2B Living Used RentCheck to Grow Into A High-Performing Property Management Team Across 5,000+ Units

One thing that may set Brooks Baskin apart from other leaders at mid-market property management companies is that after 15 years at the helm, he's still heavily involved in day-to-day operations. He knows every nook and cranny of the company, and if something is slowing his team down, Brooks has likely seen it before and has an answer.

Now with over 50 employees, Brooks's day-to-day involvement looks more like an intense focus on the experience of both his team and their residents — so that property owners at the core of their business model feel like their investments are being managed at a world-class level. The growth of 2B Living's portfolio speaks for itself. The key to keeping property owners happy is knowing their investments are being cared for, properly inspected, and documented with photo and video evidence they can review any time. That's where RentCheck comes in.

TL;DR

• 2B Living scaled to 5,000+ units by reducing inspection workload
• Manual inspections were creating scheduling bottlenecks and missed coverage
• RentCheck enabled tenant-led inspections across their diverse portfolio
• Result: consistent inspection coverage + faster scaling
• 90 min saved per inspection
• $67 saved per inspection
• 115 resident inspections completed monthly

What Prevents Property Management Teams From Growing?

“As the company continued to grow… [all of these inspections] just seemed like this big task to get done.”

A high-performing property management team is one that can consistently manage inspections, maintenance, and tenant coordination across a growing portfolio without increasing manhours or missing critical operational steps. For a mid-market property management company looking to grow their portfolio, one of the first instincts a burgeoning owner may have is to assume that “more units = more staff needed to manage.” 

But more staff means more overhead to hire, train, manage, and pay. Likewise, property management is an industry known to have high employee turnover rates which means making the correct hire is more important than ever. This combination bottleneck of needing to take the pain out of managing property operations plus enabling employees to do their jobs up to 2B Living’s standards led Brooks and his team to discover an answer to both. 

“We had just sort of lost some discipline doing move in and move out inspections.”

2B Living was struggling with the sheer volume of work and time needed to complete bi-annual inspections on top of move-in and move-outs as they continued to add more units. They were handling these inspections manually and in-person, with property managers having to both coordinate appropriate time for inspections with tenants (which posed its own challenges) and then physically having to be there for those inspections. This work alone was a full-time job. On top of these constraints, the property managers at 2B Living were doing these inspections with pen and paper, which was inefficient, not standardized, and lacked accountability as things got lost in the shuffle. 

On top of these general constraints, there was also the struggle of different needs for different property types – single-family, multi-family, and commercial properties all had different quirks, had different customers, and certainly had contrasting tenants. 

RentCheck’s Initial Use Case: Get Inspections Done Consistently

“It was just really good to have a simple product that would let us do our move-in and move-out inspections.”

Being based in the Bay Area and the heart of Silicon Valley, Brooks and his team knew there had to be a better, more efficient, and technologically driven way to loosen these consistent bottlenecks that were holding the company back from growing and improving their tenants and property owner’s experience. At this point, they were hosting 100% of their units in AppFolio which enabled them to “...build processes and workflows in AppFolio so tasks happen through automation without losing a hands-on touch — which is key to our business.” From an AppFolio case study with 2B Living, they were using this new technology partner “[from] onboarding new employees to automating repetitive processes, [AppFolio] allowed the 2B team to automate workflows, access critical data instantly, and reduce the time spent on repetitive tasks — all while maintaining control and oversight.”

The next bottleneck they identified was move-in, move-out, and bi-annual inspections. They simply couldn’t keep doing these manually and let things fall through the cracks, so the search was on for a tool that could fill in the gaps in inspections where AppFolio couldn’t: RentCheck’s Tenant-Guided Inspections. Plus, with RentCheck’s Inspection Templates Customization feature, there were automated and standardized processes baked into the different needs across different property types. 

“[AppFolio alone] didn’t give us scheduling… and doesn’t give us the ability to have a good tenant-guided inspection.”

RentCheck’s Elevated Use-Case: Integrate RentCheck’s Elevated Property Management Processes and Efficiencies via AppFolio

Phase one of 2B Living’s use of RentCheck was simple: enable tenants to self-serve this burdensome aspect of their renting experience, and enable property managers to standardize workflows and replace manual processes. Phase two meant leaning into RentCheck as a true technology partner and turn inspections into a scalable system with an operational infrastructure. But, how do you scale inspections without hiring more staff? 

“We like to give property managers tools… each property manager is a little bit different.”

RentCheck’s AppFolio integration now enabled 2B Living’s staff to do the work of multiple property managers by taking away the need to: 

• Step foot in a unit unless absolutely necessary
• Send email alerts or reminders about upcoming inspections
• Physically collect or disperse tenant security deposits

All of the work for mandatory “property walk inspections” was now being done either by the tenant with Tenant-Guided Inspections and Asset Capture, or by Automation and Workflows within the RentCheck dashboard. Plus, if a unit just needs a simple inspection without all the bells and whistles, there’s the Fast Track inspection ready to go.

“We've had good success with tenants doing it. That's easier and faster to do, and that has definitely helped with process adherence, whether it's the tenants or our team.

But the fast-track inspection…I think, was a great example of the RentCheck team listening to feedback from its customers.”

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The Result: Happier Tenants, Higher Performing Property Management Team, Satisfied Property Owners

“We needed a system that we could consistently rely on.”

So how does RentCheck’s integration with AppFolio work to build a high-performing property management team across a diverse portfolio? Some of the steps customers like 2B take look like:

• Fix the core operations first 
• Introduce system standardization
• Leverage tenants to scale
• Separate system of record vs execution
• Build for flexibility, not rigidity

Property Inspection Operations With RentCheck By The Numbers

• Minutes Saved Per Inspection: 90 minutes
• Dollars Saved Per Inspection: $67
• Resident Inspections Completed Monthly: 11

RentCheck – The Tenant-Led Property Inspection Solution 

Is your property inspection process for large portfolios requiring more headcount? Struggling with missed rental property inspections? Is AppFolio’s current inspection tool getting in the way? Is staff getting access to all homes proving impossible and resulting in missed inspections? Are you looking to have confidence that your properties are in good condition and so you can continue to add more?

Check out RentCheck property management growth tools pricing, view a demo for our AppFolio integration, or reach out to our property management solutions team today and find a way to get every inspection done with RentCheck.