How To Start or Grow Your Property Management Company by 10 Industry Experts

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• published: 25 Feb 2016
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article and video here: http://fourandhalf.com/how-to-start-o... What are the top tips when you’re starting or growing a property management company? We pulled aside 10 industry experts at the recent CALNARPM show and this is what they told us: 1. Kathleen, The Property Management Coach - on Starting Out: From a coaching perspective, you need to know what kind of business you want to have. That way you can focus your priorities on how you want to build that business. If you accept anything that comes along, you’ll be all over the place. 2. Cheryl, Chase Pacific Property Management - on Perspective: My father always said that if you’re going to start your own business, you need three things: Knowledge of your business Some financial backing A good home life Specific to property management, you need to know the business and have some experience with a good mentor. It’s a great industry, and you have to understand that it’s competitive. Fourandhalf Note: Cheryl is also the president-elect of CALNARPM 3. Noel, HQVirtualU.com - on Choosing a Name: I think in the real estate business, it’s crucial to tell people in your name what you do. It’s hard in real estate to find names that are available that have “house,” “home,” “property” in it, but you have to be innovative and try to get a word in your business name so when people are searching around, they know exactly who you are. 4. Lynn, Kimball, Tirey & St. John - on Legal Protection: Document everything. From the first contact you have with an applicant all the way through to the termination of a tenancy. The more documentation you have, the better prepared you are to defend yourself if you are caught up in litigation or if you have to go after the tenant for the security deposit. Document, document, document. 5. Calvin, Tenant Turner - Leveraging Technology: Find ways to leverage technology and different tools in the industry to make your day to day more efficient. Many brokers and owners use the more traditional method of hiring more team members, but many times you can take the technology you have and manage more properties with it. Use what you have to combine responsibilities for one person rather than just making additional hires. 6. Tory, Yardi Systems - on Tenants: Take care of your tenants. In the eight years I’ve been at Yardi, my clients have liked being able to offer different tools for their tenants and keeping their tenants happy. They will stay in your apartment or community for longer. When the tenants are happy, your occupancy stays up and cash flow comes in. 7. Nitu, Fourandhalf.com - on Marketing: My best tip for starting or growing a property management company is to embrace education as a marketing tool. A lot of times, owners and landlords hesitate to hire a property manager because it’s someone they don’t know. Embrace education through videos, blogs, or when someone calls in to ask a question about a specific situation. You can sell to a client and get that client today, but if you help a client, you get them for life. 8. Dave, Kohva - on Your Website: The best way to grow your business is with a fantastic website and an awesome Google+ page. If your website is great and it gets found, you’ll have a lot of credibility and people will be willing to hire you. Within that website, have a property management specific landing page for whichever area or areas you do business in, and make sure it contains a lead form where a customer can contact you. So your site has to get found, it has to look awesome and it has to give your customers an easy way to contact you. 9. Jordan, LeadSimple - on Closing Owners: My advice is to start with the building blocks of sales and marketing. Make sure you have a pitch and a good follow up process. Be able to explain how you stand out, and how you understand the needs of your potential customers. Have a great discovery process, ask good questions, and really get to understand a person’s pain points. Address those pain points as well as possible, and after your initial conversation, have a scripted process that lays down how you will follow up - and what communication will look like. Instead of rewriting emails every time, work on having some well-crafted email templates and put your best foot forward every time. 10. Jock, Alliance Property Management - on Fast Growth: Our company has grown 30 percent in the last two years by belonging to great property management associations like NARPM and investing in our marketing strategies. Building a reputation is really important; you want people to know about you before you talk to them. So, invest in creating a great brand. This is what successful leaders have to say about starting and growing a property management business. If you have any questions, contact us at Fourandhalf - Internet Marketing for Property Managers. fourandhalf.com