All Forum Posts by: Madelyn Felix

Tenant Turner is a great company for showings, but they still rely on keys unsupervised.  Same with ShowMojo and RentEngine.  

Tenant Access is a company that is keyless access management with automated showings that is guided by live Zoom video with tenants to remove the blinds spots.  

Quote from @Ke Nan Wang:

Here is a question for you, after you placed a tenant, during your 3/4 inspection, you found out the property is in a less maintained condition that you'd hope for (I'm putting it nicely), what would you do? 

You know lifestyle is a habit, the condition is not necessarily violating the lease, but also it's not well maintained. You know as long as the tenants pay rent on time, you won't have much ground to force them out. You know you can tell them to tighten the place up a little but they most likely not gonna listen. You know if you are gonna raise the rent at renewal they will move out. But if you keep the rent the same, they will stay for maybe a indefinite period of time. Are you gonna keep them or make it a less desirable situation for the tenant at lease renewal and let them move out themselves? 

We've had a rental property that was lived like this for 8 years. There were rat/pest infestation we discovered after moved out and we essentially spent $50k to completely redo the property plus wildlife mitigation and treatment. So you can see part of that $50k pretty much wiped out all the rent we collected in the past years. However, the monthly income allowed us to float the property in a nice location and after almost 2 decades of owning the property, it has double in its value. So the $50k capex brought the property from 70% to its full potential. 

I have investor friends who has to do these 2-3 years almost for every tenant move out. To them, they think yes, the 2-3 years rent collecting period, they were happy with no headache. But as soon as the tenants moved out, they are gonna spend 20k to make the place ready again, that's like the total rent in the last couple years. They think it's not worth it. 

The textbook answer would be, they should do inspections. Then the tricky part is, what are you gonna do about it after the inspection? You rather keep your steady revenue and not disturb the hornet's nest? Or are you gonna drop the hammer? 

What would you say? 

In all of my years in property management, having a background in finance and being a rental investor myself, I've learned that the secret sauce is in tenant screening to help avoid damages and vacancy losses.  

People who take pride in their finances usually take pride in how they live.  

Here is an article I wrote that might be helpful: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7371931...

Easily reduce costs by $1,000+ per property/per year by controlling access from a dashboard and without upfront hardware costs.  Tenant Access is changing the game by taking scattered-site rental portfolios keyless (single-family and smaller multifamily).  Buy back your time for less than $10 per month/per property.  It pays for itself!  www.mytenantaccess.com

Free trials for one year for one property, free AI marketing and operating cost audit and a professionally edited podcast interview about your property management company or your personal investing journey on YouTube-just for experiencing keyless and telling us about how you're never going back to keys after you try on keyless. 

To access your free trial, please email us at [email protected] and put Bigger Pockets in the subject line with your contact information.  

Tenant Access is a must have for out of state owners.  


      1. Driving Keys Around

• Traditional: Property managers or staff spend 1-2 hours per key handoff or lockbox drop (driving, meeting, returning). At $25/hour labor + mileage, that’s easily $60–$70 each trip.
• Tenant Access: Zero drivetime. Access can be granted remotely.
  👉  “Eliminate $180+ per property per year just in key and lockbox deliveries.”
  
  2. Vendor Access Scheduling
  
  • Traditional: Vendors have to coordinate with tenants or property managers, sometimes rescheduling multiple times. That costs lost labor time and extra trip fees.
    
  • Tenant Access: One-time passcodes let vendors enter securely without chasing schedules.
    👉  “Save $75–$150 per vendor visit just by eliminating reschedules and callbacks.”
    
  
  3. Tenant Turnovers
  
  • Traditional: Rekeying after each tenant move-out = $75–$150 per lock. Multiple locks per property can cost $250+ per turnover and an extra 1-2 days of vacancy at each tenant turn.
    
  • Tenant Access: No rekeying. Just revoke digital access and create new codes.
    👉 “Save $250 per turnover — across 20 properties, that’s $5,000 annually. And $100 lost to vacancy days on average. ”
    
4. Lockbox Risks

• Traditional: Lockboxes get shared, codes don’t expire, freeze or rust, and lost keys = rekeying cost + liability exposure.
  
• Tenant Access: Access logs + one-time codes prevent this risk.
  👉  “One lockbox code leak or key getting in the wrong hands could cost you thousands. Tenant Access prevents that.”
• 5. Operational Efficiency for Staff
• • Traditional: A staff of 3–4 spends several hours a week just on keys, showings, or lockouts. That’s hundreds of hours per year.
    
  • Tenant Access: Everything can be handled with a few clicks from the dashboard.
    👉  “Reduce wasted labor by 300+ hours per year — that’s a full month of staff time back.
  • 6. Tenant Satisfaction & Retention
  • • Traditional: Tenants wait for managers to let vendors in, disrupting their work/life. Frustrated tenants move out sooner.
      
    • Tenant Access: Smooth vendor visits, easy move-ins, no lockouts = happier tenants. Tenants enjoy smart homes, too!  
      👉 “Every month you keep a good tenant longer saves you $1,000+ in vacancy and turnover costs.”
    • Tenants love our video-guided tours to get their questions answered during showings and to get all of the answers they need before they pay for an application.  Checkout our keyless self-guided tours here: https://mytenantaccess.com/tenant-guided-tours/
• Visit www.mytenantaccess.com to learn more.  
  

Updates:  Rather than driving electronic lockboxes everywhere, my company is connecting smart locks for remote access management and showings-saving everyone time and money.  

One of my most significant challenges for out of state properties was keeping keys where boots on the ground could access them.  

Tenant Access also has financing options that lessen the cash flow burden.  

I'm currently in talks with Codebox about using their API to connect to Tenant Access with Codebox's API.  In this scenario, all showing services using Codebox can be connected to smart locks instead.  

I'll post updates.  

Quote from @Michael K Gallagher:

we generally use the digital locks from kikset but not the touch screens or the actual smart wifi enabled ones.  Those features seem to drain the battery way to fast and generally make setup and troubleshooting overly complicated in my expeirence.  The keyless entry and keypad works well with actual mechanical buttons, and then we generally have a lock box up at the property with a hard key in it if needed.  but yeah have not had great experiences with actual smart locks themselves.  

Hi Michael,

I've been using the Schlage Encode WIFI Lever and I'm at 93% battery life after installing it in April.  After lots of research and reading through reviews, it made more sense to go with Schlage's WIFI product.  Our app shows battery life and sends automated alerts.  

We use digital locks for side doors and back doors in case WIFI ever goes out, and Schlage also provides a key for an additional failsafe and last resort.  

There are two new smart lock products that are about to hit the market that I'm excited for also.  

I wouldn't have wanted to be a first user of smart locks when they first came out, but it looks like they have finally dialed it in to make them reliable.  

Quote from @Amber Forkey:

We have shifted from electronic pin pad locks to quickset rekeyable knobs. We've found that tenants struggle to figure out how to change batteries and are constantly entering the wrong code and temporarily locking themselves out for a set amount of time (usually 5 minutes) until the lock resets. The quicksets have provided an affordable solution to this headache 🔑

Hi Amber,

We were so over key shuttling that we built software to work with  smart locks to go completely keyless for scattered site management.  

The digital pin pad locks are digital locks and they are different than smart locks.  I think you'd be pleasantly surprised with the newer WIFI enabled smart locks whenever you're looking to make another switch for access.  

The smart locks, and access management software, will provide battery life alerts to both you and to your tenants.  

The financing that is available for smart locks make them affordable now also.  

Because of the cost of the smart locks, I wouldn't put them on properties with destructive tenants though.  I'm going to look into the quicksets you're using as a back-up for those properties.  

Thank you! 

Who is already using smart locks for their rental properties?  

Hi Drew,

We just completed this software and launched about a month ago.  

Trying keyless property management with smart locks is free.  

PROPERTY MANAGERS:

Participate in a new software launch that is aimed at taking property management and automated rental showings keyless in an affordable way.  Think of a property owner that deserves to save on rekeying costs with an up and coming tenant turn and we'll help make installation as easy and as smooth as possible. 

Free smart packages for the duration of your next lease term while supplies last.  Smart packages include Schlage Encode for smart locks and devices from other quality makers and well supported industry brands.  

Access to all of the rental properties you manage are in one place now.   We're getting rid of keys to keep properties more secure and make property management more efficient with technology.  

Tenants and property owners love the smart upgrades, the ability to monitor vacant properties, the automation and so much more.  

Learn more: https://www.tenantguidedtours.com

Please send email inquiries for this promotional offer to [email protected]

Quote from @Michael Smythe:

@Madelyn Felix we used to use ShowingHero, but moved on from them to ShowMojo, due to ShowMojo offering keypads in addition to lockboxes.

We've pretty much flipped to keypads as too many keys go missing from lockboxes or get locked inside the home.

While ShowMojo offers a service for tenants to use their keypads after movein, we remove the keypads when a home is rented and transfer to next vacant property.

PRO TIP: only use keyed deadbolts for occupied rentals! 
How much more protection are you really going to get from combo lockset & deadbolt?
So, not only is it cheaper to rekey, deadbolts-only STOP tenants from locking their keys in their home since they must use their key to lock it:)

We are looking into a cheap camera to also use that connects to internet for remote monitoring with motion-sensor alerts.

Hi Michael,

We've had keys broken into locks to prevent other showings before also.  And keys go missing.  

I think we'll go with the doorbell cameras that the tenants can use for their added benefit and appeal also (in between any vacancy).  Everyone loves them.  

We're just working out the WIFI issue.  Trying anyway.  

This was suggested by Hussain in this thread, and I'm intrigued:

3) ReoLink Go Plus Cellular Camera with a $5 per month T mobile data only sim card. I point the camera at the door so I can see if the door is closed and who is coming in.