What Should Be Property Managers Primary Focus

Greetings Everyone,

I finally got around to reading the June issue of the Real Estate Journal, since I'm always looking to learn something new that is related to the industry that I service, so I can share the information that can be of value to my clients.

And that's when this article caught my attention from Matthew Engel Vice President of the prestigious Langsam Property Management.

 Here is the brief paragraph from the article that I would like to focus on.

"Perhaps the largest portion of our business that often gets overlooked is the most obvious. Taking a proactive role in leasing will most likely have the greatest effect on the bottom line of the properties that we manage. "Duh!" you say, but most management firms often play the "let the tenants come to me" approach and in New York City, with a tight market, in some time periods, that is often enough to get by and keep your building occupied. However, over the past few years, with a weak economy, and even in the current months, with the rental market hot as a stove with fierce competition among tenants to snap up the best apartments, a proactive approach will yield a much greater bottom line".

  I'm including the link to the full article for your benefit so you can read up on the professional advice he has to offer  NYREJ - Property managers need to take a proactive role in leasing, makiwng it one of their priorities

Now let me sum up what I understood from this paragraph, that a lot of managements neglect to focus on the most pressing issue which is their pinnacle of their profit and income making sure that there no vacancies.

Now I can relate to the truth in this statement since I service the property management industry and I’m sometimes surprised at the focus managers have on the minor issue of  spending on basic maintenance supplies.  Even though I had heard from other property managers that the least of the expenses for maintaining a building is the basic monthly maintaining supplies like janitorial plumbing electric etc.

For instance one manager I know divides his supplies between multiple vendors in his urgency to find the cheapest price in town.  Another management I know order in bulk and store the stuff in a stock room not realizing again that they are focusing on the least of their budget expenses.

Even though the basic maintaining of a building is from the least of the expenses, it is of prime importance to keep the building in a clean and up kept condition. And it is in the long run an important aspect what can make the difference in your bottom line, since what tenants and future tenants are concerned about are the condition of the building and how the management address their concerns.

I would like to elaborate a bit on a different angle, how not only by focusing on supplies is the management  focusing on the least of their worries to running an efficient profitable property, but in actuality in the long run  they may not be saving as much as they  imagine.

What is definitely being overlooked is that the expertise and time of the property manager that is being wasted on the minuscule part of the business and besides as the saying goes sometimes cheap is expensive.

Here some pointers that may be helpful to you in your decision how and where to put your focus regarding your maintenance supplies.

1.       Time is money -  instead of wasting on a daily or weekly basis to monitor your supplies pricing there are some vendors out there that offer locked in pricing, meaning that you approve the pricing  once a year and they lock in those pricing for the year so you don’t have to waste time checking pricing.

2.       Time is money - having a vendor that offers next day delivery and has a 99% fill capacity on orders can mean that difference that you can renovate and do the fixing needed without delaying your workers or wasting time sending them out to pick up supplies.

3.       A vendor that can help you monitor what is being spent on each unit and has a system in place that can follow your specific ordering instructions, can mean that you can control exactly how much and who is ordering for the building without wasting time on it personally.

As I mention in the bestselling book I Co- Authored, that being able to take a feature that  a vendor is offering and adapting it to your situation, can sometimes mean a new way of saving money without sacrificing something as precious as your time that can be spent more wisely on the more important aspects of your management.

As always wishing you the best of luck

Pinny

WWW.pinnyziegler.com