Property Management Client Roadmap: How to Choose the Right Owner with Marc Cunningham

Establishing great relationships with the right owners will elevate your property management business to a more successful, more profitable level. Identifying and understanding who those owners are can help you be more selective in the business you bring in, and will give you an opportunity to control the customer journey and the professional relationship you have with those clients. Marc Cunningham, a successful property management entrepreneur, has developed specific criteria for who he works with and how he works with them.   Marc Cunningham: Property Manager, Consultant, Educator Marc was raised on property management. His father started Grace Property Management in 1978, and he spent summers working in the office and learning the business of real estate and property management. Marc studied finance and real estate at Colorado State University, and after working for other property management companies, he returned to Denver and Grace Property Management. Twenty years ago, there were three people in the office. Today, there are 18 team members managing nearly 700 doors. Mark believes in following the opportunity, which means the company does both sales and management for residential and commercial properties. Ancillary businesses, he says, provide a full customer experience and increase revenue. He thinks property management can be a base on which to build a better business. Qualifying the Right Clients and Working with the Right Owners To build a better business, you need to build relationships with the right clients. You don’t work with every tenant who applies for a property you manage; you qualify them first, and maybe half of them are turned away. You need to qualify your owners, too. In fact, your standards for owners probably need to be even higher than they are for tenants. If a tenant goes crazy, you don’t have to renew the lease and the problem goes away. With an owner, however, an issue can get messy and even become litigious. For the success and the sanity of your business, create a system that helps you determine whether an owner will be a good fit for your company. This isn’t about liking someone or not liking someone. If your business model is geared towards hands-off owners because you want to be left alone to do your job, you need to be selective in the clients you accept. You won’t have a successful relationship or work well with an owner who wants to be involved in everything or provide approval for every move you make. If you decide the hands-off owner is right for your company, you limit your business to people who want you to do what you do and only call them if their property is burning to the ground. This isn’t as easy as saying yes or no to each potential client you meet. The challenge grows as your property management business grows. When you do more marketing, you attract a wider range of individuals. You’ll need to tighten your filters and ask interview questions that will tell you if prospective owners are going to fit your business model.   Interviewing Potential Clients: The Process Listening is more important than selling when it comes to the owner interview. When an owner calls to start the conversation, don’t rush into your sales pitch. Be skeptical. Take your time determining whether this owner will be a good fit. An internal questionnaire can help you. Marc has his property managers trained to answer four key questions after an owner interview: Is the owner financially stable? Working with a client who is desperate to rent out a property within two weeks in order to make the mortgage payment is not going to work. Is the owner emotional? Emotionally unstable clients will take a lot of time and energy,