Committed to ensuring your real estate business is productive, compliant and high-performing? Then you’re in need of a first-class property management team! This team will have defined standards in place, they’ll be dynamic, and they’ll be passionate. Their goal will be the same as yours – to make your agency the best it can be!
In today’s blog, hastings+co Trust Account Manager, Sebastian Wright, offers his insights into achieving this goal. Enjoy Sebastian’s top five tips on improving performance in your property management team.
- Begin with an audit of your landlords. Every agency has ‘those’ landlords who expect you to be on call 24/7, prefer to do all their own maintenance (at their own pace) and generally frustrate both property managers and tenants. Analyse whether the time you spend managing these properties is worth the return – it may be time to cut your losses.
- Hire right! Namely, recruit a great receptionist and look after them. Not only is your receptionist the first point of contact for many of your clients, they’re able to assist with many of your tenant’s enquiries. Property managers receive many calls that are quite straightforward to address, rather than taking a message or leaving a client on hold, your receptionist can provide the answer or service required straight away – saving time for all involved.
- Tenant selection and education is critical to the performance of a real estate business. Selecting great tenants keeps work to a minimum, while keeping investors happy. Educating tenants on your company’s procedures allows your staff to spend time on dollar-productive activities, rather than repeating themselves endlessly. Ensure you provide tenants with your company’s leasing guide – explaining how to pay their rent, how to report maintenance, what to expect at routine inspections and what to do in case of an emergency. If your tenants are working with you – business is all the more enjoyable (and profitable)!
- Offer training and development for your staff. The property management landscape is everchanging, so your staff will need to be on top of changes to remain compliant and expert in the industry. Training will give your staff more confidence in their abilities and allow them to do more within the business.
- Embrace technology! There are a multitude of programs that will automate some of the more tedious tasks in property management. There are inspection apps, maintenance apps, online portals and more. If you stumble across a good one – share it with your team – and ask that they keep an eye out too. Team work!
If you need support to implement these property management performance-enhancing solutions, we recommend engaging hastings+co’s expert team to facilitate training and development. We’ll provide comprehensive, structured advice and highlight any areas for improvement. Let’s get started on achieving best practice for your property management department in 2018!
hastings+co : the blog 