Check out our first edition of "Behind the Lease" with Angelica Rodriguez, Operations Manager at SG Communities. SG Communities partnered with Boom to transform their leasing process—discover how they use BoomScreen to streamline their application workflows and move in new residents faster.
Full video transcript below:
[00:00:00] My name is Angelica Rodriguez and I'm the operations manager for the Saratoga Group. We're based out of Knoxville, Tennessee, and we manage manufactured home communities across the US. We have over a hundred communities and we are still growing.
When I joined Saratoga Group, I was focused on organizing and streamlining processes, making it easier for our onsite management. In regards to applications, what we noticed were a lot of duplicate accounts. Payments that weren't being able to get processed through the online portal, those sorts of things. We weren't getting these successful applications in so that we could process them and turn these potential tenants into tenants. Depending on the state, we would not get immediate results back. We would have to wait on augmented results and we would actually have to manually resubmit those screenings for processing so that we could get those augmented results. A lot of [00:01:00] times those augmented screenings didn't happen and we kind of just pushed through the application process with the initial report with limited data.
Eventually we started looking at new screening solutions. Our goal in looking for a new provider was to limit duplicate accounts, duplicate prospect accounts so that we could properly track prospects. We wanted immediate results, immediate screening results for criminal, particularly in states such as South Carolina and Georgia.
We were definitely looking for a solution to return payments on prospect accounts, in which we got payment for an application, we processed that application, and then there was a return payment for one reason or another. We really wanted to streamline the application process and automate as much of it as we could.
So that was all in terms of the, of the product side, what we were looking for in an integration partner was a [00:02:00] company that was going to listen to us, value our feedback and actually do something when we gave that feedback and we found that a hundred percent in Boom.
The feature we liked the most, the one that just stood out to us was the grading scale. It was easy to read. you look at it and it's either, red, yellow, green, what does it pass or doesn't it? And then you can dig in if you need to. So that was definitely like that number one feature.
I personally love the identity verification and the fact that it wasn't just on, US documentation. It wasn't just on a Texas driver's license. You could put your passport in or your country's passport in, and you get that ID verification. Income verification. Wow, that's big. That's big. You don't have to request these documents. If you're an onsite manager, you no longer have to request these documents from, from the prospect because the prospect is uploading it directly into their application and it's going to [00:03:00] be available to onsite management to review at a later date in their application.
We wanted an integration partner that was going to listen to our feedback and then take action, right? So our first issue was, where's the application?
Why can't we see this application in the prospect's account and it was one that Boom very quickly resolved. Now, if you go into any of our prospects' accounts, you will see a PDF copy of the application, in the tenant's history notes. You go to that context tab and rather than having to open up a PDF on the history and notes, you see a picture of that individual's photo ID, which is awesome. It's amazing, you open up an account and you know who you're supposed to be looking at if they come into the office, it's great. At the point in which we say it's time to push this prospect into our property management software, we are ready to go. We are collecting that person's security deposit or down payment, and we're [00:04:00] getting them moved in.
For onboarding, we broke it up into, I believe it was two or three phases to make it a little simpler. After we got through that first phase, we ran right into it.
We rolled out the rest of the communities because it was such an easy process. We got all of our onboarding information over to Boom and Boom was very adaptable. I really appreciate that about, Boom, that they were ready and able to help us the way we needed to be helped.
So for features that were missing or just not available yet, we would initially bring it up and we would get on a call, and there was usually anywhere from five to seven people on this call. They care so much about their product and they're so willing to drop what they're doing to make sure that their partners are happy with their product.
These features , they started as suggestions as feedbacks, and then when they became reality, it just kind of came full circle and you realize that you're part of building this really great [00:05:00] program.
Boom support is excellent. We wait average anywhere from two to three minutes for someone to respond and a lot of times if it's an issue, you know, that an applicant is having a Boom representative is getting on the phone with that applicant. so not to say that it's not important for our team to get on the phone with this applicant and try to help them, Boom is just so ready to help get these applicants and their applications completed.
I always try to get a community manager on the phone with me because I think it's important. Yes, from a home office perspective, boom is doing great, but. What about community managers?
They're the ones using it on a day to day. Shelly Worthy these out in Georgia and she no longer has to send her applicants to the police department to pull their credit reports for her anymore. So yes, positive feedback all around.
So if you wanna way to streamline your application process. To simplify it, to gain that support you need, that you feel you [00:06:00] need on a day to day, Boom is the way to go. User experience is day and night.
You go to your pending applications. Hit approve, hit decline, whatever the case may be. Pushes into your property management software and you're done. A couple of clicks and you're done. There's, there's nothing confusing about it. It's so overly simplified sometimes that it's just, oh, okay. They did the job for me.
