How high-performing PMs hit the ground running

When building from the ground up, Wingman Group head of growth Nick Georges said agency founders needed a clear vision for the business and its goals.

“It could be a selling principal who opened their first office and wants to get to 100 managements by the end of the year, or it could be a PM-only business who wants to reach 10,000 in ten years. Whatever that vision is, that is where it all starts,” Georges said.

He said that when leading sales agents opened their own office, property management was often added along the way rather than deliberately built into the business from the outset.

According to Georges, it wasn’t an intentional decision, but rather a lack of capacity in the early stages.

“As a selling principal, you come in, and the only thing you want to worry about is listing and selling real estate,” he said.

Georges said many principals only recognised the need to build a strong foundation for growth once the rent roll had reached a significant size, including making the right hires from the beginning.

“Invest in a really good foundational team member in property management that you can really build a department around,” Georges said.

“That first hire in property management is so critical.”

Georges said the first hire should be someone with a growth-focused mindset, as building momentum in the early stages is one of the most significant challenges an agency faces.

Additionally, he said one of the biggest mistakes new businesses made was trying to keep sales and property management separate, particularly when growth was a priority.

“Your job as a PM department is to bridge that gap and treat the sales side of the business as the client. The best businesses I have seen have done that,” he said.

“The gap between sales and property management is non-existent.”

He said that PMs should see the business's recent sales as a pipeline for management, while sales agents need to trust that their clients will be well serviced.

“As soon as your sales team have trust in your property management, you will see exponential growth in your rent roll,” he said.

Creating a point of difference

Georges said that, at its core, the role of a property manager remained the same, regardless of the number of properties under management.

He said that, with little difference in the role's requirements, property managers needed to find a way to stand out.

“We’ve got things that we need to do in property management, and that doesn’t change whether you’re an office of 200 managements or 2,000,” Georges said.

“What I am seeing out there is that the ones that are identifying what their X factor is and showcasing that to the market, especially in a difficult market, are the ones that come out of it in a very good position.”

He said a key point of difference for agencies was in how they managed their relationships, with creating positive interactions a priority.

“The question for you as a property management business is ‘How are you making your landlords feel?’”

According to Georges, many businesses were harming their relationships with clients by reaching out only when they have concerns about the asset or hiding behind emails.

To avoid developing a negative relationship with their landlords, Georges said PMs should communicate more consistently and ensure clients felt valued.

Georges said that, ideally, property managers should contact their landlords at least once a month to maintain the relationship.

“I think the future is more consultative, it’s more detailed, and it’s more relationship-based.”

“So if something comes in, why shouldn’t we just pick up the phone straight away and have that conversation with the landlord, sort the issue and move on?”

Listen to the full episode here