Tenants…ignore them at your own peril!

At Commercial Property Services we understand the value of tenants.  Tenants are the lifeblood of your properties.  No single factor to the success of your investment is as important and strategic as the role your tenants play in whether your succeed or fail.

Why is it then, that Tenants are taken for granted by many (if not most) property managers and owners?  Of course, everyone is anxious to sign a new lease and bring a new tenant “on board”.  New tenants generate cash flow and income affects “value”.  New tenants increase traffic to your property and increased traffic presumabley benefits the other tenants and contributes to the stability of the property as a whole.  Sadly, once all of the excitement dies down, the new tenant, in time, becomes just another lease in the file, a rent check or a delinquency.  Somewhere between all the excitement and the day-to-day business as usual, the value of this important relationship is  often forgotten or misplaced.  As a property manager or landlord we cannot afford to lose sight of the long-term value and contribution that these tenants play in the larger scheme of things.

We understand, it takes time and effort to reach out to tenants, to solicit their  feedback and to listen to their input and/or constructive criticism.  Most managers are reticent to engage their tenants for fear of having to listen to their problems, complaints, excuses and/or issues.  What they don’t realize is that avoidance only exacerbates the problem.  If left unexpressed, issues and complaints (valid or invalid as they might be) often have a tendency to “fester”.  At Commercial Property Services we see this as a an opportunity and a critical aspect of successfully managing the property.  Tenants operate on the “front lines”.  They  often observe things at the property that might be easily overlooked by a property manager that only visits the property.  They can also provide valuable feedback from their customers and patrons that a property manager would typically not have an open conduit to.  Even though we may not always agree with the feedback received from the tenants, by “listening” we then have the opportunity to communicate and to help them understand our perspective.  Property managers and tenants will not always agree but we maintain that through the process of communicating we have the advantage of developing relationships that can outweigh any differences of opinion that will inevitably occur.  This outreach also gives us an opportunity to educate, motivate and inspire tenants to accept responsibility for their success and to guide them to taking actions that might help them to become more successful.

Another reason, in our opinion, that many property managers fail to administer a tenant relations effort is that it takes time.  Time  that they might feel is better spent in their offices doing paperwork or in administrative tasks.  We maintain that there is little time better spent than developing a consistent tenant relations effort.

At Commercial Property Services we place a high priority on developing an active and on-going tenant relations program.  We believe that happy tenants remain tenants and that unhappy tenants become vacancies.  Vacancies are costly, they provide zero contribution to cash flow, and end up costing the Landlord a great deal of money for  tenant improvements, free rent and commissions.  Tenants, therefore should be both appreciated and respected.  Tenants are the lifeblood of your properties.

To quote Albert Einstein, the definition of insanity is “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

If you feel that your property management company is doing everything possible to achieve your desired results, I am happy for you.

If, on the other hand, you keep doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results, we need to talk!

I can help you maximize the value of your investment!

Call me at 619.807.7802 or email me at [email protected] and let’s schedule a meeting to discuss how we can work together to not only increase you cash flow but increase the value of your properties.

Brad Clark, CSM
Principal | Broker | Contractor

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY SERVICES

619.807.7802
[email protected]

www.CommercialPropertyServices.net

 

The Definition of Insanity – Albert Einstein

“Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”