In good times with lower vacancies and higher rents, the importance of providing the highest standards of property management is not always emphasized. In fact, in a recent poll of commercial landlords the majority felt that property management firms were overall not very good. Some of the things that were pointed out were: the revolving door of property managers that came and went through their projects; lack of flexibility in accounting reports; poor follow through; lack of competing bidding on repairs and projects; and, mistakes made in operating expense pass-through calculations.
Several landlords note unless you were a large REIT that the larger commercial property management firms treated them with less service overall.
This coming year will offer many challenges to building owners such as higher vacancies, less revenues and tighter credit standards. To compete for a smaller amount of tenants, buildings will have to “shine” to win these tenants. That means from the lobby on up buildings will have to remain modern, clean and attractive while landlords have fewer funds to upgrade. Buildings will have to offer personal attention to their tenants to insure that they work with their tenants to survive these difficult times. They will also have to insure that they pass on all costs that they are legally able to pass on to insure maximum revenue.
To meet these challenges property management companies will have to change the way they do business. They will have to invest in better people; more supplicated software and provide more personal rapport with clients.
In order to meet this challenge, Starboard TCN Worldwide and Westlake Realty have formed a new company Star West Property Management Services. Star West combines two independent firms to provide personal leasing and management services with top-notch software applications. Westlake Realty has been providing property management services since 1972. In 2007 Westlake won the Northern California Property Management of the Year award. Westlake manages over 500 million dollars worth of real state throughout the Western United States. It offers a personalized financial application system that allows a landlord absolute review of everything that goes on with their property in a paperless world fully tailored to how the owner wants to view this information. It offers GPS technology to insure that support is provided and delivered as quickly as possible. It has long standing management staff that stays with a building. |
