RentRedi’s Ryan Barone writes that the number of homeowners due to accidents is on the rise. Here’s how to help your merchant clients make a successful transition.
The tendency of accidental landowners is real.
Contingent landlords now account for more listed rental inventory than at any point since 2022. There are various reasons.
Seller customers who own and choose to rent their property Investors who want to add to their portfolio Homeowners who are not ready to part with a low-interest mortgage or who want rental income while waiting for the right time to sell.
Whatever the reason, it represents a relationship with a customer that you don’t want to leave on the table.
For proxy investors, this creates an opportunity to advise clients, which they should actively take advantage of. If you’re already self-managing your rental properties, you’ll get bonus points because you’re in a position to offer something that’s really helpful: operating guidance from someone who’s actually done it.
An agent who can deepen relationships with clients beyond the closing table. Here’s what the first 90 days of a tenancy should look like and what you can tell clients who are new to this.
Screen before handing over the key
While it may be a first-time homeowner’s natural instinct to fill a vacancy immediately and work out the details later, that can be a costly mistake. Data collected over four years shows that renters who were screened through the platform paid their first rent 17 days earlier than renters who were not screened, and paid on time 90% of the time, 7 percentage points higher than renters who were not screened.
For those who still have a mortgage outstanding on the property they are renting out, a faster first payment and consistently on-time payments thereafter can be a game-changer.
Now, a thorough screening process that includes credit scores, criminal history, eviction history, and income verification determines whether a lease is on track or ends up being a lesson in tenant law. Agent investors can demonstrate a lot of value to their clients by explaining exactly what to look for and why each item is important.
Encourage automatic rent collection habits
Most first-time landlords assume that tenants just pay on time. Some people do. Many people don’t do this, not because they’re malicious, but because manual payment systems create friction, and friction creates delays.
The solution is simple and one of the most impactful things a new homeowner can do in their first week. Use rent collection apps, set up automatic rent reminders, and encourage renters to use automatic payment features.
When renters use Autopay, they get paid on time 99% of the time. Without it, that rate drops to 88%. This difference also applies to renters with low credit scores. Auto-pay users in that group still pay on time 98.8 percent of the time, compared to 85.4 percent of those who don’t use auto-pay.
There is also a credit reporting component that is worth mentioning to your customers. If renters can report on-time rent to the three major credit bureaus and see on-time payments building their credit score, they have a personal financial incentive to stay current. RentRedi’s platform data shows that renters see a 13% improvement in on-time payments when they benefit from credit reporting through the platform.
This is work-specific advice that agents can offer to help their landlord clients improve their cash flow and become loyal referral clients.
Avoid being caught off guard by lease renewals
Vacancy threatens cash flow, and most first-time landlords don’t expect it to happen until the tenant announces they’re moving out within 30 days. By then, options will be limited and expensive. A better approach is a 90-day period, which gives the renter enough time to decide whether they intend to renew, negotiate terms if necessary, or start marketing the unit before the sun goes down.
At the beginning of your lease, set up a lease expiration alert system that sends automatic notifications to your landlord 90 days before the lease expires. This notification includes a direct link to the expiring lease dashboard. For clients who are juggling day jobs and rental properties for the first time, a system that automatically surfaces this can be the difference between a planned transition and chaos.
lower the barrier to getting started
What prevents accidental landlords from acting quickly is the perceived complexity of setting up and self-managing a property. For clients who have never used property management software, the onboarding process can feel like the biggest hurdle. AI-powered onboarding capabilities directly address this issue. When a landlord uploads a rental agreement document, the platform extracts important data (address, tenant details, rent amount, lease terms) and automatically populates it into the account.
What used to take hours now takes minutes. This is important for advisory relationships. This means you can confidently tell your clients that they don’t need a weekend of data entry to get up and running.
The big picture for agent investors (and their landlord clients)
A recent survey of 884 rental property owners found that 54 percent cited rising costs as the biggest barrier to achieving their goals, with time constraints ranking second. The market in which your client happens to be a landlord already has experienced owners learning the tougher ways of operating.
Companies that catch it early—those that screen properly, collect consistently, and proactively manage renewals—protect their margins without raising rents.
An agent investor who can talk about it based on knowledge and experience is the advisor a new homeowner actually needs.
Ryan Barone is the co-founder and CEO of RentRedi, an award-winning rental management software that transforms the way landlords and tenants manage the rental experience.
