Every year, integration partner Buildium surveys property management professionals to identify trends in the property management industry with their annual Property Management Industry Report. In 2023, nearly 2,000 participants were surveyed to determine what challenges in property management have surfaced.
Property Meld and Buildium teamed up for a webinar to share Maintenance’s Impact on Industry Trends. Our experts shared the upcoming challenges for property management companies and how maintenance can help address and overcome these issues.
The main issues facing property management companies in 2024 are:
1. Resident retention
2. Investor retention
3. Staffing issues
4. Growth and profitability
This article will dive into these four challenges and showcase how Property Meld helps property managers solve these issues and result into a successful year. Property Meld and Buildium’s integration partnership is for property managers who want to take their maintenance to the next level. Property Meld provides a best-in-class maintenance experience with expanded oversight, allowing property managers to see where their process is broken and make data-driven decisions to increase efficiency. All without the hassle of double entry.
Resident Retention Issues in Property Management
According to the 2024 Industry Report, one of the biggest challenges in property management is improving the resident experience to increase resident retention. The longer a resident stays in a property, the more profitable a business can be. Attracting the right-fit resident and keeping them long-term is crucial. According to the Report, 41% of renters plan to stay in their current residence. 34% were on the fence about moving, and the rest decided to move when their lease was up. Most renters who want to move either hope to buy a home or are looking for another rental because they are unhappy with their current residence.
A resident decides to move out of their current rental property for three main reasons.
1: They feel they are not receiving a high quality of service from their property manager
2: The condition of their property is poor, maintenance issues are not paid attention to
3: They don’t have the services and amenities they desire
“Data shows that a rent renewal equates to a 5% gain, whereas a turnover is a 1-2% cut on rental rates. Now it makes sense why finance people care about maintenance, because it’s about rent price protection.” – Ray Hespen, CEO of Property Meld
We have identified a power shift, where property management companies are struggling to fill vacancies which hasn’t happened in many years. Vacancy rates have increased by 4-5% in some areas, which is a newer problem property management companies are facing. This means resident retention is more crucial than in years prior.
How Property Meld Improves Resident Retention
Property Meld was originally established to enhance the maintenance experience for residents in rental properties. Providing residents with a best-in-class experience, Property Meld allows residents to easily schedule maintenance repairs and keep them informed through every step of the process while property managers have complete oversight. Our tracked and calculated communication, automated scheduling, and improved follow-up provides residents with a best-in-class experience.
Not surprisingly, speed of repair is a leading indicator of resident satisfaction. Property management companies can drive their repair speed down to ensure all maintenance issues are handled promptly with our software’s enhanced scheduling capabilities. Additionally, residents love the ease of usability, the communication, and the speed at which their issues are addressed.
Plus, with preventative maintenance, Property Meld can help property management companies fix maintenance issues before they even arise. Residents don’t have to deal with inconvenient issues like HVAC breakdowns.
Challenges with Investor Retention in Property Management
In order to grow a property management company, you will need to attract new property owners. Third-party property management companies are heavily focusing on acquiring new property owners. However, there is a lot of competition in the market when it comes to developing new business and standing out can be difficult and costly. The best way to differentiate yourself from the competition is to offer superior customer service and build trust with your current owners.
How Property Meld Helps with Owner Retention
According to the 2024 Industry Report, 52% of owners hire a property manager to help with maintenance issues. If you can provide owners a superior maintenance experience, you will have better retention and luck attracting new investors. Owner Hub allows your owners the right amount of transparency. Allowing them to see what is happening and approve any bigger maintenance expenses with ease. Additionally, Insights will track key metrics like your average invoice cost and maintenance spend per unit. Showing your owners that you can take care of their properties, while keeping costs low will help you prove to your investors you are crucial to their success.
Staffing Issues in The Property Management Industry
Since the onset of the pandemic, property managers have faced significant challenges in the recruitment and retention of top-tier vendors and technicians, leading to heightened stress levels. The labor shortage has improved slightly, but it is still a major concern for property management companies this year. Most are operating with a smaller team than needed to manage their workload. These companies are turning to technology to help fill the gaps and automate some of the manual tasks occupying their team’s time.
“More recently I have seen more people pushing hard to increase efficiency of their maintenance resources internally.” said Hespen.
How Property Meld Helps with Staffing Issues
Property Meld solves the staffing challenges in property management by removing some of the time-consuming tasks associated with property maintenance to allow your team to focus their resources on the most critical aspects of their jobs. Vendors and technicians no longer have to spend hours coordinating maintenance or playing phone tag with residents to schedule a repair. In addition, our innovative dashboard allows you to monitor how many jobs your team completes in a day, any backlogged work orders, and your technician utilization rate. Not only does Property Meld improve your team’s productivity, but you can also avoid employee burnout by ensuring your team doesn’t feel overwhelmed.
Portfolio and Revenue Growth
According to the 2024 Industry Report, 9 out of 10 survey respondents said they intend to expand their portfolio in the next two years. In the past, property management companies have grown by recruiting new investors or encouraging current investors to acquire more properties. However, with increasing property prices and high-interest rates, investors are acquiring new properties slowly.
In addition to growing their portfolio, more companies are focused on improving revenue growth. With the rising costs of property taxes, insurance, materials, and labor, property management companies must work harder than ever to operate as efficiently as possible and find new revenue streams.
“92% of property management professionals told us their companies were planning on expanding their portfolio. During that same time period, only 35% of small portfolio property owners said they plan to acquire new properties. What we’re seeing is that more companies are expressing interest in acquisition to grow.” Robin Young, Head of Market Research, Buildium
“Providing in-house maintenance to get to issues faster, and it’s also a little less expensive. Secondly, how many people are struggling to find vendors? Building long-term vendor relationships are going to become more and more valuable.” Tim Wehner COO, Dodson Companies.
How Property Meld Helps with Portfolio and Revenue Growth
We’ve said it before, and we’ll repeat it: maintenance is the most controllable yet least optimized budget item in property management. This means that focusing on lowering maintenance costs can be one of the easiest and most effective ways to increase revenue. With Property Meld, you can automate mundane tasks like scheduling, follow-up, and troubleshooting to increase the efficiency and productivity of your team.
Additionally, with rising labor costs and a shortage of high-quality vendors, many property management companies are leaning towards in-house maintenance services. Property Meld is vital to managing internal maintenance teams. With our advanced data dashboard, you can track the efficiency of each maintenance team member to ensure they are completing jobs quickly and providing a positive resident experience. At a glance, you can ensure that your internal technicians aren’t costing you money and you are achieving a predictable NOI.
Lastly, Property Meld helps increase maintenance revenue by implementing more preventative maintenance services. According to survey respondents, 52% of property investors hire a property manager because they want help with emergency repairs and preventative maintenance. Our software allows property investors to opt into weekly, monthly, or annual maintenance services to help improve the lifespan of their properties. These preventive services are a great way to make maintenance a revenue stream and will help you avoid costly maintenance emergencies that can negatively impact your bottom line. By tracking your average maintenance spend per unit, you can prove to your investors that your services are driving down costs and improving their return on investment.
Partner with Property Meld and Buildium To Solve Challenges in Property Management
If you are like most property management companies in the industry, you are probably dealing with some of the issues we highlighted. With the Property Meld and Buildium integration partnership, you can have a dedicated maintenance tool preferred by vendors, owners, technicians, and residents without any double entry into your property management system.
