\n<\/p>\n
Property management<\/strong><\/a> has always been a sensitive subject for landlords. Most real estate investors either want to be completely hands-off<\/strong>, letting a property manager handle the entirety of their leasing and management, OR be hands-on, constantly dealing with tenant issues themselves<\/strong>. And for a long time, there wasn\u2019t a great way to self-manage. You either ran your business off scraps of paper or insufficient spreadsheets. But it\u2019s 2022, and this has completely changed.<\/p>\n When Ryan Barone<\/strong><\/a> was applying for his first apartment<\/strong>, he was blown away by how complicated the tenant application process<\/strong> was<\/strong>. So, he built an app<\/strong> that made it easier for tenants to upload all their documents to landlords. Then, the landlords started reaching out to Ryan asking for a tenant management version of the software. As a result, RentRedi<\/strong><\/a> was born, and has slowly grown to become one of the most popular property management tools<\/strong> around!<\/p>\n Ryan credits much of his success to early BiggerPockets users<\/strong>, who constantly tested and tried RentRedi when it was in early development. Now, the software is fully formed\u2014used by tens of thousands of investors<\/strong> across the country. And it comes standard with a <\/strong>BiggerPockets Pro Membership<\/strong><\/a>! If you want to know how to manage your properties without the headaches (or high costs) of regular property management, stick around. Ryan gives a full demo on how you can start using RentRedi today!<\/strong><\/p>\n David: Ryan: David: Rob: David: Rob: David: Rob: David: Rob: David: Ryan: David: Rob: Ryan: Rob: Ryan: Rob: Ryan: Rob: Ryan: Rob: Ryan: Rob: Ryan: Rob: Ryan: David: Ryan: David: Ryan: David: Ryan: Rob: Ryan: Rob: Ryan: Rob: Ryan: Rob: David: Ryan: David: Ryan: David: Ryan: Rob: Ryan: David: Ryan: Rob: Ryan: Rob: Ryan: David: Ryan: David: Rob: Ashley: Ryan: Ashley: Ryan: Ashley: Ryan: Ashley: Ryan: Ashley: Ryan: Ashley: Ryan: Ashley: Ryan: Ashley: Ryan: Ashley: Ryan: Ashley: Ryan: Ashley: Ryan: Ashley: Ryan: Ashley: Ryan: Ashley: Ryan: Ashley: Ryan: Ashley: Ryan: Ashley: Ryan: Ashley: Ryan: Ashley: Ryan: Ashley: Ryan: Ashley: Ryan: Ashley: David: Rob: Ryan: David: Rob: David: Rob: David: Rob: David: Rob: David: Rob: David: Ryan: David: Rob: David: Rob: David: Rob: David: Rob: David: \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Help us reach new listeners on iTunes by leaving us a rating and review! It takes just 30 seconds and instructions can be found here<\/a>. Thanks! We really appreciate it!<\/p>\n Interested in learning more about today\u2019s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Check out our\u00a0<\/em>sponsor page<\/em><\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n Note By BiggerPockets:<\/b> These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.<\/p>\n
This is the BiggerPockets Podcast, show 691.<\/p>\n
I developed initially an app just for myself and friends to apply and quickly had landlords coming back to me, some of which were BiggerPockets members as well along the way, saying, \u201cWait, our side\u2019s just as bad if not worse.\u201d You\u2019re seeing the trickle down effect of me, an independent investor who\u2019s put my life savings into acquiring a property or two to put a kid through college or retire early. And I\u2019m doing it all in spreadsheets. So if you can make it easier for me, I can make it easier for you too. So that began the journey of saying how do we make something that makes it really easy for an independent landlord, independent investor, and then also creates a great experience for their tenant at the same time?<\/p>\n
What\u2019s going on everyone, this is David Green, your host of the BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast, the best, the biggest, the Baddest real estate podcast in the world here today with my super talented cohost, Rob Abasolo. Rob, how you doing today?<\/p>\n
Hello, hello. It\u2019s Wednesday and I\u2019m feeling good, man, my back\u2026 I survived a minor back injury and I feel like I\u2019m at the end of it. I can finally twist\u2026 I\u2019m not ready for a golf lesson quite yet. I\u2019ve been saving that for a little bit, but I\u2019m close. I\u2019m close to being able to go to Top Golf again.<\/p>\n
Which is how everybody golfs these days. No one actually goes to a golf course unless they\u2019re over 50 years old.<\/p>\n
No, I actually bought 10 golf lessons. I bought them, I went to the first one, and then I threw out my back. So they\u2019ve just been collecting dust. And that\u2019s how they make the money on you. They want you to bank it and just forget about it. And that\u2019s kind of me at this moment.<\/p>\n
I think about that with gift cards all the time. It\u2019s the worst thing ever that you go spend money on a gift card and then you give it to someone. The number of gift cards I\u2019ve actually used is very low compared to the number I\u2019ve been giving. You lose them, you don\u2019t think about it. I\u2019ve had one for In-N-Out Burger in my wallet for four years and I still pay with my credit card every single time because I just forget.<\/p>\n
Well, there\u2019s a little bit of a psychology there because someone at BP Con, actually two people at BP Con gave me Chipotle gift cards, and I never want to use them because I\u2019m always like, \u201cOh, I don\u2019t know. Is today the day? Do I want to use my gift card?\u201d Because you just feel like you\u2019re\u2026 It\u2019s like credit card points. I\u2019ve got a lot of credit card points I\u2019m just too scared to use.<\/p>\n
And who knows why we are\u2026 I do that same thing with credit card points. I\u2019m like, \u201cYou never know. I might run into a situation where I have no cash and I\u2019m just going to need it,\u201d so they build, they build, they build. Speaking of building, today\u2019s guest is amazing. Ryan Barone built RentRedi, property management software that makes your job as a landlord much easier and frankly makes managing real estate more fun. If you thought that that wasn\u2019t possible, you could be wrong. And Rob and I interview Ryan, getting into how he solved these problems, what the software does, how it makes landlording better, and what\u2019s even cooler is it doesn\u2019t just help landlords, but this software actually helps tenants as well. Makes it easier to be a tenant of a rental property, which only helps your real estate business.
And even more if you wait for the very end of the show, we are going to give you a discount code that you can get access to this thing through a Pro membership, which makes it free for you. Pretty cool stuff. Before we get into the show with Ryan, today\u2019s quick tip is there\u2019s one thing that you shouldn\u2019t be afraid to use and that\u2019s the BiggerPockets tools we have available for you. Be part of the community, manage your properties, start, scale, and manage your entire portfolio with what BiggerPockets has. You got to check it out. We\u2019re more than just a podcast. Go to biggerpockets.com, hover over the little tools bar and you\u2019re going to see there\u2019s tons of stuff that will help you build your business.
Not to include the forums we have where you can read questions that other people have asked and answers that they got. You get a chance to ask your own questions. A very extensive blog. Man, I used to sit there and work in graveyard shifts and do nothing but read the blog all night long until there\u2019s something I actually had to do. I love that thing. So if you\u2019re a fellow reader, check it out. Rob, anything you\u2019d like to add before we bring in Ryan?<\/p>\n
No, I\u2019m genuinely pretty stoked about this one because Ryan had a really cool origin story for how he even came up with RentRedi, so I always find that these stories are really inspiring because he had a problem, so he\u2019s like, \u201cI\u2019m going to solve it.\u201d And because of that it became this insane platform that really helps people. So let\u2019s hop in.<\/p>\n
You got a problem? Yo, I\u2019ll solve it. Ryan Barone, welcome to the BiggerPockets Podcast. How are you today?<\/p>\n
I\u2019m doing great. Thanks for having me David.<\/p>\n
I am good to hear that. If anyone doesn\u2019t know, Ryan here is the CEO and founder of RentRedi, which is now part of Bigger Pocket\u2019s suite of tools to help you become a better real estate investor, frankly. So if you\u2019re a Pro member, you get free access to RentRedi and I\u2019ve looked at it, it\u2019s very cool, I will say. One of the things that I look at when I\u2019m looking at a sophomore, and I may be like everyone else, but I don\u2019t think I am, is how easy is it to use? Is it intuitively I look at it and I know what to do? If that software makes me work, I hate that. Now some people, nerds, love that. They\u2019re like, \u201cOh, it\u2019s like a Rubik\u2019s Cube and I get to figure out how to make this software work,\u201d and they get very excited.
I\u2019m the opposite. If I got to try to figure this thing out, I don\u2019t want to put the energy towards it because I don\u2019t make money figuring out software. I make money hitting my KPIs. So for instance, I got Mint for the first time, I\u2019m working on a new book for BiggerPockets, it\u2019s going to have a FI component to it and I\u2019m coming up with a system people use to track where their money\u2019s going. And I was so impressed by Mint, it\u2019s like, \u201cThis is\u2026\u201d It works. It just automatically budgets what I\u2019m spending money on, it knows how to classify it, it tells me how much I should be spending and how much I am. It made it easy. And I got to say RentRedi gave me the same vibe the first time I looked at it. So well done creating software that is as friendly to use as your face is to look at.<\/p>\n
Yeah, and Ryan, I also heard that BP had somewhat of an early tie to help you get the right feedback for the concept. Is that right?<\/p>\n
Oh yeah, in many ways, and all along the way. In the very early days I was actually trying to build an app for myself and friends to apply to units, and BiggerPockets played a part in that because I was going to a whole bunch of meetups and trying to talk to landlords about what issues were they having and how could that be solved maybe with some software that made things easier for them or streamlined processes they had. So that played a huge part. In fact, the very first partnership we ever did with BiggerPockets years ago, we only had two subscribers. So it\u2019s been, for me, a long journey of feeling like we were trying to help the same person in a lot of ways just from different angles. From BiggerPockets\u2019 perspective, for me it was always the place you go to get information about how to manage better or how to acquire that property or whatever that might be. And then from my perspective, it was trying to provide some sort of software to streamline those things you were supposed to be doing yourself manually.<\/p>\n
Dude, that\u2019s awesome. Okay, I love that, because you said you in the early days you had two subscribers and then how many active users are on the platform right now?<\/p>\n
So we have tens of thousands of landlords actively managing on RentRedi today. All 50 states, Virgin Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico. So it\u2019s grown a lot.<\/p>\n
Well congratulations. Let\u2019s back up a little bit, okay. So tell us the idea of how RentRedi came into fruition. What\u2019s the origin story here?<\/p>\n
So I was actually in college at the time. I had gotten my first internship and I was all excited to stay in\u2026 At the time I was in New York City for college at Pace University. So it meant I got to move out of dorms, get my first apartment, which was going to be really exciting for me. So I went through that application process trying to apply, and I ended up not getting that apartment. They needed letter of employment, W2, bank statements, tax returns. I had two roommates, all of which had guarantors as well. So we ended up not getting that unit and I left that thinking to myself, could I just make a way to make things easier actually for us on the tenant side, to apply to units quicker and more easily?
So I developed initially an app just for myself and friends to apply and quickly had landlords coming back to me, some of which were BiggerPockets members as well along the way saying, \u201cWait, our side\u2019s just as bad if not worse. You\u2019re seeing the trickle down effect of me, an independent investor who\u2019s put my life savings into acquiring a property or two to put a kid through college or retire early, I\u2019m doing it all in spreadsheets. So if you can make it easier for me, I can make it easier for you too.\u201d
So that began the journey of saying, how do we make something that makes it really easy for an independent landlord, independent investor, and then also creates a great experience for their tenant at the same time? And it grew over time from what was initially saying, \u201cHey, can we try to solve applications,\u201d to being this completely end to end platform for anything that you have to do in terms of managing the property. And honestly, truly, from those individual stories, pretty much everything on the platform today is from at least one person\u2019s story of a problem they were trying to solve in some way, we were trying to fix that for them.<\/p>\n
Okay, so if I remember this correctly, you said that you were trying to get an apartment, you were having a tough time qualifying I guess, and you\u2019re like, \u201cI\u2019m going to create a software that solves this for every tenant that\u2019s in this problem.\u201d You do that and then landlords on the other side are like, \u201cWhoa, wait a minute.\u201d I want to even know they find out. Was it because you were presenting the software to landlords and they\u2019re like, \u201cHey Ryan, this is really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yeah, yeah, that\u2019s exactly what it was. I was trying not to disrupt the landlord side of things at first. So everything was sending over email initially at that point. So I said, \u201cGreat, I\u2019ll build an app where you enter all of your information, you take photos of all your documents and I still send it over email.\u201d So they were getting this basically packet in the same fashion they had asked for it through just typical pen and paper means, and then saying, \u201cWait, but the system of managing that in email is not ideal, it\u2019s just what I have. So can you give me\u2026\u201d Initially it was a way to manage all of those in a platform.
And from there it grew to things like pre-qualifications. Initially it was just applications, but it grew to things like pre-qualifications where someone said, \u201cHey, I had a couple come view my unit, I loved them, I\u2019d love to rent to them, but as soon as I ran the full tenant screening on them, I realized I couldn\u2019t rent to them, so can we get a pre-qualification that lets me figure out how to basically meet with the best five people instead of the first five people that want to view one of my units?\u201d<\/p>\n
And then do you still have the tenant component of the software or did you completely pivot at this time?<\/p>\n
Oh yeah, so it\u2019s still both, still the mobile app for tenants, and in fact it\u2019s grown in a tremendous amount from just applications to paying your rent through the platform, even submitting video maintenance requests through the platform, seeing all of your lease documents and running your tenant screening. Really is trying to help them make everything better. Even during COVID, we had some tenants say, \u201cHey, can you help me build my credit score because I\u2019m already paying rent through the platform?\u201d So we built in credit boosting so that they basically enable this. They pay on time, they\u2019re building their credit. Landlords are happy because they\u2019re getting their money on time and that\u2019s really what you want at the end of the day. So it became a win-win from everybody, even if it was, in that case, an idea coming from a tenant side of things.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s amazing, man. So it wasn\u2019t really a pivot, it was just an expansion. So at this time when you were concepting and bringing it and developing it and minor pivots and expansion and everything, what was the marketplace even like for landlords at the time?<\/p>\n
Oh, I mean at the time it was, I mean, truly just pen and paper spreadsheets. For me, I wasn\u2019t interacting with anyone that was doing anything other than sending everything over email, paying with checks and cash. So it was truly trying to give something that could streamline a lot of those issues. Even the paying rent portion of that, of dropping a check off to a specific location or paying cash and having to meet someone somewhere just felt like something we could make easier for everyone involved.<\/p>\n
Yeah, so you were basically solving a bunch of the pain points that a landlord or maybe even a tenant was having on that journey. Obviously there was a software gap here if so many people were excited about what you had to offer. What did you identify at the time as one of the bigger needs that smaller landlords needed?<\/p>\n
Yeah, what I ended up realizing was needed was truly an end to end solution that took a lot of the tasks that were manual and tried to automate those without cutting into the margins of a landlord\u2019s business. So the options that it seemed like they had that they were presenting to me at least were either I hire a property manager for 10 to 12%, and that might cut into my margins or I want to manage it myself for whatever reason, or I do it all on spreadsheets, I kept that margin, but now I\u2019m pulling my hair out because I\u2019m doing just absolutely everything myself. So what we were trying to figure out was how do we let you control it all so it does whatever you want it to do, whatever you would do physically yourself manually, but let that basically be a software, almost like a person that you tell to do what you want them to do and they go do it exactly how you want it done.<\/p>\n
That brings up a big piece of building a business, is typically I\u2019ve found it starts on the back of the founder. We\u2019re running as hard as we can. At a certain point we\u2019re like, \u201cThis is as fast as I can run with all this weight on my back.\u201d The weight is the work, the tasks that have to get done. Josh Dorkin had this issue with BiggerPockets itself when he was working 15 hour days just sitting there writing code or working in the forums. I think there\u2019s an urban legend that to get the forum started, he would create a fake profile and write a question that he would then answer with a different alter ego just to show people like, \u201cThis is how the thing should be looking.\u201d
And then there\u2019s this rhythm of, \u201cLet me give it to someone else to do,\u201d because we\u2019ve all heard Who Not How, and we\u2019ve listened to all these podcasts that talk about how you build a company and you got to leverage and you\u2019re like, \u201cOkay.\u201d And then you do and that person sucks. They don\u2019t do a good job. I mean, if you hit it out of the park on your first try, hats off to you, that\u2019s awesome. I never have, and I don\u2019t know many people that did. It\u2019s usually, \u201cOh, that\u2019s not how I did it at all, and that\u2019s not a very good effort, and why do you need this much time off, and how come you\u2019re never focused, and why is there always a new drama happening in your life every single time you come into work?\u201d
So you take it back on and you start running again, but now you\u2019re trying to do other things that you started when you gave it to someone else and you go through maybe five or six iterations of this, you finally get a good person that can do the work. How did you transition out of, \u201cI do everything,\u201d into, \u201cI\u2019ve outsourced the majority of the tasks that need to be done and I focus on the vision,\u201d and then my follow up question will be what stuff did you focus on once you got it outsourced?<\/p>\n
Yeah, so everything that\u2026 When we started scaling the team, I think the first thing is trying to get everything out of your head. When you\u2019re doing it yourself or with a partner, a couple partners, whoever you started, whether it\u2019s your real estate business or in my case and myself in RentRedi, you have so much knowledge about what you\u2019re doing yourself, may not be the best way, but it\u2019s the way that. Trying to document that as much as possible so that you can lower what I would call the hit by a bus metric. If you disappear tomorrow or if you were unable to do that particular part of that job, could your team do it?
It\u2019s really hard to do, I\u2019ll be honest. It\u2019s not easy. And it\u2019s not an overnight thing. I think it is a gradual starting of documenting that. But at first I would say get rid of or try to bring on people that are good at the things you\u2019re the worst at. So in the early days for us, we brought on a designer, I\u2019d like to say I\u2019m a pretty good designer, but I\u2019m not nearly as good as some of the designers on our team. We brought on a content writer, brought on a head of growth, and one engineer and one mobile developer was basically the hiring we did.<\/p>\n
Did you hire these people [inaudible 00:16:12]?<\/p>\n
We did. We did, yes. Yeah.<\/p>\n
So how did you find the people that you decided to hire?<\/p>\n
For us, it was mostly Angel, angel.co, and the reason I liked that at the time was a lot of people that were looking there were looking for a mission that they were trying to solve. So it made it great that we were all able to come together and honestly feel like we\u2019re a team building that same mission together. And that honestly has stayed really a part of the company I\u2019m really proud of today. I think everyone that\u2019s part of the team I\u2019m really proud of and how much they love what we do and that we get to build it together, and there\u2019s a lot of hard work that goes into it, but a lot of fun that happens along the way. And that\u2019s something that I think anybody can carry into their own business.<\/p>\n
Yeah, that\u2019s really cool, man. So it sounds like you were staffing up appropriately and then you were hiring people that were doing the things that you were bad at, and this is something that I\u2019m now\u2026 I\u2019m starting to hire a lot more people and that is how I approached it too. I hire people to do what I can\u2019t and then once I\u2019m not stressed out about that and I\u2019m not scrambling as much, then I hire people that are good at what I\u2019m good at. That way I can start managing those people and actually focusing on the vision. But obviously in the early days of any startup, I\u2019m sure you were in the trenches a bit, so can you tell us a little bit about what a typical day was when you were building out the entire platform?<\/p>\n
Yeah, I mean in the early days it was truly building the apps. I was our first developer for the first two and a half, three years. So it was building out our iOS app and our Android app and our backend, our front end for landlords. My co-founder Ed and myself were answering every chat so a lot of days looked like answering any questions that people had along the way when they were setting up their accounts, fielding any ideas that they had for us that they thought should be built into the platform, and then turning around and making those a part of the platform. So that was at least the very early days of what an average day looked like.<\/p>\n
And who was running support for you whenever you were building it out? Because I\u2019m sure when you\u2019re developing any kind of service or software like this, there will be a lot of people that are always pointing out bugs or things that need to be optimized. Who is doing all that for you?<\/p>\n
I mean, in the very early days it was my co-founder Ed and myself that were answering chats and then we eventually brought on a chat support teammate to help with that, and now we have a team of about five on chat support that answer any questions that both landlords or tenants have along the way, we\u2019ll help\u2026 Even if you\u2019re getting set up and your tenant has a question, we\u2019ll help them with any questions they\u2019ll have as well.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure it felt pretty gratifying or pretty relieving when you hired your first chat specialist or support specialist that took yourself out of that role, huh?<\/p>\n
I mean it was exciting. Honestly, one thing that I\u2019ve learned, even from one of the people that we\u2019ve brought onto our team is kind of this strategy, they describe it really nicely, of I do, you watch, you do, I watch, then you do. And I think that really was what we naturally did with the chat support side of things. Ed and I were doing chat support, we brought on a chat support person and for a while we were still answering chat with them every day. It was just that we had more capacity because there were more of us to answer, so there was an opportunity for them to see how we would answer certain questions, us to talk about what the best way was to help people along the way. And then eventually now I feel like I learned things from them, the way they answer things.<\/p>\n
Yeah, that\u2019s right. The student has become the teacher and the teacher has become the student, right?<\/p>\n
I\u2019m curious, when it came to the feedback you got from landlords, when they were saying, \u201cHey, I need this to do this better or I need software that will do this,\u201d what were some of the most frequently requested issues or the biggest problems that you had to solve to get landlords to be more successful so they would use the software?<\/p>\n
Yeah, I think some of the most surprising were in the little details. Things like rent collection in general. We added collecting rent to the platform, but then we had a landlord that was in Texas at the time and called us up and said, \u201cHey, if I have a tenant that pays even a dollar and I\u2019m going through an eviction proceeding with them, it could reset the eviction clock for me. So I need the ability to prevent partial payments so they either pay me in full or they don\u2019t pay me on a unit or a tenant by tenant basis.\u201d So that was a case of us saying, \u201cOh wow, there\u2019s more to this than just collecting rent.\u201d
And then others that came to us and said, \u201cHey, I own properties in different states, and in different states there\u2019s different late fee rules about what maximum late fee you can charge, and sometimes it\u2019s a percentage or sometimes it\u2019s a dollar amount. So I need the ability to, on one of my properties, say it\u2019s a 5% cap and on another one I need to be able to say $10 a day up to $50.\u201d And honestly, a lot of those little details that people brought to us along the way have, I think, made the biggest difference because it enables other landlords coming onto the platform to learn from things that they maybe haven\u2019t heard about yet or haven\u2019t read about yet, but other landlords have. And if we can continually incorporate everyone\u2019s, you get the wisdom of the crowd working together on what\u2019s the best way to do this.<\/p>\n
So in your opinion, as far as your software, what do you think RentRedi does, what is it that best at compared to your competition?<\/p>\n
I would say it\u2019s actually not in the software itself. I would say it\u2019s probably listening to the people that are using it. I think everybody on the team really prides themselves on continually taking ideas and feedback that we\u2019re getting from landlords and tenants both, and incorporating that into the platform so that what we\u2019re building isn\u2019t coming from me or coming from Ed or coming from anybody else on the team. It\u2019s really coming from the people that we\u2019re trying to help. And if they tell us what to build and frankly what not to build at different times, we can make something that\u2019s better for them. We\u2019ll spend our time more efficiently, we\u2019ll build the things that they need. And that\u2019s really where I think the biggest focus is. And I think that applies to anything, whether you\u2019re building a real estate portfolio or a rental platform or anything you\u2019re doing, the people you\u2019re trying to help have the answer of the right way to do it.<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s something I find fascinating about what you\u2019ve done because if you look at\u2026 People ask the wrong questions a lot of the time. So as an investor, people will say, \u201cHow should I buy? What strategy is the best one? Where should I buy it?\u201d As opposed to, \u201cHow do I solve a problem? What is the problem I\u2019m trying to solve?\u201d If the problem is people want to travel somewhere, they don\u2019t want to stay at a hotel, the solution becomes, or the questions you\u2019d ask is, what type of property do I want to buy, own, upgrade, whatever, so that someone wants to stay there and would pay more money to stay there? If the problem is how do I keep a tenant happy so they don\u2019t ask for discounts, you ask questions like what can we do to screen tenants better or how can we avoid things that would cause mistakes to happen later?
The people that I find don\u2019t do well with real estate investing are irritated by the fact they have to solve problems in the first place. Their expectation was, \u201cI buy a house, money rolls in, I shouldn\u2019t have to do anything.\u201d And when things go wrong, they take it as a sign from God. I think that\u2019s funny that so many people, as soon as something goes wrong, they say, \u201cThat\u2019s a sign from God that I\u2019m not supposed to be doing this,\u201d because there was a problem, which to me is kind of like saying, \u201cI went to the gym, I put the weight on the bar, I tried to lift it and it was so heavy. That\u2019s a sign from God, I shouldn\u2019t be working out. This is a bad idea.\u201d
But what you\u2019re describing are that the obstacles that you encountered were literally what helped RentRedi, ascend and pass a lot of this competition is the way that you answered them. What advice or perspective can you offer on the mindset that the obstacle is the way?That if you approach problems that happen with enthusiasm and joy in solving, you will become wealthy, versus if you just look at these things with resentment and irritation, you\u2019re going to fail?<\/p>\n
Well, I think the happiness part of what you\u2019re saying there is huge. You have to love what you do first and first and foremost. You can turn issues into opportunities, and I think that\u2019s the biggest thing, that in a perfect world, nothing would ever go wrong, but in reality, things will always go wrong and at some point something will go wrong. But you can turn that into something that actually is a good thing. Whether it\u2019s someone that is reaching out to us on a rental platform saying, \u201cHey, here\u2019s a problem I have. Here\u2019s why it is an issue for me.\u201d We turn around and we figure out a good way to apply that not just to them, but for anybody that would have that issue in the future, and we add that. They walk away from that going, \u201cWow, you just solved my problem.\u201d
And I think the same thing that applies for a tenant. If they call you up saying, \u201cHey, I have a leaking sink in my apartment,\u201d you could look at that as, \u201cOkay, hey, something\u2019s going wrong, there\u2019s an issue.\u201d But at the same time, if you have a good way to manage that in terms of being able to have a quick response time with them and them being able to understand that there\u2019s effort that goes into your side of actually getting that done and they see the updates along the way, it feels like things are moving faster because they just have a little more insight into that. And then when things are fixed, they walk away from it going, \u201cWow, if something ever goes wrong, I have someone there for me. I\u2019m not on my own.\u201d And I think that same thing applies whether it\u2019s us or it\u2019s a landlord working with their tenants. I think you can turn all of those into a time where people feel like you\u2019re there for them if something ever does go wrong, and if it doesn\u2019t, then great, no worries.<\/p>\n
Yeah, totally. So growing this company, I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve honestly probably faced a lot of the similarity that newer landlords go through, a lot of the struggles and really just trying to figure stuff out. And obviously there\u2019s always going to be a steep learning curve when you\u2019re getting into something new. I\u2019m sure there\u2019s a steep learning curve for developing an awesome software the way there\u2019s a steep learning curve for becoming a new landlord. So is there anything that RentRedi does specifically to help lessen that difficult learning curve of becoming a real estate\u2026 Like a landlord or a real estate investor?<\/p>\n
Yeah, we try to intentionally implement things that you may not think about if you\u2019re doing everything manually yourself. So one of those, for example, is automatically depositing funds to different bank accounts. A lot of landlords will create a different LLC for each bank account, and they\u2019re trying to separate the funds for that. If you\u2019re doing it on pen and paper and spreadsheets, you might not consider that. And when you\u2019re coming onto the platform, that becomes a question we ask you, do you want it to go to a different account because this is a different property, it innately triggers that question for you. Or even depositing, for example, security deposits to a different bank account than rent, which is sometimes required in certain states.
So we try to build those learnings into the platform that may be along the way when you\u2019ve gotten scrapes and bruises and you\u2019ve gone through the ringer of managing so many properties that you have these things that you know, but honestly a little bit back to the documentation point of earlier, can we try to pull that knowledge out of all of these experiences that landlords have had on our platform or even before our platform and try to say, \u201cThis is just part of your onboarding experience,\u201d that we ask you the questions about sending funds to different places or setting up auto pay and having insight into that, or even letting you know if a tenant doesn\u2019t have renter\u2019s insurance when your lease says that they should.<\/p>\n
Now I understand one of the things that RentRedi does well is it will actually create a profit and loss statement for each property. Can you talk to us a little bit about that feature?<\/p>\n
In the early days we were exporting to spreadsheets because we knew that\u2019s what people were already using and they loved. And then we next integrated QuickBooks to allow them to export the information that was coming into RentRedi into QuickBooks. But what we found was it still took a decent amount of setup to actually get that P&L by property, so we eventually today integrated with REI Hub, which is accounting built for landlords, and out of the box gives you the P&L by property and the Schedule E at the end of the year, any tax forms that you may need. So the intention there is can we make it easier and easier to get all of the information you need on your properties just by using the platform that you\u2019re collecting rent through?<\/p>\n
So I have a question here, just even on the P&L. Is there still a bookkeeping component here that\u2019s necessary to run your rental business or is that effectively the function that you\u2019re using to get to your P&L?<\/p>\n
Yeah, so you don\u2019t have to. Certainly if you want to just collect rent through the platform, we have a lot of people that do that and you certainly can, but we provide the option to streamline that further if you\u2019d like to. And even, frankly, if you have even an accountant that you want to have access to that information, you can invite them for free and they can just log into the platform, only see the properties and rent that you want them to see, and they\u2019d be able to do anything they need there, but it\u2019s a lot easier for them. We\u2019ve even had some accountants tell us, \u201cI would pay for my clients to use this because it makes the accounting side that much easier for me at the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is one of those things where when I was first getting started, even in just short term rentals, I didn\u2019t have any of this. I was basically tracking everything on a little dinky Google spreadsheet and I wasn\u2019t automating anything. So just the use of automation, very simple things like how to direct where your money is getting deposited to and then P&Ls and being able to track everything like that, had that when I started. I probably would\u2019ve saved a lot of money in invaluable mistakes that I made over time. So it\u2019s really cool that you\u2019re figuring out not just how to make it a good experience for the landlords, but I know that it\u2019s very important to have a really good experience for the tenants too. I mean, I think the fact that it\u2019s a two-sided software and focusing on both of those components really is going to just make it that much better in the end.<\/p>\n
Yeah, absolutely. So if you\u2019re an independent landlord that has three or four tenants and two of those have issues, that matters a lot. Each individual tenant has a lot of importance to you. So making sure that you can have a good experience for them without a lot of effort from you is really important because you ultimately have lower turnover in those units. It\u2019s less headache for you. It should make everything easier for you, even.<\/p>\n
As every property manager knows, decreasing the amount of time, attention, back and forth you have to have with a tenant is what lowers the friction in the entire experience of being a landlord. If you can get ahead of problems, if you can give them a way that is easy for them to use. Everybody wants to tell someone, \u201cJust go here and do it.\u201d But when you send someone say, \u201cHey, go call this number for your answer,\u201d and they get put on a phone tree and a robotic voice asks a bunch of questions and keep saying they can\u2019t hear you, and then you end up with a virtual assistant in another country and you\u2019re just screaming, that wrath is coming back your way at a certain point. So it needs to be smooth if it\u2019s going to be automated.
I personally think automation is a\u2026 We talk about it in theory and it sounds amazing, but in practice it is so difficult to do. If you just listen to the people, in this case, the tenant, what they say is, \u201cI just want to talk to a human. I\u2019ve got emotional pain, the sink is clogged, the air conditioner won\u2019t work. I need someone to fix this. I don\u2019t want to have to go through all these hoops. So making it easy for them is incredibly important because if it\u2019s not, it\u2019s coming back to you. As we wrap this up, Ryan, I want to ask you, what was your relationship like with BiggerPockets and how did they play a role in the way that RentRedi was developed as well as where it stands today?<\/p>\n
Yeah, so in the early days when we reached out to BiggerPockets for the first time, we had two subscribers on the platform, so we were very, very small. We\u2019ve grown to tens of thousands today, but a lot of that came from the feedback of landlords in the forums or landlords that talked to us that were using the platform. So that really has shaped, we wouldn\u2019t be in the same place today if it weren\u2019t for all of the landlords we worked with, and frankly all of the people at BiggerPockets we worked with. And the really exciting thing today is now that it really feels like we\u2019re joining forces in a big way where basically every Pro member now just has it included.
When they go to biggerpockets.com, they don\u2019t even have to come to RentRedi anymore, they can go to biggerpockets.com and just click manage my rentals, and they\u2019re jumping in to actually manage the rentals through RentRedi. And it feels to me like combining that initial side of things in the early days of feeling like, \u201cWe\u2019re both trying to help the same person. You\u2019re trying to provide all the knowledge of what\u2019s the right way to do things, and we\u2019re trying to provide, in the right places the automation and in other ways just guidance of how to manage everything.\u201d But now today, they really join forces and you can just access it by basically being a BiggerPockets Pro member.<\/p>\n
Well, I am excited to see this bad boy in action, so I\u2019m looking forward to seeing what it looks like. Before we jump into that, Rob, did you have any last questions or words?<\/p>\n
No, man, I\u2019m excited to see the tool. Let\u2019s dive<\/p>\n
That was really cool to hear and understand how RentRedi got started, but even more exciting, Ryan, I can\u2019t wait to show everyone how it actually works. So you guys, my name is Ashley Care and I have the honor of working alongside Ryan today to show you guys how RentRedi Works. So Ryan, let\u2019s start out at the BiggerPockets page. How do we even get into RentRedi?<\/p>\n
So the greatest thing is if you\u2019re a Pro member, you can just go to BiggerPockets.com. It\u2019ll bring you right to the Pro welcome page here where one of the options is to manage my rental properties. The top left option there is to jump in and manage those. From that point, it actually takes you right into RentRedi, it lets you get started, it links together BiggerPockets and RentRedi, those two accounts. So if you already have an account with RentRedi, you\u2019ll be able to just use that as your login anytime. But if you\u2019re starting new, you can actually come into here and you\u2019ll be able to start getting set up and adding in all of your properties.<\/p>\n
Ryan, the first thing I love about RentRedi is you have this dashboard that you can customize. So do you want to start telling us a little bit about that first as to what are some of the things as an investor that you want to see right away that you guys can show on your dashboard?<\/p>\n
So the dashboard is really intended to be your place to understand anything you might need to do at any time, whether it\u2019s any tasks that you have pending or completed, any pre-qualifications, which are really tenants reaching out saying, \u201cI\u2019m interested in your unit, but us trying to help you meet with the best five tenants rather than necessarily the first five that reach out.\u201d Any applications and screenings. And we automate that screening process for you to make that easy. Or any maintenance or rent that\u2019s coming up. So it\u2019s really your hub, your place for you to see if there\u2019s anything that you might have to do at any given time.<\/p>\n
Before we even get more into the software and all of the amazing benefits that it does have to being an investor and using this. Basically just looking at the dashboard now you can tell this is already eliminating other software or platform that you need to have. So you have your calendar on there, you have a task list on there, you have your maintenance request. Instead of going out there and getting all these different apps that do what you have in RentRedi that does all of this for you. So do you think you could take us through actually getting a tenant and what it looks like putting the tenant in place?<\/p>\n
Yeah, absolutely. So the top right here of the dashboard is for properties. So that\u2019s really where I would start. This is your place to see anything that\u2019s occupied, even something expiring in the next 90 days, which I think is a perfect case for your point of do I need to go get a tenant? Or anything that\u2019s vacant. So I could come in here and see that, \u201cHey, 1 BiggerPockets Drive, the lease is ending in the next 90 days.\u201d I could reach out to this tenant and find out if they\u2019re going to renew.
But if they\u2019re not, one of the really nice things is I can jump right into this unit. And to your point about platforms, we\u2019ll actually syndicate out to Zillow, Trulia HotPads, Doorsteps, Realtor.com. We\u2019ll even give you a RentRedi site that you can go throw up on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist or anywhere else you\u2019d like. But the idea is to make it easy for you to put together this listing of whatever you would like, any photos you want along the way, the rent and anything like that, and basically be able to start getting applications or pre-qualifications in from a tenant.<\/p>\n
And this is going out to multiple websites, as you mentioned. So it\u2019s saving you from having to manually go and put each listing onto each website, which can be a huge time saver. And I think that\u2019s going to be a common theme for using RentRedi is just saving time in maximizing your efforts and being just more efficient and effective in what you\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n
Yeah, absolutely. And you can always come back in and see\u2026 We have these indicators here, they\u2019ll light up in green if you have something listed so you have a nice overview of what\u2019s listed, what\u2019s not, even what units are\u2026 Do I have more advanced maintenance coordination features on or do I not? But really the next step in that getting a tenant process would be the pre-qualification. So back on the dashboard, that top right box there is any pre-qualification that someone submitted. So I have one here from DJ who\u2019d like to come to the unit. Says he has a pet, he has a Corgi.
A great point on this one is if I don\u2019t don\u2019t accept pets in my unit, then I might not be able to rent to DJ even if I love DJ. And vice versa, maybe pets are fine, he\u2019s in a good credit and income range is what he reports, so probably a great fit for my unit. So I can accept DJ here if I think DJ is a great fit for this unit, and I can even customize this template here so that every time I come in and I\u2019m accepting a tenant or rejecting a tenant, it says what I want it to say, but this will let them continue on to the next step of actually coming and viewing my unit, booking it on that calendar that you were mentioning and then actually applying to the property with a full credit, criminal, and eviction check.<\/p>\n
And with this template, this template is provided by RentRedi, correct?<\/p>\n
Yeah, absolutely. So right out of the box when you\u2019re coming in, you have to enter the properties that you want and obviously the information about them and where you want to list to. But the template, like you\u2019re saying of what goes into the pre-qualification and application, is something we\u2019ve already pre-built for you. And I say we, but to be honest, has been a lot of BiggerPockets landlords that have built it for you and a lot of other landlords that have been on the platform before saying, \u201cWhat are the critical things that I need to ask for in an application to screen somebody and make sure I have the right person in a unit?\u201d So the idea is that whether you\u2019re a veteran landlord or just getting started, you have at least the starting point with minimal effort to be able to get everything up and running and do it at least the way that a lot of other landlords are doing it today successfully.<\/p>\n
And it gives you a starting point. Why recreate the wheel and create all of these emails or documents from scratch when you have a starting point right in front of you and you can always tweak them and change them so that they are customized to you and your property, but having that template is just a huge advantage and can save you so much time.<\/p>\n
Yeah, absolutely. And to that point on the time saving, one of the things that we try to do along the way is reuse anything we can, cut out any extra work, and this goes for both the independent landlord managing on the platform and also for the tenant. So anything they\u2019re doing in that pre-qualification carries over to the application. So they\u2019re not duplicating any of that work, it\u2019s automatically done for them. In fact, if they\u2019ve applied to other units that are also using RentRedi in the past, they may already have a lot of your applications set up and ready to go, which just makes it that much faster for them to apply.<\/p>\n
So let\u2019s talk about if we actually screen a tenant. Can we do that right through RentRedi and what\u2019s that process like?<\/p>\n
Yeah, so by default, when you\u2019re coming in and setting up your unit, we have it in there that the tenant will do a credit, criminal, and eviction check when they\u2019re applying to your unit. I can come into one of the applications here just to show that. So you can always turn it off. And for example here I have an example where I had it off for this particular time when they applied, and you can manually request a screening afterwards if you\u2019d like, but most of the landlords on our platform want that as part of the application that comes across. So as just an example of that, I can switch over to, and any landlord can as well, if I come back to the dashboard and go to the demo over here, you can actually see what would it look like when someone gives me an application with a screening and everything included.
So when I come into the credit report here, I can see this is the rental score provided by TransUnion, here are the factors that are going into them ranking in that, and even the things that play a part in their trade lines on their credit report. And then if I go down the left side again, there\u2019s also eviction report and criminal report where I can see anything across the US that has applied to this particular tenant that might be relevant to my decision making process.<\/p>\n
And then what is the charge, and is it to the tenant or the landlord or can you choose who picks up the tab on this?<\/p>\n
Yeah, so there\u2019s no charge to the landlord at all. We partnered directly with TransUnion on this and we actually get a discount for the tenant in the process. And this is an approach that we\u2019ve tried to take with everything on our platform of trying to take all of this massive group of independent landlords and use that collective bargaining power to go to people like TransUnion and others in the space and say, \u201cHey, treat us as if we were one massive portfolio.\u201d We\u2019re able to get discounts in the process because of that. So a tenant paying for a tenant screening through RentRedi will only pay $35, whereas they might pay 40 or 45 even going direct to TransUnion for that. So we\u2019re getting a discount even for your tenant along the way when they\u2019re doing this process.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s definitely attractive to a tenant for the application fee to you than to somebody else\u2019s rental. Okay, so let\u2019s say we\u2019ve accepted this tenant. What does it look like collecting rent? Because there\u2019s probably some people listening that are actually receiving checks in the mail, meeting their tenants to pickup cash. How does the process work through RentRedi?<\/p>\n
Yeah, absolutely. So there\u2019s a couple different options of how you can get there, whether you want to do it right here from the dashboard with this plus button next to rent, or if you want to go into a particular renter, into a particular property, I\u2019ll do it right here from the dashboard. But I can say, \u201cAll right, I want to set up a lease to start collecting some rent for one of my properties.\u201d We can do it for 1 BiggerPockets Drive. So I\u2019ll continue here. It\u2019ll automatically see that I already have Ed Barone in that unit as a tenant. So I can continue here and then I can actually select what I want the start date to be for this particular lease or anything like that. If I want to select, maybe they\u2019re moving in over the weekend even, that\u2019s totally okay. I can even set it up so that it\u2019ll go out to the end of a 2023 and I can customize anything in here.
So we try to have smart defaults along the way. So by default when you\u2019re coming in, we\u2019ll default to the first of the month, we\u2019ll automatically remind your tenant if they\u2019re late on rent and they\u2019ll get a push notification to the mobile app that they have for paying rent, and they\u2019ll also get an email for that. But you can always come in here and customize this as well. For example, if you have somebody that you know always is late, you could add an additional rule to notify them a couple days before, or if you have a grace period and you don\u2019t want to notify them until you\u2019re almost to the end of that grace period, you can always come in here and change this to be when rent is due or when it\u2019s late or days before it\u2019s due or anything like that along the way. But out of the box, you don\u2019t have to change any of that if you don\u2019t want to. We try to set it up in a way that will make you most successful just by going through this process.<\/p>\n
And once again, what a huge advantage, especially to a rookie investor just starting out as a landlord, not knowing exactly what to do. This helps give them the default so they can at least see what the norm is or what most people do. And then they can go and tailor it if needed.<\/p>\n
Right, absolutely. So it\u2019ll even generate all of the rent for me. And you can see, for example, I chose to have them move in this weekend, tomorrow, which isn\u2019t quite the end of the month, but it\u2019s getting pretty close. Typically if I was doing this on pen and paper and spreadsheet, I\u2019d be doing the prorating of how much I should be charging them for those couple days. But RentRedi will do that for you right out of the box and it\u2019ll mark it as prorated too, just so it\u2019s clear to you and to them that that is a partial month.
But it\u2019ll generate all of the rent that will be due for this tenant over the course of the next year so that you don\u2019t have to think about it. It\u2019s automatically set up within the app, and in fact, the tenant coming into the app when they\u2019re onboarding, which I can pull up here with the mobile app on the right hand side, they\u2019ll have this nice onboarding to set up a payment method, set up auto pay, and they don\u2019t have to even necessarily go into the app every month to pay that then.<\/p>\n
And Ryan, think about how many people are probably leaving that $72 on the table just because they don\u2019t want to do the math and figure it out and just be like, \u201cOh, it\u2019s only a couple days.\u201d But that\u2019s $72.<\/p>\n
Right, it adds up. It really does. So even for the tenant along the way, we also try to provide some additional benefits to them too. One of them was credit boosting, and this actually came from both the landlord side and the tenant side during COVID. Tenants were saying, \u201cHey, rent is my biggest expense. Can I try to use that to my advantage in some sort of way?\u201d And landlords were saying, \u201cHey, can you give me a way to try to encourage my tenants to pay rent on time more often?\u201d So that\u2019s what we came up with here with the credit boosting. Basically we report on time payments to the credit bureaus if the tenant opts into it. So it becomes a big benefit to landlords because they\u2019re getting their rent on time more often, and it becomes a benefit to tenants because they\u2019re building a better credit score, so then when they go get a car loan or any other kind of loan, they\u2019re maybe getting a much better rate than they would have otherwise.<\/p>\n
Yeah, I think that\u2019s another advantage to both sides, as you mentioned, the landlord and the tenant, having this capability because this is kind of something new that\u2019s really hasn\u2019t been done a lot in the past where a landlord could report the payments to a credit bureau.<\/p>\n
Yeah, absolutely. And same thing on the renter\u2019s insurance side. If they have renter\u2019s insurance, they can certainly upload it, but if they don\u2019t have it and they need help with that, they can actually get that renter\u2019s insurance directly through us. And if I jump over to a particular unit, say the one I was just adding information for, I can do it either if I\u2019m on the unit or if we go back to the dashboard, there\u2019s the option for renters in the top middle of the screen here, and I can see who has renter\u2019s insurance and I can notify them too. So say it\u2019s built into your lease that they\u2019re supposed to have renter\u2019s insurance. If they get renter\u2019s insurance through RentRedi, we\u2019ll actually keep track of that for you. So you\u2019d come in here and see that either Ed has insurance on the property that he\u2019s living in or he doesn\u2019t, and you can notify him to get that if he doesn\u2019t have it or see that he already has that set up if he already does.<\/p>\n
And way to make it easy for the tenant, they really have no excuse now not to go get that renter\u2019s insurance.<\/p>\n
Yeah, absolutely. And same thing is true for auto pay. For this particular unit, I had mocked up you and Ed in One BiggerPockets Drive. So if you were splitting rent, saying, \u201cWe each pay half of the rent,\u201d I\u2019d be able to come in as a landlord and see Ed\u2019s paying $400 of the 750 a month, or you\u2019re paying $400 and he\u2019s paying 350 of that. So I can see what day of the month is it going to run, how much is it going to run? So I have an idea of when I\u2019m getting my money for anybody that has auto pay set up as well.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s super cool too. So what are some of the ways that a tenant can pay? I mean can they pay by credit card, debit card, electronic payments?<\/p>\n
Yeah, so all three. So when they come into the app, they\u2019ll have the option for rent here and that\u2019ll take them into anything that\u2019s going to be due. So they can choose anything they\u2019d like to pay or they can set up auto pay for that, and they\u2019ll have the option to either add a bank account, a credit card, or even they can link a Chime account and pay with cash at over 90,000 locations across the US. So they have that option along the way to do whatever they would like.<\/p>\n
And the Chime, can you explain how that works? That\u2019s where they\u2019re going into a drug store that\u2019s affiliated with it, paying in cash, and then they\u2019re actually sending the funds.<\/p>\n
Yeah, exactly. So the Chime account\u2019s something that a tenant can get just online, so they don\u2019t even have to go anywhere in person. And then they\u2019d be able to go into, like you said, like a 7-Eleven or they have about 90,000 other locations across the US that the Chime app will show you or your Chime account will let you know when you\u2019re getting the account where you can go in your area, and you\u2019d be able to basically walk in with cash and deposit that and be able to pay right through the RentRedi app. So people that are, for example, working jobs where they mostly get paid in cash, it gives them an easy way to still pay their rent without you necessarily having to meet them in a particular place, so then be somewhere to give you the money for rent. It just makes it easy for them to pay you no matter where you are or where they are.<\/p>\n
Yeah, I had an investor friend who the first Sunday of every month would drive around and collect rent from his tenants, and my gosh, that sounded awful to have to spend one Sunday a month having to do that.<\/p>\n
We hear that so often, too. It\u2019s so common.<\/p>\n
So this definitely makes it a lot easier. And I\u2019m sure just there\u2019s a lot of people that are introverted and don\u2019t want you coming to their house to have to collect rent every month. They\u2019d rather just send it electronically. So in our scenario, we have our tenant, they\u2019ve got our lease in place, they\u2019ve paid their first month\u2019s rent, they moved in. Now the long awaited, the 2:00 AM phone call that the toilet is overflowing, all the things are breaking, every landlord\u2019s worst nightmare. How is the maintenance handled through RentRedi?<\/p>\n
So there\u2019s a few different options, so we try to make it flexible even though we try to give you some way of doing it your own way. So the three options are basically to do it yourself. We have some landlords that say, \u201cI am the maintenance person as well.\u201d So you get a notification that comes directly from the mobile app. Since tenants have that mobile app on their phone, they can take a video of the issue and submit it in. So you\u2019d be able to come in and see, \u201cI have a leaking faucet.\u201d At 2:00 AM That could mean it\u2019s destroying your kitchen floor and you need to rush out of bed and go fix it. That could mean there\u2019s a little drip.
Being able to actually see a video of what that is, if you get maybe not the most descriptive message coming across, you could come in here and see, \u201cOkay, this is a little drip going into the sink itself. It\u2019s not going to destroy the unit if I come in the morning.\u201dOr vice versa if it is really important that, \u201cHey, maybe need to hop out of bed and run over there.\u201d So really the first option is being able to see these yourselves. The second is we let you add teammates for free. So if you have a maintenance person, even on one property versus another. Say you have some properties in New York and other in Texas, so clearly different people helping in those different scenarios, you can invite them to only see maintenance in only those units and they\u2019ll get notified for those. They\u2019ll update everything here. It\u2019ll show in real time for you and for the tenants.
Or the third option is you say, \u201cHey, I don\u2019t have anybody. I don\u2019t want to do it myself. I just want it to be fixed when it happens.\u201d So we have the option, whether you\u2019re on the dashboard here, to come into the maintenance side of things and add maintenance coordination, which is a partnership that we have with a company called Latchel, which will basically source the maintenance person for you. They\u2019ll work within budget constraints that you have. They\u2019ll come fix it, mark it complete for you and everything. So along the way you\u2019d be able to come in and just see the status updates of basically what\u2019s happening on a particular request from the point of a tenant submitting it to the point of it being completed.<\/p>\n
So you are saying that you are making it more passive to be a real estate investor of a long term buy and hold property, which is amazing. Not having to take those dreaded calls that something is wrong or even to have to try and figure out, \u201cOh my gosh, I don\u2019t know who I\u2019m going to call for this. I\u2019ve never had this issue happen before,\u201d is having another option for people to sign up for.<\/p>\n
Yeah, absolutely. And this was just another case of those where in the past independent landlords in general weren\u2019t able to access this service. If they had less than 72 units, they weren\u2019t able to get access to Latchel. So we were able to make that same type of move we did with TransUnion and say, \u201cHey, let\u2019s get access to all of these independent investors that also want to make things more passive for themselves.\u201d So it was one of those great partnerships where any landlord now, if they want to, coming in can say, \u201cHey, it\u2019s time.\u201d And they can even turn it on and off. We\u2019re coming up on the holidays and some people say, \u201cI just don\u2019t want that call during Thanksgiving,\u201d and they could have it on for that time just to make things easier for them and off another time if they feel like they want to handle it at that point as well.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s really interesting. I didn\u2019t know that piece of it, but how convenient. If you do want to be a full self-managing landlord but you\u2019re going out of the country for two weeks, you can go ahead and turn this on for that to take over while you\u2019re on vacation and not have to line somebody up to take your calls. So let\u2019s jump to the last piece of this that I want to know about is the communication. I think having good communication between you, the landlord, and your tenants can really build a good relationship. So an example of this is with the maintenance that we were just talking about. If there\u2019s a maintenance issue and you can\u2019t get it solved, keep your tenant updated on what\u2019s happening with the issue that maybe you\u2019ve contacted the vendor, you\u2019ve set up the showing or set up the repair for this date, or you\u2019re waiting for a part. That constant communication I think is really beneficial. So what are some ways that you can communicate with your tenant through RentRedi?<\/p>\n
Yeah, you\u2019re absolutely right. Communication is so, so important, and you have the option right here on the dashboard, notifications at the top middle here. You can send out a notification, and you can choose. Again, they have that mobile app on their phone, which a lot of the time they\u2019ll see those push notifications before even emails, where other people are sending things along. But you have the option to send that either as just an email notification to them, as a push notification, or both. And you can choose, even within there, do I want to notify just a particular unit, do I want to notify everybody at a particular property, or do I want to notify all of my tenants? So for example say garbage day is changing in your county and all of your units are in that area, you could update them on that, or say that leaking faucet turns out that you have to shut off water in a particular property one morning and you want to notify everyone that, \u201cHey, don\u2019t try to take a shower between 10:00 and 12:00 because there isn\u2019t going to be any water.\u201d
Instead of you having to go door by door and putting up notes for them or things like that, you can send out one of these push notifications and emails to all of your tenants and you can even customize exactly what you want it to say in the header in the body or what you want it to say in the email. You could even link things into the email if you want a link in the email to say anything else that you\u2019d like them to have access to. But that will let all of your tenants know about anything you need them to at any given point and keep that good line of communication open.<\/p>\n
And it also avoids having to get on the phone too, because you have everything in writing. Having those records and the log of all of that communication with a tenant can\u2026 If something unfortunate does happen down the road, that you have all the communication recorded and in one place to see what that communication was.<\/p>\n
Yeah, you\u2019re absolutely right.<\/p>\n
Well, Ryan, I just got to say, going through this and I use it for my bootcamp, the Real Estate Landlord Bootcamp that I do with BiggerPockets, and everybody has loved using this, especially as rookie landlords getting started, jumping into this, all of the tools and features it has to really help you get started as a landlord, because there\u2019s so many things you don\u2019t even think of that can make your life easier and RentRedi really has all of those things.<\/p>\n
I appreciate you having me on. It\u2019s been a lot of fun and I love hearing about all of your master classes as well.<\/p>\n
Thank you, Ryan, for doing the demo and now I\u2019m going to send it back to you guys.<\/p>\n
Well thank you very much. That was very cool to see. I feel a lot more confident about if I ever had to be a landlord myself. I\u2019m a proponent of using property managers, but I bet you they would love having a platform like this to do their job a little better. Rob, what were your thoughts?<\/p>\n
Yeah, man. Very cool. Very easy to use it seemed like. Excited to dive into the tool a little bit more. Ryan, thank you so much for your time, man. If people want to learn more about you or more about RentRedi, where can they find you on the internet?<\/p>\n
Yeah, so they can find us at rentredi.com. It\u2019s R-E-N-T-R-E-D-I dot com. We have to spell it wrong because we\u2019re a startup. Or they can honestly now even just go to BiggerPockets.com if they\u2019re a Pro member and log into that Pro account and click manage my rental properties.<\/p>\n
I want to give you some props on being a startup and not putting the letters \u201cly\u201d at the end of a word associated with the industry like 99%. You could\u2019ve called it Rently. That\u2019s exactly right. That was probably staring you in the face. You probably workshopped it. You\u2019re like, \u201cYou know what, we\u2019re edgy, We\u2019re not like everyone else. We\u2019re just going to spell it different.\u201d There was no way to work an X into it. That\u2019s another thing that people will do to seem cool and edgy is if you can-<\/p>\n
In the future.<\/p>\n
Yeah, maybe at some point you\u2019ll be able to do that, but thank you for not calling it-<\/p>\n
[inaudible 01:00:04] version.<\/p>\n
Rently or Landlordly or Wealthly or Housely or any other form of \u201cly.\u201d That\u2019s how you know. I\u2019m in the San Francisco Bay Area, Silicon Valley is very close, so everything just becomes, \u201cOh, you have a problem? Let\u2019s try to find an app for it and end it with \u2018ly.’\u201d And it\u2019s worked. I don\u2019t know why, but it definitely has been happening. So thanks for that. Rob, if people want to find out more about you, where would they go?<\/p>\n
You can find me at Robly on YouTube. You can find me at Rob [inaudible 01:00:45]. Oh, find me on [inaudible 01:00:47]. Rob Quafly Abasolo. I haven\u2019t had my Quafly this morning, but feeling good, feeling good. Robuilt on YouTube, on Instagram, and then Robuilto on TikTok. What about you Davely? Where could people find you?<\/p>\n
Davely, yeah. You could check out my website, it\u2019s davidgreen24.com. It\u2019s going to be remade. I should probably have you look at it, Ryan, since you do coding. You could probably make it way better. So what I need is for everyone to look at it and then message me with what you think it should be different or better, and then maybe I\u2019ll have one of Ryan\u2019s contacts or maybe Ryan himself make the website better for me. Or you could follow me on social media at DavidGreen24, or on YouTube at David Green Real Estate. Thank you for asking, Rob.<\/p>\n
Let me just say something real fast. In this time that you said that, I just went to your website. It\u2019s pretty good. You really made this seem like it was going to be like 1992 Geo Cities, but it\u2019s actually a pretty nice website. Don\u2019t be so hard on yourself.<\/p>\n
Thank you for that. It is going to be remade though, again. I had been so frustrated, if I can vent for a second with\u2026 I hired a person and he was a full-time tech person, he was supposed to work for me and about seven months went by and all I got out of it was a website that we then had to redo. So this website\u2019s been 12 months in the making to get that, and now I\u2019m like, \u201cOh, this isn\u2019t going to work. We have to redo it again to show the\u2026\u201d Because I have so many things going on. It\u2019s confusing. If you\u2019re like, \u201cWell, I\u2019ve heard of the One Brokerage, I\u2019ve heard of the David Green Team, I\u2019ve heard of BiggerPockets, I\u2019ve heard of his books. It\u2019s very difficult to understand what\u2019s the stuff David\u2019s doing.\u201d
And now we have these imposters that are floating around pretending to be me and Public Service Announcement. They\u2019re not just pretending to be me. Now that people on my team are having fake accounts made. So yesterday I got a text message from someone saying, \u201cHey, is Ricardo Carillo on your team?\u201d And I said, \u201cWell, yes he is.\u201d And they said, \u201cOkay, good. I thought it might be a scam.\u201d And then it turns out someone was impersonating Ricardo Carillo, who\u2019s one of the main loan officers at the One Brokerage, and trying to scam this person out of money pretending to be a person that works for me. So the levels of crap that we are getting into now with these scam artists are significant. So don\u2019t ever go to davely.com. That\u2019s a scam. That\u2019s not me. It\u2019s going to be David Green 24, not david.green, not _David, not David Grene, not Daveed. They always change a little tiny thing on there. So yeah, I have to make a new website so it\u2019s obvious what I\u2019m up to.<\/p>\n
Well, hey, one final thing before we turn in here, David. If everyone at home enjoyed this episode, if you enjoy us, if you like listening to our weird voices and our weird antics every single week, would you do us a huge favor and consider leaving us a five star review on the Apple Podcast website or wherever you listen to your podcast? It helps us, it helps us rank, it helps us in the podcast algorithm, get fed to new people that are wanting to get into real estate and into financial freedom. So please do us a solid, leave us a five star review, and that\u2019s it. That\u2019s it. That\u2019s my last plug.<\/p>\n
Well thank you for that, Ryan. Any last words before we let you get out of here?<\/p>\n
No, just thank you again for having me and excited to have RentRedi and BiggerPockets working together.<\/p>\n
Great to meet you and thanks for the partnership that you\u2019ve done. You\u2019ve definitely helped make the experience better for our listeners. And hey, if it\u2019s better and it makes some more money, I\u2019m all for it, so you rock. And that was our interview with Ryan Barone, CEO and founder of RentRedi. Rob, what\u2019d you think?<\/p>\n
Oh man, that\u2019s awesome. And I\u2019m honestly happy for all of the people out there, all the BP Pro members that are going to get this included with their membership if they enroll.<\/p>\n
Yeah, it\u2019s a significant portion of any business that you\u2019re running, which real estate is, is what CRM are you going to use? So for me, Real Estate Team, One Brokerage, my portfolio, the CRM\u2019s sort of like\u2026 It\u2019s like the language that you speak, it\u2019s very significant. A lot of the way that I\u2019ve built the businesses is off of the foundation of the CRM. So when you get that thing in place, which RentRedi is for landlords, it gives you a lot of clarity on what you need to do. All these questions like, \u201cOh, what am I supposed to do? What if I forget something?\u201d When you\u2019re working off of a CRM, it\u2019s asking you the stuff and there\u2019s a little box that needs to be filled out so you know you need to go do it. So this is going to be a big stress reliever for a lot of people.
Now, if you\u2019re one of the people who is listening to this and said, \u201cI think I\u2019d like to get into this real estate space here. I think I\u2019d like to buy a property, manage it, and become a millionaire.\u201d Well, we\u2019re going to help you do that. If you go to biggerpockets.com\/newpro and you use the code NEWPRO, N-E-W-P-R-O, you can get 20% off your first year of a Pro annual membership, which includes RentRedi. Rob, what say you to that?<\/p>\n
Yeah, and you\u2019re not just getting RentRedi, Dave. You\u2019re also getting access to the new Rehab Estimator tool as well. So when you\u2019re in there, you\u2019re running your comps, you can actually do it on our calculator and just make sure that you\u2019re dialing in your numbers that much more.<\/p>\n
How often do you get asked that question? How do you estimate the rehab?<\/p>\n
Several days? Several days a week?<\/p>\n
Yes, it\u2019s right up there with should I get an LLC or should I own it in my own name? This is one of the trickiest parts is how do I estimate the rehab? Well now BiggerPockets Pro members have a calculator and it\u2019s very cool. I\u2019ve looked at it. You literally put in bathroom, this level of finishes, include shower, sink, and towel rack, and it\u2019s like\u2026 Like you do. Or how do you do\u2026 There it is. And then boom, here\u2019s a number. And it even asks you by area. So if you\u2019re in Kentucky, it\u2019s going to be cheaper than it is out in California. You get a rental estimator tool. So if you\u2019re like, \u201cI don\u2019t know if this property\u2019s going to cash flow or not,\u201d well the calculator does.
You get a rent estimator tool? \u201cI don\u2019t know what it\u2019s going to rent for.\u201d The calculator knows. This was what made real estate investing hard and it\u2019s now been made so easy by technology and software. So like we say, there really is no excuse. The technology is doing all the heavy lifting for you. And if you like off market deals as a Pro member, you\u2019re also going to get access to the Invelo app that helps you put together campaigns to contact off market sellers and find the ones that are most likely to be motivated. So if you\u2019re interested in this, use the code NEWPRO that you get because you\u2019re listening to the podcast. We love you for that. Also, please consider giving us a rating or review. We really appreciate that. All right, Rob, that\u2019s all I got. Anything else for you?<\/p>\n
Nope, nope. That\u2019s all. I\u2019ll see everybody, all the new pros on the forums and excited for everybody to automate their life and get their time back. That\u2019s all really want, Dave, is to get our time back.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s right. You may have all the watches, but do you have all the time? This is David Green for voice is on a 2 but shirt is on a 10 Abasolo signing off.<\/p>\n