Putting People First for Property Management Business Success

A Chat with Aaron Robertson of Authority Property Management About a year before Alex Osenenko started Fourandhalf, he met Aaron Robertson, and they were both doing different things. Alex was working for Appfolio and Aaron was running a property management company with some business partners. Today, Alex is hosting The Property Management Show, continuing to grow Fourandhalf, and presenting The PM Grow Summit, a conference for the top level property management entrepreneurs. Aaron has started Authority Property Management, and after only 30 months is up to 435 units.   The two are on the podcast to discuss leveraging tech experiments, marketing, and the importance of running an emotionally intelligent company. Experimenting and Decision Making After nearly 10 years in the property management business, Aaron realized that he didn’t need a business partner who wasn’t his wife or his bank. He likes to make decisions quickly because it’s easy to start something, fail, and then get up and try again. Usually, that process is a lot faster and more successful than taking months and even years to contemplate whether or not to adopt a particular business strategy. Making decisions in two or three minutes makes sense to Aaron and his wife, and it’s helped their business grow. To grow quickly, you need to implement technology that puts systems into place and automates a lot of the work. This is a huge factor in fast growth. Those experiments cost money. But, it may be worth it to you to spend a couple of hundred dollars to try a system or a product for a month. In that time, you’ll know if you want to use it or if you want to look somewhere else. Run tests on software. Experiment with new technology. Every management company is different and you need to adopt whatever works for you and your customers. Automating and Saving Time: Some Examples Aaron is willing to invest in high quality walk-through videos of his properties. A prospective tenant can look at walk through video and really get an idea of what the home looks like. His team writes beautiful, detailed descriptions that read like real estate sales ads. There’s a cost, but it gives a property management company an edge. It also gives the property owner an edge, and it helps the prospective tenant who is looking for a home. A lot of companies talk about the importance of quality walk-though videos, but very few invest in them.   Remember that you don’t always have to hire out for these services. Maybe you will pay for drones and camera equipment, but a staff member can go out to the property and take and edit photographs. The equipment is then worth the investment because it makes that staff member’s job easier. The result of this process is better quality for tenants and owners. Appfolio is another amazing tool that can save a lot of time. Use software in a way that works for you and your clients. Property managers need to think past the generic things that are offered by software, and add to it when necessary. Do some integration and overlap your systems for optimal functionality. Google Suite is a good example. You get calendars and Gmail and hangouts and messaging all on your phone as well as your computer. The efficiency and collaboration makes a difference. Put it to work for you. The advice here is to experiment with what you already have. Adapt your process to see what sort of efficiencies you can gain from a piece of software. Stop Saying We’ve Always Done it This Way Don’t be afraid to re-evaluate your systems. It’s pretty easy to do things because they’ve always been done a certain way. But, the world is changing. Ask your team if they have the tools they need to do their jobs....