Property Project Management

How to Fast Track Your Success in Managing Commercial Property

Posted on October 29, 2011

To be successful in commercial property management you should spend time in setting about knowing the different property types you will be managing and the ways to help them perform as an investment. Most particularly that is the differences in industrial, office, and retail property. They all have special elements of function and control. That is:

  • Leases
  • Tenants
  • Landlords
  • Improvements
  • Community

Ultimately in working in commercial property management you have to keep the tenants and the landlord happy; a fully functioning well maintained and leased investment is the way to achieve that. Make no mistake here when considering a career in commercial property management; it is perhaps the most challenging and busy part of the property industry. It is very specialised and the skill base is diverse.

So what can you do to help fast track your success and skill as a commercial property manager? This checklist will provide you with some ideas and help you on the path.

  1. Get to know the ways to lease premises and the documents that support the process. It will be wise to talk to experienced property managers and solicitors to research the real facts and processes.
  2. Know how to market lease vacancies to the local tenants. That will normally include internet, newspaper, direct marketing, personal contact and signboards.
  3. Understand the differences in rents both in type (gross and net) and value (per unit of area measurement) as it relates to the various property types in your local precinct.
  4. Review the types of income that can be achieved from a lease to a tenant. That will include rent, outgoings to be recovered, car parking rents, storage rents, signage rents, and licenced areas.
  5. See what services and amenities tenants require leasing premises locally. Are those services and amenities readily available in most properties locally?
  6. What is the supply and demand for more space to lease in the local area?
  7. Inspect some existing lease documents and become familiar with reading them and extracting key lease matters. That would be things such as rent payments, rent reviews, option terms, arrears actions, default provisions, and incentive payments or bonuses to tenants.
  8. Understand how to interpret property income and expenditure, as well as the logic behind property budgets and business plans.
  9. Review the methods of property income analysis as it applies to property value.
  10. Know how to price a property for sale using a number of different processes such as summation, capitalisation, comparable, and internal rate of return.
  11. Get to know the maintenance processes that would apply to running commercial properties of various types, together with tendering and contract processes to be used on plant and equipment that allow the property to function successfully.

As can be seen from the list above, commercial property management is specialised. It is not hard but it is different. Through careful study and the gaining of knowledge, your career in commercial property management can be successful.

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Making the Most of Property Management Services

Posted on October 20, 2011

Investing money in property makes far more sense fiscally than it does in reality. Finding a house, running the numbers, renovating and ensuring you've made a sensible and healthy investment is straightforward and logical. The idea of then managing the property can be daunting after that. A lot of people don't know what you get and what to expect when dealing with tenants and managing people living in your property, so they choose to use property management services.

Whilst there are many places within many countries around the world that offer such services, it pays to have the company in the city/town where your property is. That way they can arrange scheduled visits to inspect your property when need be, arrange for items agreed by you to be fixed via other companies in the area that they may have a relationship with and also just give you general peace of mind that they are familiar with the area itself.

There are simple things to consider. Ensuring that you don't have more tenants than you should living in your home can sometimes be trickier than it sounds, and is a more common problem than you might think. Wear and tear, complaints from neighbours and even issues with the law can be what you get. Stating a number in the tenancy agreement is one thing, but ensuring that those on the lease aren't bringing more people in to live with them can be more difficult.

Some tenants can be more difficult to deal with when it comes to paying rent. Late payments and excuses are what you get frequently as a landlord. Laws on eviction and leniency on time frames for payments can make it difficult as well. Getting tenants to set up automatic deposits on move in can resolve a lot of these problems, and make sure you have the money to cover the mortgage on the property, maintenance or for future investments. Your property management service should be able to offer you expert advice and handle these common issues smoothly.

Using New Zealand as an example, our rental system generally has tenants pay a lump sum down as a bond. This money is a security deposit that is available for the landlord to keep if the tenants damage the house before moving out. If you discover damage after your tenants move out at the end of their lease, it is important to identify what their bond does and does not cover. These rules and regulations are something that can also be administrated by your chosen property management firm.

Managing your property well is very important. If not done correctly, you may end up with nasty bills, trouble with the law and missed income. Making sure you are well-informed of what you can and can't do as a landlord in your area is a must, and forming relationships with tenants can lead to continual business and well-kept properties. Find the right property management service, and you'll be off to a great, worry-free start with your investments!

Ray White Papakura have a range of houses, land and farms for sale in Papakura in the southern Auckland region of New Zealand along with areas such as Clevedon in the east and Waiuku in the west.

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How to Get the Most For Your Dollar of Condominium Pavement

Posted on October 19, 2011

Maintaining the paved surfaces of condominium roadways and parking lots can easily be the biggest consumer of your association's budget. Here are four ways that should help you get the most for your pavement dollar:

1. Provide good positive drainage of the paved surfaces.
2. Make sure you have a stabile well draining sub-base.

We're assuming that your condominium roads and parking lots are surfaced with bituminous concrete. This flexible product is a mixture of an asphaltic binder with ground up stone and sand aggregate. It helps to remember that all the work of transmitting vehicle wheel loads down to the sub-base is done by the aggregate. The asphalt is simply the "glue" that stabilizes the aggregate in place so it can do its job.

While that may be a nice structural solution, the arrangement leaves tiny void spaces between the pieces of aggregate. Surface water that does not evaporate can find its way down into and through these passages eventually entering the sub-base where it can begin the business of deterioration over time. The quickest way to intercept that process is to provide positive drainage off the paved surfaces to the shoulders or into catch basins. The sooner it gets off the pavement, the better.

So if there are "bird bath" depressions that pool water, fill them in with binder. If the pooling area is more extensive, cold planning may provide the pitch you need to get the water to move. A good gravel sub-base is the best warranty for long pavement life. It should be a coarse material with generous voids between its granules to allow water to flow through it and go somewhere else other than accumulate beneath your roadway.

If the sub-base is of unsuitable material with clay or construction debris in it (it happens) you will be wasting money paving over it year after year. The optimum, "root canal", solution is to excavate down, remove the offending material and replace it with good clean gravel. Now you have both management mechanisms in place. Positive drainage of the major portion of surface water coupled with the ability of your sub-base to effectively handle the remainder is the key to long pavement service life.

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