Some Impacts of Digitizing Transactions in Rental Business

From leasing or contract signing to payment to organizing renters and prospective tenants, the digitization of transactions related to a rental property is now becoming a norm in the industry; helping to facilitate the system of administration seemingly intended to be forever dependent on computers and the internet. Most of these changes were unimaginable before even to experts in the field of property management yet through time and most especially through the result of lockdowns, where movements and activities are very limited, the people have learned the technology and are now adopting more. Some trends even suggest that it’s possible that the people in the rental property business will now use digital transactions forever.    

For sure these will have both positive and negative consequences. Computerization definitely reduces the amount of time for landlords or property managers and the renters, and also saving energy to all the parties involved. The ugly things about this, however, will not be going to be easy for the workers. Second, its possible long-term effects on social dynamics are still unknown. This should not be taken for granted and besides, technology cannot be trusted 100%; machines and numbers make the tasks easy but sometimes, they’re not accurate. For the landlords or the property owners or even the property managers to be truly efficient, guidance from a human perspective will be very helpful just like how things are done in the old ways of the rental business. The change has come, yes we all agree, but it doesn’t mean we cannot run things in unconventional ways, Landlords and property managers still have the choice to use their creativity and organic intelligence. That will keep the industry productive and effective.  

Since 2020, different methods for processing the application for tenancy have become available online such as listings, lease review/meeting, signing of contract, and even tenant screening. There are also many changes in the rules and regulations for housing and tenancy. The rental business industry, just like many other industries, has also adapted the so-called “new normal” and many trend watchers believe that people are enthusiastic and might enjoy staying at the current way for too long; even not wanting to go back to the old normal anymore. This is sad. However, it’s also not difficult to understand given the fact that people often choose convenience, psychologically speaking. The human brain doesn’t want to face problems and avoid bothering itself as much as possible; it prefers pleasure over pain. However, the question here is, until when are we going to sustain the balance between our natural environment and our destructive embracement of digitization? Until when are we going to let technology and AI systems take over the jobs?    

The answer to that question can be very long. First, it’s only one year since rental business owners and property managers started using the virtual system. The adaptation is still at the infant stage. Meaning, we don’t have enough knowledge about it yet and there will be more possible things to happen; we cannot predict how things will unfold for the rental business industry in the future. Second, in a survey, around 40 to 50% of rental business owners are still planning to acquire new properties in the next 2 years; in other words, they still want to continue and expand their business. When asked why, most of them believe that the rental business is surely a smart way to invest especially during this time of dubious pandemic.          

Another change in the property rental business industry is a labor shortage. While actively hiring, some companies have also invested in technology. This is some sort of disadvantage to the employees, though. It’s true that digitizing everything, including the administrative system, can enable you to yield more results in less time, recognize also that it can become the reason for massive worker replacement or layout in the future. In dealing with the lacking workforce in the midst of this global medical scandal, companies must not turn to total automation. There should be more humans than robots in the workplace. If this reality continues, the industry will inevitably get rid of human workers because with machines and computers, so much works can be done using only very less people.