Independent Landlords Adopt Technology to Streamline Property Management

Managing a rental property can seem like a full-time job — screening tenants, collecting rent, handling late-night maintenance requests.

For many landlords, though, it’s not something they can spend all day doing. For them, the property is something they’ve put their life savings into, and now they’re juggling property management with their other full-time job.

“For them to be able to automate a lot of the manual tasks in a way that still gives them all of the oversight, all of the control, but not necessarily all of the work is really important for them,” RentRedi Founder, CEO and Chief Technology Officer Ryan Barone told PYMNTS.

Enabling Independent Landlords

RentRedi is property management software that helps landlords list properties, screen tenants, get leases signed and collect rent. Launched in 2020, it now has 10,000 subscribers who manage 85,000 properties.

The solution has resonated with investors too. RentRedi announced Wednesday (April 13) that it has raised $12 million in Series A funding.

“Really, what we focus on is a way to enable specifically that independent landlord — somewhere between one single-family home to 100 units — that says, ‘I want to manage it myself, I just also want to be able to sleep at night and not pull my hair out, so can you streamline that process for me so that I can manage doing it myself,’” Barone said.

Moving Away From Pen and Paper

The software got its start when Barone missed an opportunity to rent an apartment because of the time it took him to gather up all the documents needed for the application.

Deciding there had to be a better way, he began building an app that would help other tenants like himself get their documents together to be prepared to apply for units. While working on that, he met with landlords who told him the rental process was difficult for them too.

“These individuals juggling full-time jobs that were doing everything on pen and paper and spreadsheets were coming to me saying, ‘Hey, our side is just as bad, if not worse,’” Barone told PYMNTS.

Switching his focus to the landlord side of things, Barone and his father, RentRedi Chief Marketing Officer Ed Barone, launched RentRedi.

Solving Common Pain Points

From day one, RentRedi has included a live chat feature that enables it to get input from landlords and tenants and determine features it should add.

When a tenant asked whether RentRedi could help them build their credit by paying their rent on time, the company created a partnership with TransUnion that enables them to do that.

“They get better credit scores by paying their rent on time, so they’re happy, landlords get their funds on time, so they’re happy — and ultimately that comes from just talking with those customers, often through that live chat, and then understanding that feedback,” Ryan Barone said.

Using automation to solve common pain points for landlords, the software automatically applies late fees, enables maintenance coordination and provides integrations on the accounting side.

Expanding Automation and Partnerships

Most users of the platform are now collecting rent digitally via automated clearinghouse (ACH) or card. The move to digital payments was accelerated by the pandemic but had started earlier as landlords sought to solve the problem of “the check’s in the mail” or the need to drive to their properties to collect rent.

For tenants who do want to pay by cash, RentRedi has a partnership with Chime that enables them to deposit their cash rent payment at any of the 90,000 retail locations and then pay through the RentRedi platform with their Chime account.

Following the Series A funding round, RentRedi aims to continue to expand its automation of processes and add partnerships and integrations that will streamline the renting experience.

“The dream for me is for landlords and tenants to look back and have this incredible experience of renting and almost not be able to imagine it being as stressful as it probably is for some of them today,” Barone said.