Part of property management is, of course, “management,” and part of management is managing money and expenses. There are a lot of these within the business, since there is a lot of work that needs to be done and jobs that have to be overseen. Taking care of a building and its inhabitants, keeping everything safe and updated, is not a simple feat. That’s why you might be interested in finding some new ways to cut back on your property maintenance costs wherever and whenever you can.
How to Reduce Property Maintenance Costs
Last week we talked about how some of the most successful property managers keep things up and running with such finesse. “They regularly perform preventive maintenance tasks, and have a fully-formed PM plan to achieve their goals.” If you want to be counted among this number and, perhaps more importantly, if you want to save some money, then you should consider some of the below tips that can help you achieve these savings.
If you’re able to “think ahead” and form a plan of daily actions ahead of time, regular maintenance tasks won’t catch you by surprise. “Preventative maintenance plans” allow you to go right to the to-do list when something comes up rather than having to scramble to determine what the right course of action is in any given situation. It’s obviously more difficult to think and plan during times of stress, but if you already have a response plan prepared, you won’t have to.
Part of the necessities for both being a great property manager and cutting back on property maintenance costs is keeping yourself, your work, and your team organized all the time. It may not be an easy task, as some people are naturally more organized than others, but it really is crucial. Part of this organization may be ensuring that “historical data” is available to you at all times so that you can consult records on any occasion when you might need them. It’s helpful to be able to learn from past mistakes, but not if you can’t find any trace of that past…
“Consider your existing workflow and determine where your bottlenecks are.” If you have a difficult time getting back to people over e-mail in a timely manner, for example, then this is the “bottleneck” that is in need of remedying. Without a quick and clear communication system, you will surely have more and more issues over time; it’s best to identify these trouble spots and see what can be done to ease them while you have the time.
Would you say that you know a lot about your property’s assets? The more comprehensive your knowledge of your building and its crucial documents, the more easily you can access whichever bits and pieces you might need when there is need for a response, the more smoothly those situations will go. Similarly, you want to be able to “[establish] service priority standards” so that “you can make sure the right work is done at the best time,” or you will risk incurring increased property maintenance costs.
Your job as a property manager should involve some amount of overseeing both the general state of things and tasks as they proceed. “With the right tools, you (and your vendors, and team) should be able to keep track of task progress so that less time and fewer resources are wasted.” Obviously, a waste of time is also a waste of money within business, so learn how to best delegate this to someone on your team or work it into your own schedule to save on associated property management costs down the road.
Another big time-waster is organizing your data regarding vendors and all associated information. If you managed some of the organizational tasks mentioned above, then this should be a part of that and should be easily accessible. If not (or if the task is a little too intimidating), then consider a software that can manage this kind of work for you. SKYLINE Property Management and Accounting software, for example, can organize leases, data, documents, maintenance, and more in a single location. If you really want to save on property maintenance costs, then you should “employ” this versatile solution.