You don’t need us to tell you how hard you work as property managers. You already know that. There’s the growth of the rent roll to stay focused on, the collection of rent, new listings, marketing, the tenant selection process, communicating with landlords and tenants, trust accounting, period inspections, property maintenance requests, the list goes on.
If you manage a team, how often do you find that things get missed or people seem to be running around trying to be everything to everyone? How is it that some property management departments are able to manage a rent roll of several hundred or more and stay on top of their tasks and risk management without employing an army of people? What’s more, in most cases they’re happier and experience far less stress than those who manage less. The answer is that a lot of what they do is automated. This means they can set key tasks and be reminded to action them at the right time, significantly reducing their workload and minimising risk to themselves, the agency and the landlord. It’s about working smarter, not harder.
The industry has found its voice
A recent survey of more than 1,000 property management personnel (and the first of its kind) conducted by Rockend called the 2018 Voice of the Australian Property Management Report revealed the following sobering statistics about the industry’s perception of the future of the industry:
- 25% of the industry are positive
- 47% are passive (neither positive or negative)
- 28% are negative
Those who feel negative about the industry’s future believe they are underpaid for the amount of work they do and stressed by the increasing demands of clients.
The data shows that most property managers work a 40-hour week with 12% commenting that they are “far too busy” and 43% saying they are “slightly too busy”.
Interestingly the data revealed that when career opportunities, job security and the right tools are made available to staff, they are most likely to be happy in their roles.
According to Rockend’s Head of Marketing, Catherine Vissiere, the data highlights that the best property management businesses (those in which property managers felt positive about the future) are “well run, have great career structures in place and support their property managers to be more than just property task managers, but encourage [them to] train their team to be property advisers.”
Other interesting revelations in the report include:
- 72% are excited about digital disruption and cloud-based solutions and regard it as a “huge opportunity”.
- 58% find that the growing expectations of tenants and owners coupled with the uncertain property market the greatest challenge.
As part of working smarter, not harder, why not use the digital solutions available today to turn those highlighted challenges into opportunities.
It’s possible right now with Maintenance Manager. Contact us to learn how users have grown their rent roll by around 33% while reducing their workload and stress and saving money simply by using the system.
