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Property Manager’s Guide to Preserving Owner Relationships

Posted on 03. Jun, 2010 by Marc Courtenay in Business

It feels good to appreciate how many property owners you represent and service. You’ve probably worked hard to build up your book of clients and to establish yourself as an irreplaceable property manager.

Yet we also know it’s easy to take those relationships for granted. We can convince ourselves that these owners know how lucky they are to have us managing their properties. After all, they probably aren’t shopping around for better management; at least we hope they aren’t?

Now I’m not trying to make you paranoid. I am trying to help you avoid complacency. To be “complacent” has a double meaning in the dictionary. It can primarily mean contented self-satisfaction. There’s nothing wrong with feeling that way on the surface, right?

It is the secondary meaning of complacency that we need to be concerned about. According to the American Heritage Dictionary that secondary definition is “a lack of concern.” No property manager wants to convey a lack of concern to the owner’s who hire them and their services. So to preserve your owner relationships and to attract referrals and new business, you want to be a property manager who is famous for outstanding service and a plethora of concern. That is generally what it takes to keep your owners contented and loyal to you.

Today I asked a long-time friend who is both a property manager and an owner for her thoughts on this subject. She’s been in the business for almost four decades and has been very successful. Here are her top five suggestions to retaining your owner customers:

1. “Be afraid of being fired,” was one of her first responses. “I put the owner first, before the interests of the resident. I express this to my owners. I tell them I’m responsible for their very valuable asset. I let the residents know of my loyalty toward the owner and that this building is one of the owners’s prized assets.”
2. “This isn’t just a job, and this isn’t just a physical building. This is the owner’s source of income; it is their true financial security and possibly their retirement well-being. The owner worked hard to acquire this building,” she emphasized. ”Let the owner and the residents know that you feel strongly about this. Make sure the owners know what’s going on with their properties, both the good news and the possible challenges ahead.” She said she avoids “nasty surprises and shocks” this way.
3. “Make sure your paperwork and reckonings are outstanding,” she suggested. “Meet your fiduciary responsibilities to the owners impeccably. Let their never be a discrepancy. It (the rent) is their money, and they deserve a careful accounting for every dollar.” Again, make sure your owners know that is your intention.
4. She strongly advised managers to take classes on certification credentials, and let the owners know you are keeping up with the changing times. Let them know about new laws like the laws that took effect on April 22nd concerning lead-based materials and exposure. Let the owners know you are complying with local, state or federal codes and improving your own skills and knowledge.
5. Go the extra mile. “We try to do a little extra for the owners and let them know that we didn’t charge them or over-charge them. Let them know about what’s going on to the extent that each owner wants to be kept aware.”

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