Property portfolio management must be considered for those organizations who have a large suite of properties to manage. This may consist of several buildings in several cities. Each city represented by a property portfolio manager. They are reporting as a unit on the set of properties they are responsible to manage. On the other hand for large companies managing properties that consist of rental properties for consumers as well as commercial properties. There may be a different organizational approach to managing these properties.
Divide portfolios into commercial, residential apartment, residential homes etc. It depends on the quantity and the location of these properties. There must also be on site or at least in city property management personal to take care of local details.
Property Portfolio Management
Divide into portfolios that represent types of rental properties. Depending on the size of the company and the amount of specialization that is desired, this could mean the portfolios are divided between commercial and residential for example. Divide commercial by the type of commercial property such as mall or big box type commercial properties. Office buildings that have predominantly office workers with a small amount of store fronts serving that office building.
The type of tenant varies a great deal and the needs of the buildings are very different as well. Note that the property portfolio management approach still requires an onsite property manager to deal with day to day issues and solve immediate tenant concerns and issues, including rental of units and approval of prospective tenants.
Increased Size Adds Complexity
It can become much more complex when you have multiple cities involved. Also a mix of commercial tenants with residential tenants. If a building is predominantly residential with a few commercial stores on the first floor, does the residential property manager look after the commercial tenants? Or does the commercial property portfolio management team look after them? Turns out the answer is probably yes to both.
Local superintendents will look after the entire building. Commercial property portfolio management will look after all contracts with the commercial companies. The residential property portfolio management will view this lease of the space by commercial customers. This is just another tenant in their predominantly residential building. Most companies will need to work through these details. While ensuring that they provide the best service to their customers and maintaining a profit for the owner.
Online Tracking
Online tracking of rents, expenses, work orders etc is further complicated when there are multiple buildings in multiple cities to manage. Senior managers want to be updated each morning with a dashboard.
These could include rent collection status, delinquent rents, outstanding work orders, value of the work orders in terms of cost and so on. They also want to be able to drill down and examine details on any given report.
Data networks that provide connectivity to these systems from corporate offices as well as remote superintendent locations. Rental managers must be able to have access to rental contracts. Also systems that will allow them to track tenants as well as report up the line to senior managers. For larger companies they may even have an IT department to manage everything. This includes email, data storage, accounting systems, PC needs, smart phone needs and telephone requirements.
Every rental property management company needs these services, however the size of the company will dictate how sophisticated the IT system will be. For more posts about property management topics, click here.