It’s a modern age in a new world, and residents in Monroe are more aware, sophisticated, and demanding than ever before.
This is something that rental
We suggest you lean into it.
The rental market is competitive, and even with demand high and rental values rising, you always want to be in a position where you’re providing the best possible experience to residents. This will help you retain the tenants you currently have and attract new renters to you when you find yourself with a vacancy.
- There’s a lot you can do to attract and retain tenants.
- There’s a lot you can do to increase your property and rental values with upgrades and updates.
- There’s a lot you can do to ensure your tenants are not only satisfied, but having a fantastic experience renting from you.
We’ve talked about all of those subjects in depth, and today we want to focus on one thing in particular that hits all of them: smart home technology.
When you’re willing to invest in smart home technology, you’ll find that charging higher rents is easy. Attracting well-qualified residents to your property is a breeze. You’ll have to spend some money. You might have to learn some new things about what’s out there.
We promise, it’s worth it.
Today, we’re taking a deep dive into the world of smart home technology and what we believe is appropriate for your Monroe rental property.
Why is Smart Home Tech a Thing?
Controlling all the lights in your home from the phone that’s in your hand.
Creating a grocery list just by shouting out what you need so that some countertop device can keep track.
Taking a look at who is at the front door before you decide whether or not to get off the couch and let them in.
These are some of the things that smart home technology is doing for us.
It’s grown in popularity because it’s convenient. It makes our lives easier. That’s the draw, and that’s the main benefit to installing this type of technology at your own home, in your car, at the office, or at your Monroe rental properties.
This technology is very smart in that IT KNOWS THINGS.
However, that’s actually not why it’s called smart, if you can believe it. SMART is an acronym, which covers the following:
| Self-Monitoring
Analysis Reporting Technology |
This technology is not as new as it may seem to you (especially if you’re more old-school and not exactly an early adopter of all things digital!). This type of smart tech has been around for at least a couple of decades. You’ve been using Google, right? You’ve enjoyed directions delivered to you via GPS instead of one of those printed maps?
All of that is smart technology. Now, it’s inside of our homes. Our systems. Our appliances. Our functions.
When we talk about smart home tech, we’re talking about much more than the apps and the voice commands. We’re talking about building maintenance systems that are automated and intuitive. We mean adjustable thermostats, security cameras, door locks, digitally capable appliances, lighting and music systems that sync to phones. There is an abundance of data and insights that our technology is gathering based on how long the lights are on and where the temperature usually rests when there is one person in a home versus four people.
When internet-enabled appliances and devices can be automatically controlled remotely using a networked device, you have smart home technology.
You might be using this yourself to make your own life easier, more convenient, and more comfortable. Your tenants want the same access, and it’s in your best interests to provide it.
Deciphering the Different Types of Smart Home Technology
You have options when it comes to how much smart home technology you make available to your tenants. This is hardly a habitability issue, so you don’t have to go whole-hog.
But, if you want to be more competitive on the Monroe market, and if you want to attract great tenants and increase what you charge in rent, you’ll think about making at least some of this technology available in your rental home.
We can tell you what we recommend when it comes to prioritizing where you invest and how you market the amenities and the tech perks that you’re providing. Based on our experience as Monroe property managers, we can tell you that these are some of the most common smart home devices found in rental properties:
- Smart Locks on Your Doors
Let’s start with what makes sense for marketing and maintaining a property before you even have a tenant in it.
Smart locks.
These are a benefit to you as an owner as well as your tenants. Here’s why they’re such a great type of technology to embrace:
| They allow you to grant access to tenants remotely or with a code. | You can change the code between tenants or when you have a vendor showing up to complete work. | There’s no need to worry about lost keys or rekeying the property between tenants. |
These locks are especially important when you’re showing your home during the leasing process. Self-showing technology will move the leasing process along more efficiently. We have noticed that homes rent faster when prospective tenants can come and go on their own time, without having to wait for someone to meet them there and show the place.
Look for a smart lock that includes a programmable keypad or a lockbox. You can also download an app to unlock doors.
Tenants will appreciate a digital keypad or a lock that opens by app because it’s less metal for them to carry around. They don’t have to keep track of their keys. They will appreciate the modern, convenient method of entering their own home, and when guests and family members have the same access code or PIN, fewer keys to your property are floating around out there in the world.
Smart locks are more secure, easy to change, and they’re incredibly attractive to new and current tenants.
- Video Doorbells for Peeping and Creeping
You don’t want to answer the door when there’s someone outside selling something.
You don’t want to wonder where your Amazon packages disappeared to when you’re not home to collect them from the front steps.
That’s where a video doorbell can be helpful.
If you take a gander at any of the front doors throughout the residential neighborhoods in and around Monroe, and you’ll notice video doorbells on a large number of those homes. They’re incredibly popular, and we’re seeing them in multifamily properties as well. This is for:
- Safety
- Security
- Package-tracking
- Ease
With a video doorbell installed and visible, you’re almost always going to dissuade any dishonest characters who might ramble through the neighborhood. Your tenants will be able to see who is outside of their house and who might be approaching the property.
This is also helpful during vacancies. Your exterior cameras like those on a doorbell will ensure your property remains secure. If someone breaks in to steal an appliance, you’ll have a recording of who that perpetrator is.
Tenants appreciate the technology because they see it everywhere, and they recognize the benefits and the convenience. As a rental property owner in Monroe, you can benefit from this as well. When your property is vacant, you can keep eyes on everything that’s going down over there.
- Let There Be Light. Smart Light.
Lighting is necessary in your rental property for both aesthetic purposes and functional ones.
We recommend that you make your property accessible to smart lighting, which will allow your tenants to set the interior and exterior lights to timers that turn them on and off. There’s also technology that allows tenants to control the lights from their smartphones.
We also like motion-activated exterior lights, although nine times out of ten it’s a neighborhood critter who sets off the illumination. But, those lights are good for the security of your property and for the peace of mind of your tenants.
Smart lights inside will help tenants keep electricity costs down. They’ll appreciate the lower bills, the intuitive energy sources, and the greener and more sustainable way of lighting their home.
- Smartest Thermostats Ever
We’re especially impressed with what smart thermostats are able to do. Like lighting, the smart thermostats you install can help tenants conserve energy and reduce their electric bills. When you’re paying for those utilities during turnovers, you’ll be appreciative of the lower usage as well.
Green living is a priority more than ever. Tenants don’t want to heat and cool an empty house. When this type of technology is in use, you’ll find that those thermostats intuitively decide when to cool or heat a room, depending on its current temperature and whether anyone is home. Most models can be programmed for time of day as well. Settings might change depending on which day of the week it is and what the outside temperature happens to be.
Siri, Turn on the Porch Light
When we’re talking about our favorite smart home technology, we cannot forget our voice-activated assistants. Shouting out names of inanimate objects has become completely normalized. No one thinks it’s strange to hear someone say ‘hey Siri’ or ‘Alexa, play Taylor Swift.’
Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri represent technology that many tenants are already using. Including them in smart homes can help streamline and centralize all the other technology that may be available.
Smart home technology can also extend to things that tenants might want to move in with. Consumers are buying smart vacuums, smart blenders, smart toasters, and other smart appliances that seem to think for themselves. At the end of the blog, we’ll talk about tenant preferences. Each tenant might have their own ideas about what they want and need when it comes to smart home technology. If you provide a hub, or a central command center for all smart home devices, your tenants can bring their own. Voice commands and remote controls through phones and apps will sync the hub to the various speakers, tablets, televisions, and computers that the tenant moves into your rental home.
Welcome to The Internet of Things (IoT)
The Internet of Things
If you have a wild imagination, that almost sounds scary.
Let’s talk about how you can utilize this type of technology to track maintenance needs and even to learn about a potential problem before it becomes too expensive or frustrating to even imagine.
This is best used in apartment buildings and multi-family properties. There are also plenty of ways to use it for your condos and your single-family homes, too, though.
The Internet of Things is the name for an advanced and innovative technology that a lot of property managers are taking an interest in. You’ll have to decide if it’s right for your Monroe rental property, and you might find that it is.
We think it might be invaluable, especially when it comes to deciding what your rental property needs and when repairs and replacements will be necessary.
Q: What Does it Mean?
A: It refers to the interconnectedness of everyday objects to the internet, such as the use of sensors.
By investing in the IoT, you can gather a lot of data about how the property works and what you need to do to keep it in excellent condition. It’s the data that you’re after, and this technology provides it.
From our own professional standpoint, it makes our job a lot easier. When it comes to property management in Monroe and our ability to harness this type of technology, we can use the data that’s collected to make some good decisions on your behalf.
Q: Like, what kind of decisions?
A: Here’s a scenario:
The Scenario
Let’s say you own a multi-family building with eight units, and you pay the water bill. The IoT can track how much that water bill is month to month, and it can break down where most of the water is being used. Maybe the largest part of your water bill comes from communal water sources, such as the laundry room or the outdoor fountain.
But, your residents are probably using their own amount of water, and it’s likely more than the communal usage.
So, how can you bill that charge into your rents? IoT helps you break down where the water is most being used. You won’t have one tenant paying for another tenant’s 30-minute showers.
You can also use this technology to monitor lighting, and even have it track how many times the doors are opened. You’ll have access to real-time data that easily eliminates the need for manual entry tasks that can consume a lot of time and increase your own expenses if you wanted to gather this type of data yourself.
Are There Downsides to Smart Home Tech?
We’ve done a good job of selling the benefits of smart home technology, but are there any drawbacks?
Potentially.
Let’s look at the pros and cons, shall we?
|
The Pros Better security – Your investment is better protected when you have smart security or video doorbells in place. Unoccupied properties are vulnerable to thieves and troublemakers, but when you have smart home systems installed to track and even record the people coming and going, you’ll have fewer risks while it’s vacant. Easier turnovers – There’s less legwork when you’re moving one tenant out and another in, particularly with smart locks and showings. Energy costs may be lower – You’ll spend less money, and so will your tenants. |
The Cons Cost – You may not like the upfront bill. You’ll likely have to invest some money when it comes to installing smart home systems. While you don’t have to install all the smart home tech that’s available, even putting in a video doorbell or a thermostat will cost you money. Internet – Wi-Fi will need to be enabled because it is, after all, how these things work. Privacy – Privacy concerns may be an issue. Renters might actually not want these things installed in their home, for fear you’ll be watching or listening. |
Customizing Smart Home Technology for Monroe Tenants
We have given you some great ideas of where to start when it comes to installing smart home tech, but really, it depends on the type of property you have, the location you’re in, and the tenants you’re hoping to attract.
Smart home technology enhances tenant experience by providing greater customization of household systems. You want to make sure it’s useful to the tenants who are coming to see your property. Providing tenants with the option to customize their living space makes them feel more at home and encourages them to stay in place longer.
Talk about what they need and want. Be willing to deliver it.
Would you like some help? We’re here for it. Please contact us at Real Estate Gladiators. We serve Monroe, Issaquah, Bellevue, Everett, Lake Stevens, Kirkland, and other cities in and around King and Snohomish counties in Washington State.
