Are you a property manager who feels stuck? While it can be easy to get caught up in the day-to-day tasks of managing rental properties, it’s also important to focus on improving your business and growing your skills.
In this article, we have detailed a list of habits that can help any property manager succeed. Below, you will find out how to use technology to your advantage, create an effective plan to grow your clientele, and stay organized and productive as you navigate the property management industry.
So, if you’re ready to find out exactly how to increase your success as a property manager, keep reading!
1. Remember Communication is Key
The first step to increasing the success of your property management company is to improve your systems of communication with clients, tenants, and anyone who will be in contact with you and your business.
Our best tip for this step is to create templates for everything. Templates and forms will help to streamline the communication process, especially with tenants. For example, create a maintenance request form for your tenants to use if they need repairs done on the property.
Include the template on your property management website, and allow tenants to upload and fill in the template when they need to make a maintenance request. This will prevent miscommunications caused by disorganization and will help you to address concerns quickly.
2. End the Procrastination Cycle
Procrastination is a habit that most of us are guilty of from time to time. Tasks build up and become overwhelming, and the longer we leave them, the more urgent they become. This becomes a stressful cycle that can harm the success and efficiency of your growing property management business!
The mark of a truly successful property manager is often the ability to get things done as soon as possible. Similarly, it’s important to be strategic enough to know which tasks take priority on your to-do list. Identify the most urgent responsibility you have and take care of it as soon as you can.
As your property management company continues to grow and you get busier and busier, it will become increasingly important for you to have a strong work ethic and solid organizational skills. Building this habit will help you and your business exponentially in the long run.
3. Stay Up to Date on the Property Management Industry
In the rental property business, things are frequently changing and evolving, and it is crucial for any successful property manager to consistently stay up to date. Keep up with things such as changes in local rules and regulations, local average rent costs, and any other real estate-related trends that have emerged recently.
In order to stay successful in property management, you need to always be aware of what is going on both in your areas of operations and in the industry at large. This will give you a competitive edge over other property management companies.
Rental property owners want to hire a property manager that they can trust, and this includes knowing what you’re talking about! Always continue learning, and your business will never be stagnant.
4. Always Keep a Positive Attitude
Managing rental properties can be difficult and stressful work. You have to consistently put out fires and deal with things such as disputes, problem tenants, maintenance issues, and more.
In order to both succeed in the business and stay sane as you do so, it is imperative to maintain a positive, can-do attitude throughout each and every challenge you are faced with. This will help you stay professional in disputes, and stay calm and collected when the rental market isn’t going the way you would like.
5. Implement a Solid System to Find High-Quality Tenants
Finding high-quality tenants is important for any property management company’s success. But how exactly can you ensure that the tenants you choose will abide by all the terms of your lease? The answer is simple: start implementing an effective tenant screening process.
A problem tenant can cause a long list of issues for you, your business, your clients, and their properties. This includes things like damage to the property you are managing, tenant disputes, angry neighbors, lost income, or even eviction.
To avoid these issues, you will need an effective system in place to screen applicants before they sign a lease. This system should help you streamline processes such as background checks, credit checks, security deposits, and any other related paperwork.
However, to have a truly effective tenant screening process, you must still include the human aspect of choosing a tenant. Take the time to call an applicant’s former landlord or property managers, and schedule a meeting over the phone or face-to-face with the prospective tenant to see if they would be a good match for the rental property.
6. Think Big!
As anyone in the industry can attest, property management as a whole is quickly evolving. This is mainly due to useful new technology that helps property management companies continue to grow and succeed. Mobile and cloud-based software are becoming increasingly popular among property management companies.
These are often designed to make the tasks associated with managing a rental property more streamlined and easier to keep up with. In order to continue to succeed as a property manager in modern times, you must be able to adapt and even embrace these new aspects of the industry. Allow the abundance of new technology to make your life easier!
7. Implement a Long-Term Strategy and Set Goals for Your Success
While this step may seem like a no-brainer, you’d be surprised by how few property managers create solid goals and strategies for their companies. The truth is, setting goals for yourself and your company, and then implementing a long-term strategy to help you meet those goals can help you stay focused and driven.
Before setting a long-term goal paired with a solid strategy on how to get there, it’s important to ask yourself the following questions:
- In the past, how has your property management company done when it comes to maintaining long-term, high-quality tenants?
- Is there anything in your business approach that could be improved to better serve the property owners and tenants that you work with?
- What can you do to reduce expenses?
- Are the tenants and property owners that you work with satisfied with the services that you are providing?
- How efficient is your process when it comes to collecting rent payments, deposits, and other funds? How could this process be improved?
- How consistently are you gaining new clients and growing as a business?
8. Gain Confidence in Your Decision Making
Each person has their own method when it comes to decision-making. Whether you go by your gut feeling, strategy, or extensively research your options, each method has its own merit. Regardless of how you make your decisions, make sure to stand by them, and deal with any negative outcomes as soon as you can.
9. Get Curious
One habit that every successful property manager has is to maintain a healthy level of curiosity. By doing this, you can continue to learn new methods of doing things, gain insight from others in your field, and always continue to learn.
10. Engage with Your Tenants
As a property manager, it is extremely beneficial to foster positive and professional relationships with the tenants of each property that you run. Creating genuine connections with your tenants will only benefit you and your company in the long run!
Take the time to build personal relationships with your tenants. Learn what you can about their lives and always treat them with kindness. By engaging with your tenants, you can improve your business in countless ways.
These benefits include maintaining a more stable tenant retention rate, creating a respectful environment between yourself and your tenants, and more.
How can you improve your engagement with the tenants of the rental properties you manage? The following may help!
- Make time for a quick chat when you see them. Ask about their lives or their interests, or what they would like to see improve when it comes to the rental property.
- Always be transparent with your tenants.
- Train your staff to provide each and every client with only the best service possible. This will help you remain consistent throughout your team when it comes to your services and their quality.
11. Make a Plan for Your Company’s Growth
To be truly successful in property management, you must be consistently looking for new opportunities for growth in your business. This mainly involves optimizing each and every opportunity you get to market your business and grow your clientele.
But where do you start? The first step to optimizing your property management company’s growth is to invest time in your local real estate groups, property management networks, and any other place that allows you to market your business online.
12. Always Make Sure Your Properties Are Clean, Tidy, and Prepared
You may be surprised at how important a first impression can be. This is especially true for rental properties and property management companies! How you choose to present your company and the rental properties that you manage on your website can make all the difference between gaining a new client and losing out.
Before a new tenant moves in, invest time and energy into ensuring that your property is looking its best, in addition to being fully functional. Do a thorough inspection of each room in the home.
By making pre-tenancy inspections a priority, you can often identify early issues in the home and ensure that your tenant is moving into a high-quality rental property. Check everything from appliances and fixtures to windows and doors.
Further, make sure that when you are showing your rental properties to prospective tenants, everything is clean and tidy. Include only high-quality and well-lit photos in your listings. The more time you invest in how your property is presented, the quicker you will fill any vacancies that you may be faced with.
13. Apply Yourself to the Fullest
To achieve success as a property manager, you must be driven and motivated to reach your goals. A successful property manager will avoid distractions and procrastination. Instead, they will focus on themselves, with unrelenting determination to continue growing and improving in their field.
Successful property managers go above and beyond to ensure that each of their goals is met. After meeting each goal, they will set new ones, to help them reach bigger heights than ever before.
If you want to become a successful property manager, it is important to do the following:
- Commit to consistently learning new and innovative ways to improve your skills in property management.
- Join associations to increase your credibility among your peers.
- Dedicate yourself to researching and reading books on everything that is related to property management.
- Attend seminars to allow you to learn from those who are ahead of you in your field.
14. Implement Quarterly Property Inspections
As a property manager, it is crucial to implement regular and thorough inspections of every property that is under your care. Failing to do this can result in a variety of unfortunate consequences, including unhappy tenants, maintenance issues, and your insurance coverage being affected.
By scheduling regular inspections of your rental properties, you can help to preserve and increase the value of the home. Additionally, these inspections will allow you to catch any potential problems early.
This can prevent larger, more costly issues down the road. As a plus, your tenants will be more content to live in your property if they know that you care about the quality of their living environment. This will increase your tenant retention and lower your vacancy rates.
The ideal schedule for your rental property inspections should be every three months. It can also be a useful practice to hire a professional inspector to take a look at your properties for you.
15. Organize Your Paperwork
When you are a property manager, you can expect to deal with a lot of paperwork on a daily basis. It’s important to be able to keep up with this responsibility, all while handling your other tasks and keeping up with the latest industry trends.
While this may seem impossible, there are ways to do this effectively! If you have a solid filing system in place, you can save endless amounts of time and energy. This allows you to focus more of your efforts on things such as handling disputes, engaging with tenants, and keeping your clients happy.
For example, these are some of the types of tenant-related paperwork you will have to get in order:
- Maintenance requests.
- Records of rent payments.
- Paperwork related to move-in and move-out inspections.
- Correspondence records.
- Security deposits from tenants and security deposit refunds.
- Eviction paperwork.
- Records related to lease violations and their corresponding action documents.
16. Choose to See Obstacles as Opportunities
One of the most important parts of succeeding in any business is choosing to see each and every obstacle you are faced with as an opportunity for growth. While many people see obstacles as overwhelming problems that can only set them back, it is crucial to use these adversities to your advantage.
Maintain a proactive attitude and you will only improve. This is especially true when it comes to running a property management company.
17. Learn from Everything
Everything that you encounter as you navigate the property management field can be learned from. This includes your mistakes, your colleagues, your clients, and your local network.
When you are a property manager, you are required to be knowledgeable in a wide range of topics in order to succeed. While you don’t necessarily have to be an expert in every field, having a basic understanding of every aspect of property management is crucial.
For example, it is simply not enough to know how to effectively care for a rental property. You must also be able to understand things such as online marketing, accounting, and many other fields and topics that are related to real estate.
If you are a well-rounded property manager who is knowledgeable in as many topics as possible, you can increase your marketability exponentially.
18. Hone Your Organizational Skills
By improving your organizational skills, you will be able to take on anything that comes your way. Which, in the field of property management, can be a lot! Luckily, the latest technology has been incredibly useful when it comes to keeping everything in order.
By optimizing your use of technology, you can make most tasks related to property management more effective and streamlined. Technology can help you find high-quality tenants, address maintenance issues quickly, and keep track of ongoing landlord-tenant disputes.
Here are some useful tips for any property manager who is looking for a boost in their organization skills:
- Implement strong methods of communication with the property owners that you work with.
- Know which tasks you should outsource or delegate, and which ones you should do yourself.
- Always have a backup plan.
- Minimize your paperwork to the best of your ability.
19. Define Your Expectations
When it comes to building a positive relationship with your tenants, you need to communicate your expectations. Set clear boundaries with your tenants. If you are too strict, you may create unnecessary tension. However, if you are too casual, you may be taken advantage of.
20. Manage Your Time Wisely
When you work in property management, you often have to handle a lot of things at once. From communicating with tenants to writing new leases, there can be unfortunate consequences that come with failing to manage your time wisely.
Luckily, when you learn the most effective ways to use your time, you will be able to handle tasks more efficiently. To properly manage your time, create a routine and do your best to diligently stick to it.
The best way of approaching this is to create a large, visual to-do list that you can follow easily. However, avoid the common temptation to stay at your desk and answer emails and phone calls all day. Instead, it is often more productive to break up your day into sections that are dedicated to completing one task at a time.
21. Always Act with Integrity
As a property manager, acting with integrity will only build you a positive reputation among your peers. Always match your actions with your words, and treat everyone fairly and kindly.
Your company’s name is always on the line when it comes to how you choose to interact with clients and peers. Fostering positive relationships with those around you is the best recipe for success.
22. Always Be One Step Ahead
By anticipating potential pitfalls and obstacles, you will be far more likely to avoid problems and run your business more smoothly.
But how can you apply a proactive mindset to your everyday tasks? These are just some things you can do to help you avoid problems:
- Send out rent payment reminders to your tenants five days before the payment is due.
- Send out surveys to find out how you can better serve your clients.
- Enable recurring payments.
- Require your tenants to have renters insurance.
23. Confidence Goes a Long Way
Once you have worked hard to become an expert in your field, it’s important to know your worth and allow yourself to feel proud of your accomplishments! Trust yourself and your expertise.
24. Avoid Getting Complacent
If you’re in the business of managing rental properties, then you know that the industry is constantly evolving. The best way to improve your business is to keep up with the changes and avoid falling into a complacent mindset!
25. Be Dependable for Your Clients
It is crucial to be available for your clients anytime they may need you. Due to the nature of your job, you will need to work with all types of people and keep them happy. After all, you are not just managing properties, but people’s homes!
Be timely in your responses to emails and questions. If you are unable to respond immediately, give your clients a heads-up and offer sincere apologies. Regardless of the situation, it’s important to show your clients that you care.
Bottom Line
Property management may not always be easy, but it can be extremely rewarding for anyone who is willing to dedicate themselves to their craft, learn new skills, and always seek improvement.
By following these habits, you and your property management company can reach every one of your goals.
