The first step in being able to successfully manage a rental house, apartment building, or any property is finding tenants. But what comes after that is even more important—finding financially reliable tenants. Tenant income, employment, and rental insurance verification is crucial for property managers to find tenants that check the boxes for financial responsibility. Whether you’re verifying a new applicant’s income and employment or re-verifying renters insurance for hundreds of current tenants, property managers need the right tools to get accurate, fraud-proof data. Technology, including by way of consumer-permissioned data, facilitates cost-effective and streamlined tenant screening processes, leading to better experiences for your tenants and cost and time savings for property managers.
Current state of tenant verification by property managers
Time-consuming, labor-intensive, and prone to human error—That’s the current state of tenant verification employed by property managers. Manual verification, tenant fraud, and the lack of adequate tools for verification and re-verification means that property managers spend more time finding the right tenants to occupy their properties than maintaining their buildings and sustaining rental income.
Property managers manual verification processes and their limitations
Historically, property managers have relied on manual verification processes to assess a tenant's income and employment information. This typically involves requesting paper documentation such as pay stubs, bank statements, or employment letters, which tenants provide as proof of their financial stability. Property managers then manually review and verify these documents,
This time-consuming, tedious, and often expensive process means that even re-verification of renters insurance or income and employment for current tenants can get overlooked. Once a tenant has been accepted and moves into the property, property managers seldom revisit the verification process unless specific circumstances arise. This lack of ongoing verification leaves property managers vulnerable to changes in a tenant's financial situation or insurance coverage, potentially exposing them to unnecessary risks.
Manual verification also exposes the risk for potential inaccuracies or fraudulent submissions. Forging documents or misrepresenting income and employment details are unfortunate realities in the tenant verification process. Property managers must exercise caution and thoroughness to identify any red flags or inconsistencies, but it's a challenging task to undertake without the aid of advanced verification tools.
How to cut property management costs
In 2023, property managers have encountered a new reality amidst declining revenue and changing market dynamics, including an ongoing job crisis and the rising cost of living. After experiencing years of rent increases and unprecedented demand, the industry is now undergoing a significant transition. As tenants face income loss, the likelihood of evictions may rise and many tenants may choose to seek more affordable rental options elsewhere. The increasing prevalence of remote work opens up the possibility for tenants to relocate to cheaper cities, no longer bound by proximity to their workplaces.
The convergence of these challenges has the potential to impact the efficiency and profitability of property owners. Striving to strike a balance between cost-cutting through automation and the need for human involvement in essential tasks, property management is undergoing a transformative phase.
Leveraging technology for automated VOIE and insurance verification in property management
Fortunately, advancements in technology have paved the way for more efficient, cost-saving, and accurate tenant verification methods. By leveraging technology, property managers can overcome the limitations and challenges associated with manual processes. Property managers need the right user-friendly software that provides a wide range of features and capabilities to meet those needs and combat the challenges faced by the industry and economy.
By leveraging dedicated tools designed specifically for property managers, professionals in the industry can streamline and automate these critical processes, unlocking a host of benefits and efficiencies.
Benefits of using dedicated tools for property managers
Implementing technology-driven solutions for VOIE and insurance verification offers several advantages for property managers. Most notably, automated solutions significantly reduces the time and effort required to manually verify income and employment details, freeing up valuable resources that can be redirected to other critical tasks and open-up management budgets. Automated systems can quickly retrieve and authenticate data, eliminating the need for tedious paperwork and reducing the potential for human error.
In fact, these automated tools provide property managers with enhanced accuracy and reliability that can also reduce risk of fraudulent tenant applications. With built-in algorithms and validation mechanisms, these tools can quickly identify inconsistencies or discrepancies in tenant-provided information, minimizing the risk of fraudulent submissions. This leads to a more robust tenant selection process and reduces the likelihood of late or missed rental payments.
Exploring the 3 key features property managers need
Modern automated verification tools offer a wide range of features tailored to meet the specific needs of property managers, including:
- Seamless integration: These tools seamlessly integrate with property management software, allowing for smooth data transfer and synchronization. This eliminates the need for manual data entry and ensures that information is consistently updated across platforms.
- Direct data retrieval: Through secure connections with financial institutions, payroll systems, and government databases, these tools can directly retrieve income and employment information, eliminating the need for tenants to submit physical documents.
- Real-time monitoring: Some tools provide real-time monitoring of tenants' employment and income status. This feature allows property managers to stay updated on any changes in tenants' financial situations and take appropriate action if necessary.
Real-time consumer data platforms for tenant verification
An emerging trend in tenant verification is the use of real-time consumer data platforms that leverage consumer-permissioned data. These platforms, like MeasureOne, connect property managers with vast amounts of data pulled directly from consumers’ online accounts and documents with their explicit permission, including employment, income, renters insurance, and more. By obtaining explicit consent from tenants, property managers can access this data to verify their financial stability more comprehensively. This approach provides a more holistic view of a tenant's financial situation, helping property managers make more well-informed decisions.
With the utilization of consumer-permissioned data, property managers can harness the power of automated income and employment verification and renters insurance verification. This technology leverages tenant payroll and insurance data directly, ensuring accuracy and eliminating the time-consuming processes of manual verification and the risk of misrepresentation or fraudulent information.
Some real-time data platforms (MeasureOne included) also offer advanced document processing, which caters to tenants who may not have online payroll or insurance accounts. In such cases, property managers can rely on the verification of alternative documents, such as uploaded bank statements and paystubs, to verify income information for potential tenants. MeasureOne, for example, facilitates document processing by cross-referencing deposit amounts with the applicant's checking account. By replacing manual cross-referencing tasks, verification using consumer-permissioned data ensures that income documentation remains impervious to fraudulent attempts.
Plus, using consumer-permissioned data for tenant verification not only improves accuracy and saves time for property managers, but also enhances the overall tenant experience. Tenants can benefit from a streamlined verification process that requires minimal manual effort, reducing the burden of providing extensive documentation. It’s a win-win for property managers and their tenants.
Using the #1 platform for property managers to verify tenant employment, income, and renters insurance
Consumer-permissioned data and accurate document processing makes the tenant screening process more accurate, stress-free, and it saves property managers time and money. Let MeasureOne take the lead for you.
MeasureOne offers low cost, automated, and fraud-proof income and employment verification for tenant screening. Using consumer-permissioned data and document processing, our platform connects you to the tenant data you need to make the best decisions for your property.
MeasureOne also delivers unique value for property managers including:
- Industry-leading coverage (100% coverage of US employees including gig and non-W2 earners, over 5k payroll systems, 95% coverage of all insurance carriers, and 10k+ data sources in total)
- Proprietary fraud-proof docs-to-data functionality with 100% accuracy
Ready to take the next step to improve your tenant screening process and save on costs at the same time?