When you sell or buy a rent roll, often property managers and administrative staff are included as part of the deal. If they’re not happy about the change, your customers, your reputation and your relationships can be at risk of ending up in the wrong hands.

Avoid the loss of valuable information and clients by planning ahead and structuring a plan to manage staff during a rent roll transition. This should include the following steps:

Be clear in the contract

The rights, roles and responsibilities of staff should be covered when you negotiate a contract for the sale of a rent roll.

As a buyer, you should specify as many details as you can ahead of time, in order to save yourself problems down the track. These details could include:

• The number of staff who will be transitioning as part of the sale

• The access staff have to clients and contact databases

• Job descriptions for staff

• Roles and responsibilities.

Plan ahead based on the size of your agency and its current staff numbers so you don’t end up with too many or too few people after a rent roll transition.

Protect your valuable information

Controlling access to client details during the transition phase of your rent roll exchange is also important. You do not want disgruntled staff downloading every name and number in your database and taking them to their next job so make sure they are not able to easily do so.

Ahead of a transition, check your staff contracts to ensure they have agreed to non-compete clauses which prevent them from leaving and taking their best clients with them. There should also be exit conditions which prevent your staff from communicating with clients in a way which would damage your reputation.

The transition phase can be a good time to remind staff of the details of their contracts. Neither party wants to be faced with legal action in the event of a contract breach during this period.

Put on a positive spin

Change isn’t always a bad thing, although some people always approach it this way. In some circumstances, change management training for managers or team members can help staff get through the sale of a rent roll.

If possible, there should be some level of consistency, be it from the online systems which are used to run a rent roll or the managing staff who are involved. This consistency is important for customer satisfaction as well — landlords and tenants certainly don’t want to be interrupted by the change, especially when they have not been involved in any of the decision making process.

Talk to people!

Once the rent roll sale is set to go ahead, one of the best ways to ensure a smooth transition is to simply touch base with people.

Set up interviews with the staff who will be leaving or joining your team to explain what is about to happen and address any of their questions.

The relationships staff have with landlords and tenants are essential to the future success and growth of the rent roll so it makes sense to encourage an environment where people feel supported and listened to.

During your interviews, you may identify some staff who are less than enthusiastic about the change. This provides you with an opportunity to give them an ‘out’ or work with them to create a more positive response.

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