Overcome the challenges of 2021 to create a productive property management team and a profitable rent roll.
If you’re a small or independent real estate agency with fewer than 200 properties on your rent roll, you’re probably feeling the pressure on the property management side of things in 2021 for a couple of reasons.
Firstly there is the additional workload created by recently introduced legislation. The amount of auditing and tasks required to ensure compliance is taking a lot of time to learn and understand, let alone to implement.
Then there is the challenge of competing with bigger agencies in your area and trying to tap into your share of the competitive renter market while still maintaining healthy profit margins.
For agencies in the process of expanding, there can be the added struggle of finding the balance between properties and property managers as your rent roll grows. You don’t want to overload your team so they burn out but you also need to consider the financial returns your business is achieving before you add extra headcount.
Finally, there is competition to secure great property managers right now. After the stress of 2020, many PMs are leaving the industry, making it difficult to find the right talent.
Despite the current challenges, you can still have a thriving property management department within your business. Here are some strategies to bring things up to the next level.
Define your point of difference
Are you doing enough to show your property investor clients how your agency is different? For example, you may be able to provide more personalised service because you have a more boutique-sized rent roll.
Investors are often frustrated when they end up speaking with a different property manager from month to month. If you can provide a dedicated PM for each property owner, this will help you stand apart.
You may offer other services which go above and beyond standard expectations, such as organising cleaners as part of the process when a renter vacates a property. Make sure your target audience is aware of these small but helpful services as part of your marketing.
Add ancillary services
Having partnerships with other property and finance professionals can improve the value of your offering without costing you money.
Connect with a cleaning provider, financial advisor, solicitor, property stylist and mortgage broker who you feel you can confidently recommend to your clients. You could even take things a step further and record webinars/host information evenings or create written content to help your clients maximise the value of their investments.
Partner with other agencies
It may seem counterproductive but there is always strength in numbers.
Connect with agencies which share similar values to yours but operate in different geographic areas or have a different target market. You can then refer clients to each other when opportunities arise.
There is also the potential to share resources. This could be in the form of remote-working administrative assistants or even by sharing templates for marketing collateral (the content doesn’t have to be drastically different and you can update colours and logos).
This strategy can be helpful for adapting to new rental property legislation as well; contact an expert to conduct a training session and invite other agencies to attend so you can share the cost.
Go online
Is your bricks and mortar office worth the expense? Many agencies operate successfully without a ‘storefront’ these days.
You can hire meeting rooms and coworking spaces for the days you do need to catch up with your team and do away with the expensive overheads of an office. Of course, this will require some planning but it is more than possible to have an engaged and motivated team all working from different locations, especially property managers who are often out and about anyway.
Hire for culture
With a lack of experienced PMs in the industry, you can always look to find keen starters and mentor them into becoming the kind of property manager who will help your agency to grow in size or reputation.
The ‘soft skills’ of being good with people, being able to keep several plates spinning at once and being well-organised can be more valuable than an understanding of the rules of property, which are easier to teach.
All the above strategies can either be used to create a rock-solid offering and strengthen profits, or to start growing the number of properties you manage beyond the 200 mark, if this is your goal.
BDH Solutions are rent-roll agents with over 40 years experience in connecting the right vendor with the right purchaser. Download our information booklet on the new Victorian Minimum Living Standards Legislation