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Category: Product Features

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How to Set Rental Application Fees as a Property Manager Easily

If you manage rental properties, you’re almost certainly familiar with application fees already.  Still, it’s important to talk about them, since they’re an important part of the application process and, consequently, of your business.  Here are a few tips to help you make sure you’re getting the most out of your rental application fees.

Make sure to specify that application fees are non-refundable

You don’t want there to be any confusion regarding refunds for application fees.  Make sure any applicants understand how the fee works and that they won’t be getting the money back.  That way, you’ll hold onto the funds and avoid creating potential trouble for yourself down the road.

Consider the role credit and background checks play in your screening process

If you use a third-party service to conduct credit or background checks on your applicants, they’ll probably charge you a fee for their services.  Make sure to take that into account when deciding how you should set your fees.  Do you want to include that charge in your application fee?  Do you want to charge applicants the screening fee separately?  Do you want to cover this fee yourself?  Keep these questions in mind and set your fees appropriately.

But why mess around with a third-party service when ManageGo rental management users get it for free? That’s right! To help streamline your application processes, we’ve partnered with Weimark to run these background checks for you, on us.

Know who you want to charge application fees to

Not everyone charges application fees to every applicant.  Some property managers do collect a fee with every application, but others only charge their top candidate.  Some say that the best practice is to charge an application fee to only those you plan to seriously consider approving.  No matter your choice, make sure to stick to it as you receive applications.

Know your local laws about application fees

Some cities and states set a maximum on the amount that can be charged in application and screening fees.  It’s your responsibility to know whether there’s a limit in effect in your area, to know what that limit is, and to not exceed it.  You can check with authorities in your jurisdiction on this if you’re unsure.

No matter your business goals, ManageGo has your back. To discover just how our software solutions can benefit you and your unique property management needs, request a demo today. Or, connect directly with one of our experts and get started on your journey to better property management. 

Want even more? Get your fix and follow our socials for all the latest property management tips, tricks, & trends!

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The Easiest Way to Collect Rent Without Worries of Late Payments

Every property manager wants to make sure that all of their residents are able to make their payments  — after all, that’s how they make their money!  Online payments are easiest for you, but not for all of your residents.  Some people simply aren’t comfortable with technology and won’t want to pay online.  So what can you do?  Here are 3 great potential payment methods that don’t require any computer use by your residents.

1. Paper checks by mail

Checks may have experienced a major decline in use, but they’re still the preferred rent payment method for many residents.  To some people, it’s the simplest, most straightforward mode of payment.

One potential problem with checks is handling them on your end as a property manager.  It can be a real pain having to manage, keep track of, and deposit checks yourself.  That’s why ManageGo offers to do the work for you with our Lockbox service.  Let your residents send checks to us, and we’ll automatically upload the checks to our online platform and deposit the funds to your account electronically!

2.  In-person collection

In-person rent collection can definitely offer some benefits.  It’s a sure way to remind anyone who forgot to make their monthly payment, and when you collect a check or money order in person, you won’t need to worry about when or if it will be delivered by mail.

If you do perform any rent collection in person, know that you shouldn’t accept cash payments.  It’s impossible to document them properly, and that can lead to trouble if there’s a dispute about a payment.  If you have any residents who do prefer to pay in cash, ManageGo’s MoneyGram payment option is a great alternative.  Your residents will get to pay cash, and you’ll get full documentation and the convenience of easy electronic deposits.

3. Paper checks in a dropbox

Another option is to provide a dropbox where your residents can drop off a check each month.  This can be a convenient option because it combines some of the best aspects of checks by mail and in-person collection: a secure dropbox offers security and immediacy, like in-person collection, while also cutting out the need to visit every unit to collect payments, like checks by mail.  Keep in mind, though, that with this method, you’ll still need to handle checks yourself, which, again, can be a lot of work.

No matter your business goals, ManageGo has your back. To discover just how our software solutions can benefit you and your unique property management needs, request a demo today. Or, connect directly with one of our experts and get started on your journey to better property management. 

Want even more? Get your fix and follow our socials for all the latest property management tips, tricks, & trends!

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New Year, New Updates: What We Improved in January

ManageGo App Upddates

2022 is off to an amazing start here at ManageGo! In January we re-leased our leasing solution, which takes us one step closer to truly being the #1 all-in-one software solution for property management.  We also made some important updates to our resident app.

Here’s a recap of a few of our newest features.

1. New Engage notifications

We now offer residents the option to receive emails letting them know about new Engage posts. This allows residents to stay up to date with everything happening in their building. They can choose between two options: New Engage Post, which allows for real-time email notifications whenever there’s a new post or Engage Daily Summary, which will send a daily summary email showing a list of new posts from the previous day. 

2. New post and comment abilities 

We have added the ability for you to moderate and decline posts and comments before they are live, and for your residents to remove posts and comments from Engage. You as the property manager have control of these settings, so residents will only be able to delete their own posts and comments if you allow it. 

3. Inactive menus

You may have noticed that your ManageGo sidebar menu just got longer! We decided this is a great way to show all of our active clients the full power of the ManageGo platform. If you see a solution you didn’t know we offered, simply fill out the form and speak with us today to get it turned on! 

4. Mailer is now Messages 

We rebranded Mailer as Messages! It is the same feature we love, just with a new name. With Messages, you can send your residents important information directly by email. You can also create and save templates for common communications like inspection notices, maintenance issues, and more! 

Stay tuned for our February releases! 

No matter your business goals, ManageGo has your back. To discover just how our software solutions can benefit you and your unique property management needs, request a demo today. Or, connect directly with one of our experts and get started on your journey to better property management. 

Want even more? Get your fix and follow our socials for all the latest property management tips, tricks, & trends!

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Everything You Need to Know About The ManageGo Leasing Solution

When we started working on our leasing solution, we knew that we didn’t want to have just a leasing solution; we wanted to have the very best leasing solution available, something that would completely change the way you think about leasing.  We wanted to change the entire process from a major headache into the easiest process in your world.  Now that our platform is here, we think that’s exactly what we’ve done.  Here’s why:

Our leasing platform was built to put an end to the struggles that exist around leasing today.  You’ll be able to handle every part of the leasing process online, from drafting documents all the way up to and through signing the lease.  Everything can be done in the ManageGo portal, and every step is logged in our system, where it’s easy to look up later.  You’ll completely avoid the problems caused by trying to manage physical documents, and you’ll be amazed at how much easier an all-digital leasing system is.

The platform also offers you the convenience of managing everything related to leasing in just one place, from the start of the process to the very end.  Design your own lease and rider templates so you always have exactly the documents you need, view and manage all of your leases in one place so you know what’s going on, and get notified in advance about expiring leases so you’re able stay ahead of the curve.  With ManageGo, you’ll be able to do it all.

Our Leasing system is made to be a great fit with other ManageGo features too.  If you’re already using ManageGo to process payments, manage maintenance, or accept applications, you’ll see that it’s smooth and simple for you and your residents to use any or all of those systems together, and you’ll love how convenient it is to have all of that in one place.

If you’re already using ManageGo’s other features, it makes perfect sense to take advantage of our leasing platform too.  It’ll connect perfectly with other parts of the system to make sure you’re getting the most out of ManageGo.  If you’re not already with us…well, why not?  Our all-in-one property management solution is already the best available, and it’s only continuing to get even better.  Don’t wait — ask us today what it can do for you!

No matter your business goals, ManageGo has your back. To discover just how our software solutions can benefit you and your unique property management needs, request a demo today. Or, connect directly with one of our experts and get started on your journey to better property management. 

Want even more? Get your fix and follow our socials for all the latest property management tips, tricks, & trends!

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3 Must-Ask Questions When Looking for a Resident Maintenance App

What To Look For In A Resident Maintenance App

What’s your maintenance process like?  Are you sure you’re getting the most out of it?  The answer may not be obvious.  It’s not always easy to see where you’re excelling and where you might be able to improve.  Here are a few questions you can ask yourself to assess whether your company’s maintenance operations are as efficient as possible.

How good is our communication with residents?

Communication with your residents is vital to success in maintenance.  For things to really work, residents need a way to report issues to you, you need to be able to ask follow-up questions, and everyone needs to respond in a timely manner.  It’s best to have a platform like ManageGo that allows you and your residents to create tickets and replies through the website, the mobile app, or email.  That way, everyone can reply quickly and stay in touch, no matter where they are.

How good is our internal communication?

Of course, the residents aren’t the only people you need to communicate with.  It’s important for you and your staff to stay connected throughout the maintenance process.  That’s why ManageGo allows you to easily make internal replies, visible to staff only, on the website and mobile app.  It’s also simple to create and send printable work orders for any staff member who needs a paper copy of the details.

How much time do we spend on recurring work?

Maintenance isn’t just about reacting to issues reported by your residents.  Sometimes, you need to be proactive and work to identify problems before they become a major issue.  This might include things like move-in/move-out walkthroughs, inspections, preventive maintenance, and seasonal work.  If you’re not careful, recording and managing tasks like this can result in a lot of extra, unnecessary work for you.  Avoid that problem by taking advantage of ManageGo features like checklists and recurring tickets to simplify things and streamline your process.

No matter your business goals, ManageGo has your back. To discover just how our software solutions can benefit you and your unique property management needs, request a demo today. Or, connect directly with one of our experts and get started on your journey to better property management. 

Want even more? Get your fix and follow our socials for all the latest property management tips, tricks, & trends!

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The Best Way to Manage Outdated Residents Using ManageGo Software

Today we’re releasing another highly-requested feature: Easier management of residents that are no longer residing in the building. 

To help clean out the residents in your dashboard to show active renters, we’re introducing a feature that lets residents report outdated roommates or previous residents that are still registered to their unit.

Residents will now see a list of other renters registered to their unit when they log in from the website or mobile app, and they can easily report those renters as outdated.

Once they report it, you can easily go through each one and deactivate the residents that are no longer living in that unit. You can see the outdated residents in your ManageGo Notifications tab, or you can click in the daily email to quickly approve/decline each one. 

To turn on email notifications for this feature, log in to your ManageGo dashboard and enable it by going to Settings > Account > Notification Types > Tenant and check the email named “Roommate Tenant Outdated”.

P.S. You can also always deactivate bulk outdated residents by going to Tenants tab in ManageGo and selecting multiple residents, and then clicking Change Status on top of the page.

No matter your business goals, ManageGo has your back. To discover just how our software solutions can benefit you and your unique property management needs, request a demo today. Or, connect directly with one of our experts and get started on your journey to better property management.

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Ready for ManageGo to Get Even Better? Resident and Unit Categories are Now Available!

Today we’re releasing a highly-requested feature: Categories for residents and unit.

Categories come in handy for many different scenarios, here are some ideas:

• Allow amenity reservations for paying residents: You can set up certain amenities to only be available to book for residents that have signed up for a membership. Simply assign those residents to a category called “Amenity members” and then set up the amenity to be available for them.

• Send a mass email to condo owners: When sending an email to residents, you can now choose to only send to specific categories, for example, condo owners vs renters.

• Share documents with sub-leasers: With our document sharing feature, you can now upload files to be seen only by certain residents that fit the category you select.

If you would like to take advantage of this feature, simply log in to your ManageGo admin account and set up categories under Settings > Categories, then navigate to the Units or Tenants page and select the appropriate category from the dropdown. If you have any questions, please call us at 212-300-7950 or email support@managego.com.

No matter your business goals, ManageGo has your back. To discover just how our software solutions can benefit you and your unique property management needs, request a demo today. Or, connect directly with one of our experts and get started on your journey to better property management. 

Want even more? Get your fix and follow our socials for all the latest property management tips, tricks, & trends!

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Q&A: How to Use Our Building Groups Feature to Optimize Property Management

Question:

“Our building portfolio is divided between different managers; when they go to the payments or maintenance sections, they only want to see their buildings. We know that one can easily select a list of buildings from the buildings filter, but it would be great to be able to save the filter for future use instead of filtering each and every time the page is refreshed.”

This week’s question by: Hamilton Group

Answer:

Hi,

We will suggest 2 different ways to solve your 1 question (complimentary of course!).

#1: Make use of the Building groups feature

This feature allows you to create a group with a custom name (e.g., Ben’s buildings) and select which buildings should be in the group. Now you can simply filter by the group name.

Click below to learn how to set up groups. (Spoiler alert: It’s super easy!)

#2: Limit users’ access to only their buildings

If a specific user truly has no business with other buildings, consider restricting the user to only have access to the buildings they manage. No need to filter anymore. Ever.

You can click below to learn more about grouped buildings.

I hope this answers your question!

No matter your business goals, ManageGo has your back. To discover just how our software solutions can benefit you and your unique property management needs, request a demo today. Or, connect directly with one of our experts and get started on your journey to better property management. 

Want even more? Get your fix and follow our socials for all the latest property management tips, tricks, & trends!

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Preventive Maintenance Just Got Better: Scheduled and Recurring Tickets

With our recent release of the new ManageGo interface, we’ve added a highly-requested feature to maintenance tickets.

You can now schedule requests in advance, and set up an automatically recurring schedule for requests. This is very useful for tasks that repeat themselves, like monthly or annual preventive care, asset inspections, permit renewals, and walk-throughs.

We made it very flexible and easy-to-use so you can get the most out of this new feature.

Another one of the features that we included adds a checklist option to all tickets. You can specify a detailed list of tasks to be done for a particular ticket, and follow along as they get checked off one-by-one. You can also set up checklist templates which you can drop into any maintenance ticket.

No matter your business goals, ManageGo has your back. To discover just how our software solutions can benefit you and your unique property management needs, request a demo today. Or, connect directly with one of our experts and get started on your journey to better property management. 

Want even more? Get your fix and follow our socials for all the latest property management tips, tricks, & trends!

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How to Accept Check Payments Like a Pro with Lockbox

We’re excited to announce that Lockbox check payments are now available to all your residents! Check payments will be deposited in your bank account just like ACH payments, and they’ll be reflected on the payments page in ManageGo.

Put an end to check handling by having your residents send checks to your own ManageGo address, and we’ll process and deposit the checks into your account.

  1. Residents send checks by mail to a unique address
  2. We process and deposit the checks to your bank account
  3. We display the incoming payments on the ManageGo admin website
  4. We post the incoming payments to your accounting software
 

No matter your business goals, ManageGo has your back. To discover just how our software solutions can benefit you and your unique property management needs, request a demo today. Or, connect directly with one of our experts and get started on your journey to better property management.