SignNow API for RentTango: Customizable workflow automation for residential leasing operations
CUSTOMER PROFILE
Paul Zullo, CEO and co-founder of RentTango
RentTango is an innovative SaaS platform built for residential property managers to automate and streamline the residential leasing operations. The technology improves operational efficiency, reduces fraud, and delivers higher NOI. RentTango has been partnering with SignNow for over a year.
Expertise: Residential real estate technology
Customers: Property Managers, Owners, and Brokerages
How RentTango uses the SignNow API to optimize their leasing flow
RentTango uses the SignNow eSignature solution via the API as an integral part of their own software platform. Within the platform, the core object is the listing (a residential apartment or home that needs to be leased). The key objective of RentTango as a software technology is to optimize the leasing flow to ensure the listing remains open (vacant) for as little time as possible. To achieve this, every under-the-hood process, big and small alike, must be finalized ASAP and ideally feature some automation. As with any transaction, the key is to reduce bottlenecks and optimize communications.
“Residential units are not providing owners with revenue if they remain vacant. In fact, every day they sit unrented is costing the owner money and reducing profitability. Our software is built to ensure our customers can close deals easier while ensuring an enjoyable customer experience for the landlord and renter. With SignNow, we have calculated more than a 70% reduction in lease processing time compared to more traditional leasing approaches.”
— Paul Zullo, CEO and co-founder of RentTango
Moreover, RentTango is capable of managing the entire transaction – from the marketing of a listing to its lease execution. The software is actually an aggregate of several integrations that RentTango has stitched together with a very modern and clean UI. From syndication partners to screening companies, payment providers, and, of course SignNow. RentTango connects these technologies and provides a simple and easier way to manage the data and workflows.
SignNow’s technology and flexible API are instrumental in delivering the high standard of customization and configurations that RentTango delivers. While the concept of renting apartments and homes is easy, real-world back and forth introduces unpredictable variability into the process. Not only does the methodology and process change for different property managers and companies trying to get a competitive advantage, but local regulations at the city and state levels require modifications at the property level as well.
“The most critical feature for us, the one that we’ve really leveraged, is SignNow’s sandbox. Users do not really see it, of course, but we know how critically important it actually is. And this is one of the several reasons why we liked SignNow. From the very beginning, we have been working with SignNow’s technical team pretty closely, on a first-name basis. RentTango as a software system has a very high bar, and SignNow delivered as we’ve expected”
— Paul Zullo, CEO and co-founder of RentTango
Watch the interview below to learn more about how RentTango is using the SignNow API:
Key features of the RentTango – SignNow API integration
Data pre-population using document tags
RentTango uses DocTags™ that represents a data unit that is already known to the document system (full name, social security number, pet information, etc.). DocTags are used to completely eliminate the necessity of typing or re-entering the same data again and again, from one document to another. Applicant, property, and landlord data are all entered once, and the system will automatically prepopulate all the corresponding fillable fields with it. This feature reduces manual entry errors and saves time for both the agent and the renter.
Customized branding
The popularity of multifamily properties across America has been prolific. It seems like there are brand new rental buildings popping up on just about every street corner. These real estate companies often spend much time, money, and human resources to establish and promote a unique brand for their property. Whether it’s a property manager or an owner/operator, they value the ability to promote their brand and maintain brand consistency. RentTango allows firms to essentially white label the renter experience – from the application, email templates, lease agreements, and even the signing experience. The RentTango customer can manage the colors, images, and logos that are used when communicating with their renters.
“SignNow’s API allows us to deliver a fully branded experience for our customer,”
— explains Paul
Deal process visibility
Many real estate firms today have cobbled together a patchwork of technologies to achieve their business objectives. Much of the software included often does not share integrations so data is not shared between them. Moreover, employees are required to jump from application to application to perform various tasks. With RentTango, the entire marketing and leasing operation is presented in one single pane of glass. This allows the software to track and present the status of each deal in real time.
“The degree of visibility is amazing. Now a property manager can see exactly what stage the document is at and act accordingly. They can check who viewed an email, who visited a document, who signed, etc. They can send a reminder link as a friendly push. This really helps them to keep deals moving forward,”
— added Paul
Automated reminders & expiration dates
It is often said that real estate is about location, but it is also very much about timing asmentioned previously. Time is the real elephant in the room for real estate deals. People forget, delays happen, the competition steps in, emails get missed, and so on. RentTango has built-in automation that reminds whoever is blocking a deal from progressing. This includes setting automatic document expiration dates to help create a sense of urgency and clean up old or abandoned deals.
“Every one of our customers can choose for how long they will allow their offered contract to exist before it expires. This is a fantastic feature for many property owners, considering how competitive rentals are in the market these days,”
— says Paul
Sending contracts via email or text
In today’s market, you need to meet the customer where they are. There are so many marketing channels and communication methods. This is why the RentTango-SignNow integration offers a choice between inviting signers using standard email delivery or SMS message.
“Now it’s totally up to the agent. They know their renter. So if that person prefers texting over emailing, they have the ability to move the signing communication to text. And of course, the entire tenant portal and signing experience is mobile friendly,”
— explains Paul
Audit log
Real estate is a very litigious business so RentTango needs to be prepared for its documents to be produced and challenged in court. To ensure their customers have no issues, RentTango leverages SignNow’s audit log and document history to detail every single step in the eSigning process and every change in a document and its status. This audit trail is written directly into the last page of the executed document so there is 100% assurance in the data.
Benefits achieved with the SignNow API
Improved customer experience overall
Paul mentions this as the number one benefit of the RentTango-SignNow partnership. According to RentTango’s strategic vision, their key goal is to create efficiency for all their business customers, and SignNow is an integral part of that efficiency.
Ease of use for all parties involved
According to Paul, the major reason why contract signing via RentTango became much quicker is the simplicity of the integrated solution:
“It is really intuitive now, no matter who your next customer is. Even when a person is signing electronically for the very first time in their life, they get an email or a text message — and they already know what to do!”
Ease of workflow customization
The RentTango platform serves property management companies, landlords, and brokerages. Each of them has their own unique way of doing business, a specific set of documents, a historically predetermined order of signing, and multiple other individual parameters. With the SignNow API, RentTango could easily configure the workflow per the requests and needs of each company they are servicing
Giving agents more face-to-face time
Just like in any other B2C sector, real estate management & leasing are mainly human-oriented types of business activities. Thus, establishing and maintaining good relationships is an integral part of the job, and software use is often perceived as a must-have component. Automating document workflows allows real estate agents and property owners to dedicate more time to the “human” part of their job — individualized communication with current and future customers.
Regulatory compliance
Residential leasing has always been subject to strict government regulations. Thus, apart from the rental contract as such, the parties often have to sign several additional forms, depending on their family situation. For example, when a family has children under 12 y.o., they have the right to request that window guards be installed before moving in. With the RentTango-SignNow integration, this part of a larger workflow is entirely automated and requires minimal human intervention.
“Using the SignNow API, we are able to ask questions in the signing experience. Before agents would have to email and call a signer to gather all of the data required for signing. This delays deals and eats up valuable time. Now they let the document experience do all that work for them!”
— notes Paul
Transparency and adjustability throughout the entire process
The SignNow Audit Log is not only a data security tool (and court-admissible evidence in case a deal takes a wrong turn), it also provides real estate managers and agents with many marketing insights:
“When opening the audit log, you can see, for example, that the person opened the contract at least three times but never actually signed or filled a single field. This hints to the manager that a more personalized approach is needed. Maybe the client has cold feet? Maybe the situation has changed? We are instantly prompted to deal with the opportunity differently. And what’s more important, we are not wasting anyone’s time with delays in communication,”
— explains Paul
Drawing the bottom line
The cooperation during the development of the RentTango-SignNow integration has led to a strategic partnership that is constantly evolving on both technical and marketing levels. Summarizing our rather lengthy interview with Paul, we would like to conclude with the following quote from him:
“SignNow is providing us with a robust API solution that gives us the freedom to focus more on the residential real estate side of our business. Now we don’t have to “reinvent the wheel” and can build the software features that SignNow already has on its own. What’s most important for me personally is the empathetic approach of SignNow’s staff. There are no drastic changes. Everything is done while keeping in mind our business needs. This is what guarantees our business continuity, and this is what we appreciate the most.”
– Paul Zullo, CEO and co-founder of RentTango
RentTango used SignNow powered by AWS.
