Blog - Sapphire Realty

17 Apr 2019

Property Managers & Technology: How To Improve The Experience And Business?

While being a property manager requires a lot of work and organization, it is not a secret that some things could be improved by implementing the new technology and make life a bit easier for this role. It is estimated that the commercial and residential property of all world exceeds $225 billion.

Which is a higher amount than when you combine all stocks and shares in the world so with the technology improvements, it is natural to expect that the number will go even higher. But how we can use technology to improve the tenant’s experience and generally this job?

Cost saving and efficiency through solar systems

This is especially important for houses and big apartments that can utilize a lot of Sun’s energy. For example, the property manager could hire a company that is specialized in creating the solar panels that can be used instead of the traditional electric system to run all your appliances in home.

Still, this is possible only if your house/apartment has a good position so it could utilize the potential of solar energy. The solar energy system is a bit expensive to install, but it is worth every dollar and it will pay off quickly.

Know the tenant’s habits and experience

If you have a hall in your building that is under your control where people pass often, instead of having a bulb that is turned on all the time, you can place the sensor-movement bulb, save energy and therefore reduce the overall cost. But to know this, you need to keep track of the tenants and know their experience and wishes.

If they like to gather in the evening hanging around in front of the building, you could make a bench for them. Also, they come from work around 5PM, but they want to cool down their house/apartment before they arrive, you can install the smart devices and allow them WiFi control. It is all about knowing their habits and what they would like to achieve.

The use of 3D technology

Presenting a house or an apartment needs to be done carefully, as the potential buyer/tenant will want to see the inside. Thanks to technology advancement, you can use the 3D technology to show the house. A 3D interactive walkthrough is much better than having just a set of pictures, as the future tenant can experience “real time” and space of the apartment.

All you need is a good camera, a bit of time to learn how to take a 360 video and you can create a simple walkthrough in 3D. The clients will just adore to see it and they will tell other people and friends how your agency uses the latest technology perks to deliver the best experience.

The use of digital documents

Yes, the digital technology has made things a lot easier for us, so why shouldn’t you use the perks of it? Instead of printing the mass number of papers and taking them to your owner or a tenant, you can send it on email within just a few seconds. Any kind of agreement, lease or request can be signed electronically and therefore make the whole procedure more convenient. You will cut down the expenses to the minimum but also enjoy in much easier delivery of any kind of paper.

22 Nov 2018

Property Management Repair

The Building Manager Responsibilities

You must have heard of a building managers but you do not know what and who they are? What are his duties? Well, we have prepared a brief description of this position so you could understand better this job position. While it is one of the most common jobs, it is highly likely that people can’t understand the duties of this job or they confuse it with something else.

The one thing that all know is that he can work for a company that specializes in property management or can work for a facility or a school, for example, hired by the private board of directors. So let’s explain building manager responsibilities that are crucial for this position in the real estate industry.

Ensure the safety

The primary role that a building manager must ensure is the safety for all visitors of a building that he takes care of. One of the main duties is to ensure that the entrance/exit for disabled persons is clear and allows them to enter/exit the building. The emergency exits must be ready, marked so everyone can see these and must be pervious, as there is no time to clean it when it comes to the emergency case.

The building manager ensures that all the signs within the building, including displays with map, hazardous signs or any other type of signs and signalization is placed at the appropriate place and they work efficiently. In case they are not, the must perform what is necessary to ensure they are clean, well-light and at the right place. Also, he monitors other workers/janitors and ensures that everything is cleaned well and therefore safe for visitors.

Maintain and repair everything

When it comes to commercial buildings, you can be sure that you have a lot of HVAC device for example. As the property manager, you need to check each device whether it works well.

In case some does not work, you need to perform a maintenance or repair procedure, or call an HVAC service if the problem is bigger so they can solve it.

Still, you must be there to monitor all the work. In case you work in the residential building, all the tenants will call you if there is need for a repair or maintenance. You are their savior and you need to help them whether on your own, or whether by calling a professional who is able to help them.

The landscaping and janitor’s duties

You also need to supervise all the janitorial staff that is at the property everyday, performing cleaning or other activities. Your job is to check their work and make sure they perform it well. Usually, the property’s owner arranges the team of housekeeping or ground keeping workers that are under the supervision of the property manager.

However, if the property does not have already the team of workers, the property manager needs to organize the team and supervise them. The organizing of team is done through the contracts and agreements that specify all the legal right and obligations.

One of the duties is also making sure that the fire system works properly. He can appoint a security staff director or it can work on his own, by checking everything on his own. Depending on his knowledge, skills and authority, he is able to recommend the changes in this system in order to make it better.

17 Nov 2018

Real Estate Multitasking

5 Skills That All Property Managers Need

Being a successful property manager takes a lot more than just a certificate and knowledge. This job is very dynamic and requires a lot of concentration sometimes, as you will work with money and rentals. Also, the property manager has to be decisive and quick when making a decision as they need to react quickly.

All the property management skills you would need for this job are listed below and the more you have, the better you will be. Though you should not limit to only 5 of these, these are crucial and very important for a successful property manager.

Strong organization skills

They must be organized, know how to prioritize things and issues, organize their desk and understand clearly what their clients want. Everyday, the desk and inbox will be full of requests, so you need to know how to prioritize problems so the most urgent ones are solved first.

Also, if you have more tasks to complete, you need to organize all of them so they are carried out in the right order. You will have to “prioritize” all the time in this job, so the strong organization skills are a must.

Have a good communication skill

The property manager skills list should contain efficient communication as one of the core skills. All the time, you will have to deal with different people and their problems and wants. In person contacts can drain out a lot of energy, so make sure you prepare yourself for that task.

Whenever they have a problem, the tenants will come to tell you, but you need to listen to them and solve their problems.

Along with the communication skills, arm yourself with a lot of patience. If you are not patient, then you might want to consider different job for you.

Multitasking

Doing several different things at the same time is one of the crucial things in this job. As you work with many units, buildings and many people, expect that multitasking is a normal thing in this job.

You need to listen to a tenant how he had problems with a bed, while smiling to the other one few minutes later when he tells you an interesting story. At one line you have the owner, the other one is reserved for the tenant from 102 unit and so on, so do not even start this job if you cannot perform multitasking.

Perform well under the pressure

A race against the clock is a very normal thing here as you will often hurry to finish one thing before jumping to the other that you are already late with.

Staying calm under the pressure is highly needed, almost in any job, but in this especially so be ready for the races that will occur very often.

It will happen when you will receive like tons of request, but you cannot manage to respond to all of the. The biggest mistake you can make is to start screaming and losing the focus, so have in min that you must stay cool under no circumstances.

Be responsible

We all make mistakes, at least those who work and have a job. Remember that you will have a lot properties to handle, solve many resident’s problems and perform a ton of other things. The key thing is that you become responsible and accept the fault if you make it. No one likes people that cannot admit their own mistake. So be ready to take responsibility!

2 Nov 2018

Real Estate Investment

Is Buying A Historic Home Right For You?

Buying a historic home is far more than just having a unique piece of real estate history, it is also a huge responsibility that you need to carry out. Most of these homes will require a lot of maintenance and repairs to stay in a good form, so it means you will need to invest a lot of money to restore it. If you are someone who just wants to buy a cool house for living, then you might not want to buy such a house.

If, on the other hand, you are one of those people that care for history, you might want to consider buying this kind of house.

What are the historic homes?

These are more than just historic houses/places that are determined to be old a few centuries and that have a significant history meaning (Charles’ Darwin house, for example). These objects usually have some other historic meaning, like they are connected to some historical moments, connected to the lives of significant persons, represent a specific style of architecture or provide certain information on the period of history.

These are usually monitored by the National Park Service, meaning they are not allowed to use for everyday activities but rather as an exhibition of a certain period of time.

Why should you buy such an estate?

If you are wondering why should you buy such a house when your renovation is pretty much limited, then you might want to know that you are still allowed to reconstruct it to that point that you can live inside. There are several pros and reasons why you should buy it.

For example, it is the fantastic investment, as you can restore it with your money and then, you can sell it for much higher price or rent for movie shooting or something similar and earn a profit.

If the area where the house is situated is designated as the historically important, the price will definitely go up and increase. Another reason is a simple fact that you have a piece of historic detail that depicts thousands of pictures from that period of time. The old constructions are also very appealing to eye, so you can enjoy in beautiful sight and look.

Why should not you buy a historic house?

First of all, your renovation is limited so you need to check the preservation rules. You surely do not want to buy a new porch for your house and then find out you are not allowed to place it. Check everything out before you start with rebuilding. Another problem you might encounter is lead and asbestos materials, as these are harmful to our bodies.

These materials are not used anymore, so you will need to pay for their transportation. Also, the old houses did not have electricity, and some did not even have the plumbing system. This is a huge cost if you want your historical home to be fully functional. Even if you do have electric current, the old ones will not be able to support the new appliances, which could lead to a fire.

So, is it a good investment?

Generally, no one can tell you that. There are many factors that influence the whole project, especially if you are looking for a profit. From the financial side, it is not worth it, but from some anthropological and historical, it is worth. If you have enough time in your life, as well as money, do not skip any chance to buy a historical home. After all, you will own a piece of history!

7-Tips-For-New-Landlords-011418-7239-feature

17 Sep 2018

Real Estate Goals

Property Management Tips You Must Know

Being a property manager is not easy as you will have a bunch of day-to-day activities that you will need to complete. Of course, there will be a lot of repetitive tasks like filling out the forms or sending the monthly costs to the estate owner etc. Well, there are few tips that could come in handy, especially when you combine them with the latest technologies.

We do not say it is a boring job, but rather interesting that every day prepares you something new. These are tips that you should have in mind to make your job easier.

Use templates

As you will have to fill out a lot of forms and papers, the best way to prepare yourself for this is to ensure you have the proper templates. This is especially important if you are managing a lot of units, so to avoid typing each form individually, you can organize your templates.

Take a day off, or do this after the work, and organize all types of forms that you could possibly need. A template for payments, terms and conditions, tax expenses and so on. Although it takes time to form all the templates and write them, it will save you a lot of time later during your work.

Never procrastinate

If you want to be a successful manager, forget the procrastinating! As a reliable agent, you need to perform all the duties well and on time since no one likes to have delivered a paper lately.

In order to avoid this, you need to come up with your daily plan of activities that you must perform and order the priorities. The most prioritized task should be done immediately!

Set up a strategy and goals

The long term strategy is a must in this job, especially when you have more units to handle. Some of the questions that could help you in this are: what can you do to lessen your costs, are your tenants satisfied, are there any procedures that you could skip/implement that will get you better results?

Of course, setting the strategy implies that you should set up your goals, like you need to find two tenants till the end of week or so. The better you define the goals and strategy, your results will come faster as you know what you need to do first.

Quarterly inspections are crucial

A lot of property managers skip this, or they hire someone else to do this job. Hiring a professional is a good way to ease off your burden, but do have in mind that you are responsible for all the problems that might occur.

If you fail to inspect everything and find out the issues, your tenants could end up unhappy.

The quarterly inspections help you to preserve the value of the property, allows you to see the area that needs improvement, ensures there are no illegal activities and gives more confidence to your customers.

Be organized

One thing that managers forget when it comes to organization is to understand the ways of making your things more organized. With the help of technology, you can easily organize your documents so you could access them any time so make sure you use it. In this way, you can easily prioritize the problems and know which one is the emergency case.

17 May 2018

Property Management Difference

Resident Manager VS Property Manager: What Are The Differences?

If you into real estate business, you might want to know about the different roles of property and resident managers, as these are similar positions. People very often mix the roles up and get confused and resident manager vs property manager discussion ends up unresolved.

For this occasion, we have prepared a small article that will explain these differences so you could understand better these roles. So let’s get started and explain these roles!

The duties of the resident manager

As a resident manager, you are mostly involved in homes and apartments, not in the industrial buildings for example, though this is not an official rule. He is responsible for maintenance at the first place. Once a leakage is found, he must hire a skilled plumber who will fix the problem.

Also, he is ought to supervise the plumber and make sure that he fixed the problem. Snow shoveling, taking the trash out, hiring a cleaning agency that will exterminate the pests or simply keeping the current tenants happy is one of the duties of a resident manager.

In case of an emergency case where the urgent repair is needed, he must react quickly and provide the solution to the problem.

Also, when it comes to moving in and out of the estate, he must make sure that checks all the elements and possible damages made by a previous tenant. Once he determines that everything is fine, he is returning the full deposit to a tenant that is moving out. In case there are some damages, he needs to define the costs that the tenant should pay.

What a property manager has to do then?

The property manager is usually found in the office at his desk, but his duties involve more than just sitting next to the table and checking everything online. They often have consultations with the estate owners, discussing different topics and subjects that are relevant for the estate but also regular inspections of the more units that are under their control. Also, the supervision of other (resident) agents comes under the list of duties he needs to perform, along with the regular estate inspections.

When we mentioned the consultations with the owners, we also mean that he helps the owner to develop the annual budget for the estates he has, in order to have money for emergency repairs or something similar for example. All the questions that owners or investors have, the property manager needs to answer. Also, any complaints that cannot be solved by a resident manager are transferred to him and he starts doing these.

Another huge difference

Besides these above-mentioned duties and characteristics, there are also two things that separate these two categories. The property agent has to look out for more units while the resident agent only handles one unit. Also, in order to be a property agent, you must have a valid license, unlike the resident agent that does not require any licenses.

This means that you, as the property manager, will have to acquire much more knowledge than the resident manager, as you will have to offer the answer to all questions that are asked. So it is natural to conclude that the property manager has much more responsibilities.

17 Apr 2018

Property Management Agents

7 Responsibilities Of A Property Manager

The job of a property manager is anything but easy as many people think that you only need to collect money from the tenants and that is all you have to do. In reality, it is far away from that and it includes many other responsibilities that you need to carry out. This article is mainly written for those that have a lot of estates but not enough time to take care of them and for that reason they need to hire a property manager.

This way, the landlords will understand why and on what they spend their money when paying the property manager.

All rental related actions

From adjusting rents and finding an appropriate tenant, to performing a background check of each tenant and collecting the money, all these are responsibilities that he must perform. The property managers usually understand better the whole market and the property they are renting out, so it is very likely that they will adjust the better price for you.

Also, they can find easier the tenants that will accept the higher price and get you more money.
When it comes to tenants, a manager is ought to find new tenants if the current one/s decide to leave the apartment or are evicted for some reason. Also, the manager collects the payments (if these are not sent online directly to the landlord) and delivers them to the owner of the property.

Maintenance of estate

Yes, every problem, once reported by a tenant, must be solved as soon as possible and all these go directly to a property manager.

In case of damage, they will hire a plumber, carpenter or electrician to solve the problems under his supervision and monitoring.

He monitors every single repair that needs to be performed as he is the responsible entity for all estate-related questions. The regular check-ups and inspections can be performed but that is decided by the agreement between a landlord and a tenant.

Supervision of other agents

A company might have many agents that are under the supervision of the main estate manager. Those agents act according to the main manager’s instructions and he ensures that all the tasks are carried out well by the agents.

He has a right to increase or decrease the salary of every individual agent, according to their performance and dedication. In order to become the main agent, you need to have decent work experience in this industry, so you could be an appropriate candidate for the job.

Financial support

All payments, bills, costs of repairs or any kind of money transaction is ensured by the property manager and he needs to collect all these. Depending on the company, it can happen that all these are uploaded online so he does not need to go physically to each location to collect them.

Instead, he can collect all of these online and then send them to the owner of an estate. The fixture costs, maintenance and repair expenses, billings and all other payments must be organized well so the owner could see the expenses he is having.

While the financial support can be performed online with the help of various tools, some owners ask explicitly for “old-fashioned way”, without any use of modern tools.

22 Feb 2018

Property Management Coordintaion

Problems Of Property Management And Solutions

The real estate business is full of unexpected problems that you need to solve as quickly as possible. The majority of problems come from the lack of communication and rarely because of the state law regulations. Property management problems do occur all the time, but that is not something that should prevent you from starting this job. We will list the most common problems that occur and list the reasons for them.

Alternatively, we will offer you the possible solutions for these problems so you could solve them and continue with your job.

The state law regulations irregularities

Each state has a different set of law regulations that must be followed in every job that goes within the borders of these laws. However, it can happen, mainly because of the lack of communication, that a property management company does not comply with the standards of the state where the business is located in.

This can trigger various problems, and even take the problem to the state court. For that reason, it is always advised to hire a professional who knows the law well and knows what things usually pass unnoticed. No one likes affairs, and clients will run away as soon as they “smell” a problem, especially when the law is involved. You don’t want to lose your client just because you did not get familiar with the law.

The coordination

Emergency issues are the emergency and there is no time for the delayed communication. The majority of customers will not have enough time to spend on investigating and solving the problem in their estates. They want the job done. For that reason, the timely coordination, regardless of a type of a problem, and effective communication are the key things that you must ensure for your team in order to function well.

If you have a lot of work, try to organize two shifts, one that works until 4PM and the other shift that is available from 4Pm do 12PM.

In this way, you will cover all gaps and it will never happen that you have no available staff to check the problem and see if it can resolve it. It is much more expensive not to have an available staff in the state of emergency than to have a regular afternoon shift that makes sure they are there for their clients. The coordination is one of the most important aspects in every type of management.

Lack of trained and prepared staff

Good customer support is crucial for successful service and business! No one likes to be switched several times to an agent that will tell in the end that he does not know how to solve the problem. Make sure you have trained staff that possesses enough knowledge to work on their own if needed.

Having a well-trained team of skilled people is crucial in the estate business, as you need people that can act on their own.

Also, ensure the stable way of communication that will enable your team to solve problems efficiently and fast. The lack of communication can only provoke more problems and bring in more confusion into the whole problem. That is why regular meetings and discussions are the inevitable part of the successful business.