Building & Facilities Operations

Ever taken advice from a candlestick? Odds are, your service can’t hold a candle to that of Beauty and The Beast’s Lumière. Afterall, how often do you urge tenants, “put our service to the test!”

That is the one major, elastic characteristic tenants consider when looking for a space: exceptional service. My advice for keeping tenants in your building is to leverage the factors you can control: service response time and quality.

You don’t need to sing and dance for tenants à la Lumière, but you do need to respond to their service requests. Here’s how to maximize the process:

Insights from industry expert Patrick Braswell:

Video (2:08): Improving Responsiveness to Tenant Requests

Presented by Patrick Braswell, Tenant Representation Specialist

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Want more? Read Improving Responsiveness to Tenant Requests. If that doesn’t work, try the gray stuff – it’s delicious.

Visit our website for more information on tenant retention strategies, managing  service response times or bringing your program online.

I recently discovered an interesting new insurance product for the small owner Multi-family market that allows private landlords in the U.S. rent default insurance. It may be hard to understand the excitement behind this new offering, so let me paint a picture for you:

Three kids in college, the economy, a mid-life crisis car, digital cable (with HBO added on, of course), utilities, holidays, etc. The list is extensive! It’s going to be a tough year to go to the lake house. Gah, the lake house! There’s another expense to add to the list. Wait a minute… the lake house. We don’t need to go to the lake house, but someone else could! There has to be someone out there willing to rent my second home. Here I go, time to find a tenant…”

This thought process could be the catalyst to someone’s shift from owning a second home to owning a residential investment property. Great idea – renting out one’s investment property can yield rental income of potentially great value to the owner. So, say our protagonist from the beginning is named Jim. Jim finds someone he thinks will be a suitable tenant for his lake house property. Sure, this guy looks a bit sketchy, wears a dirty white undershirt covered in Doritos, and doesn’t seem to bath often, but Jim needs the money and the lake house has been more of a fund-guzzler than a leisurely retreat for his family. This tenant will do.

Things are going well with Jim and his rental property, until after a few months, Jim’s tenant stops paying rent. As the residential landlord, Jim is now losing his much-appreciated monthly income. There’s no money coming in and money still going out for ongoing property expenses. Essentially, this is turning into a severe financial problem for Jim. What is Jim going to do? Putting aside the more illegal, painful, and/or mob-affiliated options, Jim turns to Aon Affinity and their rent default insurance.

Through a group effort with ARS and GRIP Solutions Advisory carrier partner QBE Insurance Group, Aon Affinity has created  Aon Rent Protect insurance so that landlords, like Jim, don’t have to worry about financial terrors resulting from deadbeat tenants. Rent Protect was designed to reimburse up to six months of lost rent which puts Rent Protect in a league of its own in the U.S. when it comes to protecting individual landlords against rent default.

And hey, don’t feel bad about the premium subscription to HBO. We all know how hard it is to crack a severe addiction to Entourage.

It’s four days into the new year. Maybe you’ve already made  your resolutions, maybe you’ve already broken them, maybe the only resolution you care about is measured in pixels. Regardless, here’s one for business-sakes it would pay to heed: Improving responsiveness to tenant requests.

Here’s why:

Tenant Service is Elastic.

Service response time plays a key role in determining the involvement tenants have with a building manager. Longer waits and slower responses lead to an overall negative experience and vice versa. Being the most controllable aspect of any building, the speed of service with which a building manager can successfully complete required tasks, could make or break a tenant relationship.

This stems directly from two things. First, the rate at which an owner must charge a tenant more or less cannot be changed. Second, the location of the building will not change no matter how much you may want it to. This leaves one major, elastic characteristic tenants consider when looking for space to rent: the service provided.

Why do Tenants Choose to Stay?

Here’s How:

Be Effective, B-E- Effective (Automate)

Service must be provided efficiently and effectively. One of the major issues today with responsiveness falls back to the owner. Whether the tenant cannot get in touch with the building manager, or the building manager has not made available an effective means of solving issues, the tenant rarely is the one at fault. See if your company is putting its best face forward with effective customer service.

Allowing tenants the ability to submit work orders easily only quickens the response time. Automation, therefore, becomes crucial. Implementing a system where tenants have the ability to electronically submit service requests allows them to save time, which subsequently leads to a better experience.

Don’t Just Have a System, Use It!

Many things can be fixed quickly, and consequently should. Requiring someone to call the maintenance office every time a light bulb goes out never proves to be an efficient way of handling a situation. Automation is great, but it does not work if no one knows about it. Tenants need to be informed about the utilities they have access to in order to make the most of them. Simply having an online system is not enough if no one uses it. In order to effectively and efficiently vanquish service requests, the tools available to tenants must be used.

Find Out How Your Service Stacks Up

Know where your service level stands compared to that of your peers and industry top performers. What are other property owners and managers offering that you could adopt? What response times and service performance are standard? Take Building Engines Service Responsiveness Benchmark Survey for a compilation report identifying Best Practices you may want to consider.

Want more? Read about How to Rock Occupancy with Technology!

“The best way to spread holiday cheer is singing loud for all to hear” ~Buddy the Elf

Since Thanksgiving the airwaves have been filled with the usual archaic holiday tunes. To switch up the routine a bit, Building Engines’ presents a Holiday Playlist you can relate to! For your listening pleasure, we’ve assembled our favorite property management classics for the most wonderful time of the year!

In a recent sample, 83% of Building Engines clients considered tenant responsiveness a market differentiator. How does your responsiveness stack up to that of your peers and industry top performers? Take the Building Engines Service Responsiveness Benchmark Survey and receive a compilation report aggregating responses and identifying Best Practices you may want to consider.

This 5 minute survey will provide comparative analytics to help you answer and understand:

• How your performance compares with other property owners and managers
• Where your perception of the value of responsiveness relates to others
• If response time standards should be set and included in the lease SLAs
• Real data on performance standards you may want to adopt

I’ve been told, “If you’re looking for answers, they’re not going to just fall into your lap!” Well, if you post the right question, they just may fall into your LinkedIn lap. Following a Building Engines webinar on LEED EBOM certification, I wanted to open up the discussion to other property and energy management and professionals.

LinkedIn, specifically the BOMA International Group, proved to be a fruitful forum for my question: What are some tips around the greening of existing buildings? Here are some of the discussion’s responses:

Since lighting represents about 30% of our energy bill upgrading to LED lighting saved us from 74 – 90%! We have tried several different LED lamps, however, we found that the ones offered at www.lightingatlanta.org are some of the best available.

You could also add motion sensors and wire them with the light switches so after 5 minutes of no movement, the lights will automatically go off.

There are many low-cost/no-cost measures you can take to green your facilities: (1) adjusting thermostats for seasonal comfort and programming in night set-backs; (2) reducing ventilation to unoccupied spaces and for nighttime operation; (3) replacing air handler filters, and (4) other basic O&M practices to tune up energy equipment performance

You can go further by periodically conducting Level 1 audits and follow-up retro-commissioning on key systems such as the controls or boilers/chillers/air handlers.

Relative to HVAC system energy savings, if the building’s systems utilize a building automation system, a comprehensive review of the sequences of operation in comparison to actual setpoints and schedules is a great method to save operational dollars and energy. Often, over many years, changes are made by operators and unintentionally the intended energy savings design features of the HVAC systems are lost.

The building envelope is a good place to start to realize energy savings. Before upgrading HVAC equipment, it makes sense to seal up energy leaks at the roof and facade, to avoid over-spending on heating or cooling.

Do not source a lighting solution which uses products available only from one manufacturing source.

Reducing your outdoor watering costs. Most landscapers do not know how to properly set the sprinkler systems, and often just defer to over watering, since you will only notice on your water bill.

Make sure that any intelligent lighting solution is native to the building management/automation system so there is seamless access to any available data from the lamps at any time. Further this allows you to easily share information between lighting and other systems for even more potential efficiency savings.

Read more on using lighting to conserve energy!

The Einstein Principle:

Accomplish More By Doing Less

Einstein’s theory of relativity was born from a work ethic principled on narrowing one’s focus (for him this unfortunately left out distractions like hygiene, social decorum and his wife). Property owners and managers should take a page from his book (no, not The Evolution of Physics). They should re-engineer their processes to allow them to focus their attention on select meaningful and productive pursuits.

Today, even the best property managers and owners likely aren’t developing one of the greatest achievements of the past century, but they are being more selective with with their endeavors. OK, so they don’t want to spend their time juggling, but what to do with the other balls?

The most successful organizations select a technology partner to provide the critical information, systems, and support competencies that are not central to a property management organization. Enabling technologies help companies accomplish more with fewer resources, improve service levels, attract and retain tenants, manage assets more effectively, and lower business and financial risk.

The adoption of information collection and reporting tools allows managers the time to apply their skill and experience to more meaningful tenant interactions, decision making, outreach, and brand management. Just don’t pull an Einstein and forget to wear socks.

Tenants, Tenants, Tenants

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Scott Sidman, VP Sales & Marketing

At the intersection of Commercial Real Estate, Corporate Real Estate, automation and technology, is Realcomm, showing CRE professionals how and why to integrate technology into their business. A proud panelist on Realcomm’s next webinar, Building Engines’ Scott Sidman, VP Sales & Marketing, will show examples of how technology can help attract new tenants, and keep the ones you’ve got.

WEBINAR DESCRIPTION:

With the real estate market problems far from being over, operators around the globe have been reintroduced to the concept of tight management. While decreasing expenses is important, keeping your space occupied takes on an even higher priority. Real estate companies are quickly learning that automation can play a key role in effectively managing and retaining existing tenants and can also be a success factor when competing for new tenants. Join us as Realcomm’s panelists discuss using technology to maximize occupancy!

Maybe you’re better than others. Do you know it and how can you show it? Maybe you’ve some catch-up to do in key operational areas. Do you know where and how you should improve?

Get off the bench and get on the benchmarking track! Being a competitive player in CRE demands a comparative analysis of your performance to both that of your peers and best practices in the field. Luckily, we’ve the equipment to start your warm up!

There’s an easy way to measure and benchmark your operational performance. We’ve created a short benchmark survey  that allows for property management professionals to assess their performance across several operational areas and receive immediate feedback based on their responses. Take ten minutes to complete the Operational Assessment Survey and instantly receive a personalized Benchmark Report.

More importantly, you will gain a better understanding of your property’s processes compared to real estate operational best practices. Where do you shine, and where do you need some polishing?

Benchmark the state of your operations for:

1. Tenant Service & Satisfaction
2. Maintenance & Assets
3. Risk Management & Exposure to Liability
4. Online Real Estate Operations

Start the Operations Assessment Survey!

Like the topic? You may also be interested in:

• ON MANAGEMENT: Where Do We Go to Find Best Practices?
• ON MANAGEMENT: 10 Steps to Simple Benchmarking
• Keeping Some Metrics up your Sleeve: 5 Questions you Should Ask
  

Property managers must be echo-friendly if they hope to survive in the rental market. According to a recent GlobeSt.com article (whose inspiration and information derives from a panel at the RealShare Apartments Conference in LA), the youngest generation of renters are posed to set standards in the market.

Echo-boomers, the 20 and 30-something children of Baby Boomers, are entering the rental housing market and making demands. Demand making is generally seen as characteristic of this demographic, who is largely known for their technological savvy (and/or dependence) and sense of entitlement. Also known as Generation Y, Generation Next, and Millennials, Echo-boomers are predominantly renters and “nimble” – they are swift to relocate if their demands are not being met.

What does this mean for standards in property management? To satisfy and retain members of Generation Y Stay Here and Generation Next Apartment: requests must be quickly acknowledged, service all online, and technology support fully functional. Building owners and managers should expect fewer walk-ins and phone calls, and more communication with this segment via their preferred methods: laptops, tablets, and smart phones.

According to GlobeSt.com, the trend of conducting business online with these tenants is only increasing, and in many cases resulting in outsourcing for technical-support functions. Essentially, unless property managers want more turnovers than a bakery, they need to watch the boom and cater to this generation.