Scattered site property management is an ongoing challenge for many residential real-estate investors. It doesn’t take long to realize that managing multiple properties across different locations can be a challenging task, to say the least.
Scattered site operations require a high level of property-management sophistication that not all management companies can deliver—and that many individual investors find daunting.
What’s slipping through the cracks? What’s getting missed entirely? And what time could you gain back if you could perfect these complex management processes?
In this post, we’ll discuss what’s important to consider when searching for the best approach to scattered site property management. And, for those considering help from a property-management partner, we’ll reveal some key things to look for when making your selection.
The Challenges of Scattered Site Property Management
If you’re invested in multiple properties across a range of locations, you’ve likely dealt with the following issues:
Limited Oversight and Control
The more properties you have, the more challenging it becomes to monitor and maintain all of them with consistency and the appropriate attention to detail.
The result: inconsistencies in operations, response time, quality, maintenance, rent collection, and more. Which can all lead to frustrated tenants as well as lost time and revenue.
Increased Travel
Without a proper transportation infrastructure, it can get messy when project managers, maintenance personnel, and leasing agents need to travel to different locations to show units, handle issues and upkeep, or oversee apartment turnover.
The result: lagging response times and higher transportation costs, taking away from the bottom line.
Difficulty Scaling
Sure, you have a system, right? Some combination of calendars, out-of-the-box software tools, communication protocols, and juggling. In short, you have a headache.
You also have a business problem: your setup isn’t scalable.
As your number of properties and locations increases, so too does the challenge of managing operations and increasing workloads. Which means the question of how to scale a rental property business can become very pressing, very fast.
3 Secrets to Success in Scattered Site Property Management
It’s understandable that individual investors would struggle with somewhat disordered systems for managing multiple real-estate locations. Most have day jobs! And lives!
But the frustrating truth is that many property-management companies function in a similar way to the messy system described above. And it’s often tenants who suffer first—long before owners recognize the kinks in the system.
We believe the secret lies in focus:
If you’re investing in residential real estate, your property-management partner should be focused on systems that support excellence in investing—systems designed for efficiency and maximum profitability.
If they look at the property-management game through this lens, they’re far more likely to understand the link between high-quality property and revenue, so they…
- Value excellence in how properties are maintained
- Prioritize upgrades to management tools and technologies
- Customize their own systems
- Think outside the box for the best ways to manage properties
In short, they think like an investor.
For example, Epic Property Management was built by a real-estate investor for investors. So while we designed our operating systems from the ground up, we did so with an obsessive focus on highly efficient, innovative business processes.
Having invested substantially in infrastructure, staffing, custom software, a fleet of vehicles, GPS tracking, and dispatch systems, we are able to manage properties across hundreds of locations with unparalleled efficiency and consistency.
And we’re not afraid to pull back the curtain—in part because it’s not an easy model to re-build, but also because we believe in sharing knowledge with other investors. And we think owners everywhere can benefit from understanding what to prioritize when selecting the best approach to scattered site property management.
Here are 3 of our secrets to success:
Custom Software
We’ve developed a completely custom software system that allows us to manage hundreds of scattered site operations with a level of visibility that’s comparable to being on-site at each location. Our software allows us to:
- Track maintenance
- Dispatch staff
- Schedule service
- Monitor rent collections
- And more
All in real time.
In short, it gives us the ability to manage a 25-unit building with the professionalism of a 200-unit building. That’s a level of excellence that any owner can be proud to provide. And it’s one you should demand of your property-management partner.
But it shouldn’t cost you. In fact, efficiency should save you money. At Epic, we’re committed to a flat-rate property-management model because it’s the right approach for investors. And our custom software supports the level of efficiency we need to pass that type of savings through to clients.
High caliber custom software allows our back-office operation to be MUCH more efficient, ultimately saving owners money by
- Reducing turnover time through automated checklists and dashboard tracking
- Increasing the level of accountability through continuous, real-time maintenance tracking
- Improving lease-up times by monitoring showing activity and feedback in real time
- Automating important owner notifications to ensure that communication never falls through the cracks
…Just to name a few.
Fleet of Vehicles
This one is easier said than done.
How many places can you be in at one time? Well, that depends on how many full-time staff members and vehicles you have available to canvas all your properties.
For most, investing in over 35 vehicles and enough staff to cover our corner of Southeast Michigan is not a viable business option. But for us, it’s an average Tuesday. It’s how we can respond quickly to maintenance issues and emergencies, reducing downtime and increasing tenant satisfaction.
Key Systems
A key seems like a pretty simple thing on its own. You probably know where your car key is right now. But imagine that we handed you 3,000 car keys and asked you to keep track of them, and find the right one, fast.
That’s why we have a highly advanced, secure, digitally managed key system.
And even if you own between 1 and 5 properties, there’s huge peace-of-mind in knowing that access to your investments is managed with this level of sophistication.
Plus, time saved = money saved for investors.
Look for a property-management partner who can describe their advanced key-management system immediately (and for a description that blows your mind).
The Benefit of a High-Caliber Partner
If you’re invested in multiple residential real-estate properties in various locations, consider finding a partner who can help you
- Maintain consistent operations
- Build a business that’s ready and able to scale when you are
- Reduce costs—in management fees, lease-up fees, maintenance, and more
A Final Note on Scattered Site Property Management
Scattered site property management can be complex and daunting.
When you partner with a property-management company that has refined, innovative solutions to address the many challenges of that type of portfolio, you can save time, money, and headache.
Look for partners who have built their own custom software and systems with an eye on investment success, who maintain a fleet of vehicles and full-time staff, and who can manage details such as keys with incredible sophistication.
Want to stop looking? Contact us today.
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