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Although the property management industry is largely driven by independent contractors and smaller-sized companies, that doesn’t mean you have to work in a vacuum. In fact, it’s
important that you don’t. Gleaning advice from other industry insiders is a great way to learn from other professionals’ mistakes and victories and also to get tips on increasing profits and productivity as well as best business practices. Best of all, in this high-tech age, you don’t even have to carve time out of your busy schedule to go to networking events and mixers … all of this information is just a few keystrokes away. Following are a few of our favorite property management resources, specifically focusing on the multi-family sector.
1. National Association of Residential Property Managers (NARPM®)
NARPM® is an association that brings property management professionals in the single-family and small residential sectors together. Which makes NARPM® a great resource because, essentially, they’ve done the screening for you. You don’t have to wade through information that won’t apply to your own professional scenario to get to a few nuggets of helpful advice—more than likely all of the topics discussed through NARPM® channels will be highly applicable to you and your business. As an association, NARPM® not only connects you with other industry professionals, but it also points you toward legislative news you need to know about and keeps you in the loop with industry conferences and meet-ups. If you prefer your information in bite-sized nuggets, you can circumnavigate the NARPM® website and go straight to their Facebook page or Twitter feed for networking opportunities and status updates.
2. National Apartment Association (NAA)
Much like NARPM, NAA provides you with a direct line to the information you need and the network you want. Geared toward multi-family housing industry operators, the NAA provides advice on a wide scope of multi-family issues and concerns. With 70 years experience, this association knows their stuff and puts decades of practice and information right at your fingertips. If you’re working with a limited amount of time, be sure to start with their blog, which is updated on a frequent basis.
3. Twitter
A few months ago, we discussed the ways Twitter can work for you as a marketing tool. But it can also work as an information-gathering tool. Twitter is a great way to get information quick. Since tweets can only consist of 140 characters or less, you’re assured that you will obtain your information in the most succinct way possible. On Twitter you can read status updates from industry professionals and organizations to quickly learn about what’s happening on both the micro and macro levels, and be directed to helpful links from outside sources. While you’re on there, be sure to visit the AptChat page, which will lead you to lots of helpful information, including a weekly chat about the apartment industry which occurs in real time every Friday at 4:00 p.m. EST.
4. Facebook
It’s not news that Facebook is one of those online tools that has truly changed the way we all think about communicating and networking. Aside from just working on a personal and entertainment level, though, it can also be a great way to professionally network. Like Twitter, you can gain a lot of information from the status updates of both professionals and businesses. Best of all, though, Facebook allows you to virtually meet and connect with your industry peers, whether they are local or across the country. The opportunities to develop relationships and gain new information on Facebook are virtually endless. And, best of all, its platform is extremely user-friendly.
5. Blogs
There are any number of blogs on the internet today that can help you find the sort of information you’re looking for, whether it be tips on real estate investing, property maintenance guides, or marketing strategies. The trick is to identify those blogs that work best for you and your own personal business goals. Maybe you prefer a professional tone; or perhaps a chatty, humorous take on the business is for you. Whatever your preference is, we can guarantee that the perfect blog is out there for you. As with anything else, referrals are often the best way to go. Once you find a blog you enjoy, take a look at their links or blogroll and begin web surfing from there. The NAA has a great blogroll to get you started. Here at Buildium, some of our favorites are M Brewer Group and
All Property Management.
When it comes to networking, one-on-one contact will always be important, no matter how prevalent the internet and social networking sites are. But in a time-pressed industry, it’s helpful to know how much information is always just a few mouse clicks away. Be sure to share some of your favorite online hot spots with us in the comments section below!
Update: We forgot to list Multifamily Insiders, which is a great social network for multifamily professionals.
4 Comments | Property Management | Tagged: #aptchat, all property management, apartment, association, blog, Blogroll, estate, facebook, family, high tech, management, mbrewer, multi, multi-family, multifamily, NAA, narpm, productivity, property, real, real estate, twitter | Permalink
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Creating a work/life balance sometimes feels impossible. Work has to get done and sacrifices need to be made. If the recommendations from our last post didn’t convince you that a work/life balance is possible, take a look at these links.
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If you’re reading this blog, chances are you are dedicated to doing your job right. But just as much as doing your job right involves knowing your business and completing necessary
tasks efficiently and effectively, it also means taking care of yourself. After all, if you’re worn down and stressed out, chances are your work will ultimately suffer for it, no matter how dedicated you are. So for all of you workaholics out there, yes! Believe it or not, you should consider taking care of yourself and making a concerted effort to find some downtime nothing short of a vital part of doing your job right.
But even if you are convinced that creating a good work/life balance is something you should attain, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s simple to do in this industry. Following are a few tips for finding the time you need.
1. Create a back-up system.
Just because you need a break doesn’t mean that all work-related issues will grind to a halt. In order to make sure everything gets taken care of whether you’re in the office or not, it’s important to have a back-up system in place. Depending upon your situation, a back-up system may consist of extra staff on hand to make sure someone is there to address tenant concerns or property issues 24/7 or just an answering service to ensure that tenants’ calls are answered no matter what time of day they come in.
2. Make sure your back-up system is one you can trust.
Having a back-up system in place is only half the battle. After all, how relaxed and disengaged from work can you really be if you’re constantly worrying that things are falling through the cracks or not being taken care of? Invest the time necessary to make sure your back-up system—whatever form it may take—is fully aware of policies and regulations and knows how to deal with the variety of issues that may arise in your absence. Consider this effort to be an investment not only in your business, but also in yourself.
3. Prioritize.
Know that sooner or later, something will come up while you’re off-duty. And also know that, while it’s obviously important to resolve issues efficiently, there are also some things that can wait for a few hours. For example, if you get a call from a tenant about a dripping faucet on a Sunday afternoon, chances are you can wait until Monday morning to resolve the problem.
4. Create a schedule.
While property management may not be a traditional nine-to-five job, this doesn’t mean you can’t establish a set schedule for yourself. Let tenants and property owners know what days you will be taking off on a weekly basis and whom they should contact in your absence. Also, consider your own vacation time just as much of a priority as you do for the rest of your staff. If your staff has two weeks off a year, so should you.
Doing a good job is important—we all know that. But it’s all too easy for property managers to neglect drawing the line between work and non-work hours. While your property may keep going 24 hours a day every day, it doesn’t mean that you have to.
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At times, matching customer (tenant) requests with your client’s (property owner’s) interests can be tricky. These links offer up some of the best customer service techniques for gracefully dealing with sticky situations.
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“The customer is always right.” Chances are, you’ve heard (and perhaps even doled out) this bit of advice many times over your property management career.
Obviously, there’s a lot to be said for applying this philosophy to your own business dealings. Particularly in an age of automated electronic service, there is so much to be said for making each of your clients feel as though they are special and well cared for. The bottom line is that, these days, good, attentive customer service is very much the exception rather than the rule. Which is great, great news for property managers who find themselves in one of the few high-touch industries where it’s still possible to actually provide one-on-one, memorable customer service.
That’s the good news.
More difficult is the fact that, though property management may be a high-touch industry that affords you the opportunity to make an impact on your clients, chances are when it comes to customers, you’re juggling a whole lot of them at once. Not only are you contending with the task of keeping the property owners that sign your checks happy but, in many ways, tenants are also your customers. Which means, depending upon your situation, you may have many, many customers to please. And sometimes, the best interests of your tenants and property owners simply don’t align. So what exactly are you supposed to do when situations like these arise? After all, you need to protect your property owner’s assets, but you will ultimately fail your property owner if you are unable to balance his best interests with those of his tenants, ultimately resulting in increased vacancy rates and a loss of rental income.
All of this is to say that, especially in property management, it’s often impossible for every customer to be right, if being right implies that each customer always gets exactly what she asks for. What this does not mean, however, is that every customer can’t be a happy one.
Let’s look at this in practice. Say you have a long-term tenant who is adamant that you cut down a tree outside of his window that’s blocking his view of the park across the street. You know that your property owner will not want the tree to come down because not only does it aesthetically enhance the property and lower energy costs by providing shade, but it would also cost thousands of dollars to pull up the tree. On the other hand, you also know that the property owner would be extremely displeased to lose a long-term, reliable tenant—not to mention the steady rental income that he represents.
In the end, you know that the tree must stay, but you must also find a way to keep your tenant happy and, most importantly, to keep him in your property owner’s unit. So while your tenant (your customer in this scenario) can’t necessarily get his way, you can still let him think that he’s right by executing the following strategy:
In the end, most customers will be more concerned with feeling their needs and concerns are being taken seriously and attended to than that their precise desired outcome is met. And in this business, that is the most crucial part of customer service: Ensuring that each customer feels he or she is right … even when they’re not.
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If you read the previous blog post and still aren’t convinced that to-do lists are your bag, here are some alternative means to achieving the five positive results to-do lists offer.
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There are those of us that like making to-do lists, and those of us that don’t. It can be easy to chalk this up to a personal preference: Either you’re a list person or you’re not. But even
if you don’t consider to-do lists to be your style, there are many reasons you should incorporate them into your work process.
We know, we know. With so much on your plate already, you simply don’t have the time or infrastructure to add one more task to your daily routine. But the beauty of to-do lists is, although they may represent another step in your workflow, they’re extremely easy to make and will save you tenfold when it comes to time and efficiency. And if you’re still not sold, here are five good reasons why you should consider using to-do lists on a daily basis.
1. Jog Your Memory
Property management is one of those fields where one day can differ drastically from the next. Also, because you’re dealing with a host of people including tenants, vendors, and property owners, you may well have dozens of small (but nonetheless important) tasks to do for a variety of people. No matter how professional and organized you are, it can be all too simple to let one of those tasks fall through the cracks. Writing down the phone calls you have to make and emails you need to reply to on a daily basis will go a long way toward guaranteeing you stay on the ball and keep all of your clients and tenants happy.
2. Manage Your Time
Nothing is more overwhelming than feeling like you have more tasks to do than there are hours in a day. When you complete tasks as they come to mind, they’re not necessarily being done in a logical order and, therefore, time is almost assuredly being wasted. If, for example, you know ahead of time that you have to return three phone calls and run across town to show a unit, you can plot out your day so that you are multi-tasking, making these calls while you make the cross-town drive. Without a to-do list, chances are you’ll complete tasks as they come to mind which can ultimately result in lost time.
3. Know Where You Stand
At the end of a long day, it can all too easily become a blur. You know that you worked hard all day but can hardly remember what happened that morning. Crossing items off of a to-do list will provide a black and white look at where you stand, what needs to be done, and what projects and tasks have been effectively resolved.
4. Build Your Reputation Through Reporting
One of the ways to-do lists can help better your business is by providing a clear means of demonstrating your efficacy to property owners. Again, it can be easy to forget exactly what you accomplished last week when you’re already looking ahead to what needs to be done next week. Task-tracking is the perfect way to keep track of what you’ve done, which can then be reported to bosses and higher-ups.
5. Maximum Results for Minimal Expenditure
When you think about it, if there was a product out there that offered you increased efficiency, productivity, and project tracking, you’d likely be willing to pay a significant amount of money for it. To-do lists are free and offer all of these results. Not only are they no-cost but even better, they require only the most minimum time expenditure on your part. All you have to do is build five minutes (or even less) into the beginning or end of your day to jot down all the tasks you have to accomplish and viola! You’re done. And if that sounds like too much, just keep a running tab of to-do items as they come up.
For more helpful information on creating effective to-do lists, be sure to check out the following links:
Ten Tips to Create a To-Do List Like a Pro
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Preventing wear and tear requires you be on top of things at all times. The following links will help you do just that.
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Wear and tear is a fact of life for every landlord. Since we’ve already spent some time on this blog looking at how to tell the difference between damage and wear and tear, let’s talk about the specifics of what to expect when it
comes to basic apartment fix-it work and how to stay ahead of the maintenance game.
Generally speaking, the best time to take care of wear and tear on a unit is between tenants. And often, this goes beyond just doing a thorough clean and making sure that everything is spic n’ span for your next tenant. While it’s so obvious that this between-tenant downtime is the perfect opportunity to take care of any and all outstanding issues, all too often things are still neglected. Whether it’s because the window of time between tenants is so short or expenditures are already up for the month, it can be easy to let the little things fall to the wayside until next time. Our best advice? Don’t.
No matter how small a wear and tear item seems, no matter how loudly the voice inside your head tells you it’s okay to leave that tiny scratch on the hardwood floor until the next time you flip the apartment (“But it’s so small!”), don’t delay. As we’ve discussed so many times before on this blog, all too frequently little things become big things if they are left unattended. Also, the best way to ensure that your property maintains—or even better yet increases—it’s value is to constantly stay on top of everything.
A few things that will help you make sure those wear and tear fixes are taken care of immediately:
To help with your checklist, we like the tips provided from Rental Housing Online. Based on that, we suggest adding the following to your checklist every time a unit turns over.
Wear and Tear Checklist
Finally, remember that although flipping units provides a great chance to go in and take care of wear and tear issues, you should always remain on top of general maintenance and housekeeping. Encourage tenants to let you know when little things need to be fixed or repaired (and thank them every time they do so). When you are asked to visit an occupied unit for any reason, keep an eye out for wear and tear issues that need to be resolved and ask your tenant for the access necessary to resolve them immediately. Finally, apply the five-minute rule. Whenever you see an issue anywhere on your property that can be fixed in five minutes or less, don’t delay. Fix it immediately. In the long run, you will save much more than five minutes’ worth of time and effort.
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