Commercial Property Managers – Tenant Management Tips and Strategies
In commercial or retail real estate the tenant management process will help strengthen property cash flow and tenant mix. It therefore stands to reason that every well managed property should have a systemised tenant management process. The process itself should feature as part of a property management strategy provided by real estate brokers and agents.
Many agents struggle with finding ways to be unique in providing property management services; they fail to look at the specialisations that are possible as part of providing a property service for landlords today.
So ‘tenant management’ can be one of those ‘specialisations’. It can feature in your presentations and proposals to serve your clients. It can help you provide a point of difference in your property services.
How can you make the process of tenant optimisation and property management special? You build your marketing message around being totally committed to property improvement for the client through a number of strategic issues including these big ones:
- Lease optimisation
- Tenant improvement and management
- Vacancy minimisation
- Financial management
- Risk minimisation
- Property control
Taking all of these things, the package of agent professionalism works if, and only if, you drill down in the 6 service elements with relevance to the property. You can systemise all of these things. You can make them specific and relevant in the market today. They can help you win new business.
Let’s go back to the ‘tenant improvement and management’ issue to give you an illustration of what you can do here. One simple topic can be opened up into many specialist services and communication processes for the client. These facts will become very important in quality properties and larger properties. They will help you win the attention of the client.
Consider these expanded issues on ‘tenant controls’:
- Lease compliance is a complex problem and it gets deeper when you have lots of tenants in the one property. Understanding the lease terms and conditions and the methods of control with critical date management all comes back to the skills of the property manager. Have you go the right person to do the job for your clients? Does the property manager really know how to get on top of lease compliance and upcoming dates?
- Every lease will produce income and expenditure activities. Each lease then needs to be looked at across the cash flow for the property and the landlord. Prepare for the upcoming rent reviews, options, outgoings recoveries, and market rents.
- Some tenants are better than others when it comes to property performance over the long term. As part of a business plan for a property, establish a tenant mix strategy, tenant retention plan, vacancy management process, and lease marketing system.
- Look at the specialty tenants, the anchor tenants, and the extra sources of income from a property like communications towers, casual rentals, third income streams, and licences for special use or occupancy. All types of occupancy should be considered for income growth and optimisation. Create an income strategy as part of the property business plan.
So there are some real ways here that will help you be ‘professionally different’ with your property management services. Understand the services that you are to provide as a real estate brokerage and ensure that you have the right persons for the job.
