Electronic lease signing?

Posted by admin on August 25, 2011

Since the spread of the Internet in the 1990’s, there has been virtually no area of business that has not been dramatically altered by the changes in technology it has brought about.  

Some industries have been quick to adapt to changing technology and utilize its benefits while others have been slow to adjust.  But what has been surprising to many is how slow the residential rental industry as a whole has been to welcome the age of the Internet and the cost savings is has to offer. Even today, many landlords and property managers with portfolios ranging from one to one hundred units do not have a formal website providing information about renting with their company or the units they have available.  But for those willing to welcome the technological change with open arms, the Internet has brought about a host of ways for landlords to improve efficiency and save large amounts of money.

Whether or not they utilize them to their full potential, most landlords and property managers know about the options and benefits of listing available rental units online, either through an outside site like the free services such as Kijiji, Craigslist and Streetseed and paid services such as Viewit and more recently MLS.  There are also many widely known ways of using email and Internet forms to quickly and accurately take and file maintenance requests and correspondence with tenants.  But the newest sets of Internet tools available to landlords which is has just started to gain popularity in the United States and Canada are related to the leasing and rent collection processes.

 Landlords have just recently begun to see the organizational and efficiency improvements that can be realized by collecting lease applications, lease agreements and payments online.  And with an ever-increasing collective acceptance of doing business online along with advances in Internet security – processing these documents over the web has never been easier.

 Picture emailing out a link from your smartphone or computer which directs a prospective tenant to a website where your lease application, lease agreement and payment forms are located securely online.  Soon after, you start receiving emails notifying you that the lease application is completed and ready for your approval via your smartphone or computer. A subsequent email then states that the lease agreement has been digitally signed by the tenant and filed online for both parties to access, and finally that the tenant’s banking information has been submitted to pay their deposit and monthly rent payments.  This is something that many landlords are very excited to be experiencing after years of wasted time sitting with tenants while they fill out lengthy applications and read through pages of lease documents before signing.  

It is estimated that the average time spent to get applications completed, a lease agreement signed, in preparation time, faxing documents and/or meeting tenants alone is 47 minutes.  This does not take into account the several hours per unit used up by filing these documents, generating rent rolls and reports, colleting deposits, post dated cheques and rent receipts at tax time.  With today’s technology, all of the above can be done in a matter of minutes, more accurately and very inexpensively, freeing up the landlord or property manager’s time and energy for other things.  Another benefit is that approximately 30 sheets of paper per rental unit have been saved, contributing to environmental preservation and yielding further cost savings.  

In a world where everything from movie passes to plane tickets are purchased online, it only makes sense that the rental housing industry is starting to take advantage of transaction processing technologies that can dramatically improve overall efficiency and workflow while significantly cutting costs.

By: John Miles