How come my rent roll is not growing?

 

I receive enquiries on a regular basis from licensees regarding consultancy/training services on ways to ‘grow the rent roll’.  The comment I hear often is ‘how come my rent roll is not growing?

Before quoting or delivering this service, I always endeavour to find out how the foundations are in the agency first. There is of course no point putting a plan of action in place to grow a rent roll without ensuring that the foundation of the property management department is sound and running proactively.

 

Some property management departments have daily reactive chaotic management systems in place. I believe that all property management departments always have a sense of ‘chaos’, however the question is the chaos uncontrolled reactive or chaos controlled proactive? If the case is the latter of chaos uncontrolled reactive, then there is no point in my professional opinion throwing away valuable time and good money trying to grow the rent roll.

 

I am a firm believer that ensuring the basics of property management are in place, staff needs are catered for (such as training, systems and support are in place) and a general proactive day to day flow brings natural growth. It is imperative for any business to maintain their current business first, prior to looking for more business.

 

I have worked with many great property managers and business development managers who do a sensational job in bringing in new business, to only have the existing clients leave due to dissatisfaction. When your agency is losing more business than what you are bringing in on a monthly basis, there most likely is something wrong with the foundation.

 

There is generally one main reason most lessors leave agencies; a perceived or true perception of lack of communication. Most licensees and property managers fully understand that communication is the key to success in property management. Property management is all about people; property is secondary.

 

A client of mine said the other day that property management is easy if you have the right systems in place. I could not agree more. The art of property management is challenging only because of the people; not the actual day to day management and systems.

 

Prior to embarking on spending good money and valuable time on ‘building the rent roll’, ensure your systems, staffing, training and support mechanisms are in place.

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