Five Mistakes That Will Cost You Property Management Growth

‘FIVE MISTAKES THAT WILL COST YOU PROPERTY MANAGEMENT GROWTH ’ – with That Property Mum’

If right now you are reading this and  wondering why your competitors seem to be generating new leads around the clock, or why they are winning new business over you?  Or you’ve just lost a host of managements to a new agency? Well,  keep reading because I’m going to share five mistakes you are probably making that will cost you new managements and prevent rent roll growth. You might be thinking, ‘Kylie, will these mistakes really cost me new managements and prevent me from reaching my growth goals.’ And the answer is yes my friends it will, but the good news is, once you know what they are, you’ll be able to fix them right away, and sit back and watch your new business come rolling in.

So, what are these mysterious mistakes? Well grab a pen and paper and  let’s dive in.

 

MISTAKE NUMBER 1 – NOT KNOWING YOUR IDEAL CLIENT

You’d be surprised at how many people don’t know who their ideal client is. And if you’re asking me why this is so important, well listen up. If you don’t know who your ideal client is who will you know who to market to?  There’s a popular marketing saying, ‘if you market to everyone you attract no one’. Some of the things you need to know about your ideal client – who your ideal client is, where they live, how old are they, where do they hang out on social media, what are their likes and dislikes?

Let’s break this down a little bit more.

 

WHO ARE THEY? 

Are they Mum & Dad investors?

Interstate investors? Are they builders or developers selling off the plan to investors?

Are they professionals or tradies, single or married with kids?

 

WHERE ARE THEY?

Do they hang out on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn

Are they active business members in your local community?

Are they in investor or wealth creation groups?

 

WHY ARE THEY INVESTING?

Wealth creation

Tax purposes

Creating a legacy for their family

Love property

 

Now, if you are still questioning why do I need to understand my ideal client, isn’t a client a client?  Well knowing who you are trying to attract:

1. Allows you to market to them in the right place – so you don’t waste money
2. Allows you to talk their language when you are marketing to them
3. Gives you a better chance of attracting clients organically with your brand and messaging

 

MISTAKE 2. POOR KNOWLEDGE OF LOCAL MARKET

There are some things you MUST know about your local market. Have you ever jumped on a call to a potential client, and they start asking you questions like what is the current rental yield, or average days on market or even what is the sales market doing? You’d be surprised how many property managers don’t know enough details about their local rental market. Knowing your local market sets you up as the expert, the go to person for information about the rental market. Being known as the expert also builds that all important trust. So, what are the must know things about your local market?

What is the average Rent?

What is the average days on market?

Best-selling points in local area?

What is the average sales price? Are prices increasing or decreasing

And this is super easy to find out, by a simple google search, or looking up your suburb or core area on your real estate search engine, like realestate.com.au or domain.com.au .

How can you be perceived as an expert in your local market if you don’t know it?

 

MISTAKE 3 – LACK OF BASIC KNOWLEDGE

Do you understand the business you represent? Do you understand Property Management?

Sounds simple enough right, but could you confidently answer these two questions. Knowing the businesses core values, vision and points of difference are essential, when it comes to selling it to a potential new landlord. But more importantly understanding how the property management business works and runs, will cement their confidence in you. So many BDMs are really great at connecting and selling, but don’t know or understand property management. How can you offer to help solve potential client’s problems if you don’t know the solutions? Remember you are selling a transformation … currently you are experiencing this, but with our business you will experience something different or better. For example, if your landlord is leaving their current company because of poor communication, how does your company provide a solution? It might be that your company provides a weekly phone call, provides 24/hour access to a landlord portal and you have a company policy of returning calls same day and responding to emails within 24 hours.

Some important things you need to know about your property management company; how are the portfolio’s managed, task based, end to end, or pods; how is rent disbursed and when; how do you handle lease renewals; and how often are your routine inspections?

Are you still with me here, I now there’s a lot of information I’m sharing with you, but it is really valuable, and it is all based on the mistakes I made growing my property management business. I’m sharing these with you to save you time and heart ache working them out yourself so stay with me.

 

MISTAKE 4 – POOR RELATIONSHIP BUILDING SKILLS

I have to share a little secret with you …I wasn’t great at building relationships! It’s not a natural skill for me, it is something I’ve had to work very very hard on. I’m more introvert than extrovert, I’m most comfortable being the worker bee behind the scenes, caught up in my own head and ideas. Partly this was a lack of confidence, mostly though it was a fear of judgement, people thinking who is she to think I’d want to talk to her, why would I want to do business with her, what has she got to offer. This played out really badly for me in the early days of business, when I had no idea what I was doing.

I knew nothing about managing a property, growing, or running a business, especially leading a team. I was always waiting for people to find out I was a fake or a fraud and the longer I sat behind my keyboard, waiting for the phone to ring and the new business to miraculously walk in the door, the worse my business did. It came to a point  where I had to decide, this was not the career for me and shut up shop, or I had to pull up my big girl pants and get out there and start building some relationships, networking, and connecting with others. So, if you are thinking how I did that, well for starters I let go of the fear of judgement, I go to know myself which gave me confidence and allowed me to set boundaries, I started listening more than I talked this helped me hear what the issues were for my marketplace and clients and provide the solutions for them. I started delivering on what I promised and most importantly I started picking up the phone and talking to people and getting out to places and events that would lead to connections with my ideal clients, or people who would be able to refer me to them. Another important skill I developed was having a pipeline. This is a list of contacts and leads, that I keep adding to and then nurturing my relationship with them through phones calls, emails, letters, with the hope and intention of them becoming new clients eventually. Pipelines are essential for tomorrow’s business.

 

MISTAKE 5 – POOR BRANDING AND REPUTATION

You can be the best networker in the world, but if your brand and reputation aren’t up to scratch it won’t lead to that all important new management. So, when was the last time you assessed your branding. Does your Logo or website need updating? Does it fit with the ideal client you are trying to attract? What is your digital profile saying about you and your business? Are you set up on all the social channels relevant to your ideal client?

You also need clarity with your messaging – Who are you and what do you stand for?

This allows you to stand out in your market, you don’t just have the pretty logo, but you also stand for something much bigger, you have morals and values, and these will hopefully resonate with the ideal leads you are trying to attract. Great messaging  also helps you  connect on a much deeper level with your ideal clients, which will generally bring them to the decision to work with you much sooner.

Bad word of mouth or poor reputation – we simply can’t have that now can we. A bad reputation can cost you a lot of potential new business.

 

Some things to consider:

What do existing clients think? When was the last time you  surveyed them?

What does your community think about your business?

What are your Google reviews saying?

So, there you have 5 mistakes that will cost you new clients and prevent rent roll growth. What can you do if you are making these five mistakes? Let me give you a few action items to take away. Download my Freebie Working out your Ideal Client.  It will help you get started on working out who your ideal client is. That way you can get hyper focused on how to attract them into your business. You don’t want to waste money marketing to the wrong clients. Next, start with a google search of your local market, find out all the important data that will build your expertise and knowledge of local area. Spend a day or more with your property management team if you are a BDM and go out to inspections, listen to conversations, and get to know the important processes and procedures your potential clients will be asking. Make a list of all the places you can connect with your ideal clients, either online or in person, and book one meeting or event every single week into your calendar. I started by one meeting a week with developers and builders, those connections led to many new managements over time. And finally find out what is going on with your reputation, survey your clients, check your google reviews, most importantly fix any issues that reoccur in the feedback. So, I really hope that addressing these simple mistakes will help you win new managements and grow your property management business.