A good management strategy is what's needed to be truly successful when investing in real estate, more specifically rental property. We have managed our own properties for years and learned what works and what doesn’t. Through the process of building our management company we have realized that there are things that separate a good management company from a great one.

What It Means to be a Property Manager
Property managers act as liaisons between the tenants and owners. The property managers role is to be the voice for the tenant to the owner. This include things like maintenance, general repairs, problems that sometimes need permission to proceed. At other times, the property managers role is to be the voice of the owner to the tenant. This could include things such as collecting rent on time, new leasing and renewals, and so on. Now that you know what a property manager does, let’s get into what separates the good property managers from the great property managers.

What Makes an Exceptional Property Manager

Continued Quality
This is the quality of living for the tenant. Besides completing work orders, the property manager goes the extra mile to resolve issues for the tenant, rather than cast them off as “not my problem”. For example, one tenant is constantly being disturbed by their neighbor who plays their stereo loudly late at night. A great property manager will get involved and contact noisy tenant to make sure everyone is happy. The great property manager will step in to mediate when they can to help a tenant and keep the peace. Others will simply ignore the problem and hope that the tenants take care of the problem themselves which can cause a situation to get worse.

Tenant Happiness
Happy tenants pay the rent on time, treat the unit like its their home, and generally stay longer. Great Property Managers will provide the best customer service to make tenants feel appreciated. 

Upholding Building Quality
This is more than just handling the problems as they come in and not looking deeper for the root cause of a problem. This is having foresight and doing preventative work to maintain the building. An example would be noticing a tree that’s leaning onto the building. A great property manager will communicate with the property owner and mention the tree and that it should be cut down before it comes down on its own causing damage. Great Property Managers that do this type of preventative maintenance many times prevent emergencies and insurance claims. Upholding Building Quality also means doing routine scheduled walk-throughs, roof inspections, testing smoke alarms, communicating back to the property owner in a timely manner, and more. If the property manager fails at doing these things, they are failing to serve the tenant and property owner.

In summary, remember that collecting rent and handling general repairs is the good property manager but a great property manager goes above and beyond. Keep WFLP Property Management in mind as we strive to go above and beyond with each and every property, tenant and property owner.