How to be a Good Property Manager and Win in Every Aspect of Your Business
October 11th, 2020
Want to grow your property management company?
Sometimes people question if it’s worth it to hire a property manager like yourself. They wonder if it’s possible to just be able to handle property related tasks themselves. A common perception is that the scope of property managers’ duties are limited.
Many people believe that you only post properties for rent to prospective tenants and collect rent from tenants. This is far from the truth. Your day-to-day work entails a myriad of operational responsibilities, and you are also responsible for keeping your company thriving and growing.
That being said, considering the wide variety of tasks that property managers execute, there are several qualities they should possess in order to be successful.
At Goodjuju, we work with a lot of these successful companies and we've come up with an in-depth guide of tips to share some strategies of forward thinking property managers.
This guide will give you some actionable steps on how to improve your approach to working with your clients and properties, all while growing your company the right way.
1- Stay current on all things that are property management related
It is critical for experienced property managers to keep learning, keep reading and stay up-to-date by continually educating yourself in the industry. This is also important for those just now starting a property management company. This is especially important as things are always changing.
For example, the integration of ever-evolving technology from property management software's like Buildium or Appfolio in order to streamline business options and ultimately increase efficiency for property managers and landlords. You can stay current by watching the news and reading professional development books and articles.
In addition, someone who wants to be a successful property manager should join any local property management and/ or real estate associations.
This allows a property manager to increase their visibility in the field, network with other professionals in the industry and stay up-to-date with industry regulations and trends. The National Association of Residential Property Managers (NARPM) provides an outlet for property managers to develop relationships and learn from others as well as to further their career via various professional designations and certifications.
2- Hone-in Your Communication Skills and Processes
Every good property manager needs to be able to communicate well. Most of your job is nothing but talking to either owners or tenants via email, text, phone calls, or meetings.
It is usually you who will be directly resolving specific issues. That's exactly why property owners hire and agree to the differing task's fee structures your company charges. They value this.
But this role can be stressful and you will often be in less than fun situations or conversations. It's really important to be a sharp and responsive communicator in order to improve your company reputation and keep clients and tenants happy. Things like increasing the rent on tenants are not fun conversations and being an awesome communicator will help you smooth it over.
One thing you can consider is streamlining a lot of your communication by providing answers to frequently asked questions, maintenance info, etc on different pages of your company website. This will save you time from some redundant communication month-over-month.
3- Get Organized and Systemized
There are so many different aspects of property management, and there are even a wider variety of tasks to undertake if the property manager handles more than one rental property simultaneously for investors or owners. This equates to a lot of paperwork on issues such as, legal disputes, eviction notices, inspections, invoices, etc.
Therefore, it is of utmost importance for you to get organized and develop an effective company structure in order to be efficient and thereby, successful. Some property managers may use a file management system while others would use technology to work more efficiently. Whatever route you take, make it a priority to get organized and stay organized so you can grow and scale with less hassle.
That brings us right into our next topic.
4- Have a Proven Game Plan to Get More Clients
To continue thriving and growing your property management company, you need ways to get new clients consistently. There are a handful of methods to market and promote your business online, and it's important that you focus on the strategies that will bring you new leads and also help you be found online by more property owners organically. Here at Goodjuju we specialize in this, and you can reach out to us if you'd like a free consultation for your company.
Want to grow your property management company?
5- Be a True Professional in All Interactions
You can show professionalism via making ethical/unbiased decisions. A good property manager should be able to effectively handle delicate situations (such as, landlord-tenant disputes) by remaining patient, conversing and developing healthy rapports with residents.
By making yourself available to build relationships with tenants, this could often assist in helping obtain further information about living conditions and possible issues with a property that you may not have known otherwise.
You should also have integrity and try to be as transparent as possible (for example, you should not claim that a contractor will service elevators this week when it is actually next month!)
And of course, a property manager should always aim to provide a high quality of service. By doing this you will build a good reputation in the industry.
6- Adaptability to Changes
Yes, it is important to develop a routine but things happen. As a trusted property management expert, you are expected to juggle many different tasks at the same time. However, these tasks may not always go as smoothly as you want them to (for example, your property management software could fail or a tenant could go MIA).
However, showing that you’re able to be flexible increases your value to others and helps you to make better, more effective and even creative decisions in times of a crisis.
7- Get Proactive and Don't Procrastinate
An experienced property manager knows that delaying or postponing tasks can lead to problems. Once you’ve gained experience, you are likely to be cognizant of which tasks are more important or take priority over others or can be handled simultaneously.
8- Set Smart Goals and Execute
To be a winning company, and a winning person generally, you should set smart goals along with steps detailing how you expect to achieve said goals. Therefore, you can start this process by developing annual goals and break those down into monthly, weekly and then daily goals. Some questions you may ask yourselves when setting goals are:
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What can be done to improve costs?
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What can I do to make my daily workload easier?
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How can I acquire more new clients?
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Are my clients satisfied with my company’s service?
Breaking up your goals further into operational tasks will help you to avoid getting too overwhelmed.
For example, your yearly goal may be to add 50 new clients, the monthly goal could be to ensure you gain 1 new client on average each week, and your daily goal could be to focus on following up with leads, and outreaching to new potential leads.
9- Inspect and Keep Properties Top-Notch
It is highly important for property managers to ensure that properties under their purview are always properly inspected and maintained. There are many benefits to executing regular inspections:
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It assists with preserving the integrity and thereby, increasing the value of those properties
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Confirm reported defects and repair them in a timely manner
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Identify unreported defects and address them accordingly
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Save money by not having to spend it on deferred maintenance and repairs
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Validate insurance policies by ensuring property inspections are executed
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Build relationships with tenants and thereby increase tenant retention
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Determine the overall condition of the properties
10- Help Clients Find and Invest in New Properties
Another way to find success as a property manager is to help current clients to find properties to purchase. If you can assist real estate investors to get good deals on properties that they could possibly rent (either multi-family or single family), they are likely to retain you as their property manager for those properties too.
In this way, you can also differentiate yourself from competitors and increase your revenue. Even better, these are people you have worked with previously, so you would already be aware of what they expect from you, and they would love you for finding them a great deal on a property! You can offer to do a free ROI analysis on some of the potential properties on the market and find them a golden nugget.
11- Be Committed and Stay Positive
The best property managers have an excellent work ethic. They are driven to achieve their goals and many times find creative and alternative ways to resolve problems. Many times property managers even execute tasks outside of their purview to get the job done efficiently and effectively.
The field of property management is dynamic. You are doing so many random tasks throughout the day. The day before won’t be the same as today. Delicate situations and issues may arise that call for professionalism. Even if the day might not be going the way you envision it, it is important for you to remain optimistic. Doing so will help you be able to continue to think critically and better handle any obstacles you may face.
Wrapping Up
Many of the qualities mentioned are those you may already possess through having a good work ethic, while other traits would be gained through experience. Nevertheless, when you become a property manager, there are things that will inevitably go wrong. However, if you are passionate about the property management field, don’t give up. Everyone has to start somewhere! Internalize the above information and execute accordingly, you will be well on your way to achieving success.