Landscaping is important. In the property management business spring is when we set up for the summer pool season. Winter is the time to think about the spring growing season and how to best address grounds maintenance. Addressing landscaping, ground cover, plantings and soils seems like such a simple question. At the very least it takes pre-planning to assure fixed price contracts in advance of service.

If a plant scientist were to survey the grounds of your income property assets their report would say some like: there are 55 “species” of plants and three invasive varietals that are negatively impacting sustainability. And your comment would be; “I only want my property to look good- neat and clean with green grass and pretty flowers. What’s all this talkabout invasivespecies!”.

Like farmers, property management requires having a well rounded skill set. Alas, we must rely on our subject matter experts to get us through the necessary gory details. For example, using the wrong seed in shady areas can be a flat out waste of money. The use of plants that require high maintenance should be avoided when a suitable substitute with lower carry costs is appropriate. Factor in water conservation. Some plants truly drink like elephants.

The importance of ground cover in landscaping really comes into play when the conversation includes any word similar to soils erosion or basement leaks. When it comes to soil conservation, preservation and removing or re-directing run off we want ground cover to be our friend. This requires planning.

My point is that too many people think of grounds as exclusively a cost center versus an asset to preserve. For grounds work the two options available to most income property owners are self-service or contract. For commercial assets there is nothing wrong with having dedicated staff for grounds if this fits within the larger budget.

I caution you to make sure the landscaping line item never becomes a jobs program whereas staff is mowing three times a week to look busy. Like Professor Drucker taught us with just-in-time inventory management, sometimes contract providers can be far and away the best and most costs effective solution.

About This Blog
Multifamily Insight is dedicated to assisting current and future multifamily property owners, operators and investors in executing specific tasks that allow multifamily assets to operate at their highest level of efficiency. We discuss real world issues in multifamily property management and acquisitions. This blog is intended to be informational only and does not provide legal, financial or accounting advice. Seek professional counsel. For more information, visit: www.MultifamilyInsight.com

Research has shown that a person who resigns from your property management company is leaving for one of three possible reasons: a new career opportunity, an unsolicited job offer or for a grievance that has not been handled correctly. Whenever a person resigns from your property management company for voluntary reasons it’s normally a surprise and it can be expensive to replace a valuable team member. This article will outline three important steps for conducting exit interviews, a process which will reduce employee turnover and improve profitability at the same time.

Implementing exit interviews: Start by explaining to your property management team that an exit interview will be conducted for any person who is voluntarily leaving your company. When done respectfully, exit interviews send a strong message to your team because it says that you and your company want to know why they are leaving. An exit interview process will also help you and your property management company clearly understand why people are leaving and may give you valuable clues as to where some improvement needs to be made from within your company. An exit interview process will also give each former employee a chance to tell you why he or she is leaving and this form of closure is both healthy and productive prior to their departure.

Tip From The Coach: As you begin to review your exit interview forms, look for trends that might point to deeper problems or might help you see new opportunities. Here are sometrendsto look for: the average length of time a person works for your property management company before they voluntarily resign, the topthree reasons why a person leaves your company, the top three positions with the most turnover, what internal changes might prevent team members from leaving, do you see any turnover patterns within a specific department or group, and what are you doing on a personal level to prevent future resignations.

Conducting exit interviews: The next step is to determine how exit interviews are going to be done in your property management company. Here are some typical ways to conduct an exit interview: give an exit interview form to the person who is leaving and ask them to complete it before their last day, give an exit interview form to the person who is leaving and ask them to mail it back in a confidential envelope, meet with the departing person on their last day to conduct a verbal exit interview or schedule a time to have this person call your human resource department for a telephone exit interview.

Tip From The Coach: With many of our property management clients, we have been asked to conduct exit interviews with some of their departing employees, as a neutral third party. We use a custom exit interview form for each property management company and then create a summary of our findings. From this summary, we then begin to address the internal areas that will either reduce employee turnover or make for a more productive and profitable organization.

Questions to ask during an exit interview: It has been our experience that each of our property management clients want to create their own custom exit interview form. Here are some sample questions to get you started with yours: What did you enjoy the most about working for our property management company? What did you enjoy the least and why? What suggestions or feedback can you share that would make our company stronger and more successful? Did we handle your complaint/grievance in an appropriate and timely way? Were you clear about your career path and future within our property management company? What would it take for you to stay, if that were possible? Is there anything else you would like to share as your final comment?

Tip From The Coach: Remember, if exit interviews are handled respectfully, you and your company will gain a wealth of knowledge to help grow, refine, polish and solidify the success of your property management organization. In addition, a departing employee will more than likely offer honest commentary about what is and what is not working in your company. Are you ready to really listen to what they have to say? More importantly, are you ready to take the action steps to resolve, fix, and improve whatever is necessary?

Want to hear more about this important topic or ask some additional questions about how to build a custom exit interview form? Send an E-mail to ernest@powerhour.com and The Coach will E-mail you a free PowerHour invitation.

Ernest F. Oriente, a business coach since 1995 [28,260 hours], a property management industry professional since 1988–the author of SmartMatch Alliances–and the founder of PowerHour, has a passion for coaching his clients on executive leadership, hiring and motivating property management SuperStars, traditional and Internet SEO/SEM marketing, competitive sales strategies, and high leverage alliances for property management teams and their leaders. He provides private and group coaching for property management companies around North America, executive recruiting, investment banking, national utility bill auditing. national real estate and apartment building insurance, SEO/SEM web strategies, national WiFi solutions, and powerful tools for hiring property management SuperStars and building dynamic teams. Ernest worked for Motorola, Primedia and is certified in the Xerox sales methodologies. Recent interviews and articles have appeared more than 6500 times in business and trade publications and in a wide variety of leading magazines and newspapers, including Smart Money, Inc., Business 2.0, The New York Times, Fast Company, The LA Times, Fortune, Business Week, Self Employed America and The Financial Times. Since 1995, Ernest has written 190 articles for the property management industry and created 350+ property management forms, business and marketing checklists, sales letters and presentation tools. To subscribe to his free property management newsletter go to: www.powerhour.com. PowerHour

Best service, especially in the property management industry, can be deceiving because the needs and expectations of your residents are changing and evolving rapidly. In addition, your residents are comparing your apartment communities to both your competition and to best service with every company, product or service they experience. By reading this article, you will learn the steps for developing a system so your residents can tell you exactly what best service means to them!

Developing resident surveys: Start by gathering the leasing teams at the properties you manage and discuss the current level of resident service being given. Also, ask for any feedback or suggestions they have heard or received from their residents. Next, prepare a resident survey that might include some of the following questions: Tell us about the best service you have ever received while living in any apartment community. Tell us about the best service you have ever received from any company or individual and why this was the best. Tell us how we can improve your living experience with our apartment community. Lastly, ask your leasing teams for suggestions on how these surveys might best be presented to their residents. Many of our property management clients ask their leasing teams to hand deliver these surveys to their residents on Saturday morning for a personalized touch while others give out small prizes to the first 25 survey responses.

Tip From The Coach: Do you want to experience best service? Take a few hours and visit a high-end retaillocation like Nordstrom, a Ritz-Carlton hotel or Tiffany’s. When visiting these world-class locations, observe how they greetyou, the words they select when assisting you, the types and variety of products or services they provide, the colors and fabrics they use and the quality of their brochures and printed materials. As a side note, any employee of a Ritz-Carlton can fix a guest service problem instantly, for up to $2,000!

Implementing resident surveys: Once you and your leasing teams have received the responses to these resident surveys you can now set your service standards at or above the level of your resident’ expectations. As a next step, summarize the results from these resident surveys and look for any repeated suggestions or recommendations. Then, design an action-plan with your leasing teams based on the suggestions they are going to implement over the next 30-60 days. Lastly, have your leasing teams share with their residents a written summary of exactly what they will be doing as a result of these resident surveys. Remember, surveys are a great way to get feedback, but these residents will want to know what your leasing teams are going to do with their responses.

Tip From The Coach: Once this first resident survey has been completed, ask your leasing teams to schedule additional surveys every 90 to 120 days for the next 36 months. These future surveys will allow you and your leasing teams to stay current with the ever-changing needs and requests of your residents. In addition, by having your leasing teams ask for this ongoing feedback their residents will know that service at their apartment communities will continue to evolve as a reflection of their expectations.

Learning from your residents: An additional benefit to implementing surveys will be the great new ideas or services you and your leasing team will learn from your residents’ feedback. Many of the responses to these surveys will include requests to receive something faster, something easier to use, something easier to read/understand or something that is causing a problem or frustration. Take each of these requests and look for ways to easily and inexpensively implement all of them. In addition, look at each of these survey ideas and see if your property management company can earn new income from any of these suggestions. A great example of this concept is the way many apartment communities are adding a fee-based business center where their work-at-home residents can access computers, fax/copy machines and Internet services.

Tip From The Coach: Remember, make it easy to listen and learn from the residents of the properties you manage because their suggestions and recommendations will uncover great new ideas and a variety of ways to set your apartment communities well ahead of the rest. Are you ready to raise service to a world-class level?

Want to hear more about this important topic or ask some additional questions about how to build powerful resident surveys? Send an E-mail to ernest@powerhour.com and The Coach will E-mail you a free PowerHour invitation.

Ernest F. Oriente, a business coach since 1995 [28,130 hours], a property management industry professional since 1988–the author of SmartMatch Alliances–and the founder of PowerHour and PowerHour SEO has a passion for coaching his clients on executive leadership, hiring and motivating property management SuperStars, traditional and Internet SEO/SEM marketing, competitive sales strategies, and high leverage alliances for property management teams and their leaders.

He provides private and group coaching for property management companies around North America, executive recruiting, investment banking, national utility bill auditing , national real estate and apartment building insurance, SEO/SEM web strategies, national WiFi solutions, and powerful tools for hiring property management SuperStars and building dynamic teams. Ernest worked for Motorola, Primedia and is certified in the Xerox sales methodologies. Recent interviews and articles have appeared more than 6500 times in business and trade publications and in a wide variety of leading magazines and newspapers, including Smart Money, Inc., Business 2.0, The New York Times, Fast Company, The LA Times, Fortune, Business Week, Self Employed America and The Financial Times.

Since 1995, Ernest has written 185 articles for the property management industry and created 350+ property management forms, business and marketing checklists, sales letters and presentation tools. To subscribe to his free property management newsletter go to: www.powerhour.com. PowerHour

Here are eight ways to read a rent roll with an eye towards determining stability of the tenant base. The objective is to provide insight into the stability of the asset by knowing the financial reality associated with the income stream from the multifamily asset.

Baseline Data. When beginning a review of the rent roll ask for two copies; one for the current month and one for the same month from the previous year (two years if you can get it). Our objective is to obtain a baseline; to determine those tenants that are on the rent roll in the current month and those removed.

Turnover. While a nice catch phase, in our business increases in turnover means we are burning cash. With the baseline data we can now determine turnover and inquire about the fate of those tenants no longer on the roll. What became of them?

Revenue and Revenue Growth (Rent Growth). Minusthe layeredview of revenue including Gross Potential, less vacant, less concessions, plus utility income, plus garages… yada yada. How much RENTAL REVENUE was obtained for the current month versus for the same month one and two years previous?

Renewals and renewal rates. Renewals are the cornerstone to stability. What is the year-over-year renewal rate? A number north of 75% is very good. High renewal rates converts to a low turnover rate. Low turnover converts to high gross margins and less turnover expenditures.

Lease Start dates/Lease end dates. This is separate and distinct from renewals. This category says much about the potential of un-locking value. What is the average length of tenancy? Is it 12 months or 12 years? Nationally, turnover is fifty percent annually.

Collections Activity. Collections refers to only collections of rent- not any other category. We are focused only on the rent roll. What percentage of rents are collected as of the first of the month? What is this percentage as of the second and third of the month?

Late fee revenue. Late fees can be an indicator of future collections. This revenue is a mechanism to enforce timely payment of rent. The real target inquiry is to determine the quality of the under-lying tenant base. Once late fees becomes consistently high, say, more than three percent of annual revenue, it becomes a red flag requiring deeper investigation.

Evictions Activity. Per the rent roll, how many evictions were performed in the last few years? What was the end result on each one; voluntary move once served or action necessitating legal fees? What was the cost to turnover evicted units?

Can you add to this list? Please let us know through your comments. Thanks!

About This Blog
Multifamily Insight is dedicated to assisting current and future multifamily property owners, operators and investors in executing specific tasks that allow multifamily assets to operate at their highest level of efficiency. We discuss real world issues in multifamily property management and acquisitions. This blog is intended to be informational only and does not provide legal, financial or accounting advice. Seek professional counsel. For more information, visit: www.MultifamilyInsight.com

According to a recent survey by Matrix Information, two billion people around the globe have access to Internet-based services and E-mail. In addition, this report expects electronic commerce to grow from $1.6 trillion in 2011 to $3.2 trillion by the year 2015. Is your property management company ready for these exploding communication and marketing trends? Is your leasing team ready to handle the E-mail just sent by 15 new prospects relocating from Paris or Moscow? Read the tips in this article and learn how easy it is to master E-mail and profit from it…it’s just a few keystrokes away!

Tips for using E-mail with prospective new residents: Be certain each of the properties you manage has a high-speed connection, E-mail software, an E-mail account and proper software training • Ask your leasing teams to always use spell check before sending an E-mail to a future resident • Have your teams read each E-mail twice before they send it, just to make certain it conveys exactly what they are trying to communicate and it portrays the professional image important to your property management company • When sending an E-mail, the subject line must clearly summarize what the body of the E-mail says • If your leasing teams are using the E-mail “reply” feature to respond to a future resident, make certain they reply by including the information the prospect sent in their original E-mail note. In addition, ask your leasing teams to include the name of the future resident throughout their E-mail reply.

Tips for using E-mail within your property management company: When your leasing teams are using E-mail to communicate internally, make certain theyunderstand when to respond by E-mail and when to call the person who sent the original E-mail, depending on the tone or content of the E-mail• Explain to your leasing teams how and when to use carbon copy {cc} and blind carbon copy {bcc} with E-mail • Have a written company policy regarding the use of E-mail, clearly outlining the rules and expectations of your company. Have this document signed by each person who will be accessing your E-mail software • Explain to your leasing teams that deleting an E-mail does not remove it from their computer system nor from the system of the person the E-mail was sent to. During several recent lawsuits, damaging E-mails that had been deleted were used in the courtroom to the surprise of the individuals and their property management companies • Instruct your leasing teams about the extra care required if they receive an E-mail that has an attached document, as this is where most computer viruses are hidden. Many property management companies do not let their leasing teams send or open attached files • E-mail files can easily be opened and read so confidential information like salaries, financial reports, social security numbers or credit card numbers should not be sent by E-mail.

Tips for using E-mail as a marketing tool: E-mail can also be used as a powerful marketing tool to attract new residents or to better service your existing residents. Here are some tips: Aside from a small 20 service charge per month, sending or receiving E-mail is free. When compared to other forms of marketing…having your leasing teams send E-mails to new or existing residents is their least expensive form of marketing • Imagine the marketing success your leasing teams will have if they had the E-mail address on the guest card of every future resident who visited their apartment community over the past 12 months…and your leasing teams can stay in touch with these potential new residents for free! • If your properties are using E-mail to handle resident questions or maintenance requests, a timely response is expected and required • Create two separate E-mail lists…one for future residents and one for current residents so you can send appropriate marketing information to each group • Create an E-newsletter which can be easily sent out on a weekly or monthly basis. Remember, since sending E-mail is free, your leasing teams will have lots more flexibility. In addition, E-newsletters portray a professional image about your property management company and are quick to be passed-along to others, thus expanding the reach and exposure for your marketing • When sending E-mail, have your leasing teams develop a five to seven line signature which is automatically placed at the bottom of every E-mail they send out. This signature line will further promote their apartment community, your corporate website and can be changed on a daily basis, if necessary • Use E-mail to stay in touch with the media in your area, especially if your apartment communities have any exciting events or community projects to announce • The E-mail address at each of your properties should be included on every business card, every brochure, on any sales information and with all print advertising.

Want to hear more about this important topic or ask some additional questions about how to use E-mail as a powerful marketing tool? Send an E-mail to ernest@powerhour.com and The Coach will E-mail you a free PowerHour invitation.

Ernest F. Oriente, a business coach since 1995 [27,600 hours], a property management industry professional since 1988–the author of SmartMatch Alliances–and the founder of PowerHour and PowerHour SEO has a passion for coaching his clients on executive leadership, hiring and motivating property management SuperStars, traditional and Internet SEO/SEM marketing, competitive sales strategies, and high leverage alliances for property management teams and their leaders.

He provides private and group coaching for property management companies around North America, executive recruiting, investment banking, national utility bill auditing , national real estate and apartment building insurance, SEO/SEM web strategies, national WiFi solutions, and powerful tools for hiring property management SuperStars and building dynamic teams. Ernest worked for Motorola, Primedia and is certified in the Xerox sales methodologies. Recent interviews and articles have appeared more than 6500 times in business and trade publications and in a wide variety of leading magazines and newspapers, including Smart Money, Inc., Business 2.0, The New York Times, Fast Company, The LA Times, Fortune, Business Week, Self Employed America and The Financial Times.

Since 1995, Ernest has written 185 articles for the property management industry and created 350+ property management forms, business and marketing checklists, sales letters and presentation tools. To subscribe to his free property management newsletter go to: www.powerhour.com. PowerHour

Property Management Saves Time and Money; 5 Concrete Ways a Property Management Company Can Save Time and Money for an Owner

In this article, I will show you how property management can save the owner more than just the cost of the management fee. Let’s say we have a property that rents for $1500/month. As a San Diego Property Management company our average fee in our area is 6-10%. So, let’s use 8% of $1500 which is $120/month. I’ll show you how a property manager can save over $1200/year by using a professional in the business.

1. The first way a property management company can save you money is by maximizing rents. Property managers understand rental prices and what a tenant is willing to pay for a certain unit in a certain area. Property managers also have an edge on advertising and showing. They know all the right places to advertise and are available immediately to show properties to get them rented for the best possible price. On average a property management company can save at least $50/month over 1 year which is already $600

2. The second way a property management company can save you money is by minimizing vacancies. Your average owner takes about 60 days to fill a vacancy depending on the market of course. With a property manager, they average less than 30 days. Again, with an average rent of $1500, the professional saves you over 1 year $1500 from this one area.

3. The third area a property management company can save you money is by advertising. Property managers have discounted rates with websites and newspapers. They can usually save at least $150 in advertising over 1 year versus an individual owner.

4. The fourth area a property management company can save you money is through maintenance and repairs. Most property management companies have access to vendors at discounted rates. Our company saves as much as 30% the regular cost to an individual owner. For an average single family house the cost of maintenance and repairs over 1 year averages about $1200. With a 30% savings this saves the owner $360 over 1 year.

5. The fifth way a property management company can save you money is by finding a good qualified tenant through our screening techniques. Most property management companies have less than a 1% eviction rate because of the thorough screening procedures that they have implemented. The “bad apples” know that they can’t pass a property management company’s screening process so they rent from the individual owners and sell them on how good of a tenant they will be even though they have no credit, or no rental references, or no ID, or a lot of other excuses they use. This alone saves the owner the cost of eviction which in our area averages about $1,000, the cost of loss rent of about 1 month of $1,500, and the cost of repairs of about $1,500. This thorough screening process alone can save the owner $4,000!

Most owners only think about the management fee that they’re losing and not about these 5 areas that a property management company can save them money. With these average estimates above, a professional property management company can save them owner over $7,450 in year. And what was the cost of that property management company? Only $1,200 for the year. This would have saved the owner $6,250 by using a professional.

Image Credit: Flickr – o5com

Excerpt from: 5 Ways a Professional Property Manager Can Help Make More Money and Save More Money

When you screen prospective tenants for your rental properties, do you suggest that they obtain renter’s insurance? Many landlords go beyond suggesting, and make it a condition of the lease—and for good reason. Renter’s insurance can protect you and your tenant.

Not only does renter’s insurance safeguard the value of your tenant’s property from theft or damage, but it also protects them from liability for accidental injuries or damages to the property of others. For example, if a tenant’s bathtub overflows, he or she would be liable for any water damages to the building and for any harm suffered by the neighbor below. With renter’s insurance, the tenant doesn’t have the worry or burden of paying for repairs or replacing damaged property.

While your landlord’s property insurance will typically cover your rental property in the event of a fire, it will not cover your tenants’ property. With renter’s insurance, tenants can get help with temporary housing, and replace their furniture, household goods, clothing and personal belongings. And if that fire were caused by a tenant’s negligence, renter’s insurance would cover the tenant if your insurance company demanded reimbursement of damages paid.

In addition, renter’s insurance can offer a layer of protection for landlords whenever visitors are on the property. A visiting adult or child could trip, fall or slip, resulting in injuries. When the tenant has renter’s insurance, their visitor can seek damages from the tenant’s insurance company, instead of yours.

Renter’s insurance is usually an affordable way to gain a great deal of peace of mind. At only $15 – $20 per month, most tenants who qualify for your rental property will find it reasonable. And if a tenant claims they can’t afford renter’s insurance, how does that make you feel about signing a lease?

Follow this link: Why Your Tenants Should Have Rental Insurance

A vigilant landlord tried to flag his former tenant as a suspected terrorist 18 months before the man was arrested for terrorist activities.

The former tenant is being held on charges of conspiring with undercover officers to conduct a suicide attack somewhere near the Capitol building.

The tenant moved into the northern Virginia apartment after he apparently married the woman who was leasing the home, according to a news report. She later moved out. When the landlord asked the man to leave, too, he threatened the landlord with violence.

The landlord told reporters that another man also moved in, and that their story about running a luggage business out of the apartment did not appear legitimate.

The landlord became suspicious that the man may have been using the apartment to build bombs. However, the landlord told reporters that when he tried to report the activities to local police, they told him to leave the man alone.

It is believed that the man was in the country illegally for a number of years, and that he was unemployed. The tenant was later evicted, according to the report.

Read more: Landlord Tried to Report Terrorist Tenant

The upside of living in a trailer is that you can take your home with you.

The downside is, when that home is moved against your will, it can take you too.

That’s the fate suffered by Tim Arnold, who claims his trailer was towed from an RV park in Titusville, Fla. — while he was inside it, according to WTAM.

Arnold lived at the RV park until Feb. 15 when he says his landlord decided to evict him.

“She told me I had an hour to get out of there or she was going to have it towed away,” Arnold told WESH.

Arnold says he told the manager he wasn’t going to leave, went inside with his dog and locked the door.

“Next thing you know, I’m moving,” Arnold told WESH. “I called 911 and I tried to tell them I was going down the highway in my RV and I don’t know why.”

When the vehicle stopped moving, Arnold and his dog remained inside. Arnold later said he was afraid that the person driving the truck that was hauling him might still be around. Once daylight arrived, he stepped outside and found himself alone in an unknown location about 15 miles from the park. However, as RV blogger Dick Eastman noted, it wasn’t Oz and his dog isn’t named Toto.

“There was an airboat driver and I said ‘Where am I?’” he told WESH.

Arnold is now living in a homeless shelter while his dog is staying at an animal shelter, but former neighbors like Harold Youngling aren’t sad to see him go — even if it was a hasty retreat.

“[He took] egg and fruit and threw them at houses and did a lot of crazy stuff that he shouldn’t have been doing to start with,” Youngling told WESH.

This isn’t the first time an RV renter in Florida has been driven from their residence.

In 2009, Bruce Wardrop was still tending to his dead brother’s affairs in Miramar, Fla., when he discovered his camper, which he had left in a truck stop, had been towed away and junked,according to Madison.com

On Feb. 6th, Ashley Murray of Indiana arrived home with her son to discover a strange man in her apartment. At first, Murray thought she was being robbed. But then, she noticed that the interloper had cooked dinner, folded laundry and swept the floor. Imagine if all trespassers were this helpful!

According to reports, 45-year-old Keith Davis, a neighbor of Murray’s, entered the apartment through an unlocked window where he proceeded to cook a dish of chicken and onions and tidy up.

When police found the man, he was calmly sitting in a chair in the living room but was largely incoherent. However, they soon learned that Davis thought he had been in his own home all along.

Apparently, nothing had been stolen, but Davis, who’s currently being held on a breaking and entering charge, drank all the orange juice in the fridge and had even taken a snooze on the couch. Still, Murray said, she’s willing to forgive these transgressions because he was so considerate at cleaning up.