Boost Your Property Management Business with Value-Added Services

Ever wondered what it takes to keep landlords happy and maintain robust relationships in property management? This solo podcast talks particularly about a challenging encounter with a high-expectation client and I share the key strategies that turned the situation around. 

By setting realistic expectations and maintaining clear communication, I was able to transform potential friction into a positive relationship. Learn how going above and beyond basic responsibilities, such as introducing landlord education training through monthly SMS videos and conducting annual investor check-ins, can make a significant difference. These proactive approaches will ensure landlords feel involved, informed, and satisfied with their investments.

Are looking to grow your property management business in a competitive market? Discover how to enhance your fee schedule with strategic value-added services that attract new clients and ensure long-term growth. I’ll walk you through ideas like annual check-ins with directors or department leaders and monthly training sessions for landlords. By assigning clear value to these bonus services and listing them prominently on your fee schedule, you'll provide compelling reasons for potential clients to choose your business. 

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:19

I don't do solo podcasts that often, but today you get me and me only, and I am speaking at the PM Summit and the topic is the landlord relationship. So I thought it'd be a really great one for those that don't actually or won't be getting to the PM Summit to actually hear what I was going to be talking about. What I am going to be talking about and I had a client the other day and I was not sure how this was going to go because I could already tell by the phone call that there were a couple of red flags that I was a bit worried about, but it was a good property. So I thought I'd go to it anyway and took my property manager with me and the whole time this client was telling me her expectations and was being quite unreasonable what I considered unreasonable from a tenancy point of view. So when we got to the end of the walkthrough of the property, I didn't know what I was going to do, whether I wanted the management or not, and I thought you know what, I don't care whether I get it or I'll just tell them what I think. So I stopped her and I said listen, a lot of the conversation we've had today hasn't really sat well with me, and then I went into explaining what I thought was reasonable and what I thought was unreasonable.

Speaker 1: 1:38

But the point being, we are always going to have owners and landlords that have very high expectations, and I think naturally what we do is we say to ourselves well, you know, we don't want those clients, we don't, we want those high expectations to go away and not bother us. But the truth is, they are here to stay and it's our job to get better at managing them, and so that's what maintaining the landlord relationship is all about. So the way my mind works is that you have a client that comes into your business and they come in with the glass half full automatically, and your job is to keep it half full or to keep it overflowing, but we don't want it to drop any less than half. So when you collect rent and you arrange maintenance and you do everything that's expected, you're not doing anything over and above your role. You are doing exactly what you're getting paid to, and while this may hurt, that's actually not good enough. These days. We need to be doing more. So the problem that we have is when that glass is half full, and there's things that can happen that a landlord can see as a negative and, to be honest, it's probably not even something that we are responsible for. It could be something as simple as the tenant not paying rent on time. Maybe they've asked for too much maintenance this month, maybe you didn't get back to that client for 48 hours instead of 24 hours Not a big drama normally, but little things like that could be seen as a negative. And what happens is the water in that glass that's sitting half full is slowly going to drop with these little things. That may or may not be entirely your fault, but they still happen and the glass still drops. So what we need to look at in our businesses is what healthy over the halfway mark ultimately.

Speaker 1: 3:50

So there are a few things that we do in our business. Now, these things can be done by a property manager, by the business owner, by the department team leader. Depends on how your property management department is structured. So I tend to do them in our office, but if I didn't have time, I would get my property managers to do it or my BDM. I think at the end of the day, what's important is it gets done.

Speaker 1: 4:18

So the two things that I was going to let everyone know what I do is. The first one is our landlord education training. Now, this is exclusive for our office and we SMS the clients, our landlords, a training video at the start of every month and they're pretty good topics things like what to do if you can't afford maintenance, what would be the reason that we would re-inspect a property after a routine inspection, sort of things like that that are quite interesting for a landlord, also cover our processes within our office and also sets those expectations up at the start. So I find they tend to be like two or three minutes long. Now I did get them professionally done. I think I paid about $1,200 for 11 of the videos, which is a very good price. You might not find it as good as that, but I was very lucky, and if you want to know who that is in your NWA, let me know and I'll put you in touch. The videos are done professionally, they're SMS to the clients and they've been really good and it's just that value add.

Speaker 1: 5:32

The second thing that we do is the annual investor check-ins, and what's interesting about this is that the invite to the landlord is actually the most important part of this one. So it's that people want to have the option to say yes or no. They want to be included in the investment journey and I won't lie, they are pretty time consuming, but the feedback is amazing and I highly recommend everyone does it. I've had to fine tune it a little bit because I was getting really exhausted because I didn't put a time limit on them and I didn't put a time limit on how many I was going to do per day. So for me the perfect amount is two a day, so no more than two a day and only twice per week, like for me, that's enough for it to be enjoyable and not exhausting. And basically my Calendly link is open and people can't book in any more than that. So if they have to wait for two months or three months for it, then that's the way that it is and I'm happy with that in our office.

Speaker 1: 6:41

If you wanted to be a bit more aggressive with it, then just get them all done in a week and don't be as strict as what I am, but I just found that that was the best way for me to manage them, and so the things that we talk about in those investor check-ins are things like making sure that they're using their owner portal correctly. I do screen share my screen to make sure that they are able to see what I'm looking at in the backend. I go through their maintenance and see how they feel about it. Do they feel like they've had loads of maintenance or not enough, or what's their general vibe with regards to the maintenance we've been arranging? And then I give my opinion on what I think, whether I think it's a bit heavy or whether it's not been enough.

Speaker 1: 7:23

We talk about the smoke alarm compliance. We go through their reports. We make sure they can read them, they understand them and they understand their responsibilities. Make sure they can read them, they understand them and they understand their responsibilities. And we talk about the rent and their tenant. Is the rent coming through consistently? Are there any hiccups or red flags that we might have with that? Things like that are pretty helpful for a landlord and, like I said, the feedback has been so good, they have absolutely loved them, so highly recommend that you get on board with. The feedback has been so good, they have absolutely loved them, so highly recommend that you get on board with the annual investor check-ins If you have a good subscription with CoreLogic. I also use the investor property report, which is a new feature out, and my clients really love that. It shows what the equity is and the property since it's purchased it and how it's all tracking. So that's a really great thing that they can keep and hold on to and update every year as well.

Speaker 1: 8:17

The other thing that I do that's a little bit different in the invite for these annual investor check-ins is I have a box where they can tick if they would like me to also have a mortgage broker present, and if they do, this has actually worked really well. Not a lot of people take me up on it, but a few do, and then I get my mortgage broker in the meeting. We talk about it together as a group, as a team. The mortgage broker provides some advice as well. Asks them you know when they've last had a review of their interest rate, what it might, you know if it's beneficial them getting it reviewed, just things like that. It's just a real check-in and they're great. So highly recommend you get on board with that. Now, if you are a PM Club member, I have got a lot of this already in my club how to do it, how to set it all up. So head over to pmcollectivecomau if you would like some assistance with joining the club and then having access to get all this set up. But I highly recommend getting those two things done, because that is the type of value add and advice and opinions that landlords are wanting now and in the future.

Speaker 1: 9:30

So the last part of this story is that you now need to make sure that you are advertising and marketing and making potential new clients know that this is part of your service.

Speaker 1: 9:42

This is why you stand out.

Speaker 1: 9:44

So what I'd recommend is in a fee schedule. If you start offering these things, you should include it in the fee schedule. Now, a great way for that to stand out is maybe to have the fee schedule and all your fees and then at the bottom, either have bonus or inclusive, and it might have something like bonus annual year check-in with the director or the department leader or the property manager. You can put in brackets of value to that. You know, is that valued $300? Is it valued at $500? You know just whatever you think the value is. Include that there and have that as a bonus of the fee schedule, and same with the annual monthly training.

Speaker 1: 10:28

Have that as part of your fee schedule, included or bonus monthly training how to be a landlord. And what will happen is that when your clients, or new clients, are weighing up whether they go with you or someone else, when you've got those bonuses on your fee schedule, that is going to be enough for you to stand out in the market and for that client to potentially pick you over someone else. So it's a very strategic market and new business move, as well as doing the right thing by your clients, providing them the support they need and making sure that your business is future-proof for new growth in the future. So I hope this gets you thinking a little bit more about value add in your business. Feel free to reach out to me at any time with any questions and if you want to continue training and learning these things that will help grow your property management business, head over to pmcollectivecomau and join the PM Club.