How to take the stress out of property management

Stress is a big issue in property management. And with the recent lockdowns that have taken place due to the new wave of the pandemic, it has gotten more overwhelming for property managers. It’s important to understand quite a bit of the pressure you feel comes about simply because you’re dealing with people – there’s always going to be something that happens in their lives that will impact you. Then there are the things that are going to happen that you simply cannot control, such as COVID-19, which will only create added pressure for property managers like you.

So if you can’t stop these things from happening the question is: how can we take the stress out of property management? On the recently concluded MRI Ascend APAC 2021, Terri Handy of pmXcite shared with us how creating breathing space impacts how we deal with the challenges that may come your way, and how technology can support your daily life to minimise stress. Here’s a rundown of her presentation.

Minimise stress by creating a breathing space

The most important thing that property managers should accept and understand is that we cannot be void from stress. By knowing this, you can take steps to plan and create time for the unexpected in your day. The message here is you can always improve your situation, creating a doable plan with breathing space for the unexpected is definitely achievable for everyone.

1. Looking ahead: The ideal property management week or month

When you know what’s coming up it’s easier to anticipate issues or potential problems. If we’re not looking ahead then we would be forever stuck in this reactive mode which is where things can get out of hand and it’s impossible to catch up.

This is where creating an ideal week or month calendar will come in handy as it will help you manage your schedule and anticipate what’s going to happen as you work through your calendar. Perhaps in your plan you thought it might be best to do routine inspections on a Tuesday or Thursday morning, but you realised you’re always pushed for time on a Tuesday because your team meeting is first up, and often runs over time. It’s easy to fix – just shift things around. When you have a plan, you don’t have to waste extra time thinking about stuff because you know what to do next. You naturally create breathing space for your day and most importantly, in your head to avoid feeling overwhelmed.

2. Controlling the controllable

What can we control? What do we know that happens every tenancy, every new owner that comes onboard? Or every time we say goodbye to a client? When you look at it, we can actually predict so much of what we do in property management.

Get familiar with your relationship with clients and other stakeholders. There are the 3 pillars of service when talking about client experience, but they also serve to enable us to manage our time efficiently as we go through these stages of the relationship. We know that all these steps have to happen, so we have the opportunity to control and influence when these occur.

3 Stages of client relationships in property management

1. Warm welcome

The process involved when welcoming someone into your agency are perhaps the easiest to predict and simplest to automate. A good tip that Terri shared to make this stage easier for both tenants and property managers is to have new tenancies commence on a Friday when possible. This will allow you to tackle on any issues that come up during business hours instead of a weekend when there could be delays in resolving issues. This helps minimize the stress that comes with moving in for both you and your tenants.

2. Anticipatory service

Anticipatory service means being proactive when it comes to customer service – the total opposite of reactive customer service that we’re usually used to seeing. This is done by anticipating the needs of your customers and planning the steps you need to do to avoid a problem from happening in the first place. Maintenance management, for example, can fall into anticipatory service – you anticipate that eventually there would be maintenance work that needs to be done, but how can you make that experience as stress-free as possible? The more you are able to automate tasks and processes, the more you’ll be able to create breathing space for the unexpected.

3. Fond farewell

Just as with welcoming a new business into your agency, the process involved when someone leaves are quite predictable and already set. However, this stage has more emotions involved which can make it time-consuming, so planning is essential. Leveraging technology to automate as much of the workflow at this stage will help.

3. Maximising property management technology

As you would’ve known by now, technology plays an important role in taking out some of the stress we experience daily as we fulfill our duties as a property manager. But often, many tend to overlook just how much more the software and tools they use are capable of. Terri recommends to always stay curious about the software you’re using. Check out software updates for improvements that could benefit you, as well as pieces of content from your software provider that can help create more efficiencies in your day. If you’re not in the habit of looking for ways to make your work easier, then you’re going to miss these little nuggets of gold.

Make property management easier with Property Tree Tips & Tricks

If you’re using MRI Property Tree, our collection of tips and tricks will help take away some of those daily stresses you may have. Check out our YouTube playlist to learn more on how you can make your day-to-day just that much easier.

Watch the “Taking the stress out of property management” session in full

Learn more about managing stress in property management when you watch the complete session on-demand. For more sessions discussing the latest trends and issues in the industry, check out MRI Ascend APAC 2021 Playlist on YouTube.