You own six units and you also have a job
You are not a management company. You are one person with a mortgage, a day job and a phone that rings during meetings. GreetKeeper answers it, and only forwards what genuinely needs you.
Caller
“Hi, it's the tenant at 14 Wexford Road. The oven's stopped heating up. It's not urgent urgent, but I've got people coming Saturday.”
What happened next
- Logged: 14 Wexford Road, oven not heating, tenant would like it before Saturday
- Matched your rules: appliance fault, no risk, no same-day dispatch
- Confirmed the tenant is home Thursday afternoon for access
- Sent you one summary text at midday instead of an interruption
The problem is not volume, it is timing
Six units might generate four calls a month. All four arrive when you're in a meeting, driving, or asleep, and every one of them feels urgent to the person making it.
You almost certainly answer your own phone today, or you let it ring and feel bad about it. Neither works well. Answering means stepping out of a meeting to hear about an oven; not answering means a tenant who thinks you're unreachable and a small fault that waits until it isn't small.
The commercial answering services in this market are priced for businesses with staff and switchboards, and their minimums assume a volume you don't have. That's the gap a landlord with a handful of doors falls into.
GreetKeeper answers as your line, applies your own rules about what's urgent, and sends you one message instead of an interruption. Four calls a month is well inside the smallest plan, which is the point.
What reaches you, and when
This is the setting that makes the difference for a landlord rather than a management company: not what gets dispatched, but what gets to interrupt you.
| The call | Reaches you | How |
|---|---|---|
| Water not containable, no heat, no power, door not secure | Immediately | Text while the tenant is still on the line |
| Smell of gas | Immediately, after the utility | Tenant sent to the gas emergency line first |
| Appliance fault, blocked drain, minor repair | Same day | One summary, at an hour you choose |
| Tenant asking about rent, a deposit or a notice | Same day | Message only, no discussion on the call |
| Prospective tenant answering your listing | Same day | Details captured, viewing slot if you offered one |
| Contractor confirming access | Same day | Logged against the property |
| Cold sales call | Never | Screened, and it does not count against your allowance |
Answering as you, without pretending to be you
A tenant ringing a private landlord expects a person who knows the property. Three things make that work.
It knows which property from the first sentence
Your addresses, the tenant names against them and the access arrangements. A tenant says Wexford Road and the call is already anchored, which is what makes a small landlord sound organized rather than overwhelmed.
It says what you would say about the boiler
Your own guidance: where the stop tap is at that address, whether the boiler has a reset button, which cupboard the fuse board is in. Written once per property, read back exactly.
It holds the line on rent conversations
Arrears, deposits, notices and anything about ending a tenancy get taken as a message and nothing else. Those conversations have legal weight, and you want them in your own words and in writing.
It batches the rest
You pick an hour. Everything non-urgent arrives then, as one summary with the property, the tenant and what they said. Your phone stops going off during your actual job.
What it costs a portfolio this size
Starter at $49 a month covers 200 answered calls with 45 cents each after, and a handful of units will not come close to that ceiling. You're buying coverage of the hours you can't answer, not capacity.
Compare it with what you do now, which is answer at work or miss the call. The comparison against a staffed answering service doesn't apply to you, because their minimum monthly commitment assumes a business with a switchboard.
It is not a managing agent
What owners with a few doors ask
Will my tenants think I've gone corporate?
You write the greeting, and most landlords keep it plain: the property name and an offer to help. The announcement that it's an assistant is a setting you should switch on, and in practice tenants care far more that somebody picked up.
Can I take calls myself when I'm free?
Yes. Forward on no-answer and it only picks up what you don't, which for most landlords means evenings, meetings and holidays. The rule changes from your phone.
What if I only have two units?
Then Starter is more capacity than you'll use, and that's fine. There's no smaller plan and we won't invent one. Judge it on whether $49 is worth the hours you currently spend unreachable.
Does it deal with my letting agent as well?
It answers whoever rings your line, agent included, and logs what they wanted. It won't authorize work or agree costs on your behalf.
Can it handle a tenant who is upset?
It stays on your script, records what was said, and routes to you. It doesn't negotiate, and a call that turns into a dispute is one you want in your own hands with a transcript attached.
Hear it answer as your line
Your properties, your interruption rules, two minutes.