When onboarding an owner as well as after serving an owner we periodically evaluate whether we are actually a good fit for you as a property management company or not. It’s important that we do this in order to make sure you as a client or potential client are best served.
Here is what we look for as we partner with you to manage your property:
1) BUSINESS MINDSET – An ideal client for us would be somebody that possesses a business mindset; or at least somebody who can partially adopt this mindset. By business mindset I mean being able to cope with the inherent risks and stress that comes along with owning a business. We are aware that lots of clients don’t begin with this mindset, maybe because of the circumstances in which they obtained their property (maybe a relative left it for them or they weren’t able to sell a vacant home); but at least a partial paradigm shift must be attained if you are to own a business of any type. The property investment environment is full of things you can’t control – people breaking promises, economy changes, tax law changes- so even if we deliver peace of mind for you today, if you can’t stop worrying about what might happen tomorrow and if this affects you negatively, you might not be a good fit for this type of business. Also as part of a business mind set you need to see your rental property as an business that requires capital investment in order to grow it and keep it up.
2) AFFORD PROPERTY AND MANAGEMENT COSTS – Another characteristic that would be a good fit for us is somebody who needs property management services and can afford the expenses that come with maintaining a property. A person without any knowledge of property management and investment properties would definitely need our services. But, there are also people that, even if they have the knowledge and experience related to property management (collections, dealing with tenants, going to court, etc), still come to us looking for our services, maybe because they are professionals who lack the time to do it themselves, or maybe because it’s just comfortable for their lifestyle. It’s really important to also keep in mind that after all of the initial expenses of actually acquiring a property, certain maintenance expenses will come into play eventually. Some things need to be fixed and given regular touch-ups if you are to attract good tenants and keep the property profitable. And remember our priority will always be to give you peace of mind as an owner, but we also have families to support, so we need clients that are not only willing, but also able to pay for our services.
3) AREA – If you own a property in a C-, D or F areas we will likely not be willing to manage it. This is because for us our ability to work for you is tied in with our profitability as a company. Our largest expense is labor. We did a time study and found that low end property will have 20 times the amount of service calls and inquiries as a high end property per unit which also means our labor costs multiply by that factor as well. Considering that this is our number one expense we simply can not afford to manage properties that have 20 times expense while also likely making less income. Frankly you as a client won’t enjoy the reduced service we would have to provide to survive under those circumstances. This is one reason why offer a flat rate management fee module because we want to incentivize those people with higher end, higher rent properties to work with us.
4) YOUR SYSTEM NOT OURS – Another big N.O. for us is when a prospective client that already has a managing system in place (maybe because of their experience or other circumstances) wants to use our services but this person wants us to follow the system already in place. We have our own systems, and they are the foundation of how we are able to deliver a quality service and offer the rates we are able to offer while being profitable. We improve on these systems continuously, and having to adopt a second set of systems, on top of ours will only diminish our efficiency, and double the time we need to get things done for you. Along the same lines if you have your own maintenance we may be able to work with you but if we have issues with your maintenance we will typically have to either take it over ourselves or give you notice as a client.
5) WILLING AND ABLE TO MAINTAIN PROPERTY – I already alluded to this but if a property is not maintained it attracts bad tenants or none at all. Then the bad tenants do more damage and you find yourself in a downward spiral with your valuable investment. Come hell or high water you need to maintain your investments at a high level to see the highest return and sometimes that means acknowledging your return adjusted for maintenance might be lower than you expected in the short term.
All these items boil down to our desire to accomplish our goal as a property management company provide you with peace of mind as an owner. If a factor exists that we think might get in the way of that it’s better for both parties to not do business with each other rather than settle for less than optimal results for all parties.
