Product Updates: Week 45

You now choose which RentEngine notifications you get, where you get them, and which hours they can arrive. On the rebuilt Notifications page, you can turn each of the 45 notifications on or off for email, desktop, and mobile. You can also turn off a whole section with one switch.

Plus, you can now transfer a call you answered in the mobile app to a teammate or an outside number, the same way you already can on desktop.

Here's what's new in RentEngine.

Choose where every notification reaches you, and the hours it can arrive

The Notifications page in Settings now has seven tabs: General, Conversations, Prescreening, Showings, Applications, Reporting, and Health. Every notification has its own row, with a switch to choose to reach you on Email, Desktop, and Mobile. Where a notification cannot reach a place, you see a dash instead of a switch, so "not available" never looks the same as "off."

Each section has a switch at the top that turns off every notification in that section at once. When you turn it back on, the notifications you had on before come back. Every change saves as you make it, so there is no Save button.

On the General tab, you can now set notification hours. Choose the days and times you want desktop notifications, mobile notifications, and forwarded calls to come through. Emails still arrive whenever they are sent. These are your own working hours, separate from the office hours RentEngine AI uses when it replies to prospects.

A showing agent who works 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. can now keep showing updates on their phone during those hours.

A few more changes come with the new page:

• Unregistered leads: decide if you want to be notified about leads not linked to a specific unit. A new switch lets you choose what to get. Calls from unregistered leads follow the same switches.

• Health tab: properties that are not syndicated, have no showing availability, have no lockbox assigned, or have a calendar sync failure now sit together on their own tab, next to PMS sync alerts.

• New team members start with notifications set for their role, and an admin can still adjust any teammate's settings from the same page.

• Call forwarding stays exactly as it was, but now on the General tab.

Your existing settings carry over to the new page.

Where to find it: Settings > Communication > Notifications

Post your listings to Craigslist automatically

You can now syndicate your listings to Craigslist, the same way RentEngine already posts them to other listing sites. Each unit or floorplan gets one Craigslist post. When you edit a listing, we update the post, and when the unit leaves the market, we take it down. We also repost every 30 days so your listing stays near the top.

You choose how much to post: free listings only, all residential listings, or all listings including commercial. Residential listings are free in all markets except Boston, New York City, and Los Angeles. Listings in these markets and commercial listings are $5/month, billed directly via RentEngine.

Leads who reply to a Craigslist post come into the Command Center labeled with Craigslist and the listing. RentEngine AI replies to them, and your prescreening and showing rules apply as they do for every other source.

Where to find it: Settings > Leasing Defaults > Craigslist. Off by default.

Transfer a call you answered in the mobile app

You can now transfer a call you answered in the RentEngine mobile app to a teammate or to an outside number. This is done the same way you can from the Command Center on desktop. When you transfer to an outside number that has an extension, we now dial the extension too, so the prospect lands with the right person instead of a front desk.

For an agent who picks up a call between showings and hears an application question, that means passing the prospect straight to whoever handles applications. So now, you don’t have to ask them to call back.

Where to find it: Mobile app > answer a call > Transfer

Let applicants know when other applications are already in

You can now tell applicants how many other applications have already been submitted for the same home. When you turn this on, applicants see a short note on the Review page of the application, before they pay, with the number of applications already submitted.

That gives an applicant an honest picture before they commit to an application fee. It also gives a serious applicant a reason to finish today rather than next week.

Where to find it: Settings > Rental App Templates > select a template > Custom Settings > Warn applicants if other applications already submitted for the same property. Off by default.

Prospects now confirm before they cancel a showing

The showing confirmation page prospects open from their confirmation message now has one "Cancel or Reschedule" button instead of a separate Cancel button sitting next to Confirm. Tapping it asks the prospect what they would like to do, with Reschedule Showing as the main option and Cancel Showing below it.

A prospect who meant to tap Confirm can no longer cancel their showing by accident, and a prospect who cannot make the time is steered toward a new slot instead of dropping off.

Where to find it: the prospect's showing confirmation page > Cancel or Reschedule.

Occupied units switch to your default notice period after move-out

For an occupied unit with a current tenant, we now stop applying the tenant notice period once the tenant's move-out date passes. The unit uses your company's default settings instead. Prospects can then book showings on the vacant unit without waiting out a notice period that no longer protects anyone.

Command Center and mobile app

Swipe right to mark a Hot Lead in the mobile app

You can now swipe right on a conversation in the mobile app to mark that prospect as a Hot Lead, without opening the thread.

Where to find it: Mobile app > Command Center > swipe right on a conversation.

Shorter links in every text we send

We now shorten every link RentEngine includes in a text message, including the multifamily community link from the Communities page. Prospects get shorter, cleaner messages, and a short link fits on a phone screen without wrapping across several lines.

The Applications API now returns verified income

The income endpoint in the RentEngine public API now returns, for each applicant, their total self-reported income and total verified income. It also includes a breakdown by job or income source, and the documents or Argyle reports that back up each verified figure.

If your team reviews applications in your own system, you can now see whether an applicant's income was verified, and how, without opening RentEngine.

Where to find it: the income endpoint in the RentEngine public API.

Questions or feedback? Give us a shout via the Chat!