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The apartment leasing process can be a risky business – for you as property owners and managers and for your potential renters. Fortunately, VERO has the tools to mitigate those risks and one important one is adherence to SOC 2 trust principles. VERO has always reduced risk and saved time for operators and so it is only natural that we would achieve our own SOC 2 compliance.
"Processing leases with personally identifiable information by paper or insecure email creates risk for operators and their applicants," says VERO's CTO, Keith Soura. "VERO is fundamentally changing the way leases are processed to be fully electronic in order to remove that risk. VERO's SOC compliance underscores our focus on security protocols and practices for our clients and their applicants."
The Rental Application Approval Process Is Rampant with Risk
There are many risks associated with the rental application approval process for both the owners and applicants.
Risks the Owners and Property Managers Undertake
As part of the rental application approval process, you deeply screen renters, which consumes enormous time and effort.
Consider the: - Myriad phone calls to landlords, banks, employers, and more; - Difficulty to verify residency; - Trust placed on the prospective renter to provide accurate self-reported information; - Cost of vacancies; - Overhead in staff to conduct time-consuming paperwork.
And the list of screening activities can continue on. But the risk isn’t just on apartment leasing property owners or managers as renters also undertake risk.
Risks the Renters Undertake
We know it’s essential to screen renters and so it’s important to ask for a plethora of personal data from prospective renters. Personal data that, if leaked, could cause them major headaches and reputational risk.
Property owners and managers who want to increase their leasing velocity often turn to online application forms. But often, renters must upload the required documents, and the screening must still be done manually.
For instance, when you screen renters, you might ask for: - Social security number - Bank account information - Employer information - Pay stubs - Previous rental history - Landlord references - Personal references
Whether you require physical copies of their documentation or have the capability to handle document uploads, your prospective renters have to trust you to protect their data.
Renters may not trust your systems because many of your applicants have been burned in the past. But the good news is that if they have decided they want to live in your community (nice job with the remodel!) they will be looking for excuses to trust you so they can feel comfortable submitting an application. Showing your prospective tenants the SOC 2 seal of approval from VERO could be all they need to get over the apprehension and start the application process.
The Rising Prevalence of Consumer Data Breaches
The prospective renter’s lack of trust makes sense. There were 1,862 consumer data breaches in 2021, up 68% from the year before. And those breaches affected 5.9 billion consumer accounts. That’s nearly 6 billion people whose private data was leaked.
An organization’s cost for a breach averaged $4.24 million in 2021. But much more than that is at stake.
A breach has a negative effect on those whose data has been leaked. A data breach can lead to the minor hassle of changing passwords to the far more serious possibility of identity theft. And a data security breach can lead to mistrust of the organization that was responsible for the leak.
It’s essential that your renters trust you and believe you take their data security seriously. They must be assured their data is safe, secure, and highly unlikely to get into the wrong hands.
The Importance of Trust and Data Security in the Apartment Leasing Process
“Data protection and cybersecurity, treating employees well, ethical business practices, and admitting mistakes top the list for consumers, employees, and business executives,” according to an August 2021 survey by PwC.
In fact, 62% of consumers named data security and cybersecurity as their number one factor in whether to trust a company.
Also in August of 2021, KPMG found that 86% of the general U.S. population say that data privacy is a growing concern for them.
And, an Accenture study of more than 25,000 consumers between December 2020 and February 2021 discovered that trust in a company and its reputation has risen in importance – becoming one of the top five qualities consumers now look for. In addition, a company’s ability for innovation, speed, and agility also ranks quite high.
But how do you earn the renters’ trust?
Mitigate Everyone’s Risks with VERO
VERO automates the leasing and screening process with cutting-edge technology and advanced data, allowing for screening to be completed in minutes rather than days and leasing to be completed in a day instead of a week by traditional methods.
Consumers now expect agility and innovation, and so providing them this fast, automated process reflects well on your own property. The renter enters info that allows VERO to check bank statements, employment, identification, and more automatically.
Our voluntary adherence to SOC 2 trust principles proves to you and your renters that VERO is verified as compliant with data security principles. In order to gain applicants’ trust is to show proof that all their data is safe and secure with you.
So, you could just tell your prospective renters their data is safe, or you can prove it by showing VERO’s clean SOC 2 compliance record that proves you take security very seriously. VERO has instituted the data security controls necessary to keep personal data safe and bring your renters peace of mind.
