A lack of scalable systems and a strong workplace culture have been holding property management agencies back from reaching higher PUM levels and breaking through the growth ceiling, according to an industry leader.
Having gone through the process of building a property management agency from the ground up, NU Management founder Grant McKay understands the difficulty of scaling a business.
With a background in sales and business development before transitioning into property management, McKay approached the industry with a different mindset than most.
“I’ve had to work backwards from there to educate myself on the nitty-gritty day-to-day of the job and what the right sort of workflow and systems would work,” McKay said.
McKay said that the unpredictability of property management can be a significant obstacle when scaling up, as each day brings a new set of challenges in dealing with tenant and landlord demands.
“Each day is unpredictable.”
“It’s about trying to get the balance of having the systems and procedures that allow individual property managers to be able to manage more properties and not get too bogged down.”
Smoother processes = better service
McKay said that one of the key ways to ensure property managers could handle additional PUM was to alleviate their administrative burden by providing support, either through additional staff or technology systems.
He said that the current number of processes property managers had to go through daily left them with little room to provide the full service landlords expected from their PMs.
“They may have someone that’s efficient at responding or moving along a work order, but there is a real lack of having that space to be a bit of an advisor or talk about the full strategy for the property,” he said.
“To do that proactive advisory, more consultative style of property management, you need a lot of support.”
McKay said that businesses needed systems in place that allowed property managers to track workflows and better manage their scheduling.
“You can’t do everything by updating one by one or by sending an email; there has got to be a central point,” McKay said.
By outsourcing routine inspections or implementing new systems to handle regular tasks, McKay said that property managers would have more bandwidth to confer with clients.
Similarly, Managed CEO Phil Tarrant said that if property managers were forced to handle time-consuming, manual tasks, even managing a small rent roll could become overwhelming.
“If you want to build a profitable rent roll and scale your PUM, having the right systems in place is not optional,” Tarrant said.
“The technology already exists to automate account reconciliation, streamline tradie coordination, and track every task tied to a property.”
“There has never been a clearer divide between those who leverage systems to scale their PUM and grow their careers, and those who risk being stretched thin by tighter margins and rising tenant, landlord, and compliance demands.”
A culture to support growth
In addition to lacking the necessary systems, McKay said the biggest bottleneck keeping PUM stagnant across the industry has been failing to foster a culture in which property managers feel supported.
“If you’ve got an individual who just isn’t getting encouraged, inspired, or led by the top of the business, it’s easy for them to feel stretched and lose their energy and enthusiasm,” he said.
“They start dropping the ball or caring less about the successful execution or positive feedback, and they just start going through the motions.”
McKay said that an advantage of building his business from the ground up was the ability to hire people who he knew would fit the workplace culture he was trying to build.
If a business had succeeded in creating a supportive culture, McKay said that even when obstacles arose, the team would typically band together to reach their shared goal.
“If you have created that culture where everybody cares about the business’s success, you are going to find that camaraderie kicks in.”
Additionally, McKay said the industry as a whole needed to change if it hoped to retain more high-quality property managers.
“Some terrific people-oriented people come into real estate, and they are told to go into leasing and cut their teeth there, but their next career path is in sales.”
“All of that has to change if we want people to choose to come into property management and look for a career in the industry,” McKay concluded.
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