Professional Nashville Property Management Keeps You Safe During a Pandemic

Lee Blackburn

Renting out properties in Nashville became even more complicated when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Fortunately, our team at Omni Realtors & Property Management has invested heavily in technology, which allows us to provide a touch-free experience for prospective tenants who are looking at homes and current residents who are paying rent or communicating with our staff.

No one ever thinks about worst-case-scenarios, but when you’re thinking about your rental property, make sure you have emergency plans in place. Work with a professional Nashville property management company that can be flexible and adaptable to any catastrophe, including a pandemic.

Today, we’re sharing some of the things we’re doing to stay one step ahead of the coronavirus complications. 

Showing Nashville Rental Properties  

We use Rently, which is a self-showing system that allows prospective tenants to let themselves into a property and take a tour on their own, without any leasing agents or management staff present. This has helped us to rent properties significantly faster. We have seen the interest in our rental properties triple on average, and our vacancy rates have fallen. Rental homes are still in demand, and leasing them has never been easier.

Some prospective tenants like a little extra care and personal attention. If someone requests an agent is present, we can make that happen, even during the pandemic. We make sure everyone shows up at the scheduled time, we use social distancing techniques and we have all doors and cabinets open before the prospective tenant even arrives. We ask them not to touch surfaces, to bring a mask, and then we discuss as much as we can outside the home, in the fresh air.

The pandemic has brought about these changes in the way we show properties, but it’s something we have been moving towards since last fall. There’s a paradigm shift in how everything is purchased and rented. People are doing more and more online, and we’re prepared to meet that demand.

Costs of Online Technology and Contact-Free Leasing

This process has been a lot more efficient and in the long run is cost-effective. There is a bit of give-and-take, however. We can’t be there to ask people to wipe their muddy shoes before they enter the house, and if they bring rowdy children with them to the showing or go inside the house while they’re smoking, it’s going to take a bit of damage control after they leave. But, we have not had a single issue in the seven months we’ve been using smart locks. 

Our team is on-site once a week to make sure everything is clean and there aren’t any maintenance issues that need attention. When people want to see the property, we upload their identification and a credit card, and conduct a quick criminal background check. The lock is then monitored remotely the entire time a prospect is in the property.

The non-contact process is a bit of an adjustment, but people are really happy with it. Demand for our properties has never been better, and we attribute this to our ability to provide on-demand service in this frictionless era. 

Maintaining Your Nashville Home during a Pandemic

We have also made some changes to our maintenance process. Safety has always been first when it comes to repairs, and now it’s critical. We ask tenants not to be present when our vendors are making repairs. We want them to be in and out quickly. We have also deferred some non-critical maintenance repairs for the protection of our vendors and our residents. We don’t want to invite any unnecessary exposure to the virus. 

Our staff has been working remotely and our office remains closed to the public. Online rental payments are now required. Instead of conducting pre-move out inspections with tenants who are vacating, we do a walk through video and share it with our tenants.  

Obviously, the point is to minimize personal interaction. We’re doing it well, and we’re able to continue providing outstanding Nashville property management services for our owners and tenants. If you have any questions about how we can help, contact our team at Omni Realtors & Property Management.