More on Remote Management

In the last article, we discussed the reason that property owners need to perform survey research. The reality is that property owners rarely have anything to do with their properties, and hire a manager to cover everything that needs to be done. Yet if something is inadequate or the manager is unprofessional, they have no way of finding out.

This puts far too much trust in both the manager and the property itself. Instead, it's best to come up with a strategy that oversees the property manager while still letting them do their job and remaining as uninvolved as possible. Surveys accomplish this, and they can be completed in two ways:

Easily the best way to handle this type of survey is to simply conduct it semi-annually. You can do this through some type of apartment newsletter, and have both an online and an offline option as needed. As an incentive, you can promise people they will receive some money off of rent for the following month.

It doesn't have to be large ($20 would likely be enough, but that number isn't based on any testing), and it will provide you with a thorough feedback system that you can track over time. This will easily spot any trends with the quality of care or the apartments themselves, while still allowing you to be generally uninvolved on the back end.

Another valuable survey to run would be one that surveys the tenant as they leave. Often it's not the current satisfaction level of the tenants that is important to a property owner (although arguably it should be). What matters is why people are leaving.

If they're leaving because they prefer a lower rent, perhaps this is an acceptable reason to leave. If they're leaving because their apartment is in shambles or they were mistreated, or the apartment is too loud, etc., it'll give you something to look at and stop before it creates a bigger problem. Those that make money with property ownership and management need to remember that their profit is dependent on tenants remaining with the building, keeping the apartments in check, and new people coming in when tenants leave.

The best way to do that is to monitor the satisfaction level of the tenants of the property. The above two surveys are quick and easy ways to do that, and will provide you with accurate information that you can use to evaluate your property manager and every other aspect of your building.