Property Management New Year's Resolutions

As 2010 draws to a close, it’s a good time to reflect on lessons from the past year and apply them to the future. As you prepare to move into 2011, be sure that you know not only what didn’t work in 2010, but also what did. After all, the goal is not to create a cycle of constantly tweaking systems and procedures but, rather, to find methods that work optimally for you and your tenants and stick with them.

For an overview of where 2010 leaves you, begin by honestly asking yourself the following two questions:

1. What was the highlight of my property management year?
2. What was the lowlight of my property management year?

When you’ve answered both of these questions, you should have a good idea of where you stand. Say, for example, that the highlight of your year was filling 40 percent of your available vacancies throughtenant referrals. This indicates that you are doing a great job of keeping your units in good shape and keeping tenants happy—in other words, in both of these realms, you’ve already found a formula that works. Though you may want to make little adjustments in these areas here and there, for the most part, you should continue doing exactly what you’ve done in 2010 on into 2011.

Conversely, once you’ve come up with the lowlight of your year, you’ll want to determine why it happened and what needs to be changed in 2011 to prevent a similar occurrence from happening again. Let’s say, for example, that an average of 15 percent of all tenants were late on rent payments throughout 2010. Take a careful look at your own system and see what can be adjusted to prevent this from happening again. Perhaps it’s time to incorporate a more automated system, which allows tenants to pay online or sign up for automatic withdrawal of rent payments. Or perhaps you’ll simply want to screen future tenants a bit more carefully and clarify your late payment proceduresand policies for tenants that come on-board in 2011.

In addition to using these two questions to help gauge where your property management business currently stands, the beginning of a new year is also a great time to take care of all those things you’ve been “meaning to get around to” for the previous twelve months. Has your property management company already incorporated the following measures?

• A maintenance request system to resolve fixes and repairs efficiently?
• Automated systems wherever possible (accounting, rent payments, work orders, etc.) for accuracy and efficiency?
• An online marketing strategy, whether that be a full-blown web site, email newsletters, or online vacancy advertising platforms?
• A solid tenant screening system?

If you are unable to check any one of the above items off, perhaps 2011 is the year to incorporate these programs into your business.

We hope you’ll let us know about your property management company’s goals and resolutions for 2011. Here’s to a happy and prosperous New Year!

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