Most Popular Habits of Successful Property Managers

The best way to improve at your craft is to look at others who have mastered it and try to emulate them. In the world of property management, this rule stands true as new property managers can take advice and tips from property managers who have the experience and know how to be successful consistently.

What it boils down to are a few things all successful property managers do to keep them in business, and if you learn these skills and become an expert at executing them, you will be successful as well.

They communicate often

Communication is key to staying on top of things as a property manager and not letting small things slip through the cracks and develop into bigger headaches. It is important to have a good relationship with your tenants since they will be the ones to let you know of any problems first.

If you are aware of issues fast, you can deal with them with the least amount of impact on your bottom line as possible. Another reason why communication is important is it makes tenants feel that you are always there for them if they need anything.

Making your tenants feel secure and confident in your abilities as a property manager is essential in them keeping you around long term. Finally, communicating with your tenants often can give you a heads up on things, like whether or not they want to renew their lease.

This is also important information to know early since you want as much time as possible to find a new tenant to replace them. These reasons and many more are why successful property managers are constantly talking to the tenants and owners of their building, keeping up to date on any and all things they need to know to do their job the best they can.

They ask for feedback/reviews

Feedback and reviews are a great way to determine what you are doing right as a property manager, and more importantly, what you need to improve on. The best property managers are the ones who ask their tenants and owners for feedback on their own performance, since it gives them insight into how they are doing their job from the people they are providing their service to.

Owners and tenants are usually very honest with these reviews as well, since any improvements property managers make to the way they operate benefits them as well. This point also ties into the communication aspect. If you are always communicating and asking for feedback from the people involved in the properties you are managing, you will quickly know if there is anything you are doing wrong or need to work on.

If you do not get this feedback, you may not pick up on the fact that you need to improve on certain aspects of the job, and this could lead to you being taken off a property for not addressing that issue.

They are always trying to improve

When athletes become professionals, they don't say “yes I made it, time to coast”, they continue to work and train in their sport so they can be the best they can be. That's why you see star athletes like Lebron James and Sydney Crosby working constantly at their sport to maintain or improve their level of performance.

The same is true for property managers. If you feel like you have “made it'' as a property manager and have everything under control, it is easy to sit back and get complacent. However in order to stay operating at a high level, you need to be constantly working on different ways to be better as a property manager in order to maintain your level of success.

This means researching different methods for things like move in and out processes, tenant relations, tenant processing, and many more. You don't want to sit back and think you are in the clear once you have a nice portfolio to manage, because if you get complacent you may lose those properties to someone else who is hungrier for success.

They are aware of their metrics

Metrics are one of the most powerful tools for a property manager to have at their disposal since they tell you just about everything you need to know about the health of  your operation. Your strongpoints, weaknesses, and industry trends can all be found in the metrics of your business.

They are an essential part of being a successful property manager and yet many property managers do not pay attention to them. Things like turnover rates, vacancy rates, average maintenance costs for certain projects, and time to rent are all essential metrics to stay on top of in order to be successful.

For example, if your vacancy rates are too high, you may want to consider changing how you are marketing your properties. Alternatively, you can ask your current tenants to let you know well in advance if they are planning on leaving so that you have ample time to find a replacement.

If you do not have these important metrics at your fingertips, you won't be able to quickly react to any aspect of the business that needs attention. This will lead to you operating much less effectively than you could be , and could lead to you being replaced by someone else.

They have a strong team of vendors

Having a network of vendors who are at your disposal to do any maintenance work or repairs you need done on your property is extremely important if you want to be successful. The first reason why this is important is it saves you time and money by not having to look for a vendor everytime you need something done. If you have a vendor that you use for let's say plumbing and another for painting etc, it is much quicker and easier to get the job started.

Another reason why building relationships with vendors is important is if you give a vendor a lot of work on a consistent basis, you may be able to get a discount on the work done. This not only helps the bottom line but also creates a strong relationship between you and the vendors you work with, which makes everybody’s lives much easier.

The final reason why having a vetted team of vendors is important is if you do not have that network, you will be playing a guessing game when you hire people for work. You run the risk of hiring a vendor who does not do an adequate job, which could end up costing you more money if you need to bring in someone else to redo the job properly.

Having a team of vendors you can count on not only helps the bottom line and makes you more successful. It also gives you peace of mind that when you need work done, it will get done right. Through our marketplace platform, VendorPM can help you assemble that team. Try VendorPM as an individual property manager absolutely for free at vendorpm.com!