Property managers work hard to ensure their residents are happy, the property looks good, and the books are balanced.
Least to say, it’s not always easy to stay on top of these requirements. Property management requires careful planning, effective delegation, and adopting technological tools – among others. To many people, property management comes naturally, while others have to acquire necessary skills through experience. In this blog, we’ll share five insights on how you can develop into an impactful property management leader.
Successful Delegation
When it comes to running a property management business, or any business for that matter, effective delegation is key to early success. While you can try doing everything on your own, the more roles you take on, the less effective you’ll become. Humans are not designed for multi-tasking, although we try our hardest to cycle through multiple tasks in rapid succession.
As a property management leader, your responsibilities will become more complex, from rent collection and maintenance to tenant issues and repairs. This means being able to take on roles while letting go of others. Start by assigning day-to-day tasks your staff can manage on their own, while you focus on the bigger picture.
Building Staff Competence
As a leader, you’ll have to define boundaries in each role you delegate to optimize performance. You can achieve higher efficiency by setting goals and expectations for your staff. Each employee should understand their responsibilities and roles clearly, communicate with you constantly, and stay on top of the policies and procedures you have defined for them.
Hiring the Right People
In addition to the above-mentioned insights, effective property management requires access to the right people. Your staff should have goals that align with your business objectives to put together a sustainable operation. Avoid hiring someone just because you have to fill in vacant positions. The wrong recruit can cost you a lot more in the long run based on training costs and loss of productivity.
With that said, even if your current staff doesn’t have the right set of skills, it should be easy to upgrade their experience and skillset as long as you’re happy to supervise them.
While hiring the right people is difficult, retaining top management staff is a totally different ball game. Failure to maintain a consistent staff can lead to poor performance and a decline in morale. The latter can further lead to retention issues. So focus on improving the work experience of your employees.
More on that below.
Invest in Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is an important leadership quality of an effective property management leader. it allows you to handle just about any situation that may arise, including those that are emotionally charged. Emotional intelligence also lets you empathize with staff and clients alike. This is important because you must be able to recognize the feelings of your staff members and use that information to foster a positive, productive work environment.
Evolve with the Market
In today’s increasingly cut-throat real estate environment, you simply can’t afford to be stuck in the past. The most successful property management leaders are those who can stay ahead of current trends in technology and anticipate disruptive tools. Data analytics, for instance, is still in its infancy, but it can push the envelope for what is possible in real estate management.
You can also use predictive analytics to determine new potential business opportunities for your homeowners.
Most property management leaders invest heavily in social media and digital marketing to create healthy lead funnels – this is cost-effective and produces results. It certainly beats the cost of hiring ad space in a newspaper. If you don’t already have a digital marketing strategy for property managers, start thinking about one today. You could be missing out on a giant field of potential homeowners who could benefit from your services.
Wrap Up
When it comes to property management, developing your leadership skills is an integral part of the trade. It’s also about investing in your management staff so that you can effectively delegate important tasks. Doing so can free up time for you to focus on the bigger picture.
If you have any insights you feel like sharing that might be helpful to property management leaders, send them to us in the comments below!
Jivko Stefanov, Content Manager Writer
