With the cost of living higher than ever before, businesses of all sizes and types are trying to find ways to reduce their monthly outgoings. Fortunately, there are many ways to reduce costs and make your property management company more efficient than ever. It is a good idea to start by listing your regular outgoings, from staffing costs to utility bills. Consider splitting this list into essential and non-essential purchases and determine which non-essential items you could cut back on.
With some smart planning and tweaking, you will normally be able to reduce the amount you spend on even essential outgoings. However, you should be careful to ensure that none of the changes you make will negatively impact the quality of your service.
Use Pre-Screening To Filter Out Tenants
Tenant turnover can be expensive for landlords and property management companies, so finding ways to cut down on tenant turnover is vital. Providing quality properties and care to tenants is one crucial way to prevent tenant turnover, but it is also essential to find the right tenants for your properties. Your landlord clients will want to know that you have ways to find the best possible tenants for their properties, and pre-screening can be invaluable.
Screen tenants can also take up a lot of your staff’s valuable time. Using a simple pre-screening questionnaire, you can help to eliminate unsuitable tenants before they get to the more in-depth and time-consuming screening process. This works well for both you and possible tenants, saving everyone time.
Ensure That All Tenant Contact Is Documented
As a property management business, you will work closely with tenants daily. You need to be able to quickly access any information that a tenant has brought to your attention and have a paper trail to follow should it become necessary. All tenant contact should be documented as standard practice, whether via email or assigning notes to individual clients detailing telephone or face-to-face contact.
Find Better Deals On Water Suppliers
Finding the best deal on your utilities is crucial, and water can be one of the most costly outgoings. Many businesses stay with the provider they know and are used to, but this often means they miss out on the best deals available. The Business Water Shop can assist with business water savings for businesses looking to find the right deal on water bills. Shopping around for water and other utilities can be invaluable for cutting costs monthly.
Utilise Automation For Repetitive Tasks
When it comes to saving money, it is crucial to think about how you utilise your staff. If you have skilled team members doing repetitive or redundant tasks, this is a major drain on a valuable and talented resource. Many repetitive or redundant tasks can be done much faster and more effectively by using automation. Things such as payment reminders and chaser emails can be easily automated, allowing complete tasks with the click of a mouse that would otherwise take hours to do manually.
Bulk Buy Office Supplies
Managing office supplies can often be tricky, and many businesses fall into the trap of only ordering what items they need when they need them. This means you might not get the best deals, which often come in bulk purchases. Instead of buying small amounts frequently, you should look into buying the most popular office supplies in bulk. Things like tea bags, coffee, pens, paper and other stationery can all be purchased at a competitive price when bought in bulk. You could consider investing in a company account for a wholesaler like Macro or Costco.
Buy Second Hand
Most businesses prefer to buy office furniture and electronics new. This is understandable, but it is also often not the most cost-effective option. You can buy refurbished electronics that will offer the same quality of user experience but at a fraction of the cost of a new machine. There are plenty of office furniture stores that sell everything from filing cabinets to desk chairs at a very competitive price. You should do your homework and find reputable second-hand sellers to ensure you get the very best quality at an incredible price.
Downsize Your Office
Over the past few years, working from home has become the norm. Many employees enjoy the benefits of home working, such as greater flexibility and reduced commuting time. If some of your staff work remotely full or part-time, then you might not need the same size office as you did a few years ago. Downsizing can save you significant money on rent and the cost of heating and powering your office space.
Conclusion
There are many ways that your property management business can minimise costs using some smart workarounds and changes to practices. You should reassess all of your monthly outgoings, no matter how essential, to see how you could use your money more efficiently. Office expenses can often be the most costly, so it may help to start with these expenses and work out how you can reduce or eliminate the more significant outgoings. You should also find ways to free up your staff’s valuable time so they can work on increasing business profitability instead of redundant or repetitive tasks.
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