Preventing the "Blame Game" in Property Management

As today is National Blame Someone Else Day, be wary that while you are passing off blame for your minor faux pas, someone else could be doing the same to you! It is human nature to place blame on another party when an unexpected problem or inconvenience takes place.  As property managers, it is something you are probably somewhat familiar with. No matter what your industry, there will always be certain occurrences that you cannot predict. However, by utilizing a few simple safeguards you can protect yourself and your tenants from an overabundance of problems and blame.

One of the easiest and most important ways to protect yourself, your management team, and your tenants is to always get it in writing. When setting up a lease agreement with a tenant be sure to cover all your bases.  Once you start letting certain agreements go through by verbal confirmation only you are opening the floodgates to future problems.  This is a situation where you are always better safe than sorry!

Another way to ensure a positive relationship with your tenants is making sure their needs and requests are being met in a timely manner. Implementing a program such as Workspeed can help to minimize turnaround time on service requests and allows for maximum communication and convenience for your tenants.

Unfortunately, not all problems are foreseeable and tensions may arise between your property management team and your tenants. While you are facing these issues it is important to handle them in the most professional way possible. When an emotional resident approaches you with a problem one of the most important things you can do is allow them to vent.  By taking the time to listen to what their issue is you may be able to see through it to find the cause.  Once you have established the cause you can explain to the tenant the steps you will take to resolve the issue.

Taking simple precautions can help create a positive relationship between your property management team and tenants. MRI Software can help to keep your office organized on track so you are able to meet all the needs of your tenants and avoid having to take part in National Blame Someone Else Day!