Measuring Success With Your Property Manager
As a landlord, understanding how your property management company handles certain situations can feel a little mystifying, like their secret to success is hidden behind a heavy velvet curtain. Realicore Property Management is going to pull back the curtain and show you how we like to measure success. We measure success by analyzing these eight measurement points.
1. Measuring the Long-Term Vision:
Your property management team needs to implement systems that the entire team follows in order to maintain the long term vision. Every other week the Realicore team has a Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) meeting to discuss issues that may have come up and how we as a team plan to create a procedure for handling said issue. These procedures are kept as a living document that we change as new laws and regulations come out from the city, county, state or even federal government.
2. Measuring the Day to Day:
Your property management team should conduct a weekly operations meeting where they discuss issues that affect the day to day. At Realicore Property Management we use these meetings to discuss vacancy percentages, property issues and any tenant issues. These weekly meetings can be an important tool for measuring the health of your property management company.
3. Measuring Vacancy:
The longer you own real estate and the more units that you own, the more likely you will run into the dreaded notion of vacancy. This is that unpleasant Twilight Zone feeling you get in between tenants. Your property management team should be measuring your vacancy (And helping you to remedy it)! While you can measure your vacancy by the number of units that are vacant, we at Realicore feel that calculating a percentage is the most effective way to measure vacancy.
4. Measuring Technology Proficiency:
To ensure optimal efficiency, your property management team should be utilizing technology, while also being mindful that it will never replace the essential personal connection necessary for success. There are many older legacy systems such as Yardi and Appfolio as well as plenty of new property management systems on the market such as Buildium (What Realicore uses) or Doorloop. These systems offer powerful automation tools such as rental reminders for tenants and profit and loss statements generated with the touch of a click for landlords.
5. Measuring Education:
Promoting a culture of continuing education creates a strong knowledgeable and capable team that will always be up to date on the latest trends and developments in the property management world. Every year Realicore spends thousands of dollars on continuing education for its employees between the California Association of Realtors (CAR), the Apartment Owners Association (AOA) and the CCIM (Certified Commercial Investment Member). Working with a property management company that has the credentials to properly manage your property is essential to your success. In the property management business you are only as good as your team and the legal enforcement of your contracts.
6. Measuring Legal Compliance:
California is becoming more and more tenant friendly every year in regards to its laws. One step even slightly out of line and you’re in hot water with the law, which makes it even more imperative that you work with a property management company that keeps up with California’s ever changing property management and rental regulations. Some landlords have decided California real estate laws are so egregious that they’ve resorted to selling their portfolio and investing out of state. Although regulations can sometimes make you feel as if you are handcuffed, they can also present major opportunities such as reduced competition from other investors. Every year Realicore employees take the time to educate themselves on new laws and regulations surrounding property management. Make sure you verify the qualifications of your property manager before it’s too late!
7. Measuring Client Happiness:
Happy landlords and happy tenants are why we got into this business. We love building long-term relationships and creating sought-after rental spaces whether residential or commercial. We treat every property that we manage as if it was our own. When we rent to a new tenant it’s like we are welcoming a new neighbor into our community and we want our neighbors to be great. Realicore creates opportunities for proactive communication with our landlord clients giving them updates as needed throughout the year. If your current property management team seems to be causing you and your tenants more stress, then you might need to reevaluate who you are giving your business to.
8. Measuring Investment Strategy:
Timing and location are everything in real estate. The best time to invest was yesterday. One of the most important metrics we can control in real estate investing is location. We would be very wary of any company that promises to tell you they can time a crash or a big run-up in real estate prices. Indicators of a recession might be looming, but Covid-19 proved the opposite was true as already high real estate prices increased even further as high demand, low interest rates and low supply created the perfect storm in real estate. This is why it’s important to invest with the long-term in mind. Opportunities to flip properties for a quick buck here and there will present itself, but that in and of itself is not a sustainable investing strategy when it comes to real estate. Real estate is a powerful investment vehicle due to its ability to be leveraged, gain appreciation, and its ability to be rented, therefore essentially paying for itself. Realicore Property Management will work with you to create a viable strategy whether you have one house with us or a commercial shopping center.
If you are trying to measure the success of your property management company, these metrics will give you the ability to ask the right questions when interviewing potential property managers such as Realicore.
