Innago Saves BEN Properties a Week of Time Every Month

Ben Novak never had a dream to own properties. He was busy pursuing athletics in college and a degree at the University of Cincinnati (UC). However, during his time in school, he helped take care of homes and quickly learned the value of property. He worked a lot of other jobs before owning rentals (at restaurants, etc.), and he didn't have many expenses due to scholarships, so he built a healthy savings.

His property journey started at the end of his freshman year when he talked his dad into purchasing a place with him. He spent the summer remodeling it. Initially, he only saw this place as a temporary financial aid while he worked his way through school.

But after he finished remodeling that place, he kept buying property. By the time he graduated, he had six or seven houses. He started to contemplate his future. Maybe that future centered on property. It was clearly a viable option for him.

Now, years and years later, Ben doesn't doubt his decision at all. He's an extremely hands-on property owner. He manages tenants, fixes certain maintenance issues himself, and maintains his properties with gusto. He also runs the finance side of the business. He takes care of almost all the taxes and accounting. Ben describes his role as "wearing every hat." He says it's the main thing that makes his business unique.

Jill, a fellow UC graduate, didn't own property before she met Ben. But she became a key, albeit smaller, part of the business once they married. Jill takes care of some of the administrative work (i.e., emails and lease organization) and communicates with tenants. She takes care of getting leases signed as well.

Ben and Jill have four kids, so when they're not busy with business, they're busy with the kids. You can see their eyes light up when they talk about them. Family is a priority. Ben says that's why they keep their property limited to nearby areas in the city.

As we tour Ben's properties, he stops and chats briefly with a tenant. He's one of those rare landlords with many units who still recognizes most of his tenants immediately.

BEN Properties focus is student housing, but they do have other kinds of places like a commercial warehouse that's home to vintage cars and motorcycles and more. Ben tells us that he "[likes] to dabble in other things. I enjoy trying something different sometimes."

When Jill first heard about property management software, she relayed the information to Ben. Another landlord they knew in Cincinnati told them about it. Ben wasn't quite ready to jump in, though, so they put the discussion on the back burner.

A few years went by, and Ben decided he was open to property management software. They met with Dave Spooner (Innago's CEO) and liked what they heard right away. They tested Innago with a handful of properties first. The onboarding process was smooth, and they appreciated the ease with which they could reach Innago's support team. Ben slowly started sending the rest of his properties to Innago.

Ben admits he was still a little skeptical at first. He'd been running the business for so long and doing so much on his own that he wasn't sure a software would gel with his operations. He was also worried about the fees and the cost.

The main thing that helps alleviate these kinds of fears for property owners and managers is the fact that Innago is free for them. Innago makes money by passing on small fees to tenants (that said, landlords like Ben can take on some of these fees if they choose to). This is one of the things that makes Innago unique in a marketplace full of pricey competitors.

Ben says that ten years ago he was still logging tenants' rent by hand, using deposit books, and running to the bank up to two times every day. His tenants were primarily paying rent with checks or cash. Nowadays, Innago tracks everything for him, he goes to the bank considerably less, and 97% of BEN Properties tenants pay fully online.

The online rent collection process simplified things for Ben and Jill. That, along with the automated financial tracking, took a lot of their previous labor off the table. It's much easier to see what's coming in (income) and what's going out (expenses) than it was back when Ben logged everything by hand.