Your real estate agency’s rent roll is often described as its ‘bread and butter’. While vendor sales results deliver highs and lows, managing properties on behalf of investors creates a steady income stream. 

However, because your rent roll hums along in the background, it can often end up being inefficient and failing to meet its earning potential. 

If your real estate agency isn’t focused on providing the best service and maximising every opportunity your rent roll presents, you are not only missing out on revenue, you are risking your long term future. 

With this in mind, there is one professional you need on your property management team; an official Head of Property Management. 

When you structure your rent roll and the PM side of your business as a defined department, you will be able to leverage the value of your rent roll more effectively and have the scope to grow sustainably. 

Why install a Head of Property Management

Even with a passionate, dedicated and hardworking team of PMs, if the rent roll side of your agency isn’t highly organised, things will begin to fall through the cracks. 

By engaging a partner as Head of Property Management, you can streamline this part of your business and eliminate common problems such as:

• High employee turnover

• Low employee engagement

• Sub-standard service

• Uninformed decision making

Here’s what a Head of Property Management will take responsibility for:

Hiring the right people

The skillset for a successful property manager is specific and extensive. The ability to multitask, build long term relationships, negotiate, educate and be responsive are all important. 

When you appoint a Head of Property Management, they will know who to bring onto the team. They will also avoid the common pitfall of hiring PMs who have their eye on a sales career and see their role as little more than a gateway to a different department. 

Improving employee engagement

A property manager may be responsible for upwards of 100 homes but they will quickly become overwhelmed and disillusioned without two key things:

• Support from their employer

• Systems to help them stay organised

Having a great team and a positive environment is essential for long term staff and you need someone to take direct responsibility for this so people will stick around.

Creating and enforcing processes and systems

As mentioned, it is impossible to stay organised without systems, especially when a PM has too many properties to keep track of in their head. 

Busy property managers struggle to find the time to implement best-practices, plus it is hard for them to create standards for others to follow if they don’t have the authority. Your Head of Department should take responsibility for this and identify ways to streamline workflow.

The benefit of this is your PMs will be able to take on additional properties. 

Growing financial results

As a busy agency owner, you may not be aware of how much money each managed property needs to generate for the PM side of your business to be profitable. 

When you have someone in place who is focused on this, the business will start to recoup money which has been falling through the cracks. 

There could be several easy financial wins which you’re not aware of. Hire a Head of Property Management and ask them to conduct an audit of revenue and expenses as a starting point. 

Improving service levels

Everyone has their idea of what ‘good enough’ is when it comes to customer service but your agency needs to have standards and benchmarks to ensure consistency and customer satisfaction.

Your Head of Property Management will arrange regular training sessions to remind staff about their commitment to service and help them upskill. Doing this will push your agency’s property management department above the competition. 

Heading in the right direction

Putting a sales executive in charge of Property Management won’t always work. 

Hire someone who is experienced and excited about this area of real estate. They will apply their knowledge and identify the ways your agency can build its rent roll, improve revenue and create a brighter future. 

As the real estate industry evolves and more people are becoming ‘tenants for life’, the need for outstanding property management can’t be ignored. Take strategic steps to build an excellent team and rewards will follow.

BDH Solutions are rent-roll agents with over 30 years experience in connecting the right vendor with the right purchaser. Download our information booklet on the new Victorian Minimum Living Standards Legislation