up, decorated it and then advertised it for rental.
She met each prospective tenant personally, then whittled the list down to three or four possible candidates. She rang each and every one of their references and waited for the results from the credit check service. The winning candidate signed his rental contract, paid his deposit (oh happy day!) and was welcomed at the flat on his move-in date with a bottle of bubbly and a beautiful card.
Nearing the end of the tenant’s first month in the flat, she wrote him a sweet email just to check he was nicely settled in. Her signature file included a heart-warming quote and, in a very small font size, a little reminder that rent was now due — and her bank details.
Since that day, her ‘landlady’ business has blossomed, grown and mushroomed.
So why is it that when she’s not chasing contracted plumbers who still haven’t replaced burst geysers, answering phone calls from want-to-be tenants and starring in video shoots for ‘The Appendix’, she’s still writing those end-of-month emails and chasing late payments, even though the list of tenants has grown to fifty-plus?
Dora needs help!
But having lots of properties with lots of tenants doesn’t mean she can afford the kind of assistant that can be trusted with this level of responsibility.
What she needs is an automated system — a ‘workflow’ that can email a standard message to each tenant prompting them to pay their specific rental amount and requesting that they send their proof of payment to her email address…
Come the end of the month, she could simply reconcile incoming payments on her bank statement against her list of tenants and let the workflow automatically email thank you notes to those who have paid and issue late payment reminders where necessary.
After a grace period, she could once again check incoming payments against a new bank statement and reconcile the system. Again, this would trigger emails: thank you notes where appropriate, with a request to pay punctually the next time time; and final notices if necessary.
At Dora’s discretion, she could then choose to hand the tenant over for collection. This would automatically email a collection agency of her choosing.
… and best of all, the entire process kicks into action by completing a simple form for each tenant.
Dora can easily keep an eye on all her tenants‘ payment histories.
She can use the quickfilter to find a specific tenant or see a list of ‘outstanding’ payments for the current month.
If you need to simplify management of your tenants then copy this workflow solution directly into your Kotive account and get started for free.
Tenant management
The workflow is automatically copied into your account when you select it. Want to make one or two changes to fit your situation better? No problem!
Written by 
Stephen Bankart
Get help growing your 'landlady' business. From screening prospective tenants to collection rent. #rent #tenants
