Remote Management Tips & Tricks
Property management has come a long way the last decade. It used to require sheer manpower to oversee a portfolio. This required local and focused operations within a geographic range.
Therefore, as 3rd party property management isn’t always an option, most operators would invest in regional clusters or in their “backyard” (<3 hour drive) for ease of operations.
While local or regional is still preferable to optimize park collections & appearance, technology has dramatically widened the investable universe. This enabled us and most other operators to look at deals nationally.
What property owner hasn’t dreamed of taking a quick portfolio update call between ski runs or surf sessions? Of course, it rarely works out that way unless you’ve hired a killer team to run your operation.
And just because you can’t see you portfolio’s problems up close and personal, doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Consequently, remote management requires great and repeatable systems.
Here are some tools that help make remote management a reality.
Technology Tools
Wide Angle Cameras - Property managers should all have a pocket sized & magnetized wide angle camera. They can place these on their car hood, drive the park and upload the video for asset management calls. Managers used to be able to cherrypick park condition photos they’d send ownership. If an owner wants to get even more big brother, they can install wifi-based security cameras.
For wide angle: this one does the trick: https://meetpolaroid.com/polaroid-cube/
Facetime/Zoom - managers can walk the park and show ownership the water leak or the “trashed” vacant home that’s needs a complete $15K rehab. The park owner might disagree.
Google Earth - You can learn a ton about a park and its condition (while in your pajamas) from satellite images. The pictures might be a bit dated, but they are often within a year or two. Our favorite Google Earth feature is the timeline, where you can go back in time to view historical aerial images of the park. This will help you get a sense of historical occupancy. Second favorite Google Earth tool is the ruler, which has gotten us comfortable (or not) with city setback rules on home replacement for dense (10 homes / acre) parks. Google Earth has saved us an insane amount of time by preventing wasted due diligence trips.
Rent Scanners / ACH - getting rent checks into your account asap is awesome. This is especially true if that process also ties into the accounting system in real time. These certainly beat the old days when our only real option was rent deposit boxes (that would occasionally get run over, beaten with a bat, or stolen). Even worse than that was having rent checks and money orders FedExed or mailed to us. Although, you haven’t lived until you’ve had one of those ~$100K rent shipments go missing for a day or two.
Property Management Software - Appfolio, RentManager, ManageAmerica. Most of the largest players use ManageAmerica and 1-4 park owners often use Appfolio as they don’t need as many bells and whistles. All three are solid / great solutions.
Drones - You can hire a drone company to take photos & video of your property’s condition. This can be used for marking or for periodic asset management reviews of the park grounds. This is easier and more effective than the camera process (but more expensive).
Remote Water Meters + Water Meter Billing Companies - this prevents the manager from having to read each meter every month, then update a spreadsheet, then email it to you accountant, who prepares the bills, which are then sent back the property manager for distribution. Yikes. There are way too many steps it that process, which leads to mistakes. Software helps Owners and even tenants can receive text alerts when a leak is detected.
Purchasing Platform - (lets you purchase materials for wholesale prices and let’s you manage orders, vs. giving a property manager a credit card).
Of course, these tools are only useful in capable hands. The key is hire people with basic tech competency so they can leverage these resources.
Trust
All remote property management requires a high level of trust, primarily in your onsite manager but also in maintenance and rehab crews.
If you can’t trust staff you’re in trouble. Trust also means knowing onsite management can handle emergencies & make decisions without micromanagement from HQ. This means hiring the right person for the job (link: how to find these great managers).
Asset management isn’t a passive job. Clean + well occupied properties require consistency & continued effort from ownership to ensure standards are met.
Reporting
Property managers should maintain weekly reports. Exceptions perhaps for fully occupied, 100% collection parks (typically extremely well located). Any system will do, but many operators have managers call in and/or email in reports on Fridays.
Reporting serves 2 purposes.
Weekly calls keep management accountable for even the smallest of tasks, which add up if there is no oversight process. With looming update calls, onsite managers need to provide substantive updates (even if everything is humming along just fine). Deadlines should accompany each task or milestone.
Reporting provides us snapshots of a property’s progress. It helps catch alarming trends (slipping collections) before they get out of hand.
Scheduled & Surprise Onsite Visits
Yes, ownership or asset management still need to get eyes on the property periodically. The frequency of these trips can vary based on the condition and historical performance of the property.
Properties managed by rockstar managers firing on all cylinders should get a couple visits a year with plenty of drive through videos & update calls in between. Problem children (properties) get special attention and 4+ trips per year.
Happy Trails,
MHP Weekly