Property management is a profession that requires a balance of different skills in order to keep both tenants and their landlords happy. This is not necessarily an easy task, as expectations may differ between these two parties significantly. The most successful property managers will not only be able to juggle these different skillsets for one property, but potentially for many across a range of portfolios.
With this in mind, here are our top tips to help ensure you are successful as a property manager.
Good Communication
This is the most essential skill in this profession, as it will allow you to ensure both tenants and landlords are happy with their properties. When it comes to communication, remember that listening is equally as important as speaking. You should make sure to understand the concerns of all your clients and handle them with necessary sensitivity and consideration.
Relaying these concerns is also important. Property managers can act as messengers between tenants and landlords, so it is important that messages are relayed in an accurate and timely manner between these two parties.
Occasionally, the expectations of these two parties will not be aligned. These situations require good negotiation skills to achieve compromise between them. You should be prepared to handle differing points of view to your own, as people will often not share your logic. How you handle these disputes will determine your success as a property manager.
Make Yourself Available
Concerns regarding properties can emerge at any time. Whether the issue is as simple as a tenant reporting a broken appliance, or if its more complicated, property managers should be easy to contact and quick to respond to emerging issues. Make sure you have an out-of-hours response team on call in case of emergencies in one of your managed properties.
Being available is especially important in dealing with landlords living abroad, as they may live in different time zones and have many daily responsibilities they have to deal with. You should be available to update your clients regarding their properties at their convenience, as this will go a long way in ensuring they remain satisfied with your service.
Property management is a highly competitive industry, so high customer satisfaction is essential. Try your best to respond quickly to queries, and offer your most sincere apologies if you are unable to do so.
Be Prepared for Anything
Business will often have long term strategy plans in place to dictate how they act, and property management firms will be no different. Your actions should align with an overarching strategy, and it is good to review your activities to ensure this is the case.
However, this does not mean you should not be prepared for the unexpected. Things can and will go wrong, and they often seem to do so at the most inconvenient times. A universal example of this is the onset of the pandemic, which has greatly changed how all industries are able to act.
You should employ a pragmatic approach to property management, ensuring that you are able to respond to the unexpected. Try to ensure you have the right people and tools at your disposal to help this. It may even be prudent to create crisis plans in anticipation of an emergency, as this can help you to respond in a satisfactory manner when things do go wrong.
Property management is an extremely competitive industry, which means it is essential that your firm stands out from the crowd. These three tips will be of great help, as they will ensure customer satisfaction while also allowing you to manage different properties and clients in an efficient manner – just like leading firms like Atlas Lane Property Management.