EPM

Make Each Day Count: Measuring Property Manager Performance

Improving a property management department so often comes down to measurables: setting your property managers KPIs and following up on their progress. Natalie Hastings from hastings + co offers a technology-fuelled roadmap to measurable success.

AS ANY REAL estate veteran worth their salt is well aware, successful property management and sales departments are the result of a numbers game played with finesse.

The most successful operators in the real estate industry always know their ‘numbers’ – they’ll be aware of how many calls they’ve made in any week, their average amount of conversions to conversations, the minimum amount of outgoing interactions necessary to improve their business’ net position. In short, if you can count it, you can measure it.

GOING FOR GROWTH, SUPPORTED BY SYSTEMS
Property management as a discipline is becoming increasingly competitive as landlords and tenants become better informed and more demanding of our teams. Many real estate principals now look for massive growth in their rent rolls using aggressive prospecting or rent roll acquisition – but struggle to maintain customer service standards while improving their asset.

Until recently, PM department heads have relied upon manual measurement tools (weekly paper-based reports, spreadsheets) to monitor their team’s performance. Such manual reporting can be inaccurate and even skewed, as it relies upon the property managers reporting their own activity. Today, setting KPIs and measuring genuine property manager activity (and thus, the projected growth of your department) can be assisted by intelligently calibrated property management software.

SETTING KPIS WITH SOFTWARE
Team KPI Summary Reports provide all property managers’ portfolio information in one simple, concise report: just the thing you need to hold a meaningful meeting. You can also produce individual property manager portfolio and KPI reports which break down each manager’s responsibilities – ideal for using in one-on-one accountability and coaching meetings.

These reports are so useful, detailing managements gained and lost, vacancy rates, arrears, inspections, rent reviews, new business and property maintenance. With a little software training, you’ll soon be able to filter through your PM department data to ensure your team is meeting each of their Key Performance Indicators. Say goodbye to those print-offs and whiteboards and get ready for growth!

MONITORING MAINTENANCE, ARREARS AND INSPECTIONS
It’s enough to keep you up at night: what lurks neglected or forgotten in your property management database? By using your PM software to its full capacity, you’ll be able to ‘REST’ easier – furnished with complete reports which offer an overview of maintenance items, arrears and inspections across your portfolio.
In many instances, property maintenance reports are used as a valuable indicator to review staff performance, with constant outstanding maintenance items a reason for concern and a sign that staff require further training or even more balanced portfolios. Use your property management software to examine maintenance jobs overdue by property and by creditor: learning to produce these reports is simply a matter of education.

Similarly, monitor arrears with effective arrears reports filtered by property manager, class of tenant, days, type of rent, rent, invoices or invoices only. You may also use reporting features to monitor routine inspections due, outstanding and completed – yet another indicator of property manager performance.
As real estate agencies build their rent rolls into super-portfolios, department managers require intelligent systems now more than ever to manage their teams and improve their businesses. Supported by industry-bespoke technology as never before, you now have the capacity to access information about both your portfolio and your property managers’ performance.

Complex property management software requires thorough training to utilise correctly, but once you understand how to produce in-depth reports you’ll feel more in control of your department than ever before.

With knowledge and the help of your property management software, you’ll soon be able to make decisions based on accurate data – allowing you to train your team and finesse your portfolio as you go. It all adds up!

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Natalie Hastings

Natalie Hastings is the Managing Director of Hastings + Co. For more information, visit hastingsandco.com.au.