Property Management – How hard can it be?

There have been several blogs and articles recently all suggesting that managing property is so simple that the cat could do it. Leaving aside the collection of rents and managing the tenants, residential or commercial, problems are likely to occur most often in the area of maintenance.

The property manager must keep the property in safe and habitable condition. Property managers are responsible for the physical management of the property, including regular maintenance and emergency repairs. In a business building role of property manager often lands on someone like the office or practice manager by default. Often residential landlords manage their properties because it saves them so much money. The problem in both cases is that while the administrative aspects of the role can be within their comfort zone, dealing with the maintenance aspects is unlikely to be something they have experience of.

The question to ask yourself is, “how much is my time worth? Is it a good use of my time to either do minor repairs myself or spend time ringing around to find a tradesman or possibly several for a larger job? The process of getting quotes, booking the tradespeople, liaising with those doing the work, checking the completed work and placating inconvenienced co-workers or tenants.

The answer is to have a relationship with a business who can be called, at any hour of any day, to fix emergency problems, and who can work proactively with the responsible person on site to prevent minor maintenance becoming major renovation and bigger problems. A multi trade services provider will have access to the expertise that a DIY landlord or part time property manager with an already demanding job haven’t got the time or inclination to acquire.

Property maintenance work can often involve several trades for even a small project. A burst pipe can need a painter and decorator, someone to check electrics have not been compromised and a joiner to handle any building fabric repairs, as well as the plumber to fix the original problem. The time and cost of finding and appointing all of those separately and coordinating the work to have them on site when needed will be time consuming. Paying someone else to make the problem go away starts to feel like the best option, leaving you to get on with your real job. Add to that the fact that a property maintenance provider working with you all year round will probably have spotted the potential issue and suggested preventative measures long before it became an emergency.

Express Property Services work with facilities management companies and individual surgeries, offices, shops and landlords to help maintain their piece of mind. Get in touch to talk about your requirements and think of all the more exciting and profitable things you could be doing while we look after your building.

Categorised in: Property Management

This post was written by Express Property Services