What tech is worth the money in LTR?

Question

What is everyone's experience with tech in your long term rental properties?

Are smart locks worth it?  How about a Ring doorbell?  Does it really make a difference when attracting tenants?

How do you handle the wifi access?  Do I need to pull in my own service that will be basic service to my tenants?

Thanks.

Greg

Cliff H. · Answer

@Greg Todrank @Trevor Ewen is right: hard to generalize across regions and tenants. You need to do you own math on whether smart locks are better than the rekey-able systems you find at a place like LandlordLocks or your local box stores.

I have them for my STRs and they’re a godsend. I also use them during vacancy turnovers since those turnovers are fully automated, self-serve showings, but you have to have a way to ensure batteries get swapped out regularly, then run a separate cellular network to push updates to the locks over time, which is a another added cost.

In most cases I’m heavy on tech for turnovers, then tend to be more hands off with various CRM, automatic rent collection, and maintenance request forms after move-ins.

What have you used/seen so far in this space yourself?

Greg Todrank · Answer

Thank you.  Makes sense.

Trevor Ewen · Answer

@Greg Todrank

I think this will vary immensely by tenant class. Since I am focused on class C, then we do much less for the most part. Some of the buildings will centralize WiFi and Cable Plans. For SFH, we make sure we have quick re-key locks, but that's about it.

For short term, vacation, etc, I would say it's essential. For class A, it's probably seen as a nice perk / expectation as well.