You have properties to lease and marketing to do. Your repair bills are constant, and now you need to coordinate snow removal as well. Sometimes, you feel overwhelmed with all of the intricacies of owning real estate. Managing property is not easy, and if at times you want to throw your hands in the air and give up, it’s time to get help.
Legalities of Leasing
There’s a lot of law involved in leasing. This extends from discrimination laws to laws focused on notices that you need to give to tenants. Different areas of leasing have different laws as well. For example, according to Health Facilities Management, “leases of space in hospitals or hospital-owned medical office buildings (MOBs) implicate the federal Anti-Kickback Statute (the Medicare and Medicaid Patient and Program Protection Act of 1987) and the physician self-referral law (known as the Stark Law).” Can you work with all of the law that relates to your rental properties, or do you need assistance that’s fluent in these laws?
Marketing Properties
When you’re managing a space that involves multiple tenants, “leasing is a continuous process, and providing excellent customer service is critical to securing renewals,” according to NorthEast PCG. If you’ve recently stepped into managing multi-family properties or you’re adding more properties, the marketing and leasing process can feel overwhelming. You’re constantly having to meet with prospective tenants, screen tenants, and conduct move-in and move-out processes. To make marketing and leasing less overwhelming:
- Create strong marketing processes that occur each time you have a vacancy.
- Develop marketing structures such as a website or blog.
- Develop a consistent screening process that’s managed by just a few people.
- Work with external resource people such as cleaners during move-in, move-out.
- Develop employee capacity to conduct screening and move-in, move-out processes and either dedicate staff to this role or outsource it to a management company.
Juggling Finances
More tenants mean more financial management. While it’s relatively simple to get rent payments from one or two tenants, financial management becomes more complex when you have a large commercial building with many tenants. You need to think about:
- Tenant credit checks
- Payment portals
- Accounting
- Working with multiple vendors
- Managing ongoing costs
- Planning for renovations
- Emergency renovations
- Coordinating insurance and claims
- Managing utility costs across multiple units
Working with a management company can help you streamline your financial management processes and make financial management of tenants much easier.
Coordinating Renovations
Does a new tenant need to renovate? Do you need to complete an emergency renovation on the building’s electrical systems? The larger the building and the more tenants you have, the more you’ll find yourself in the position of general contractor. You need to supervise ongoing maintenance such as cleaning common spaces and large renovations as well. You’ll require reliable contractors who are consistently available.
What’s the solution? How can you get everything done without feeling drained? The answer is simple — Work with an experienced property management company that has ongoing connections to those who can help you clean, repair, and renovate your facilities.
Interpersonal Dynamics
If you’re renting to a single tenant, you don’t need to worry as much about the social dynamics of your building. However, when you’re leasing properties that have multiple tenants – business or family, you need to understand the many different needs and personalities that are present in your property. For example, businesses need to be compatible with each others’ needs: if a single business takes up all of the parking, this can be a concern.
Some tenants are more challenging than others, and they can cost you a lot of time and energy. Outsourcing some of the management of your buildings can help you focus your energy on the building and tenancy issues that you really need to focus on rather than micromanaging individual tenants.
There’s Much More of Everything
When you’re managing multi-family or commercial properties, there’s more of everything, and you need to realize that there’s a limit to what your employees can handle. For example, there’s more tenant turnover, so you’ll need more marketing. There may also be more opportunities for plumbing or electrical problems.
While you can develop excellent systems to manage many of these problems, the sheer scale of tenant requests can become overwhelming. If you’re struggling to develop those systems or manage the inflow of tenant requests, a property management company can bring its skills to the scene.
At Lori Gill and Associates, we understand your needs as a property owner. We know how hard it can be to manage single family or larger properties, and we’re there to provide support. If you’re struggling with the day to day logistics of property management, contact us today.
