Property Management Growth with DoorGrow DGS 39: Property Management Outsourcing
If you outsource properly, you free up time, money, and resources that you can reinvest into growing your business.
Today’s guest is Todd Breen, owner of Virtually Incredible, an outsourcing company. Since 1994 his quest has been to make property management both fun and profitable. Outsourcing achieves both of those goals.
You'll Learn...[03:03] Create your own solution to meet the needs of your company. [04:08] A common mistake property managers make is thinking they are the one that does it all. But they realize they can’t do it all and need to hire others. [05:00] You don’t need to spend tons of money on new employees. But there’s a better option. [05:15] When thinking about outsourcing ask: What size is your company? Where are your weak spots? Where is your customer service lacking? [05:36] Todd’s company, Home Property Management, decided to outsource its maintenance to a company that specializes in it, is staffed adequately, and available 24/7. [06:21] To effectively outsource, find a business that has systems and processes geared toward a specific task that you need done. [06:57] Dial into collective genius. Learn from other people, collect best practices, and improve what you offer. [07:52] What can be outsourced? Maintenance, leasing, bookkeeping, and other areas. [08:07] Todd decided to outsource leasing because he discovered that 99 percent of the time, money, and effort spent on answering the phone and responding to emails was time lost and wasted. [09:12] About 60 percent of your calls are on your leasing and generate no revenue. It wastes times and does not yield profit. [09:48] Outsource leasing calls to avoid lack of response and voicemails - not good customer service. [10:33] Maintenance is another customer service sore spot for companies. What is your average turnaround on work orders? You may not know, but your tenants do! Lack of response and action generates poor reviews, lower renewal rates...it’s a trickle-down disaster. [11:40] If companies outsource leasing and maintenance, that is the bulk of where they think their time should be spent. But taking those off their plate lets them use that time to focus on building their business - strategic rather than technical work. [12:42] As an entrepreneur, you need to be willing to give up a certain level of control, even though that may feel uncomfortable. [13:37] At one point, Todd decided he wanted to scale and remove himself. He did so by becoming a reformed control freak. [13:55] The average property management company owner thinks they can’t afford the latest Website. Outsource to the lowest cost solution and invest the savings to grow your business. [16:25] If an entrepreneur has a clear direction to head in and believe in it, you can’t stop them. They are going to do it. Property managers need to believe outsourcing is a viable option for them. [16:38] One fear about outsourcing is related to quality. Property managers fear that those they pass off the work to don’t care as much as they do or the output won’t be as good. [16:58] Fear = False Evidence Appearing Real. For Todd, he felt that as soon as he didn’t do he work, the quality would go down. But, the quality of his life was not so good because he was working so much. [17:16] Todd’s customers had quality, but he didn’t. He got to a point where he was done with that and things happened. [17:24] Todd teaches a course called, Run Your Rent Roll From Under a Palm Tree. [17:54] If you are a workaholic or overworked, Todd figures out what he can do to help them through various processes, systems, quality assurance, and training. [19:16] Those with the fear factor may be surprised when they let go, they open up to a better way of doing things at their business. [19:31] Should you hire your own virtual assistant (VA) or a reseller? Do you have the time to hire, train, and work with others? Are you good at hiring, training, and working with your staff? It’s up to you to decide which is better for you. [21:20] Advantages of a team being virtual is that you can pull the best talent from anywhere and overhead is low. But there are challenges. [22:13] You can outsource to virtual team members as well as to specialized companies to handle various tasks, such as podcast production. [23:45] Entrepreneurs do not usually make good managers. Specialized agencies use their expertise to take that management piece over naturally for team members to thrive. [24:55] With outsourcing, don’t necessarily go with the cheapest option to save money. Time should be higher on your priority list than money. [25:27] There’s a hustle-and-grind myth that if entrepreneurs work harder and are more aggressive, burn themselves out, they will make more money and get more done. In reality, you become unproductive and make bad decisions. [26:25] If you don’t feel naturally passionate about something, take it off your plate through outsourcing. [27:00] The mistake entrepreneurs make when building a team is they build teams around them that make their lives more tactically difficult, instead of more strategically available. [27:33] Todd knew managing people was not one of his strengths. But his wife is an awesome people manager. So, she manages the people, and Todd has time for the visionary and innovation side of his business. [28:54] When outsourcing, you will experience hits and misses. But when you get a hit, you are able to shine! It is worthwhile to spend money on agencies that have the tools and processes that can match you with the right person. [30:37] The beauty of outsourcing is that you get to focus on your core strengths. [31:00] People want to enjoy property management, but they don’t know how. The trick is to realize it can be fun and profitable if we pursue it to be that way. [31:38] Pursue better clients and take care of growing and scaling your business at an affordable rate. [31:48] Learn from other property managers and their collective experience. Then, implement what you learned - that is the greatest skill set that differentiates truly successful property managers from average ones. [33:11] Entrepreneurs enjoy coming up with ideas and creating things, but they aren’t the ones to usually see things through. That’s why they need a team to support them. [33:30] There are four personality types: spontaneous (don’t make good business owners); competitive (make good business owners to a point); humanitarian (love everyone, but may not be the best property managers); and methodical (engineers who have to get everything done). Who makes the best business over the long haul? Methodical. [35:10] When outsourcing, hire those who have methodically figured out the best processes for doing something. However, they will probably not be good at sales and marketing. [37:47] Join the DoorGrow Club on Facebook.
TweetablesThere’s a better option than spending tons of money.
Take the collective genius of companies to outsource.
Outsourcing - biggest bang for your buck.
ResourcesHome Property Management; Run Your Rent Roll From Under a Palm Tree
National Association of Residential Property Managers