A guest post by Gabriel Knight, Mortgage Fit, Chicago, IL

While rental property investment might look like a rewarding and positive venture, managing both tenants and properties can be overwhelming. As such, you may need to hire a professional property manager to make your life easier. This is an especially good idea for rental property owners who have no experience or don’t want to spend their time managing a rental property on their own. With a property manager, you’ll be able to ask mortgage questions if you run into any trouble with your property. Here are some reasons why you should hire a residential property manager to manage your residential property properly.

Set the right price – You can look online to see what the other landlords are charging for the same kind of property to get an idea of the rent you should charge, but a good property manager will do a complete analysis of the market to choose a rental sweet spot. You’ll have the right balance between increasing your monthly income and preserving low rents.

Search for the right tenants – An experienced property manager can help you find the right tenants. The property manager also takes care of all the details related to your property, like sorting through legal issues, evaluating credit reports, verifying employment, performing security checks, and checking references. You’ll wind up with the best fit between property and tenant.

Collect and deposit the rent payments – If you have any experience in billing, you know that collecting payments from customers is not an easy task. Property managers have efficient systems to collect monthly rent from tenants in a timely manner. This is important when you’ve reached the threshold of properties that makes collecting rent too time-consuming.

Proper marketing of your property – An experienced property manager knows exactly where and how to advertise and market your property. He also knows how to time advertisements so your property can be rented quickly, thus avoiding long-term vacancies.

Maximize profits – Hiring a property manager will help you maximize profits on your rental property. A property manager usually receives a percentage of your property’s monthly rent in return for their services. This rate ranges between 6% and 10%, which is usually less than what you’d pay to hire a team of professionals to handle the things the property manager will handle/streamline.

Landlord/Tenant Relations – In addition to finding good tenants, a property manager will stay on top of things to maintain a good relationship between the tenants and the landlord. The property manager takes care of routine inspections and deals with every situation that comes up.

By hiring a good residential property manager, you’ll successfully reduce the risks involved in the real estate game. This makes the things much simpler and more enjoyable for you.

By Salvatore Friscia, San Diego Premier Property Management, San Diego, CA

I recently read somewhere that property managers are slowly spiraling down the trust ladder towards the likes of lawyers and used car salesmen. I know this is a strong statement and no disrespect to lawyers and used car salesman, both honorable and needed professions, but once the public brands a group in that fashion it’s hard to shake the stereotype. So, has it really gotten that bad for us property managers?

Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration and I personally don’t believe it’s accurate. But if you ask a room full of real estate investors if they’ve had bad experiences with property managers in the past, unfortunately you will be bombarded with stories that will leave you shaking your head in disbelief. So how can it be that an industry so reliant upon good management be saddled with so many poor property management experiences? I would like to think it’s just a love/hate relationship but honestly, in my opinion, it comes down to the business basics.

As a widely considered expert in the field, and owner of SDPmanagement, a San Diego based residential property management firm, I’ve had the opportunity over the last decade to witness numerous property management offices that consistently underachieve. As a consultant I will review systems and procedures that lead to less than positive feedback from clientele, and make subtle but effective suggestions that can alter the overall experience in a positive fashion. With social media becoming the new unfiltered Better Business Bureau for the public, a negative experience is just a few keystrokes away from Internet infamy and branding your business as less than stellar. This is not rocket science but unfortunately many property managers are overworked and underappreciated to the point that basic customer service skills sometimes take a back seat when dealing with clients, applicants, and tenants.

Nevertheless, all excuses aside, please understand it is virtually impossible regardless of your business acumen to please all the people all the time, and unfortunately negative reviews will be posted. The point is that any opportunities to self-evaluate your business and make improvements are always warranted. In an attempt to stay away from stereotypes and bolster a strong trustworthy image I ask you to consider the following; are your phones answered by the 3rd ring and your company name used in the greeting? Are your showings scheduled with rental managers who are on time for the showings? Do company representatives wear company branded logo shirts to show unity and cohesion? Is your office tidy and clean presenting a professional atmosphere? Do you handle adversity and problems professionally? And last but not “lease” do you offer property management with a smile?

By Linda Day Harrison, theBrokerList, Chicago, IL

Ever call or visit a business, ask a basic question, and receive an answer of “I do not know?” To make matters worse, there is not even an offer of “I will find out”, or “Let me ask a supervisor.” It is rather scary and it is also profound. In business we work so hard to build our companies, market our properties, or create features and services, all to find out nobody in our own company has a clue!

While visiting a business recently, I asked a simple question pertaining to a geographic location. Of course, the woman on duty had no clue. She did not know what highway exit she was located at, nor could she tell me east, west, north, or south! That is a huge pet peeve to me. How can you permit your employees to be that completely oblivious of their surroundings? It is unconscionable, but so very common.

Well there is a solution! The solution is so basic that it is hard to believe it is not done more often. Create an on-going FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) for your team. Every single company, and property you manage, should have a FAQ. Employees should have this at their desk or on their desktop. Digital or paper, laminated or in a plastic sleeve, does not matter! No matter what, there needs to be an at-a-glance tool so the most basic of customer questions can be answered. Let me be perfectly clear here, it is not the employee’s job to know this! It is your job as the property manager, leasing director, management company owner, or brokerage company owner to make sure they know!

For instance, if the FAQ is for a building, the top question should be directions (from the north, south, east, and west). The directions should include the address of the property, an easy to explain set of instructions on how to enter your property, and where to park! And for goodness sake, do not ignore public transportation. If someone calls your property and asks what bus to take, you had better know. Think about how insane it would be for someone to call your company, to ask about renting your property, but then not be able to tell them how to get there! Believe me it happens to the best of us, but with an FAQ as a standard across all desks and desktops it does not matter because everyone will be equipped with the knowledge and power to assist a customer!

Consider the most basic questions like:

• How do I get to the property?
• How long have you been in business?
• When was this building built?
• How tall is the building? (feet and stories)
• How big is the property? (acres and square feet)
• Is there a post office nearby?
• Where is the nearest hospital?

If your staff does not have this information at the ready, at the worst it could be the difference between a life or death situation! Everyone should know how to get to the nearest hospital or storm shelter, etc. Sometimes we are so busy with the stuff that comes up day after day and is asked over and over that we forget to learn other important information about our company and properties.

Capturing this knowledge and turning it into an FAQ can make a tremendous tool for marketing as well as day to day assistance when your customers or clients call!

By Jo-Anne Oliveri, ireviloution intelligence, Brisbane, Australia

Does this make sense to you?

Last week I was in discussions with a respected sales agency. This agency had a huge sales business with 12 or so sales consultants during the peak of the region’s boom. They now only have the directors, three of them, working as sales consultants.

Due to the huge decline in the property sales market they decided to focus their attention on their property management business. They recognized that this side of the business provided constant cash flow and kept their doors open during the shrinking sales market. It also helped to stabilize their dwindling cash reserves.

In recognizing the need to manage their property management operations they assigned one of the directors to focus his attention 100% on property management. All good and logical thinking.

They planned their strategies for business stabilization and growth during the declining sales market. The business owners decided that buying a rent roll would be part of their strategy in growth and increasing market share. So far, so good. Good planning with purpose, logic, and strategy.

They were satisfied with the purchase of the rent roll. However, moving forward, here is where they start dropping the ball. The director is sick of property management – he wants to go back to selling. He cannot work out that listing managements is in fact the same as listing properties for sale, it requires the same skills. Does he not recognize the fact that managing a property generates immediate cash flow and long term wealth creation? Does he not realize that by having a solid property management business with a respected reputation he will generate sales? Apparently not.

The director was complaining about the fact that a property owner he knew listed their property for sale with another agency. What is absurd about this is that the property is managed through his agency and he has built a relationship with this property owner over a period of six years. In disbelief he called the property owner and asked him why he listed with another agency. The property owner told the director that he had no problem at all with him but he had major problems with his property management business.

Wow, there you have it, straight from the property owner’s mouth. Wouldn’t you as a business owner jump on this and get your property management business sorted. Well here’s where I was completely floored. I asked him how much the commission would have been if he sold the property. The commission would be in the vicinity of $15,000. Ouch, that’s a lot of money left on the table (especially in tight markets)! A declaration that would make you take action. Apparently not in this instance. He doesn’t want to believe that other clients may feel the same way and believes that this is a one off instance. At first he was seething that he had lost an “in the bag” sale due to the incompetency of his property management team. By the end of the meeting and once he started realizing that his property management services are a result of his and the other directors lack of direction and support, he started blaming the property owner for being disloyal and now believed that this loss of listing was a “one only”. Needless to say, I was quite shocked at how he had turned the whole situation around and now there was no blame at all on the agency.

Now here is the toe curler. The director then said to me that he had been noticing that a lot of agencies are rebranding their property management business so that it appears to be a different from their sales business. He was considering doing this. He believes this will protect the reputation of the agency’s sales business. You can see why I was shocked at the absurdity of his thinking. Does he really believe that consumers are that naive? Apparently he does.

He asked for my opinion on this. Needless to say, I don’t have to say here on this blog what my opinion is on rebranding your property management business just so consumers can be tricked into believing it is a completely separate entity to the sales business. Even though I do have an opinion on rebranding your property management company, it is certainly not for the reason of hood winking consumers. That is, in my opinion, displaying total disrespect to your consumers and makes no business sense at all. I would much prefer to take the positives from this and understand that as a business owner I’ve now been given feedback that I can take positive action on and turn my business around by creating ways to win back customer loyalty.

Rebrand or improve your business – what would you do?

By Linda Day Harrison, theBrokerList, Chicago, IL

When creating an Internet presence and building a new public website, the first thing you’ll want to do is identify a domain name as close as possible to your company or property name. Don’t bother searching in multiple locations for your potential site’s name — you’re too busy for that! Go straight to a search engine like namechecklist.com.

Create your website on a platform such as WordPress. Put in the time, effort, and money to design and plan the site. Consider paying a designer to create a logo and graphics. Add content to the site, such as (in no particular order):

1. About Us
2. Services Properties and/or Listings
3. Team
4. Executive Bios
5. Contact Us
6. Affiliations
7. Blog
8. Testimonials

After all this work is done — content is added, graphics are selected, colors are finalized, fonts, headlines, and widget boxes are chosen — you (and only you, as you spearheaded the project!) can send out an email to everyone in your contact list to say, “Look! We have a new website and blog!” Yippee!

But then, if you’re like most website owners, the site sits, and sits, and sits. From time to time you might add a blog article, or update listings. If you’re smart, you thought to add a live feed of listings from another database service provider that’s integrated into the site. When new employees come and go, maybe you’ll update the site when you get around to it.

Don’t fall into this trap! Your website should be a living, breathing, active representation of you and your company. Make time to promote on social media. Push out your blog articles to LinkedIn and to all of the LinkedIn groups you belong to (maximum of 50 per person!). Encourage your team to tell all of their contacts about your new website or blog. Ensure that the domain URL is on every single thing you publish or post. Place simple share buttons on your pages or blog posts via the admin tools. Anything less, and you’re virtually guaranteeing that no one will ever share anything about you, your firm, or your great content.

While you’re at it, let your employees have access to sites like Facebook, and encourage them to keep an up-to-date LinkedIn profile (the modern-day business card). Your people and properties will be found and links will be out there in Google, where they can be discovered or exploited by new clients. If your website is found, that means traffic! Traffic is numbers, and numbers mean increased chances that you’ll meet a new client, tenant, or even find a buyer.

And get a Twitter page. Twitter is neither complicated nor difficult to navigate. It will bring t-r-a-f-f-i-c to your firm, which is only a problem if you plan to remain under the radar. Remember, you want every client to see your name in the media or an online content stream.