What makes a property management company successful?

A successful property management company is one that can build positive long-term relationships with its tenants and multifamily clients, establish credibility in the industry, and grow over time. Success, however, doesn’t come without planning, seeing the big picture, and attention to detail. What does it take to reach the pinnacle of success in your property management company? In this article, we discuss how to position your property management company for success.

1) Adapt to an evolving property management landscape

The property management industry continues to evolve. At the start of the pandemic, property management companies completely shifted toward operating their business and servicing their existing and potential new renters online. For example, more residents preferred online payment as a convenient, contactless way to pay their rent. Property management companies also conducted more virtual unit tours. Since trends like these are likely to continue into the future because of the convenience they offer, property management companies must be able to anticipate its impact on their company and the services they provide to tenants.

Steps you can take to adapt to a changing landscape:

a) Keep an eye out for industry trends. The best way to do this is to subscribe to local news outlets, technology news, or industry news sites. Trends to keep an eye on in the multifamily industry include new technology, shifts in renter preferences, location preferences, demographics, rent increases or decreases, and others. These trends will help to enhance properties to make them more attractive for new renters, improve relations with your current renters, and increase retention.

b) Create a risk management plan for your business. Once you’ve identified the trends that could either present opportunities or threats to your business, it’s time to create a plan for how you will address these risks. In the plan, you should include who is responsible for all elements of the plan, the budget for each activity, how success will be measured, and how you will communicate the plan to employees in your organization. Revisit the plan every 6 months to understand how well the company was able to address these risks and make any adjustments as needed.

c) Connect with your tenants and multifamily clients regularly on what challenges they are facing, that may have arisen due to a change in the economic, political, or technological climate. Identify ways to adapt to those challenges and educate them.

2) Build and retain quality, professional management team

According to Unicom’s research, hiring and retaining quality staff is the biggest challenge that property management companies face. A lack of quality candidates in the market and not meeting the increased demand for property managers are likely driving factors.

Steps to build and retain a professional management team:

a) Emphasize the importance of continuing education - Your property management company can do this by encouraging existing employees to obtain certification and to hire new managers who have either received their certification or are in the process of doing so. Educational classes help managers to develop the skills and gain knowledge to provide quality services to clients and tenants. Many trade organizations such as The Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM), National Association of Realtors (NAR), National Apartment Association (NAA), National Association of Residential Property Managers (NARPM), and many more offer a wide range of programs to get accredited. These programs cover topics such as finances, ethics, leadership, real estate law, fair housing, tenant relations, and more.

b) Understanding staff workload - Having enough staff on board to manage your portfolio of properties is important so that they aren’t spread too thin. That way, they can also dedicate the optimal amount of time that each property deserves. Your average client size, the total number of properties, and how complex each property is, will help to shift the workload evenly among your staff.

c) Focus on building positive company culture - Foster a positive company culture that will help retain employees long after they have joined. Property management is a challenging and demanding job, therefore, a company culture that facilities transparency, cooperation, and respect goes a long way.

When you are able to successfully build and retain a professional team of property managers, you’ll experience less employee churn, increased productivity, satisfied managers, and happier tenants. A win-win situation all the way through!

Prioritize customer service

Focusing on customer service enables property management companies to improve tenant satisfaction and retain them for the long-term.

How to deliver customer service your renters will appreciate you for:

a) Communicate - Every customer satisfaction strategy starts and ends with good communication. Be transparent, compassionate, and encourage two-way communication with your renters. That means, keeping them informed on important information about their unit, providing them with a way to get access to 24x7 property information, and giving them an outlet to contact you.

b) Collect tenant feedback - Actively listen to what your tenants are saying and taking action on it shows that you value their opinion. It also shows that you are flexible and can work with their suggestions.

When you place customer service at the heart of your operations, your company is better positioned to build and sustain a positive reputation and increase retention from renters who will continue to renew their lease with you.