Property management tips to boost your efficiency

Property managers are faced with a wide range of tasks on a daily basis, ranging from negotiating leases, inspecting properties, showing homes and following up with maintenance and tenant-related issues. Having so many things on your plate every single day can make managing your time incredibly tricky. Fortunately, there are a number of property management tips you can implement to get your workday back on track.

Monitoring Your Time

The initial step towards enhancing your time management skills is gaining insight into how you currently allocate your time. It’s essential to begin by tracking and understanding how you use your time on a daily and weekly basis, enabling you to make necessary adjustments.

Commence by maintaining a time diary for a week, categorising your activities into distinct sections. Subsequently, identify where the majority of your time is being invested.

Prioritise Your Tasks

Being more efficient means that you need to make the most of your time and do your highest value activities.

Once, you’ve determined where your time goes, you need to cross-reference that with the most important activities. If you believe generating leads and bringing on new business is the most important part of the role, you need to be focused on that. If you are required to look after lease negotiations and manage open homes, that should be the priority in your diary each week.

Find out the most important activities and not only allocate them the required time, but also try to do them when you’re at your most effective. There are a range of activities, such as checking email and answering calls, that might not make a big difference to your bottom line, but take up a lot of time.

Set Clear Communication Channels

Establishing efficient communication channels with tenants and property owners is essential. Utilise email, messaging apps, and dedicated property management software to keep everyone informed. Respond promptly to inquiries and maintenance requests to build trust and maintain tenant satisfaction.

Outsource

If you simply don’t have enough time during the week to get everything done or if you want to maximise your day, you need to find ways to fire yourself from certain tasks. This means outsourcing and that will mean taking on an assistant or outsourcing either to a virtual assistant or to a complementary service provider.

Many people in real estate have virtual assistants and teams in place and it’s increasingly common to have third parties conduct inspections.

Foster Positive Tenant Relationships

Building positive relationships with tenants can lead to longer lease terms and fewer disputes. Be responsive to their concerns, communicate clearly, and address maintenance issues promptly. A satisfied tenant is more likely to renew their lease and treat the property with care.

Create Robust Screening Criteria

To minimise tenant turnover and headaches, develop stringent tenant screening criteria. Check credit histories, rental references, and conduct thorough background checks. Selecting reliable tenants from the outset can significantly reduce late payments and eviction proceedings.

Leverage Technology

In this era of technology, there are multiple tools that you can use to make your job easier and more efficient.

Automating tedious tasks such as outreach, appointment scheduling, segmentation, email blasts and follow-up messages can be the first step to really freeing up your schedule.

Market leading property management software is critical to all aspects of a property manager’s role, but be sure to choose one with built-in automation to allow you to nurture your leads and lead scoring capabilities and make you more effective at prospecting. Cloud-based property management software can also help you improve your workflows and can save you hours every single week.

Contact MRI Software  

At MRI Software, we develop smart software solutions for real estate agencies to optimise their systems and processes. To find out more about how we can help, contact us today on 09 883 3196 or click here to schedule a personalised demo.