It comes as no surprise that managing properties is not an easy task. It’s the complete opposite.
As a property manager, your role is to oversee the daily operations of your rental buildings or houses. As such, you will need both industry knowledge and tenant-facing capabilities to thrive in this career.
What Makes Managing Student Housing Different From Managing Other Properties?
Compared to other types of properties, such as multi-family rentals, senior apartments, or single-family homes, managing student housing can often require more effort.
You have to remember that your client is not just the student, but their parents as well. It’s important to target both markets when promoting your property. Some tips to help you attract awesome tenants include advertising your property online, setting up a designated study space, including furniture and other essential appliances, utilizing an online leasing platform, securing and maintaining your property, and offering incentives and promos.
Besides this, you also need to understand that students are incredibly social creatures. This means that they’ll take advantage of all the opportunities they can get to spend time with their neighbors.
Of course, as individuals who want to feel like a part of a group, many students also like to meet new people and make new friends — and what better way to do that than to engage with your other tenants? Because of this, some of your renters may host parties, pull all-nighters, and just create a lot of noise, which will no doubt be a cause of disturbance for your other non-partying tenants.
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Therefore, as a property manager, your job is to control the situation as best you can without completely impeding your tenants’ freedom. For example, you can set a daily curfew or host on-ground social events during weekends and holidays so they can have a place to hang out without causing a scene.
That said, it’s clear to see that being a property manager of student housing requires a lot of creativity, strategy, and strict implementation.
Top 5 Qualities To Have as a Property Manager
If you want to know how you can succeed at being a property manager in student housing, here are some property management skills that you need to have.
1. Assertiveness
While it is important to practice patience before making a big decision regarding your property, it’s not the only approach. Sometimes, what you need to get through to your young tenants is to have a firm hand and exercise assertiveness.
Especially when it seems like some of the students are not following the guidelines or are taking advantage of your amenities, being assertive in these situations will strengthen your position as a property manager.
In addition, residents and investors appreciate it when they can see that you can set boundaries and come up with solutions quickly. They will feel more confident in your care and that you can get the job done effectively and efficiently.
2. Strong Communication Skills
Managing a property is just one-half of a property manager’s job. The other half deals with communicating with potential tenants, investors, vendors, and distributors. As such, having clear and strong communication skills is a must if you want to succeed in this business.
Residents and investors look to you for updates on building maintenance, policies, and other pressing matters. It’s important to keep them in the loop when changes arise.
Since you are the primary point of contact, communicating essential information to your prospective tenants can also push them in one direction or the other. Depending on how well you sell your property and answer their queries, you can influence them to either sign the lease or look for a different property altogether.
3. Good Negotiating Skills
Part of having good communication skills is having good negotiation skills. One of your goals as a property manager is not only to engage with prospective tenants but, more importantly, to get them to sign the lease. As such, having impeccable negotiation skills can come in handy to sway them in the direction you want.
Besides influencing potential tenants, this essential skill is also advantageous when you’re working with contractors, vendors, and other third parties. When you can negotiate with them, you can get their services at the best price possible. Plus, you can maximize your net operating income (NOI).
With so many overhead costs, you want to find ways to protect your budget while getting high-quality services to win tenants over. All of this can be achieved by having good negotiating skills.
4. Organized
There’s no doubt that property managers have a lot on their plate. They juggle seemingly countless responsibilities simultaneously. Because of this, they can easily overlook important tasks or feel overwhelmed.
Part of managing properties is taking care of internal affairs such as renewing leases, renovating units, managing eviction proceedings, reaching out to potential tenants, monitoring staff members, and so much more.
That’s why as a property manager, it’s important to follow an organized process so you can stay on top of all your to-do lists. While every manager has a system that works for them, one solution to help increase efficiency and organization is by implementing comprehensive property management software like ExactEstate.
With this platform, you can access everything you need conveniently in one place. You can process online payments, get detailed reporting, do tenant screening, manage your documents, keep track of maintenance, execute marketing campaigns, and train your staff. What’s more, everything in this software is customizable to fit your unique needs.
If you want to develop your organizational skills and learn how to drive yourself, investing in the appropriate property management software is the best decision you can make.
5. Tech Savvy
Speaking of investing in software, a property manager of student housing must also be tech-savvy.
In this day and age, everyone relies on technology to boost efficiency and enhance productivity. Technology like ExactEstate can make administrative tasks easier and less time-consuming. What’s more, it can streamline processes to make managing different tasks simultaneously more doable.
Learning how to navigate the digital landscape, use readily available tools to your advantage, and automate tasks can give you an upper hand in the real estate market today.
Instead of shying away from what innovation has to offer, embrace it. Take this opportunity to learn the trends. Invest your time, money, and effort in incorporating these applications into your management system. Only then will you see such a difference it can make!
Book a Demo With ExactEstate
It’s true that the demands on property managers are extremely high. But success doesn’t have to be impossible to reach.
If you want to take your property management skills to the next level, invest in breakthrough software like ExactEstate. It has all the features you need to stay on top of your responsibilities and get the results that you want.
Manage student housing with ease with the help of ExactEstate. Book a Demo with us today to learn more about our software.
