Discover 5 Secrets to Success with Your Property Management Company

Running a successful property management company is not something that comes easily. A lot of hard work and dedication goes into building a solid clientele and keeping your reputation spotless. In addition, after building your business, there comes the task of actually managing the properties you have agreed to oversee for your property owners.

Long hours, tenant complaints, financial transparency, and the chaos that comes with filling vacant properties can take a toll on even the most ambitious of property management companies.

So how do successful property managers do it?

Today we will show you how the best property management companies handle all income property-related tasks.

5 Secrets to Becoming a Successful Property Management Company

1. Be Dependable

Your property owners hire you because they want you to manage all things property related. If you cannot be depended on to handle everything that comes your way in regards to your clients’ rental properties, you can guarantee they will not keep paying you to manage their properties.

This means you need to be fully invested in each property you manage. Handling things such as rent collection, evictions, property maintenance and repairs, and much more cannot happen at your convenience. Your job is to handle these items, and anything else required of you by both tenant and property owner, quickly and effectively.

2. Become a Marketer

As a property management company, it is you and your team’s responsibility to market the vacant properties of your clients. This means understanding the current market, the rental properties you manage, and the amenities prospective tenants hope to find available in rentals in your area.

Here are the best ways to improve your marketing skills:

• Stay up to date on current market statistics
• Know what properties similar to your clients’ are leasing for and adjust accordingly
• Create connections with various ad agencies
• Advertise vacancies across many platforms
• Learn what makes a successful vacancy ad and follow through with what you have learned
• Invest in a marketing strategy that brings results

The quicker you can get vacancies filled, the more satisfied your property owners will be. This in turn will make them a customer for life and may even lead to referrals that can help you build your business.

3. Have a Solid Team

It matters a great deal who you hire. Experienced property managers, those who understand the rental property laws, and friendly staff that keep the office running smoothly are going to make all the difference when it comes to your company’s success.

It is also important to be able to delegate responsibilities to various team members. This way, one property manager does not become overwhelmed and begin to falter. Consider hiring a dedicated property manager, a property manager assistant, and a leasing agent. The property manager can handle all serious matters, the assistant can handle all current tenant inquiries, and the leasing agent can help place new tenants in available properties. Teamwork, knowledge, and experience are the keys to success in property management.

4. Know the Laws

As mentioned above, understanding all landlord-tenant laws and regulations at the federal, state, and local levels will not only brand you as a trustworthy company to employ, but will keep you out of trouble when it comes to landlord-tenant disputes.

As the property manager, it is your job to deal with legal matters related to the properties you oversee. This may include things like evictions, property damage, breach of lease agreements, and any other issues your tenant may have. Learn the language of lease provisions, understand proper rent collection procedures and the rules regarding security deposits, and take a refresher on housing discrimination to ensure that you are not at fault should a legal dispute arise. After all, this is what your property owners pay you to do.

5. Stay Organized

Organized and legally complaint recordkeeping is one of the key tasks all successful property management companies do well. You are responsible for collecting management fees from property owners and rent payments from tenants. You approve maintenance requests and repairs, pay your own employees, and have tax issues to deal with each year regarding your own business.

Try using an online payment collection process, invest in software that will keep all the finances in one place, hire a reputable accountant to manage the books, and last of all remain completely transparent with your property owners. This way, should any dispute arise, you can defend your business, or should any audit by the IRS pop up you can rest assured you are okay.

In the end, staying competitive in the property management industry can be tough. However, there are things you can do to become a successful company that property owners want to work with. To wrap up, here are a few more key traits all successful property management companies have:

• Experience in the real estate, business, and rental property industries
• High standards when it comes to rental property upkeep
• An understanding of applicable technological advancements
• Strict screening procedures for placing high quality tenants
• Professional, calm, and educated mindsets
• Ambition to continue building upon success to improve
• An eye for competitors and the drive to surpass them
• Great customer service skills
• Flexibility for when things go wrong (because they will, especially as you build your business)