A new year often brings goals that we would like to achieve for both ourselves and our business. In making these goals, we look at the bigger picture and then break it down into bite size chunks to help us along the way to reaching those milestones.
In setting goals, especially when it comes to your property management department and even more so, if it relates to growth, it is imperative to ensure that all of your checks and balances are in place to safeguard current business during that growth period.
In considering this, when was the last time that you gave your property management department a check-up?
Some of the areas that you might like to look at when analysing how in tune your department might be:
- Rent Arrears – what is your current arrears rate? Is it under or over that golden 5% mark? If not, what steps need to be implemented to get this under control?
- Routine Inspections – are they currently up to date and is there a schedule set out for the year? Or, are they behind and in need of an action plan and attention.
- Rent Reviews– is there a system in place for reviewing rents? When reviewing rents, it is important to also ensure that you have some comparables of the current market to support your evidence to either maintain the rent at its current level or implement an increase.
- Lease Expiries – many insurance policies that Owners may have over their properties may include a requirement that there must be a fixed term tenancy agreement in place at all times otherwise the Owner may not be covered should any mishaps occur at the property.
- Repairs and maintenance – are all maintenances completed that need to be and up to date? Is there a process in place to ensure that work is completed in a reasonable amount of time, to an acceptable standard by the tradesperson and the invoice received and payment made promptly? Don’t forget a trades audit to ensure that they are up to date with relevant insurances and licences.
- Compliance – with changes to legislation around compliance occurring regularly it is imperative to ensure that your teams are trained in the latest requirements to provide the best possible service and more importantly reduce the liability to your agency. Are your systems up to date with areas such as smoke alarm and pool compliance? What about window locks and blind cords? Are insurances up to date and are all legal documents such as your Management Agency Agreements, Residential Tenancy Agreements and Condition Reports completed correctly and in line with legislative requirements?
These are just a few of the areas that we take a look at when we are assisting departments in achieving goals for their business. If you would like to see how we can help, give the team a call and we can find a solution to help you achieve those 2020 goals.
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Real+ the Property Management Training Experts
02 8355 4999
