Don't just expect the unexpected... Plan for it!

I recently heard a trainer use the phrase “property management is a series of predictable surprises.” True, isn’t it? In property management, new business, leasing and life in general for that matter, we can often sense when things are going to go wrong, or can recognise the warning signs of issues you’ve seen before. Do you take the necessary steps to prepare or prevent the occurrence? Or do you simple hope it won’t get to that ‘dreaded point.'

When there’s a fire at hand, we put it out and rush on to the next problem without taking the time out to look at our internal processes and what we can learn and put in place to ensure the same issue doesn’t recur over and over. Taking the time out to review what went wrong and how to avoid it happening again is essential for business success as it ensures we minimise errors and conflict, whilst staying as efficient and productive as possible, and importantly, that our service to our clients is constantly improving.

When I am coaching and consulting with clients across the country, part of my role is help clients to review their systems and look for the tell tale signs of potential issues such as higher arrears, prolonged bond refunds, escalated complaints over lagging repairs, vacancy levels creeping up, loss of managements and more. So based on what I’ve learnt, what can you do within your business to ensure the same recurring issues don’t keep happening?

• Seek feedback – if you aren’t already surveying your clients, it is essential to ask them for both positive and negative feedback to work out how to improve what you do and avoid issues recurring.
• Complaint/Issue Log – Keep a complaint log detailing actions taken, errors paid out, if review of process is required (free template available here)
• Review – create a review process where your procedures (and complaints) are reviewed periodically (can be a team effort). Remember what worked 10 years ago may not work today.
• Scenario Planning & Contingency Training – from the above results decide what additional training can be provided to the team either internally or from a training provider to cover not just the hard skills but soft skills such as communication and conflict resolution.

As I’ve said before, always remember (as spoken by Catherine Devrye), the most “expensive words in business are, we’ve always done it that way”. 

Want to know your best marketing weapon?

Beyond the latest designer website, past the shiny DL cards, afar from the perfectly designed brochures, away from the beautiful window display is one very important marketing tool that is often forgotten and overlooked - yet it is the easiest to manage, the lowest cost, and the most effective tool......

Have you guessed it yet?

It’s YOU.

You are the most powerful marketing tool you have at your disposal right now. The way you speak to people, the way you present yourself, the way you appear in the market place, can be ten times as effective as a marketing tool compared to some of the latest and innovative ideas in the industry.

It’s been very interesting for me being on the other side of the property management transaction recently as a prospective tenant looking for a rental property in my local area. I’ve been able to review how fast enquiries are responded to, the conduct of the leasing consultant at the open, the manner of the property manager processing the applications, right through to the sign up process and moving in.... There have been some very impressive dealings, and also some left a lot to be desired. I’m pleased to say I’m lucky enough I’ve ended up with one of the best.

I would imagine that many of these agencies with the less than desirable service to prospective tenants are at the same time probably trying to grow their businesses through marketing, prospecting and new business tactics, without looking at what is actually happening on the front line. From this experience I know which agencies I will be recommending to friends and family and which agencies I won’t.

We need to remember that prospective tenants may not only one day be our future clients, but they also currently know our future clients (their friends, families, colleagues, circles) and of course we want them to be speaking positively about us and our service across their networks!

This got me to thinking if we only realised that the best opportunity we have to market our service, is actually how we conduct our service and ourselves, how much easier it would be to grow our businesses?! Instead of spending thousands on marketing campaigns, what if we spent that time and money investing in improving, training and developing our own skills.

Remembering that YOU are the most important marketing tool that you have at your disposal and that the way you conduct yourself, present yourself, and treat your clients will ultimately provide endless positive marketing, referrals and business for years to come. 

Don't miss our webinar next Wednesday where we'll give you fresh ideas to help you generate buzz around your brand and put the 'marvellous' back into your marketing.

When do I get my bond back?

When do I get my bond back?

At Real+ we often like to take a moment to think about things from the tenants perspective. This allows us to not only improve the property management process to make things as streamlined and easy for us as possible, but also gain a greater perspective of understanding when communicating and dealing with tenants.

This week I took a moment to think about things from the tenants perspective at the time of vacate, final inspection and bond refund.  I took a moment to think back to the times I have myself vacated from a property, what my expectations were compared to what happened, and then put that into perspective as to how I had handled vacating tenants as a property manager. This vacate stage seems to be one property management function that is handled quite differently from agent to agent.

Some questions I felt went unanswered as a tenant (despite my own property management knowledge, and the receipt of a generic vacate letter) were around when they planned to show prospective tenants through the property, whether I was supposed to drop the keys to their office, when I would be meeting them for the vacate inspection, and most importantly (the most common frustration of tenants and hardest things for a property manager to guarantee):

• How long would it be until my bond was refunded?

Most tenants are relying on and budgeting on that money for some purpose so understandably they get frustrated when it’s not as easy as keys back, bond back. As a property manager, I know I couldn’t guarantee a time frame for the tenant as to when they would get their bond back, it depended on whether they’d returned the property in good condition, if it was clean, if extra work was required, if all the keys were returned, how quickly the landlord confirmed it wass okay to release the bond etc. So many variables.

If we can’t 100% guarantee the time frame, what can we control? How can we avoid an angry tenant at the vacate inspection? Well not only can we control how we communicate the process, but also how we provide expectations to the tenant across the vacate process. This will help alleviate some frustrations. Often we know what the process is and what the tenant can do to ensure they have the best chance of a speedy bond refund, however we are not communicating this to them each time.

Next time instead of sending out the generic vacate letter, why not provide the tenant with an outline of the process and what steps they can take to ensure their bond is refunded as quickly as possible! We have created a handy checklist you can provide to your tenants when they are vacating called the “How to ensure a Speedy Bond Refund Tenant Checklist,” click here for your copy.

If you are Real+ member, click here to visit Real TV where you can watch our webinar on Condition Reports!

From the Eyes of a Prospective Tenant

I have recently been in the market for a rental property. Whilst conducting my own rental search, I have been taking note of my consumer experience as a prospective tenant in order to be able to deliver live customer feedback, information and training to our property management clients.

I’ve almost felt like a mystery shopper at times, secretly taking note of the quality of advertising & photos, accuracy of descriptions and photos, response times from agents, presentation of the agent and presentation of the property. Along the way I also reviewed the application process across several agencies and in particular - how I have been treated as a prospective tenant and ultimately how this affected my decision in choosing which properties to visit and ultimately lease!

There were definitely some property inspections and agent response times that left me feeling bad for the landlord that the agent’s actions had turned me off renting their property! And even further still that if I was a prospective landlord that I would not be choosing that agent to lease my property.

Don’t get me wrong, many of the agents were doing a great job, however my experience was very interesting and eye opening which has helped me identify some key areas that leasing agents need to work on at the leasing stage of their property management process. (Without meaning to toot our own horns, I was very pleased to see that one of the best experiences I had was with an agency who is a Real+ Member undergoing regular training across their property management team – the proof is in the pudding).

So, want to know more? Well next week I’ll be hosting a webinar on leasing – in which we’ll be talking about ways to get properties leased faster, reduce vacancy and ways to make your lives easier. I can tell you now that what I’ve learnt from being a prospective tenant will be going into this session so be sure not to miss this one if you want to know how to improve your leasing process!

If you are Real+ member, click here to visit Real+TV where you can watch our webinar Just Leased! Leasing made Faster, Smarter & Easier.

How Would You Rate Your Rent Review Process?

We all know an essential part of our property management process is the rent review. At this stage we are generally finding out what the tenants plans are and if they want to stay on, then letting the landlord know the current rental value. But what if we took this simple rent review s step further and conducted a complete tenancy review with the landlord?

What if next time the rent review comes up we conduct the tenancy review as if we were sitting at a new listing presentation with them to discuss their needs by asking questions such as:

• “Paul, before we review the rental value on your property I just wanted to have a chat about you. What are your plans for the next 12-24 months?
• How have you found the tenancy so far? What do you think of the tenants?
• What is going to be most important to you in reviewing this tenancy? Increased rental value? Or tenant security?
• When would you like us to next review the rent?
• Do you have any plans to move back in or sell in the foreseeable future? As we can work on a plan towards that together.

Perhaps the landlords wants, needs and expectations have changed since you appraised their property 12 or more months ago. Things change so quickly in all of our lives, we need to remember that our landlords are people like us and things change in their lives too, therefore we need to consider their needs which are constantly changing just as our own are.

Originally your landlord wanted a family in their property, but are quickly realising that perhaps that professional group would have been better. Perhaps they were planning to stay away for 3 or more years but now plan to return home in six months time. Perhaps they are thinking of selling in a year but may not realise increasing the rent now risks the tenants vacating closer to the sale time.

This new process of reviewing not just the rent, but the tenancy itself will enable you to best recommend options to the landlords based on their needs (and not what we assume their needs are based on our process). Most importantly, just by opening up this whole new world of communication you are improving the relationship between yourself and the landlord by showing you actually care about their wants and needs. Imagine the possibilities.

If you are Real+ member, click here to visit Real+TV where you can watch our webinar: Systemise for Success - Rent Reviews.