Tenant Retention Should Be the Focus of Professional Property Managers

March 1st, 2010

I am sure with today’s economy many people think that it is more difficult to get a tenant to renew their lease.  Well this does not seem to be the case for those firms focusing on retention.  According to SatisFacts Research in a recent blog posting on a retention survey comparing 2009 to 2008, there is good news for property managers who focus on retention and taking care of tenants.  The survey highlights two questions, very likely to renew (1% increase over 2008) and not likely to renew (1.6% decrease over 2008).

However, the real interesting part of the article was the calculation of the cost of a move-out.   According to SatisFacts, the cost is $4,500 (due to increased concessions and vacancy loss days).  Their top performing clients were able to beat the 2008 index by 7 points.   If you do the math, even a small to medium sized portfolio can be greatly impacted by reducing move-outs.  For instance, if you have a portfolio of 200 apartment units or single family homes and reduce turnover by 7%, that would equate to 14 * $4,500 which gives a savings of $63,000 per year.

My blog, Does Good Property Management Matter, pointed out that by using low cost technology, a property manager can improve relationships with tenants, thus making them less likely to move-out due to frustration with the property.  It seems to me only logical to explore ways to have higher retention, particularly if the cost is reasonable.

There is no escaping the fact that the internet is the easiest and lowest cost way to stay in communication with your tenants.  By using a property management website to acquire the tenant and then using a resident portal to communicate with the tenant, you have leveraged the life-cycle costs of getting and keeping tenants.  Resident portals allow a tenant to submit property maintenance requests, check out property events, pay rent online, and more.

To investigate web based portals and determine the best approach to use for your operations, refer to my blog, Picking a Property Management Software Solution, or watch a brief overview of DIY’s property management websites.

So is focusing on retention important?  Only if you want to improve your NOI.
Rob Crichlow
DIY Real Estate Solutions

Posted in Property Management Tips, Real Estate Internet Trends | 7 Comments »

Qualities of a Good Residential Property Manager

February 17th, 2010

I was recently reading a LinkedIn Property Management Professionals Group forum posting on the qualities of a good property manager and thought it would be a good blog topic.  As I read the list, and it is quite a long list, I began to think, wow that would be an extraordinary person if they had every quality listed, though I would add integrity and honesty to the list.

But do any of us get measured in business by those qualities?  Yes and no.  If you had all of the qualities in the list and did not keep a property rented for an owner, would the owner give you good reviews?  I know a lot of successful real estate professionals that understand the ins and outs of building operations (keep the property in good repair and looking good) and know how to keep the property leased (understand how to advertise effectively and negotiate a win/win deal with the tenants), but do not know technology well.   Understanding the core of the business we are in is the essential ingredient for success in any field.

So what would my list look like if I wanted to find a good property manager?  Here are a few examples:

Property management industry knowledge - You would expect the property manager to understand the comparable rents in the area and know the direction rents were heading in the near to mid-term time frame.  He/she should be able to counsel the owner on what the rent should be in order to rent quickly and stay rented, while getting the highest rent possible for the property.

Understanding of how to keep a property well maintained – The property should be maintained to the standards set by the owner, for the appropriate cost for the area, and in a fashion that keeps the tenant happy.

You see, I believe in keeping your eye on the core business and not being distracted by the elements that other people are experts at.  A good property manager could outsource the things that do not apply to the core business.   Basic knowledge of things like contract law, accounting, and software should be required, but a lease can be reviewed by a lawyer, books can be maintained by an accountant, and software can be outsourced to a good property management software company.

The qualities that I, as a rental property management software provider, will be measured by must include a strong understanding of technology, since that is my core business.  The qualities that a property manager will be measured by will be a strong understanding of real estate.

So the answer to the question of how we are measured is very much yes and no.   A good property manager does need to have many of the qualities on the list, as all of us do.  But just as important if not more important is a strong understanding of the core business, managing properties.

Rob Crichlow
DIY Real Estate Solutions

Posted in Property Management Tips, Residential Property Industry | 1 Comment »

How is Online Advertising Spending Going to Affect Property Management?

February 1st, 2010

Borrell Associates have released their 2010 outlook for online advertising for real estate.  Rentbits has a reprint of several of the graphs and results in a recent blog posting.  The comparison of 2008 and 2009 historical data and 2010 forecasted data shows how online advertising dollars spent have dropped and will continue to drop in 2010.  What does this say for how property managers are going to keep their properties rented?

I suspect it shows how there will be a continued focus on how to leverage the dollars that are available to spend.  This will affect how people look at the costs of their approach to technology in all areas, including property management software and how it interfaces with online resident portals and property marketing sites.  What if you could use a property management software program that interfaced with multiple marketing websites, provided a powerful online portal for advertising your properties, and costs less to use on a monthly basis than what is in place now?   Shouldn’t the same commitment to cost management for ongoing expenses, like supplies and services, also be applied to the cost of using a property management system?

The Rentbits blog ends by saying, “…2010 is going to be a much bigger year for mobile and real estate applications.”  This tells me that 2010 will be the year for making sure that all costs for managing a rental property are examined, including technology.

I challenge you to research web based property management software programs and checkout pricing.  I believe you will find a program that offers a way to save money in how you are doing your advertising, while at the same time saving money on the cost of using the software.  Check out my blog on picking a property management solution or checkout our online rental property management software.

Rob Crichlow
DIY Real Estate Solutions

Posted in Property Management Tips, Residential Property Industry | 2 Comments »

Does Good Property Management Matter?

January 18th, 2010

Keeping a property looking good and the tenants happy is hard work for property managers.  And now with the internet, it has never been more important to focus on keeping good relationships with your residents.  A recent blog on Rent Bits indicates that people are beginning to use reviews as a way to choose an apartment or a single family home.   Though the blog refers to the predicted purchase of Yelp, a very popular review site, by Google, Yelp has since passed on the deal.   Google had already begun to expand its review concept with Google Place Pages, where people can review companies and places.  Instead of just getting limited information on a map, Google now provides an entire page dedicated to information about the company or place.  I tested this by typing in several apartment properties into my Google search bar.  I was able to quickly get reviews by current and previous tenants.  The blog suggests that reviews on the internet will change the apartment industry.  I agree with this.  Whenever I buy a product on the web, I read the reviews to make sure it will fit my needs.

Providing ways for your tenants to communicate with you and you with them is a way of determining how they are doing.  Many property management companies are starting to use online resident portals to accomplish this, letting the tenants schedule the use of common areas, pay their rent online, report maintenance requests, and check the status of existing service requests.   A good online rental property management software program should support this feature as part of the system.

Over communicating with your tenants on what is going on with the property and seeking feedback is the real key to keeping a pulse on what is going on.  It is better to learn how a tenant feels when you can do something about it than waiting for them to post a negative review online.  In his book, ‘What Would Google Do?’, Jeff Jarvis says that a company must allow easy two way communication if they want to be successful today.  The web allows information about a company to travel at the speed of light, so focusing on communication with your tenants will make sure that information is positive.

So how do you make sure your hard work is paying off?   Communicate.

Rob Crichlow
DIY Real Estate Solutions

Posted in Property Management Tips, Real Estate Internet Trends | 2 Comments »

Good Property Management Software Helps Property Management Companies Grow

January 6th, 2010

In many of my previous blogs, I have pointed out that using good rental property management software impacts a property management company in many positive ways.  Well now a recent survey has pointed out it actually helps property management companies grow.  Software Advice has published the results of the survey on their website showing various technologies that growing firms are using.

One quote that stood out to me was, “Companies who used property management specific software managed an average of 102 units per employee. Those that used generic software or spreadsheets only managed an average of 61 units per employee. We acknowledge there are other factors to consider here. But we’re firmly in the camp that an integrated software system frees up property management employees to do more tasks.”  This certainly shows that a company using a well integrated property management program can do more with less people.

Over 60% of the growing companies surveyed used a property management software product.   Other technologies were listed as well, including emailing statements, electronic maintenance requests, online rent payments, integrated accounting, tracking leads electronically, and auto-posting to Craigslist.

One respondent said, “I feel web based software is coming of age …”

I found the survey very interesting and encourage you to check it out.   Staying on top of what is happening in technology is a good idea for any company, but it is essential for a property management company, since increasing the number of units being managed without increasing costs at the same rate is ultimately the goal.

For some tips on researching what products are available today, check out my blog Picking a Property Management Software Solution or checkout our web based property management software as an example of a fully integrated solution.

Rob Crichlow
DIY Real Estate Solutions

Posted in Property Management Software Ideas, Residential Property Industry | No Comments »

How Do Property Managers Remember the Important While Handling the Urgent?

December 28th, 2009

I was reading a forum post in LinkedIn’s Property Management Professionals forum about how to handle frozen pipes and it occurred to me that one of the keys to being a good rental property manager is to make sure you are on top of what is needed to be done, while handling the constant flow of emergencies.  One can get really good at handling the urgent needs, while actions that would prevent some of the urgent things from occurring never get done.  A good time management system combined with an early warning system for items that are going to need attention soon, provide the best foundation for solving this dilemma.  That is why a good property management software system should provide both.  Many of us who have been around awhile have seen many methods of attempting to solve for this (do you remember the Franklin Planner time management system), some good and some very cumbersome.

A web based property management software solution that can be accessed anywhere you are, is by far the best approach to date.  In a well designed solution, by simply accessing a web browser when you are at your desktop, while at work or home, should alert you to all of the items that require immediate attention, while the items coming up in the near future are clearly laid out.  In many cases, simply accessing the information can start a process that will move the item on to completion.  As an example, our rental property management software places all of this information on the Home Page, so a quick review alerts you to all of the items that need to be addressed.

There are many examples of this kind of information that you would want to be tracking.  Preventative maintenance issues on a property, such A/C filter changing, frozen pipe prevention, leaf removal, and gutter cleaning, just to name a few.  The obvious accounting ones would be rent increases, lease renewals, recurring banking transactions, and payments to property owners.  Or how about follow ups on prospects, updating internet advertizing of properties coming available, and checking properties for ready to rent status.   In a good system, these reminders and action items are provided as a byproduct of simply using the system.

When I first started using a Franklin Planner, I couldn’t imagine something better.  Then came the PDA, which was light years ahead of my paper planner.  Make sure you are getting the best combination of time management and early warning system, by checking out a web based property management software program and compare.

What is a likely result?  No more frozen pipes.

Rob Crichlow
DIY Real Estate Solutions

Posted in Property Management Tips | 2 Comments »

Property Management Software Top 5 Features

December 18th, 2009

After developing rental property management software for many years, it recently occurred to me that many property management companies that are searching for quality online property management software would find it helpful to know what other property management companies have requested as useful features.  So I have decided to put together a list of the top 5 requested features in our web based property management software.

  1. Marketing of Properties Online
    Having the ability to advertize available properties online is critical today.  Our clients want the ability to have their own custom property website, as well as, being able to update popular sites with property information automatically, without having to update all of the sites individually.  Some popular sites that have been requested were CraigsList, Google Real Estate, and RentalHomePros.  Rental Home Pros is a NARPM (National Association of Residential Property Managers) sponsored aggregate site that also feeds over 20 other sites like Google Base, RentalHomesPlus, Tenant.com, HomeTownRent, Rentals.com, and of course CraigsList.
  2. Tenant Screening
    For residential property management software, having an integrated process of getting credit and criminal screening reports is a must.  Our clients often request tenant screening services through Credit Retriever, a subsidiary of TransUnion.
  3. Custom Rental Lease Forms
    Every property management company establishes a lease format that they use for their tenants.  The ability to interface with a site that provides custom lease forms that will include the lease information stored in the property management database is a common request by our clients.  A popular site providing custom lease forms is Blue Moon.
  4. Rent Collection Service
    A highly requested feature is to interface to a tenant debt collection service from within the property management program, automatically sending on needed data to the service with a click of a mouse.  The service requested by our clients is NCC Business Services.
  5. QuickBooks Interface
    Having a QuickBooks interface is useful, even if the product has a full General Ledger accounting system built in.  It allows for copying of the data to a highly popular product for additional financial reporting or auditing needs.

Make sure any property management software you are looking at has the above features or simply checkout our rental property management software to see how these features will benefit your organization.

Rob Crichlow
DIY Real Estate Solutions

Posted in Property Management Software Ideas | 2 Comments »

Should You Put Your Property Management Data Online

December 6th, 2009

After many conversations with property management professionals, it is clear that there is concern in whether to use a web based rental property management software system due to the data being put on a third party server.  I can relate with this concern.   Years ago, I had the option to use a service to sync my PDA phone with my desktop.  The service would first sync the data to their servers and then sync to my PDA phone over the Internet.  For some reason, I felt uncomfortable with the thought that my data was being stored on a third party server, so I chose not to use the service.

Today I use a hosted Exchange service to handle my email, calendar, task, and contact management synchronization to my desktop and PDA phone.  They deal with all of the upgrade headaches, support of the software and servers, and have prompt and friendly service when I have issues.  And I get all of this for just a few dollars a month.   What changed?  My paradigm changed.

A couple of years ago, the town that I live in had what was later called the 100 year flood.  Homes in my neighborhood got two to three feet of water in their basements.  Just six months prior, we had set up offices in our basement for a recording studio business my children operate and offices for my wife and me.  We had never had a drop of water in our basement for 15 years.  So we put our computers on the stands close to the floor (not the best decision).  We were fortunate in that we only got 4-6 inches of water.  However, it was just enough to harm every computer we had.   So even though we had backed up each computer to the others (what were the chances that all of the computers would fail), the worst scenario possible occurred.  We were fortunate in that the hard drives were recoverable.  If we had gotten 6 more inches of water, that would not have been possible.

Today, I firmly believe that my data is safer when stored on reliable third party servers.  They have business level data redundancy and recovery procedures, secure environmentally controlled facilities, and secure data transfer from the web browser to their servers.  And it is very affordable.

Property management companies or landlords doing their own management no longer need to worry about these issues.   By using an online property management software program, all of the data and software issues are managed by the software company, in a safer and more reliable environment, allowing you to focus on your core business, managing properties.   Just look at the growth in popularity of Google’s offering of calendar and document services.  Businesses are learning that it cost less and is more reliable to use someone else’s servers than having their own.

Should you put your property management data online?  The answer is yes.

Rob Crichlow
DIY Real Estate Solutions

Posted in Real Estate Internet Trends | 5 Comments »

Picking a Property Management Software Solution

December 3rd, 2009

Back in the 90’s, when the use of a professional consulting firm to help a company choose the right property management software system was pretty much the standard, it amused me that the cost of the consulting project was typically three to four times the cost of the software being purchased.  I used to joke, “Why doesn’t the company simply purchase and compare the top three programs and throw away the ones that don’t work out?  It would actually cost them less money.”  Now of course, it was a joke, since the reasoning behind the need for the project was valid.  All of the top products looked the same on the surface, so it was hard to tell what was really there unless you reviewed the software.

Well today, we have newer platforms (online property management systems), lower cost delivery choices (using the web browser on one’s desktop computer), better and more sophisticated databases (SQL Server), but has the actual problem of choosing a system gone away?  Actually I believe it has.  Let me explain.

Yes, in many ways, the top products still look the same on the surface, which is not surprising since they are addressing the common needs of the residential property management industry. However the differences are there and make a big difference in the productivity of the users and ROI received from using the software.  So what is different today?  It is the Internet.

I promised my wife a new dishwasher for Christmas.  I know, very romantic.  So how do we determine which one is best for our family?  We go online, do a simple comparison by browsing a few popular websites, and narrow the selection by price, features, and customer reviews.  By looking at pictures, checking out colors, and specifications we find the one we are looking for.

Today, you can do the same thing for web based rental property software.  You can look at features and benefits, check out pricing, look at online software demos, and even try out a free trial version.  The good news is that with this method of comparing software, the cost of the solution is reduced.  It allows the software companies to deliver enterprise level systems to smaller organizations for a fraction of the cost.  So now, lower cost does not mean poorer quality, but a more efficient method of delivery of the software.   The key is what is in the product and how does it make the user’s job easier and more productive.

Since software support is also a key component, using a free trial allows you to test the water on customer service.  You can see how timely the support is, how they understand your issue, and are they able to answer the questions.  I have found that this may be one of the biggest differentiators of products today.

So how do you pick the right property management software?  You use it.  It can’t get better than that.

Rob Crichlow
DIY Real Estate Solutions

Posted in Real Estate Internet Trends | 4 Comments »

Social Networking and Property Management

November 25th, 2009

With the introduction of social networking services like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, the way we communicate with people has changed again.  It reminds me of when mobile phones came out.  At first, only a few people had them, mostly business people.  When away from the office or home, most of us would only make a call when it was urgent, and then we had to find a pay phone.  I can remember standing in the rain to make a call to my office while on the road (remember using the ‘calling’ card?).  Now, everyone has one, and we use them whenever we want, wherever we are.   Many young kids today have never used a real pay phone.  When I first heard of Facebook, I thought it would only be used by teenagers (like My Space was).  Who would ever want to put personal information in place where everyone could see it?  Well I was wrong.  Virtually everyone I know has a Facebook account today.  My wife has re-established relationships with people we went to college with.

What does this have to with the property management industry?  Just like the mobile phone, social networking has become part of how businesses communicate today.  I was at a business meeting last week, and a person I had never met came up to me and said, ‘I am a social networking consultant and I would like to talk to you about how I can help you with your company’s social networking plans’.  I must admit, I was stunned.  If there are consultants earning money helping companies learn how to use social networking services, then it has become common practice.

I am a member of the Property Management Professionals group at www.linkedin.com and found this article posted last week:  Social Networking Strategies That Work.  Just like having a web site today is standard for all businesses, having a presence on social networking services will be the standard in the near future.  The key will be learning how to use it effectively.   I am practicing what I write about, and have started our presence on Facebook and Twitter.  Check out our Facebook page at DIY Facebook Page and our Twitter account at DIY Real Estate.  We welcome you as a fan on our Facebook page and being a follower on our Twitter page.  So whether you are a property management services company or a web based property management software company, social networking will be required.    SHFUZPAFHER7 4VGQ8KFJJ528

Rob Crichlow
DIY Real Estate Solutions

Posted in Real Estate Internet Trends | 3 Comments »

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