What Makes a Great Property Manager?

In organizing my thoughts about making my favorite guacamole for a super bowl party I was thinking about what ingredients would I stir together to make a great property manager?

Here’s my list of ingredients:

Lives to help others:  Focused on serving the customer or tenant

Organized: Files things away, not cluttered so knows how to get to info quickly and keeps things from slipping thru the cracks

Responsive:  Gets back to people as they would want to be responded to

An eye for detail:  Can walk a property and see things that many people might walk past

Curious mind:  Likes to know a lot of different things since the job is very diverse

Able to juggle tasks:  Does not get bogged down – get things delegated or done quickly

Likes change:  This job will keep you moving, work inside and outside, meet new people, work on new tasks daily

Problem solver:  Likes to solve problems – sometimes you will act like a detective to find out where old paperwork is or what is causing a maintenance problem/ where it is coming from

Communicator:  Good on in person, on phone, email, other written communication

Hard worker:  Not afraid of working hard, sometimes working after hours to meet with clients – you will need to work smart to stay on top of your client’s needs

If you have some of these ingredients property management will be interesting work that is well suited to you.  If you don’t have a few ingredients you will be pushed to grow and will become more skilled in these areas. 

Goal Achievement

I am a goal junkie.  Every year I list out my goals in areas like personal, family, business and work on a plan to achieve them.  You need to know where you want to go in order to get there.  Here are some guidelines that have helped me achieve over the years:

1)  Make the goal specific and measurable – a $ amount, # of pounds you want to weigh, etc.

2)  Write your goals down – I write mine down in a journal first and then put them into a spreadsheet (see #3 below)

3)  Break down your annual goal into monthly activities you need to have accomplished to reach your goal – then weekly, then daily;  here is anexample:  I want to earn $48,000 this year, I have to earn $4,000 per month – to earn that I need to sign up 4 accounts of $1,000 each month.  To sign up 4 accounts I have to meet and give proposals to 10 prospects (figuring a 40% close rate) and in order to have 10 prospect meetings in a month I need about 3 prospect meetings a week. – to schedule those 3 weekly appointments I need to call on 100 people a week who may need my service. – to warm up those 100 calls I am going to email and mail those people the week before.

4) Review your goals and progress frequently over the year – you need to keep reminding yourself to stay on track

5)  Celebrate acheivement – when you reach one of your weekly or monthly targets or complete a goal – reward yourself with something – a night out, maybe buy something to enhance your professional image, etc.  don’t over do it – but this will help you stay on track to your goals.

Happy New Year and enjoy mapping out your life and achiving what you set out to do.

Russell

“Secret Service” – Providing Unforgettable Customer Service

I am a big believer in reading books to help me continue to learn and grow.  One of my favorite books early on was the E-Myth Revisited by Micheal Gerber that helped me “work on my business” more instead of “in my business” to have a plan for business growth and consistency of service. 

Beyond cutting costs and improving efficiencies in my business this year I read several books on Customer Service.   Several books by author John DiJulius have really made me stop and question how I am “working on my business”.  He has two books, Secret Service (which is really user friendly) and another follow up book that is more detailed called “What’s the Secret?”.

I love life – and I love growing my business.  Sometimes growing a business can help you see life a bit differently.  I have been working on making my business more automated and efficient to make it easier for employees to deliver great service.  However, DiJulius provides many examples of things that I have overlooked.  This also made me think of other aspects of my life where I may have overlooked something?

Property Management is a service business so I highly recommend you read these two additional books after reading my program of course! .  First E-Myth Revisited to help you see how to plan growing your business and next a book from DiJulius to put in systems and training aides to help deliver consistent unforgettable customer serivice.  Treat yourself to these gifts for the holidays!  Happy Reading & Happy Holidays!

Few or NO Requirements for Managing Single Family Homes

Customer Service Improved by Feedback

I am working on how to improve our business in 2012.  I will be announcing improvements to our staff at the holiday party and to our clients in our holiday newsletter.  For ideas on the changes I seek input throughout the year.  I sent out a customer survey to board members at condo communities we manage in April.  I have broken up the survey into the various parts of our service, manager, accounting, maintenance, etc – and have folks rate on a scale of 1-10.  I also leave blank space to let us know about any current issues and any improvements they would suggest.

Similarly I emailed around to our staff a survey on how to improve our departments, customer service, any complaints they hear from customers, what ideas they have to make their job more efficient, etc – I used a free resource: www.surveymonkey.com for this.

As you grow your business it is key to get feedback.  It will help you prioritise your investments in time and money and will lead to increased referral business.

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