There are many reasons to self-manage, or manage in-house. Including not paying a third party commercial property manager. But before you head in that direction, give some thought to what you’re about to tackle and what might happen if you can’t hold on to all the strings attached. Determining the most effective and efficient way to manage commercial property involves a lot of strings, such as the ones identified below.
Regulations
As a commercial property owner, all the requirements you need to understand and abide by are not easy to grasp. There are laws and requirements at the federal level, coupled with regulations at the state and local level. Keeping on top of these ever-morphing requirements can be difficult. And even more problematic are the fines levied on property owners or landlords who fail to meet these requirements that relate to inspections, ease of access, ADA, tenant rights, and repairs and maintenance – just to cite a few.
Technology Trends
How can you leverage the benefits received from the latest trending technology that can provide you with real-time tracking of rent payments (and arrears), building systems performance, scheduled inspections, costs for repairs and costs for maintenance? Managing these systems on your own require a substantial portion of your time, not to mention a big chunk out of your wallet, if not negotiated and contracted correctly.
Choosing Vendors
Do you have contracts – and appropriate scopes of work – with trusted vendors that you’ve vetted for top service and competitive rates? How big is your vendor pool? How far do your vendor resources stretch? Self-managing might limit your resources and not allow for volume purchasing, such as what third party managers are privy to.
Advertising and Promotion
When you have space vacancies, do you get volume discounts and automatic savings on advertising your property’s availability – both digital and hard copy advertising? And do you have access to multiple industry promotion forums and channels? Third party managers have relationships with industry-leading leasing agents and brokers, who can expertly handle all the intricacies involved with marketing space.
Time
Time is both fleeting and precious. Especially your time. Do you have hours each day, week, month, and year to perform in-depth analysis of property information regarding your portfolio’s performance? Or handle urgent maintenance issues after-hours? What about opening vacant spaces for leasing agents and prospective tenants to view available space? Know what your time is worth and allocate to professionals.
Market Rent Rates
Of course you want to get the best possible rent for your property, but how do you determine what’s market? And how do you stay abreast of the ebb and flow of industry rates? Having a limited understanding of what you should expect in rental income – and offer your tenants what they demand – can be a truly daunting task.
Tenant Selection
Speaking of that all-important ideal tenant, what hoops are you ready to jump through to find them? And then vet them up to, and through, checking their background and credit? Third party commercial property managers are adept at leasing agent coordination and have processes in place to make this process as seamless as possible.
Continuing Education
A final item to ponder is gauging the time you can devote to networking with other commercial property owners and professionals, staying atop the wave of new trends, policies, and best practices – while attending industry conferences – that address each and every issue on this list.
The Solution
At Meissner Jacquet Commercial Real Estate Services, we provide experienced third party commercial real estate management services. Kevin Tagle, Vice President of Meissner Jacquet, underlines that “our experience working with both private and institutional clients provides us with the ability to fully understand our clients and their properties needs on all levels.” Meissner Jacquet will assemble a property plan that outlines how best to manage your commercial property for optimal results, so that your time is spent focused on your core business and not fixing leaking toilets.
Sources:
UpCounsel Blog
Nolo.com
Meissner Jacquet Commercial Real Estate Services