Why landlords are moving from spreadsheets to apps

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These days there is an app for almost everything in life from ordering food to selling old clothes, but now busy buy-to-let landlords can utilise tech too.

Whether it’s for preparing tax returns, keeping on top of rent payments or tracking licensing compliance, all this can now be completed with a few clicks of a mouse or swipe of a smartphone.

But like any business, making the decision to utilise tech with the right platform is a big decision, albeit a pressing one as spreadsheets struggle to deal with the ever-increasing range of information that needs to be managed by landlords.

Some try to fix this by cobbling together home-made databases and accountancy software and customising them to their requirements – but this often eats up most of the time they’re supposed to saving instead of freeing them up to focus on growing their portfolio or widening their margins.

Joe’s story

A recent example of this is property developer and business owner Joe Fogel, who had been managing his rental business via a spreadsheet.

With a fast-expanding portfolio of over 100 properties Joe had tried two previous landlord apps which just weren’t up to the job. His goal was to reduce admin overheads and improve on-time rent collections, enabling him to continue to build his portfolio.

Finally, Joe came across Alphaletz.

“A great CRM system is vital for my business. When I saw Alphaletz I loved the design and simplicity. I now use it every day and it’s saving me at least 50% of my time. A great product and good value too,” he says.

Right solution

Decide what’s right for you. But look carefully. Building a property portfolio is a real business and should be treated as such. There’s now more regulation, compliance and tax changes than ever before. So much so, that ‘dinner party landlords’ are dropping out of the market while the professionals are expanding their portfolios as demand continues to soar from tenants.

Benefits of new technology include:

• A dashboard highlighting rent arrears and compliance reminders
• Real-time financial tracking with Open Banking
• Time saving on tax returns
• Automating admin and email reminders
• Optimising mortgage rates and landlord costs
• Access from anywhere including mobile
• Documents and notes storage

Joe made the move to Alphaletz based on several key factors:

1. Ability to incorporate new features based on user feedback

Customer service

“I sent my wish list to the Alphaletz team and within days they were able to do much of what I needed. Excellent support.”

Automation to improve on-time rent payments

Prompt payment of rent is key to the success of Joe’s business. “With the email reminders I’ve seen an improvement on rent payments plus it’s saving me time from manually checking and emailing tenants for overdue payments.”

User experience

The design and user experience is critical.

“The dashboard is really helpful. When the bank asks me ‘where are you with your income?’ I can instantly see how much rent I have received and how much is due. The dashboard summary makes it simple to see key information.”

By managing his property information in one place, Joe believes Alphaletz saves him 50% of his time.

Alphaletz is available with a free version so you can try it straight away, without even needing a credit card to get started.

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