Growing Your Property Management Business – Propertyware

3 Things You Can Do Right Now to Attract New Property Owners

Marc Eiting — Thu, 01 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

“First and foremost, a professional property management company should have a solid reputation,” says RealtorMag. Does your property management company stand out from the crowd? Build your reputation in your community to gain new property owners.

1. Show How Your Property Management Company is Unique

Property owners are looking for someone to manage their property, but they’re looking for the bonus as well. What unique features does your property management business offer them? According to real estate broker John Souerbry, you can stand out by doing the dirty work. He suggests to

“handle a nasty situation that the owner would prefer not to deal with.”

Do it by the hour, offering your service to those who are considering becoming part of your roster of owners. Other ideas to help your business become an owner magnet include:

Help your owners find investment properties. Create a list of properties that your owners might want to invest in.
Offer enhanced maintenance opportunities or specialize in higher-end or higher-maintenance properties.
Create innovative ways to promote owners’ properties and use rental property marketing tools that allow you to file and post multiple photos and descriptions of properties across multiple platforms.

Be relentless in your business improvement: improve all of your processes, including maintenance, tenant screening, and move-in, move-out.

2. Show Your Commitment to Growth and Change

According to the Houston Chronicle,

“Successful property management companies understand that nothing stays the same, and the knowledge they had when they started in the business ceased to be cutting-edge soon after the coursework ended.”

Stay on the cutting edge of the property management business. Make sure that everyone on your property management team truly understands the trends and changes in the field.

- What are the particular challenges with tenants and properties in your area? Use data management and analytics to understand your properties and manage them for your owners.
- What processes and policies can you improve to make the lives of your owners and tenants better? These include everything from move-in, move-out processes to maintenance and also include tough situations like managing evictions.
- How can you best connect with owners who live in other cities and countries, and what are the unique needs of owners of properties in your city? Use online solutions such as owner portals to understand owners’ needs and work with owners who may live far away.

How can you market your business? Your property management business must stand out online. You can use a suite of digital marketing and website creation tools that allow you to move forward in excellence, developing business processes that serve your owners well.

3. Show That You Care For Properties and Property Owners

More than anything, owners want to know that you’ll care for their property like it was your own. They’ve made an investment, and they’re counting on you to protect it. You need to be able to show the care you have for your properties.

Create an owner portal that helps owners see what the property is costing them and what they’re making from the property.
Track conversations with property owners through your owner portal so that you never lose the thread.
Develop reports that allow owners to see what investments you’re making in their properties through maintenance and what you’d recommend.
Be able to show that your business works. Track the length of vacancies, and show other owners the number of clients you have and how long they stay. Use data analytics to create reports that show owners that you’re able to work with properties over time to increase their value.

You only need a browser with an internet connection to get your hands on what may be the best time-saving tool for property management you have ever seen!

Ready to Grow Your Business by Finding New Rental Property Owners?

Are you trying to attract more property owners to your business? If you’d like to try cloud-based property management software for yourself, try Propertyware. Watch Demo video today.

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Growing Your Property Management Business: How to Set Goals to Help You Grow Your Property Portfolio

Marc Eiting — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 17:00:00 +0000

Ambition is a beautiful thing, but realism is also extremely valuable. As you’re setting your company goals, you need to consider how much you should expect to grow and what it will take to reach that goal. Why is setting goals important? Your growth goals and your business plans need to be aligned, providing a framework that shows how your company can succeed. When you know your business goals, you can create a focused property marketing campaign to move toward them.

Your Business Contract

What is your company striving to achieve? According to the Houston Chronicle, “goals are resolutions to achieve a desired result.” When you’re thinking about your company goals, you need to consider your company’s capacity to serve both your owners and your tenants. Your best property management marketing tool is word of mouth. As you develop your business in new directions, you need to make sure that you continue to serve everyone well. One of the most important goals to reach is to develop a lasting and mutually understanding relationship with your property owners. These owners entrust you with their properties. They may live in another area and be unable to manage their properties themselves, or simply prefer and appreciate the depth of service that a management company can provide. Often, they trust your business to take care of both broad issues and the smaller details. To ensure that you meet your goal to meet the needs of your property owners, you need to be able to effectively communicate with these owners. Utilize property management software that allows you to develop an owner portal and communicate with your owners over time, allowing them to set common goals regarding their properties. Set ongoing maintenance and inspection regimes to meet your property goals.

Set Property Standards

What do you want prospective tenants, owners, or the neighbors to see when they visit the properties you manage? When you’re marketing your properties, you want them to look good from the curb all of the way into the home. Well-cared-for properties are a huge selling point for potential tenants. When a prospective tenant sees that you care about maintenance, this builds trust in your management company. Set goals for the ways in which you manage your property maintenance and repairs. Create an inspection protocol that includes photo and video documentation so that you can benchmark the state of each property. Manage your maintenance schedules and property records in a common location so that when there are questions about when a specific type of maintenance is happening next, you can give an easy answer. Develop long term connections with contractors and maintain those contacts with an online system. Staying on top of your property inspections and maintenance will help your property management business achieve its goal of keeping tenants and owners happy.

Balance Growth and Service

What structures do you have in place to support your business growth? Do you have ways of managing your information and promoting your property management business through a thoughtful marketing plan? As your business grows, you need to discover your own unique balance of growth and support. According to Inc.com, “establishing business goals involves a fair amount of introspection into what makes your business tick, and what you want its future to be.” This process is also worthwhile because it gives your property management company sound insight into what you’re doing, why, and how. Develop a plan for strategic growth, and consider how you’ll muster the resources you need to move in that direction. You might decide that even though you’d like to expand to a new state, you don’t have the employees, funding, or technology to make this happen. If that expansion is a priority, you’ll need to consider how to make it occur without compromising your existing customer service.

As your business expands, you need to have the infrastructure that allows your customer service to expand with it. Learn more about the ways in which Propertyware can support your business development. Get pricing today!

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Growing Your Property Management Business: What’s Working and What Can Be Improved?

Marc Eiting — Wed, 27 Apr 2016 15:00:00 +0000

“Begin at the beginning,” said the King in Alice in Wonderland, and he was right. When it comes to setting goals for your property management business, you need to begin with a sound understanding of where you are right now. After that, you can work toward future growth. Use a business assessment of your rental property business can help you understand the state of your management company and where to focus your energy.

Examine Your Marketing Techniques

When you’re considering what’s working for your business, think about how you connect with your tenants. What is your current marketing strategy? Today, there are many ways to reach prospective tenants, from print ads to email newsletters to direct marketing events. You should also consider web-based marketing approaches, such as content marketing using blog posts and web pages that show that you’re a property management expert who’s willing to share expertise with others in the field. Do an inventory of your current marketing methods, from word of mouth to SEO, video, and webinars. Know what audiences you reach and what platforms you are using right now.

What Marketing Channels Work for Your Property Management Business?

Next, evaluate how your marketing channels and techniques are working to attract new tenants and new owners. According to the Houston Chronicle, your business should “analyze your target consumer to deduce their service needs.” Using marketing analytics, you can develop reports that measure your property management marketing ROI, so that you can target your marketing techniques in specific areas to generate the best return. Consider whether your existing marketing techniques could do more for your business. Is your email copy well-targeted? Is your website attractive, responsive, and user-friendly? Identify changes and trends over time and determine what new goals to set based on your new understanding of your property marketing channels.

How Do You Manage Your Leads?

After the leads come into your business, where do they go? Look at the way your business manages incoming tenants. Develop a tenant portal that begins with a thorough online tenant application and screening process. Evaluate your need for or the success of your contact center. Understanding your marketing channels and lead conversion success is all about understanding the techniques that fit your business. According to The Alternative Board, “think of your business as a car, and a business assessment as the blueprint for its design. While you might know your vehicle’s exact make, model, and mileage, you probably can’t remember all the details about its construction, such as the exact diameter of each of its hoses.” A business assessment provides a way to re-visit the details of your business and it helps in providing assurance that your techniques truly work for your business. Understand how your services for owners and tenants connect to your retention rates.

How Well Do You Work With Your Existing Clients?

You can also use your data analytics to understand how your relationships with existing owners and clients are faring. Use reports to connect maintenance regimes, specific regions, or other property data trends with vacancy rates or repairs in each property. If you notice a change in tenant turnover, you can use this carefully-collected data to better understand what you could improve. As you build your business, Propertyware is here to help. With data collection and reporting on marketing techniques and tenant turnover, you’ll be better able to understand business trends and make the changes you need to improve your business. Take a free tour of Propertyware today.

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Growing Your Property Management Business: Become a Property Management Resource

Marc Eiting — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 15:00:00 +0000

You may be exceptional at managing properties, but does everyone understand the depth of your expertise? One of the ways to help potential owners and tenants understand your place in your field is to increase brand awareness by becoming a tried-and-true property management resource. Whether you’re writing blogs about specific neighborhoods or advising owners about some of the tricky maintenance issues they’ll face, you can become a trusted resource in your field by sharing relevant information.

Building Positive Brand Awareness Through Social Media

The State Gazette likens brand management to being a rock star: “Just as a rock star uses his talents to engage his audience, a business professional uses his talents to engage his clients.” One of the simplest ways that you can build a fan base and a reputation online is by creating a social media profile. Become active on a social media platform that suits your business needs and reaches your audience. If you’re looking for just one platform, Facebook may be a good place to begin. Share information about issues in your field, and develop your own informative posts based on your expertise in the area. Engage potential tenants and owners in conversation as well, offering to answer questions and encouraging them to share their experiences. By showing that you’re responsive, educated, and willing to share, you become a go-to resource.

Increase Brand Awareness By Blogging

Blogging is the mainstay of those who are seeking to develop a brand and increase the digital marketing of that brand. According to Forbes, good blogging begins with some deep thinking about who you are as a business. In an article, they recommend you “identify what you want to be known for and you’ll be in a much better position to BE that – which is key to building your brand.” Once you’ve decided what kind of brand you want to be, share that with the world. Over the years, you’ve developed a wide and varied expertise in diverse areas, from local neighborhoods to an understanding of contracts, to home and lawn maintenance and repair topics. Share this expertise in your blog posts. Optimize your blogs with SEO to draw in new readers who search online, and add appropriate graphics and hashtags to encourage social sharing. Post consistently and focus your information on issues that are relevant to your local owners and tenants. Use your blog as a way to answer questions that tenants and owners ask in person or online, and remember to promote it through social media.

Your Website Can Become a Property Management Resource

While a blog can provide consistent and updated content on your website, drawing people in, your website as a whole may be more static. However, it can also become a property management resource. Add a section for frequently asked questions, and use the popularity of some of your blog posts to indicate what new pages you should add to the site. For example, if your posts about the diversity and amenities available in local neighborhoods are very popular, you could add a page to your website that describes these neighborhood cultures and amenities in more detail. Increase brand awareness among tenants and owners by offering free introductory resources.

Offer Free Resources to Increase Brand Awareness

Use your website to extend your brand awareness through free resources that you make available to owners and tenants. For example, you might decide to develop an e-book that gives prospective property owners an introduction to the ins and outs of owning and managing property in your city and describes how to set up a beneficial relationship with a property management company. You could also create a monthly webinar for those who are curious about how property management could improve their ability to own and manage their properties. By offering free resources, you not only draw in potential customers, you solidify your reputation as a brand that gives generously.

“It seems that everywhere, in every situation, Propertyware is keeping us organized.” – Dave Barron / Husky Property Management, LLC

When you’re looking for resources to help you manage your properties, contact Propertyware. We can help you develop and improve your online presence. Contact us today to learn more about our marketing tools and sign up for a free tour today.

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Growing Your Property Management Business: Attracting Real Estate Investors and Property Owners

Marc Eiting — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Do you know how to catch an owner’s eye? When you’re attracting real estate investors and property owners, you need to have a solid marketing plan. These investors and owners are the basis of your business, and they need to know about the value and reputation of your property management business. You can use advertisements to draw in owners and investors and enhance your property management marketing.

Know Your Target Audience

Before you begin to advertise, you need to be aware of your target audience. According to Zillow, advertising is not just about the means you use, it’s about the target you choose: “however you decide to market yourself, you will have more success once your target market is defined.” Consider how to target your audience geographically, and think about the different groups within your audience. For example, you might market yourself to new property owners or to seasoned real estate investors who are tired of managing multiple properties. Who you choose will help determine your advertising message.

Outbound and Online

When you’re starting out online or initiating a new web-based campaign, you can use a combination of outbound and inbound advertising to target owners and investors and draw them into your business. Google Adwords are targeted towards specific search phrases that owners might use to find your business. These may be location-specific or focus on certain services that a property management business provides. Pay special attention to how people find your business and develop both ad campaigns and website SEO that’s focused on these keywords. Facebook ads can also allow you to target people on their social media accounts. They allow you to choose the demographic, interests, behaviors, location, and contacts of your target audience so that you can hone in on a specific group of property owners. Watch your statistics trend upward when you pair web advertising with high impact landing pages.

Develop Your Web Presence

When your prospective owners and investors click on your advertising, where do they go? Make sure that your overall web presence is there to underpin your advertising campaigns. From high impact blog posts that draw in readers to landing pages that are targeted to a specific group that’s interested in your advertising campaign, you need to make your website a reputable and welcoming place for your readers. Use landing pages and a well-structured site to move those who’d like to partner with your business through your sales funnel. Offer free learning resources such as ebooks and webinars to build rapport and educate potential owners on the value that your business can bring.

Get Social

Your own social media and blog posts should complement your outbound advertising as well. With the Google Adwords and Facebook advertising campaigns you’ve created, develop parallel blog posts, social media infographics, photos, and short posts that send people back to your website. Your blog and social media accounts can work in tandem with your outbound advertising and website landing pages to provide a thorough and consistent message to real estate investors and property owners. For example, Hootsuite suggests using “free social media to beta-test your paid social ads” so that you know that they’ll generate interest and clicks before you pay for them.

“Someone was really listening to what I needed, in my whole program.” – Betsy Morgan / BHHS Florida Properties Group

As you develop your property management business, Propertyware can help. We provide tangible support with your SEO, digital marketing, and customer contact needs. Show your best face to real estate investors: sign up for a free tour of Propertyware today.

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Growing Your Property Management Business: From Attracting Property Owners to Documenting Processes

Marc Eiting — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 12:00:00 +0000

Growth: it’s the desire and goal of any successful business owner, and it’s what your property management business strives to achieve. But is your growth sustainable in the long term? To develop a solid and reputable property management company, start with a deeper understanding of how your business works.

Take the Pulse of Your Property Management Business

Any strategy begins with a hard look at your business as it now stands. Infoentrepreneurs says that it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day management of the business during those early days of start up, but “once you’re up and running, it can pay dividends to think about longer-term and more strategic planning.” If your business has been growing steadily, you may have become more distanced from the everyday workings of your employees. Complete an analysis of your business strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) and consider how your business is performing, whether you’re acting on new opportunities, and how streamlined your business is in pursuit of your goals.

Craft Your Vision

Next, determine where you want to go. According to Fast Company, “visions should provide a sense of aspiration, they should stretch the imagination.” What are your desired markets and planned directions? What unique skills and experience does your business bring to this area? Consider the processes, products, and people that your business needs to achieve this vision.

How to Grow a Property Management Company

What are the tools that will lead you into the future of your property management business? How do you attract leads? Now is the time to consider your support structure. Adopt property management systems to streamline your listing processes by adding all of the information that you need in a single portal, then customizing it for different listing sites. Hone your SEO so your website naturally draws in new leads. Develop a strong blog that outlines issues that are relevant to your tenants’ and owners’ concerns so that people will head to your site to learn more from your expertise. Look at the data around your property management marketing and develop reports that can update you frequently on how well your newest strategy is working.

Keep Your Property Management Leads Flowing

After your leads walk in the door, you need them to walk through and sign the contract or lease. Track and manage your leads in real time, with custom forms to collect data and help you build a unique relationship with each property owner and suitable prospective tenant. Develop tenant screening protocols that send you qualified tenants to fill the vacancies that you have available. Focus on keeping the tenants you already have as well. With exceptional property management systems that allow tenants to pay rental fees online and help you keep a rigorous maintenance schedule, you’ll keep existing tenants happy and encourage them to spread the word about your property management company. A similar system can be valuable in developing and maintaining quality relationships with property owners.

“It seems that everywhere, in every situation, Propertyware is keeping us organized.” – Dave Barron / Husky Property Management, LLC

As you’re developing your property management marketing plan, you need an ally that can help you manage your processes and your data smoothly and efficiently. Put Propertyware’s experience to work for your business: sign up for a free tour of Propertyware today.

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Growing Your Property Management Business: Managing Your Property Management Reputation

Marc Eiting — Sun, 10 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Develop a reputation as a supportive property manager, and encourage clients to share this online. In business, your reputation is everything. Even if you’re a smaller property management company, if you can build a big reputation, you can tell prospective owners and tenants that you’re a company that can be trusted. When you’re wondering how to grow your business, consider how online business reviews can bring down or boost your property management reputation. Take control of your property management business by managing your reviews.

Why You Need a Strong Property Management Reputation

It used to be that your business reputation was formed by the word on the street. People who’d been your tenants or owners would talk, and they’d tell their friends and family the upside and the downside of your business. Today, social communities are wider and strangers can talk about your business even if they live far away from each other. According to Small Biz Trends, “eighty-five percent of the small businesses surveyed said customers learn about them through word of mouth,” and today, word of mouth spreads just as quickly online as it does offline. You will have an online reputation whether you manage it or not, so it’s best to manage it. Managing your online reputation means that you take control of your corporate brand, monitoring what others say about your business and using this information to learn and grow. You’re also visibly responsive to critiques online.

Getting Online Business Reviews

To develop your property management reputation, you can actively solicit online business reviews. This will help your reputation grow in a positive way. According to Reputation Loop, all businesses should ask themselves these questions: “Can buyers find me online when they look at their preferred review and comparison sites? What are potential customers seeing that will make them choose my business over others? Is my business showing up at the top of search engine local search results with five-star reviews?” To generate a positive buzz about your business online, you can post signs in your business that ask customers to review you on Yelp, Facebook, or other review sites. If you interact with customers online or on the phone, do the same after each phone call or online interaction. Have buttons clearly visible on your blog, and highlight positive customer reviews on a website testimonials page. If your reviews are sparse, consider offering an incentive to customers to post a review online for your business. Make sure that customers know that they should contact you directly with questions or concerns so that their worries or negative experiences do not make it onto review sites.

Managing Negative Business Reviews

In spite of all of your best intentions, you may occasionally receive a negative review. After all, we all make mistakes sometimes. Will your reputation suffer if you receive a negative business review? It might, depending on how well the individual publicizes the review. When you get a negative review, you need to look at the source. See if you can determine who is making the review. Sometimes, this review might come from a competitor who is trying to damage your property management reputation. If you feel like the review is inaccurate or malicious, you can contact the review site and request that the review is removed. If the review is regarding a real incident, you need to decide how you’ll respond. Some businesses have a policy of responding to all of their reviews. This can be time-consuming, but it can also give you a reputation for being a caring and responsive company. Develop a company policy and suggested language for responding to negative reviews, so that you can have a consistent online business persona. By developing a process for replying to reviews, you not only have the possibility of turning a dissatisfied customer into a satisfied one, you show that you are a company that cares.

“We have about ten times more leads through Propertyware.” – Jerry Ryan, Resource Property Management

Do you want to solidify your property management reputation? Propertyware has the tools you need to effectively manage your business. From software that features tenant and owner portals to a customer contact center, we facilitate healthy communication with tenants and owners. Solidify your property management marketing today: watch a demo to see how Propertyware can boost your business.

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