Fastest Growing Real Estate Company in Minnesota Relies on AppFolio’s Property Management Software
Interview with Brenton Hayden, CEO of Renters Warehouse located in Minnesota.
At Renters Warehouse, we help landlords and investors find qualified tenants and provide property management services throughout Minnesota. Inc. Magazine recently named us the fastest growing real estate company in Minnesota and 15th in the nation.
“We trust our software
and are confident about the data we put in it – we know how accurate it is so we are confident when we go after the big clients.”
I certainly could not be at the size I am now without AppFolio.
We started in 2007 with about 30 customers and used a spreadsheet to manage our properties. We switched to AppFolio in 2008 and we now have over 800 customers under management. Our ability to grow, our ability to handle large clients and our ability to pay owners faster has exponentially increased using AppFolio. We trust our software and are confident about the data we put in it – we know how accurate it is so we are confident when we go after the big clients.
When I saw AppFolio I thought it was fantastic: it was clean and sleek and simple and intuitive. The biggest barrier that I had was how to transfer the data that I had to the new system and AppFolio did it for us!
60% of our renters pay rent online and this saves us 2-3 days each month.
The online ACH payments feature has been so beneficial. It used to take us about 2-3 days of manpower to open up all of the checks and enter all the information. So when the feature was released I offered a bonus incentive to our staff that if we could get 60% of our renters on ACH payments in 60 days, they would each get a $500 bonus. We hit the goal and now we no longer accept personal checks for rent payments. We also set up payment stations in our offices for people who don’t have Internet access at home.
We’ve reduced the number of bad checks and our customers are paid so much faster.
We also significantly reduced the number of NSF and bad checks that were coming in. Online payments fund quickly and the system alerts us immediately if someone’s transaction went bad. We used to have $20,000-$30,000 a year in bad checks and now we don’t.
We’re also getting rent checks in earlier and we can pay owners faster. We will really benefit from being able to pay our owners using ACH online payments and we believe that we will pay owners faster than anyone else in town. That’s what people care about the most.
We’re building a franchise and expanding in other markets.
Our property management company is growing and we are building a franchise. I have mandated it so all Renters Warehouse offices must have AppFolio because it’s a competitive advantage. I believe it is the most advanced property management software on the market.
