Triple Win Property Management Blog

Leading with your Logo: Why Visual Branding Still Matters

Mark Brower is the owner and designated broker of Mark Brower Properties. He has over 20 years of experience in property management and investing, and lives in Mesa, Arizona. Mark is a Second Nature Triple Win Mentor. A brand is far more than just designs on a page. It needs to be lived and carried out in everything that your company does. But your visual branding—including your property management logo, colors, website, and photography—are the physical representation of your brand. If you want to build a successful property management company, developing a logo and visual representation that exemplifies your personality and who you are as a company is essential. It cannot be skipped. It’s how potential new customers will identify and connect with you, so it’s worth the effort. A chance to make a good first impression You’ve heard the cliches about how you only get one chance to make a first impression. But when we look deeper at what that means, the stakes are actually even higher. When people intersect with your brand, they’re making huge judgment calls on very limited information in a short amount of time. They’re trying to make a determination on whether they can trust you, and in property management, they’re trusting you with one of the most important financial assets in their life. They’re looking at every single piece of evidence that they can possibly consume as to whether they can trust this new—very important—relationship. And they’re always looking for a reason to say no. Think about when you’re showing a home. Chances are, the resident who’s getting a tour knows within about two minutes whether they want to live there or not. They get a first impression, and if they see one little flaw that turns them off, they’re checked out. Your branding is the same way. So when you think about the visual representation of your company, you need to eliminate every flaw that you can, just like you would in a rental listing or home showing. Consistency above all else Yes, your logo is important, but it’s not the end all be all. The real value isn’t so much in how your logo looks, but in the consistency of how you use it. Consistency builds trust. When your audience gets used to seeing your logo and colors used in the same way across multiple channels, they feel more familiar with it. They get comfortable with you as a business. That’s why we put our logos on everything from swag gifts to pens and stationery. On the other hand, if you’re inconsistent about how you use it, you’re going to breed distrust. Just like your customer service delivery needs to be consistent, so does your visual branding Think about your team’s email signatures: even if the smallest thing is different across team members, it hurts that sense of trust. Someone receiving emails from three members of your team is going to be thrown off when all of their signatures are different. There are plenty of other places to build consistency, too. The photos of your staff on your website should be consistent. They should all be high quality, taken from the same angle, ideally with the same lighting and background. In an industry where people have a lot of options in who to work with, the slightest perception of mistrust can jeopardize your chance of working with a great client. So efforts toward brand consistency are never wasted. Attention to detail is vital All of these seemingly small branding elements add up to shape opinion. The details matter more than you’d think, and you can’t let them slip. Letting them slip carries much more cost than taking the time to get the right in the first place. Ideally, a potential client should look at your website and think, “Wow, if they’re this disciplined with these details on the website, they’re going to be disciplined about the work they do on my property.” Discipline and consistency around your visual brand also shape a baseline level of professionalism. I’ve seen more than one property management company who lets the details slide. As a potential client, I’d be thinking, “If you can’t put a logo on a PDF correctly, what are you going to do to my house?” You need to appear competent, capable, and professional so that people can trust you, and attention to detail is a big part of that. Some of the most successful entrepreneurs I’ve met get to a deep level of obsession over the tiny details until they get it right. That’s something I’ll be vulnerable about and admit I’ve struggled with. It can be hard to get out of the big-picture mindset of a business owner and really focus on the details. But you can’t afford not to. Your brand represents your value When you buy a physical product, you can actually hold it in your hand. You can look at it and see what, exactly, you got for your money. In a service-based industry, your customers can’t do that. Instead, they tend to fill that gap with the experiences that they’ve had with you and your brand. Instead of seeing something on a shelf, they remember their interactions with you and the way you represented yourself visually. In a lot of ways, your brand is a symbol of the value you provide. You need to adopt that mindset and lean into it. You need to be as consistent with your brand as other companies are with their products. There should be a quality assurance process to make sure that you’re nailing the details and presenting yourself consistently. Otherwise you’re jeopardizing your value. Add a personal touch to your visual brand Just because you want to keep consistent with your branding, that doesn’t mean it can’t evolve. After all, your company and your personality are always changing, so sometimes your brand needs to keep up. At Mark Brower Properties, we just visited our visual branding and decided to make some changes, including an update to our logo. Our old logo used block letters, but now the “Mark” in Mark Brower Properties has been redone as a hand-written version of my name. Our updated logo It’s very similar to how I write my name when I’m signing things. And it brings the personality and human aspect to the brand. It reflects who I am. In my experience, people are afraid to commit to being open and vulnerable about who they are. Too many small business owners feel the need to portray themselves as something that they’re not, rather than being honest. But the reality is that audiences really love when people are themselves. People do business with people, so when they see vulnerability and a personal touch, it goes a long way. Make sure that you’re consistent with your property management logo and your website, but even more importantly, make sure that they actually represent you. Final thoughts Look, I know what you’re thinking reading this. You have way too much on your plate to go analyzing everyone’s email signatures to make sure that the logos are the same size. I completely understand that. But at the same time, this stuff really is important. Think about it this way: in business, there are production tasks, and there are tasks that increase production capacity. Meeting up with a resident so they can sign a lease? That’s a production task. Implementing electronic signatures so you don’t have to drive out and meet the resident just to get a lease signed? That’s a task that increases production capacity. Branding is a task that increases your production capabilities. It helps build an engine that will bring more residents and more property owners in the door. And every small detail adds up. The benefits compound. And when done well, they help build an authentic, trustworthy brand that people want to do business with. Build your brand by managing your reputation Want to learn more about how to manage your business reputation? Watch Second Nature’s recent webinar with LeadSimple on reputation management.

March 6, 2025

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How to Get More Glowing Property Management Reviews

We live in a review-centric world. Whether you’re deciding what to watch on Netflix, what hotel to stay at on your next vacation, or what to order for dinner, you put a lot of faith in the opinions of others. Our industry is no different—property management reviews help residents and owners alike decide where they want to live and who they want to work with. Whether you like it or not, your success will be influenced by the reviews you receive. And, unfortunately, people are a lot more likely to leave unsolicited negative reviews than positive ones. So how can you start generating more positive reviews? Read on to learn just that, and how to leverage positive reviews to attract business and improve your business reputation. Why positive reviews matter Just as prospective residents will check reviews when deciding where to live, prospective investors will do their due diligence when hiring a property manager. That means reviews impact your business from both sides, doubling their importance. Influence on prospective residents Renting a home is one of the biggest decisions a person can make. For most renters, it’s not just where they’ll spend most of their time, it’s also the single biggest bill they pay every month. So they want to be sure they’re getting it right. Reviews are one of the most important ways that residents make that decision. In fact, according to a 2024 survey by Reputation, 81% of prospective residents consider reviews important when looking for a new home. On top of that, 55% require a property to have at least 4 stars to be considered, and 71% said negative reviews could deter them from even touring a property. Boost your property management reputation The good news is that reviews aren’t just a negative force. They can actually be a tremendous competitive advantage when they’re positive. Because so many prospective residents and investors are looking at reviews, they provide a single place to really boost your reputation. Focusing on obtaining positive reviews from happy residents can elevate your brand and help you stand out from the competition. Excellent for marketing purposes You can also take advantage of your positive reviews by spreading them across different channels. Yes, great reviews are an asset when people look you up on Google, but they should also be an asset across your website and social channels. Share positive reviews in your email newsletter, your pitch deck for new investors, your social media accounts, and more. Get the word out about how much your customers love you, because the more eyes you get on positive reviews, the better. When to ask for reviews Deciding to ask for reviews can feel like a big deal. You don’t want to feel like you’re pressuring anyone to do something they don’t want to do, and you want to make sure they’re truly delighted with you before they go talking about you publicly. Here are some great opportunities to ask happy residents for reviews. Move-in Move-in is a hectic time. There’s a lot in motion, which means there are also plenty of opportunities to delight your new residents, whether that’s with a move-in concierge, a welcome gift, or just a perfectly presentable home. Once you’ve gone the extra mile to help them settle in, consider sending a follow-up email or survey to see how their experience went. If they have good things to say, that’s a great opportunity to ask for a review. Catch them when they’re at their happiest to increase the likelihood of them singing your praises. After resolving issues Another great opportunity to ask for reviews is after resolving an issue or complaint that they had. Whether it’s a maintenance request, service issue, or something else entirely, you can ask for a review when you take care of it. Make sure that you’re still going above and beyond, either by making it up to the resident or by being proactive and communicating clearly. You don’t get points for doing the bare minimum, so if you’re going to ask for a review, make sure you’ve earned it. After making upgrades Upgrades are the kind of proactive service that really delights residents. When you’re making their home better, they’re more likely to view you positively, so take advantage. Use these opportunities to ask for reviews on your business profiles. During lease renewals Lease renewals are another natural time to ask for feedback. If someone’s choosing to renew their lease, that means you’re doing something right. Take the opportunity to ask for a review of their time with you so far. It won’t feel out of place to the resident, and you can bake it right into your renewal process so it’s fully automated. Move-out Move-out is another natural point in the resident lifecycle where a review makes sense. At the very least, it’s a great opportunity to ask for private feedback in a survey. That way you can learn what’s working well, what’s not, and why they’ve chosen to move. They may be perfectly happy with you, but they’re relocating, moving in with a partner, or purchasing a home. When you’re parting amicably, it can be a great time to encourage them to leave a review. It always helps if you attach the request to a more altruistic thank you letter during the move-out process. Running a review-generating campaign Aside from these opportunities, it can be worthwhile to run the occasional dedicated campaign to generate more reviews. To do it right, you’ll have to set a clear goal, select what platform to use, and incentivize your residents to participate. And, if you want the campaign to be manageable and not take up all of your team’s time, you’ll want to automate as much of it as possible. Set clear goals As with any business project, you have to start with a clear goal. You want to be sure that your goal is specific and measurable so that you can objectively track whether or not it was successful. For reviews, you may set your goal a few different ways: Gather 10 new 4- or 5-star reviews Shift our overall average score from 4.5 to 4.7 Double the number of reviews on our page Your exact goal and how you structure it will depend on your individual business needs, so make sure it’s specific to you. Choose the right platforms Next, you need to decide where your customers will be reviewing you. Yelp is synonymous with business reviews, but Google Reviews plays a more important role than ever, and Facebook is important to reach key demographics. Yelp: Established in 2004, Yelp is a pillar of the internet. While it may be less popular than it once was, it still ranks highly in search results and serves certain geographic areas well. However, Yelp has a strict no-solicitation policy, so it may not be a good option for a campaign asking for reviews. Google Reviews: Google Reviews’ strength is its integration with Google Maps. That means that when someone searches Maps for a local property manager, they’ll immediately see your Google Reviews. You can also integrate your reviews into ads, and gain organic search benefits on the world’s largest search engine. Facebook: Facebook has a very useful review tool as part of its business pages. Because users can find your page—and therefore your reviews—organically, this can really help increase visibility. However, Facebook serves a changing demographic. Younger people are less likely than older generations to use Facebook, so if you’re targeting young first-time apartment renters, it may not be a great option. But it still holds up if you’re targeting families for single-family home rentals, for example. Incentivize participation Some—including Google themselves—may not find it ethical to offer incentives for positive reviews. In fact, Triple Win Mentor Mark Brower strongly agrees that you should never bribe someone for a positive review. However, you can offer perks or rewards for honest, sincere reviews, even if they aren’t perfect 5-stars. You don’t want the process to feel transactional, so incentivize participation, not specific opinions. If you do run an incentive program, make sure to disclose that on review sites, or else risk violating terms of service. Incentives can be as simple as gift cards or entries into a raffle. For example, you can award one lucky winner a discount on rent or free perks. Just make it abundantly clear that the contents of the review won’t dictate who wins the reward. Automate requests Finally, in order to keep your program scalable, be sure to automate as much of it as possible. Set up automatic email or text message notifications at the key moments we outlined earlier. Bake review requests into your move-in, move-out, and maintenance processes so that you maximize the chances of getting those sweet, sweet positive reviews. Leveraging positive reviews As outlined before, reviews have maximum impact when you leverage them across different platforms. Let’s take a look at some of the different ways you can put reviews to work. For marketing The customer voice is marketing gold. Leveraging reviews in marketing activities like social media, email newsletters, and your website can help get more eyes on your customers’ positive words. Social proof is vital to building trust with a prospective resident or investor, so use it liberally. When a reviewer sings your praises for you, that’s less work for you to do yourself. For advertising vacant properties Rental listings are another opportunity to get your reviews out into the world. A five star review on a vacancy listing can help you stand out and catch the eye of a prospective resident. Plus, when someone visits a listing, you know that they’re actively looking for a place to live, so you’re catching them in a moment of decision. This can make all the difference between a top resident submitting an application or scrolling right on by. To attract new investors Residents aren’t the only ones looking at reviews. Prospective investors want to see that you’re running an effective, high-quality business, and that you’re selecting great residents and treating them well. Why would they entrust you with their investment if your own residents don’t like you? Positive scores on Yelp, Google, and Facebook can actually boost the perceived value of your business, making owners more likely to hire you. Best practices for asking for reviews If you’ve never done it before, asking for reviews can seem intimidating. In reality, there are a few key steps you can take to simplify the process and get great results. Ask for feedback Gathering feedback is essential, not just because it helps you understand your business better, but because it helps you build a better resident experience. You should make this very clear to your residents; if they know your feedback surveys and reviews are actually put to good use, they’ll be more incentivized to provide their opinions. Show them specific changes you’ve made in the past based on resident feedback, from improving customer service to adding amenities. This will increase the likelihood that they’ll give their honest perspective. Make it easy No matter how incentivized a resident is, if the process isn’t easy, they’re not going to follow through. That’s why you have to streamline things as much as possible, and remove roadblocks to participation. If you have an office or are using printed materials, make sure to include QR codes so that residents can quickly access your survey. If you're reaching out via email or text, use direct web links. Either way, make sure that the survey is mobile-friendly. Over 40% of all U.S. web traffic now happens on mobile devices, and that’s higher among young people. If you aren’t offering a mobile-friendly page, you’re going to fall behind. Follow up It’s also important to know that just one request may not be enough. While you don’t want to pester your residents, it’s worthwhile to follow up with them if they don’t leave a review. There’s a good chance you caught them at a bad time the first go-around, or that they just got busy and forgot. Make sure you’re giving them another chance to give their feedback. To avoid feeling like a bother, make sure to set the expectation upfront that you’re going to be following up. When you send your initial request, let them know that you’ll check in if you don’t hear from them, and be specific about the timeline of events. Respond to reviews Responding to reviews is also key. Not only does it show readers that you’re paying attention and taking feedback seriously, it also creates opportunities to generate positive outcomes. If someone leaves a positive review, thank them sincerely. If they have negative feedback, show honest concern and offer to make things right by improving your service. That might require following up to get more information, but it’s worth the extra effort to delight a previously-unhappy customer. Get glowing reviews with Second Nature If you want to delight your residents and generate positive reviews, a Resident Benefits Package from Second Nature can go a long way. From credit building to pest control and identity protection, our RBP provides a better rental experience for residents. If you’re interested in learning more about how an RBP can elevate your business reputation, request a demo and hear directly from a member of our team.

March 4, 2025

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Your Brand Isn’t Up to You, It’s Up to your Audience

Tony Cline has over 20 years of experience in property management. After purchasing a real estate and property management brokerage in Denver, Colorado, he spent more than two decades as managing broker. Today he's focused full time on his work as a Property Management Success Coach. Tony is a Second Nature Triple Win Mentor. Think of your brand as your company’s personality. You probably have a pretty good sense of what your personality is like. But if you asked all the different people you know—your spouse, your friends, your coworkers, the cashier at your local grocery store—they might not all say the same thing. Not to get too philosophical, but the truth is, every person that knows you knows a different version of you. In your mind you’re the same you, but because everyone has had a different set of interactions with you, they each perceive you differently. That’s exactly what happens with your company’s brand. You may work hard on what you want your brand to be, but it’s ultimately up to the people who are having those interactions with you to decide who you are and what it is. Consistency is key The people closest to you probably know you better than anyone, especially if they’ve known you a long time. The more interactions you have with someone, the more complete their picture of you is. In the same way, the more your audience is exposed to your brand, the more familiar with you they are. But the important thing isn’t just to get in front of your audience over and over with as many messages as possible. Instead, you want to be as clear and consistent as possible with the same message. People feel comfortable around you when they know what to expect. They don’t want to be walking on eggshells, trying to guess how you’re going to behave or what you’re going to say next. Unpredictability doesn’t beget strong relationships. With your brand, your goal is to try to unite all of the many different audience perceptions as much as possible. You want to deliver the same messages, services, and core values in all interactions. When you repeatedly live out your brand and values, your clients, customers, and prospects will start to see you for who you really are. You may not be able to control their perceptions entirely, but you can certainly influence them. You can control your branding, not your brand perception There are certain elements of your company that you do have control over. One of those things is your branding—the name, logo, colors, and other visual elements that you use to represent your company. Most of these branding elements are just scratching the surface of what a brand truly is. Because of that, in many ways, your logo and your name do not matter. On the flip side, they matter immensely. And yes, both of those things can be true. If you’re providing good service and value in the market, and you have brand momentum, most people are not going to care what your company name is, what your logo looks like, or what colors you use on your website. But in order to get that momentum and buy-in, you have to have a strong story. You need something for them to grab onto, believe in, and understand. And that story should be reflected in your visual branding. A few years ago I was on the road traveling, and I decided to stop at a sandwich shop for lunch. The outside of the store had an intricately painted sign with classic colors and a striped awning. It looked like exactly the place where you’d get a great sandwich. But when we stepped inside, the visuals were all different. The signs indicating where to order and where to pick up your meal were completely different from the signs outside. The logo was different, the font was less formal—almost bubble letters—and the color was just a slight shade off. Neither set of visuals was wrong, per se, but they were definitely inconsistent. I had no idea what to actually expect from the meal. In the end the sandwiches were good, and if I were a regular I wouldn’t care about the branding. But because they hadn’t built that trust with me yet, it was off-putting. So make sure that your visual branding is strong, consistent, and representative of your company, but understand that brand goes far beyond that. Narrow your audience and your messaging I hate to sound like a broken record, and I know I’ve written about target client profiles before, but they’re an essential part of developing a consistent brand. If you’re trying to make sure that you’re being consistent with your messaging, you also have to be consistent about who you’re messaging to. If you try to be all things to everybody, you’re going to be nothing special to anybody. But if you develop strong messaging for a narrow client profile, you’re going to be more consistent with how you’re perceived in the market. Tracking your brand perception I spend a ton of time working with my clients on KPIs to make things measurable. Brand perception is one element that’s extremely difficult to make measurable and actionable. There are plenty of frameworks for brand perception mapping, but those don’t measure brand objectively. There are others who lean on satisfaction surveys and customer feedback to gauge their brand. In my opinion, those aren’t a great way to measure how you’re being thought of in the market. They can be really misleading. For example, you can provide someone great service, really delight them, and get a high net promoter score from them, but still be missing the mark with where you want to take your brand. It can be a challenging problem to solve. The way I like to look at this question is, of the leads that are coming in, how many of them fit our target client profile? In other words, when new potential clients reach out to you and are interested in your management services, how many of them are the right size, geography, financial makeup, and goal orientation? If you’re attracting more and more qualified opportunities, you’re doing a great job hitting your brand. The messaging is working and it’s reaching the people you want to attract. On the other hand, if you’re attracting a lot of leads that aren’t in your target client profile, you may need to reevaluate how you’re presenting yourself in the market, because clearly something isn’t working. If you’re truly effective in how you position your brand, most of those misaligned clients will weed themselves out and realize that it’s not going to be a great fit before they even reach out to you. What about when it goes wrong? No matter what, eventually you’re going to slip up. Something will go wrong, a mistake will be made, and your clients might see a side of you they weren’t expecting. You might spend your whole life trying to stay buttoned up every day and prove to your neighbors that you’ve got your life in order. But one day, you’ll walk out to get the newspaper in your pajamas with terrible bed head, and someone will see you. The illusion will be shattered. The same thing happens with brands all around the world, in every industry. You might send out an incomplete email to your customer list by accident, or you might drop the ball on a maintenance order and leave a resident in the lurch. Especially in property management, mistakes are inevitable. As I always tell my clients, I’m not upset when something happens. I care about what happens when something happens. In other words, it isn’t the mistake that really matters to me, it’s how you act in response. I want every one of my clients to know how to respond to negative interactions. You should always make sure that you: Fix your mistake Clarify what went wrong and why Uphold your brand Deliver the level of service your clients expect and deserve Make meaningful changes to process or policy to make sure you don’t make the same mistake again The goal is to meet the expectations that you set for your clients, hold true to your commitments, and deliver service in the way that you want your brand to be perceived. Final thoughts Your brand is like a garden. You either plant and sow the seeds of what you want to grow, or something else is going to grow in their place. Part of your job as a business leader is to make sure you’re planting the right seeds and continuing to water them. Want to learn more about managing your brand perception? Check out our recent webinar with LeadSimple.

February 27, 2025

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Why Client Customer Service is Key to Brand Perception

Tony Cline has over 20 years of experience in property management. After purchasing a real estate and property management brokerage in Denver, Colorado, he spent more than two decades as managing broker. Today he's focused full time on his work as a Property Management Success Coach. Tony is a Second Nature Triple Win Mentor. Your brand is the way that your audience thinks and feels about you. In this industry, one of the most effective ways to shape those thoughts and feelings is through your property management customer service. Your job is to decide who you’re serving and how, and then to do that in the best way possible. When you emphasize your quality of service and expertise, you can build a strong brand to set you apart from the competition. Leaning into your authority I firmly believe that you can’t deliver great service unless you lead from a position of authority. When someone hires you as a property manager, they’re giving you jurisdiction to make decisions on their behalf. They’re hiring you because you have a level of expertise and experience that they don’t. Part of your job—and I’d consider it a core responsibility, if not a full-fledged obligation—is to confidently step into that role of expert. When you take on a new client, you have to ask yourself, “do I want to be a high-level, functioning fiduciary, or do I want to take instructions and run errands?” You don’t go to the doctor and tell them what tests to run, what medicine to prescribe, and how to diagnose you. That’s because you’re the patient, and you’re asking them to lend their expertise and advise you. Great customer service isn’t just about doing what you’re asked. It’s about knowing what should and shouldn’t be done in the first place. As a property manager, you need to be confident in your ability to solve the problems in front of you, and to create systems that solve those problems both proactively and reactively. Define what problems you’re solving The truth is, you can’t have expertise and authority if you don’t know what specific problems you’re solving. And before you can truly identify the problems you’re solving, you first need to identify whose problems you’re solving. Different client types have different problems and different definitions of what good service means. That means that identifying your target client profile is an essential first step to providing quality service. It’s important to realize that you can’t be all things to all people and provide top-tier service to all of them. A jack of all trades is a master of none, so focus on what you’re truly good at and who you can best serve. There’s nothing wrong with that. If you walk into Cava or Garbanzo and ask for a burrito, they’ll probably tell you you’re in the wrong place. They might have some of the ingredients to cobble together a burrito, but it’s not going to be Chipotle, and it doesn’t make sense to try. The thing is, you know that before you walk in the door, because Garbanzo and Cava advertise themselves as Mediterranean, not Mexican. You have to do the same thing with your business. Garbanzo isn’t trying to sell to people who are looking for burritos, they’re selling to people who want high quality mediterranean bowls and pitas. Decide who your audience is and learn what their biggest problems are. Then you can start to get very specific about your area of service and tune out the rest of the noise. Using pricing as a behavioral correction & setting boundaries Setting boundaries is a core part of property management. Part of that is being able to tell your clients what services you do and don’t offer, and why. Remember, you’re the expert, so you get to define what your services are. From time to time you’ll run into a client who feels very strongly about having a particular service done, even though it’s outside of your standard offering. That’s when I suggest using pricing as what I call “behavioral connection.” Basically, you can either say “no,” or you can say, “yes, but it’s going to cost you.” By pricing special services at a very high rate, you actually help your clients realize what they truly value and what’s really a priority. It discourages them from insisting on service that, in your expert opinion, isn’t valuable. It also trains clients on what their relationship with you is going to be. You have to be willing and able to tell your investors no, because their actions and the things they request of you can undermine your ability to provide the important services effectively. Communication is key to property management customer service Communication is one of the core parts of your service offering. Being able to answer your investors’ questions, and prevent questions by proactively giving them the right information, is key. Communicating too little Early in my career, I used to only call property owners if something really bad happened. Basically, unless something exceeded the authorization amount I had already been given, I didn’t consult them, I just acted, and I had no check-ins or updates in between. I didn't want to involve them in every little detail, because that can quickly lead to co-managing a property with them. And, as I already outlined, you want to be the authority rather than just an order taker. The problem with this approach was that it didn’t allow for transparency. As a result, a lot of my clients didn’t actually see the work that I was doing or the value that it was bridging. So when it was time to renew our management contract, a lot of them were asking what they were paying me for if managing their property was “so easy.” Communicating too much As my business matured and I learned some of those harsh lessons, I started to lean on technology and automation a lot more. Instant notifications let my owners know when maintenance requests came in, when rent was paid, and everything in between. The problem then became overcommunication. My clients were getting more than they actually wanted. The vast majority of landlords already expect and assume that rent will be paid on the first of the month. They don’t need to be notified every time it happens. And they definitely don’t need to get notifications about leaky faucets or squeaky hinges. That’s just going to make them concerned that you’re not doing your job. Automation tools definitely have their place in property management, but overcommunicating can be damaging. The more you involve your client in real-time decision making, the lower the quality of service you can provide, because you’ve given up your position of authority. Finding the balance The big challenge is learning what types of issues are worth communicating about, and which should just be handled without consulting your investors. My team sat down and looked at the full resident lifecycle to figure out all of the touchpoints where communication is critical. It turns out, the places where communication is most important are the ones that have a lot of emotion attached to them; expensive appliance replacements, evictions, lease turnovers, etc. Whatever touchpoints you decide are important to communicate, make sure that you set expectations up front. Your clients should know when they’ll be getting notified and what kinds of updates are worth reaching out about. When in doubt, focus on making statements rather than asking questions. Exercise your authority as part of your brand As I said at the start of this article, your brand is how you’re perceived. That means that your brand is: Whether you’re trusted to make smart decisions Whether you’re seen as an expert Whether your level of service is considered valuable Whether you’re looked at as an authority on management Your brand is every interaction that your clients have with you. Every time you make the decision to go beyond your authorized spending amount—because that’s what you need to do to deliver a superior level of service—that’s impacting how your owners view you. On the flip side, every time you ask an owner’s approval for something they think is trivial, that’s negatively impacting your brand. If you lean into your expertise and authority, you can deliver superior service and show clients and potential clients that you’re smart, dedicated, and trustworthy. Lean on public communications To build your brand publicly, start creating content that shows your expertise and the value that you deliver. Use videos, blog articles, newsletters, and social media to tell the stories of the problems you’re solving behind the scenes. Show your clients that, even if they aren’t hearing about it, you’re doing important work for someone in your portfolio each and every day. Make sure that the value you’re highlighting across channels focuses specifically on your target client profile. Your goal is to illustrate that you have expertise in the challenges faced by your chosen audience. That’s how you build a true brand that resonates with your clients. Interested in learning more about developing your property management brand? Watch our on-demand webinar on developing a brand positioning statement.

February 20, 2025

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How to Write Your Property Management Company Core Values (Examples and Best Practices)

Mark Brower is the owner and designated broker of Mark Brower Properties. He has over 20 years of experience in property management and investing, and lives in Mesa, Arizona. Mark is a Second Nature Triple Win Mentor. People buy who you are, not what you do. You need to lead with who you are as an individual and as a company, rather than just the services you offer. Developing, sharing, and living out your core values is vital to showing your potential clients that you’re genuine. Your core values don’t just define your property management company's mission and culture, but also how you interact with both residents and owners. Let’s dive into some tactical ways that you can create effective core values, and along the way I’ll share some of my experiences writing core values for my own property management company. Understand the purpose of your core values Your core values underpin your property management company’s mission and vision. When done well, they guide every decision and action that your company takes, across policies and processes, team members, and client agreements. When everything rolls up to a strong set of values, you can make more consistent decisions and run a more effective business. The vital factor here is that they can’t just be something you write and then tuck away in a drawer. You have to live them every day in everything that you do. How many core values should a company have? Whenever business leaders try to write core values for the first time, they inevitably want to know how many they need. This is a question that, for a long time, I struggled to answer. It’s always bothered me that, in the hierarchy of things we believe in and value, we have to draw a line somewhere to say, “These are the things we care about, and the rest don’t make the list.” As a business owner, I have dozens of things that I care about and believe strongly in, so why narrow it down to just a short list? It’s important to get very specific about your core values because they’re a reflection of who you are as a business. For that reason, they should show the things that you currently do, rather than being aspirational. Having a manageable number of values also helps make them more memorable, which makes it more likely that your team members will keep them top of mind and embody them in their daily work. In psychology, there’s a theory that people best remember lists of five to nine items. I’d recommend using this as a guide for how many core values to develop. The good news is that the values that don't make the list can still be important. You don’t have to completely abandon all other beliefs and values just because they aren’t core values. Core values vs. Brand Principles One thing that helped me come to terms with a more limited list of core values was understanding the difference between core values and brand principles. When I started working with a fractional Chief Marketing Officer in 2024, we worked on clarifying that difference. Core values are often somewhat abstract. They’re character traits or belief systems. On the other hand, brand principles are the tactical ways that you bring those core values to life. They describe how you manifest your core values. Some of my company’s brand principles include: Own the outcome Highly responsive communication Exceptional service Transparency These are clear ways that we can live out our values, but they aren’t core values themselves. We’ll get deeper into my company’s core values later. How to write your company core values So how do you actually get to writing your core values? Several years ago I had the opportunity to join a small entrepreneurship group, and one of the activities we worked on together was writing our core values from scratch. Here’s how we did it. 1. Brainstorm core values The common starting point for core values is to brainstorm a list of potential words or short phrases, then group similar ones together. For example, honesty, integrity, and truthfulness might be grouped. I recommend taking a slightly different approach. To start brainstorming, take inventory of the people in your life who you most admire and most respect. Ask yourself why you respect them so much. What about them makes you trust and admire them? On the flip side, think about the people who bother you, or rub you the wrong way, or don’t come across as trustworthy. What about their behavior makes you feel that way? Use those traits and behaviors as the basis for your core values. I like this approach because it’s not just looking at the values, but also the antithesis of those values. It gives you better context and substance so that you really have a well-rounded perspective as you write. Consider ChatGPT I also think that large language AI models can be really useful, not in giving you your specific core values, but in helping you along the way. You’re obviously not going to ask, “What are some good core values for a residential property management business?” Instead, come up with a sophisticated prompt. Ask the tool to walk you through an exercise to clarify your core values. For example, “The outcome of this exercise is that I will have a list of 6-8 most important core values that can be a useful framework for hiring and firing decisions and employee reviews. I work in the residential property management space. Please ask me a series of questions to help me uncover what my core values are.” This can replace a lot of the process pieces of traditional brainstorming methods, and help you find your values faster. 2. Narrow your list Once you have your brainstorming ideas grouped, you should identify the single word or phrase from each group that best describes your company. After you’ve got just one word or phrase per topic, it’s time to make the tough decisions. This is where you have to decide what’s truly most important to your business, and, as I said before, tease out what’s actually a value versus what’s a business principle. 3. Write your core values Here’s where you want to actually define the meaning of each core value. You want them to be clear and concise so that everyone in your company can easily understand them, including the behavior that’s expected from each. I strongly believe that phrases, rather than words, bring color, texture, and meaning, which will help your staff truly grasp them and live them out. Who should be involved? I am a strong believer that diversity of opinions drives better outcomes. Even when it means slowing down a project, I think getting a lot of opinions is worth it for the improved outcome. That said, with values, there’s no room for diversity. There can’t be tolerance for team members who aren’t aligned on values, or else the values lose meaning. As a leader, I am the keeper of the values. Part of my job is to make sure that everyone on my team is aligned and believes in the values. They can’t be designed by committee. The one place where it is very helpful to get input is in the brainstorming phase. Your team members will often have a better sense of what values you’re actually embodying, which can be hugely informative. Remember, the truth is what we do, not what we say, so it’s valuable to get opinions on the values that you’re currently living out. Perfect is the enemy of done One pitfall that I often see in small businesses, both across the board and with values specifically, is perfectionism. This is especially true for founders and entrepreneurs, and it was definitely true for me. I spent weeks and months thinking through my values, revising them, and trying to perfect them. The truth is, you need to accept that your values are going to get about 70-80% of the way to perfection, and not second guess them. Overanalyzing can be devastating, because it only delays the process. You should find a framework that works for you and stick to it, rather than adding revision after revision at the end of the process. Best practices for writing core values for a property management company In truth, your core values should always be a reflection of who you are and how you run your business. Don’t pretend to be someone you’re not. Be who you are right now, not what you think your audience wants to see. Your value stems from who you are, and you should lead with that authenticity. Here are some ideas that might help inspire values that align with your business: Focus on how you create value: If your company is truly focused on resident experience, for instance, that's something you want to be represented in your values. Reflect transparency: Does your company put a heavy emphasis on being totally open with what happens when things go wrong? If so, consider having something about proactive and vulnerable communication. Display competence: Are you engaged in the right routines to stay on top of the industry trends and acquire the best tools to serve your clients? This could inspire some of your values. Encourage diversity of perspectives not diversity of values: Be inclusive of different perspectives in most areas of your business, but when it comes to values, don't budge. Get them right and hold the line on who you are. Property management company core values examples In some ways, I hesitate to share my company’s core values directly. That’s not because they’re particularly private—in fact, we publish them directly on our website (as should you). What gives me pause is that I don’t want you to be influenced by my core values at the expense of being genuine with your own. That said, if you’re looking for an example of property management core values, here they are: Speed of trust: We believe trust is built through transparency and reliability, ensuring swift and honest communication Integrity: Honesty and ethical practices form the foundation of our business relationships Reliable: You can depend on us to manage your property with care and precision Humility: We approach our work with humility, wanting to learn and grow, open to new ideas and uncovering blind spots Partnership: We foster long-term relationships based on mutual respect and shared success, working closely with our clients, tenants, and community. I developed these as a second round revision of our core values, about seven years after writing our first set. With a new fractional CMO and a company that had evolved significantly, it felt like the right time. Reviewing and refining your core values I think it’s healthy and important to revisit your core values from time to time. We often see core values as being written in stone. In reality, changing them over time doesn’t mean that you’ve somehow lost your way, it just means you’re keeping a pulse on your identity. In fact, you should always be evaluating whether your values are still true to who you are. It’s always beneficial to the business to have a mindset of questioning things and looking at them from new angles. If that leads you to revise your core values, then all the better. But to me, the process is as important or more important than actually updating things. The discussion and engagement are key. This is another good opportunity to involve staff in the review process, because you can get a better sense of how much they understand and embody those values. Living your values Your core values should inform everything you do. You need to instill a culture where everyone at the company is true to the values, no matter what. You’re not going to convert someone to your core values after you hire them. Hire for core values and go from there. Similarly, if someone on your team doesn’t align with the company’s values, it may be time to reevaluate whether it’s a good fit. Whenever you have feedback sessions and performance reviews, you should be considering your values. You need to constantly review whether your behavior—both as individuals and as a business—manifests your values, or doesn’t. If not, it’s time to make some changes. We’ve recently been revising our policy manual. As we’ve done that, we’ve had our core values up on the screen so that we can look at every single policy we have and say, “does this truly align with our values?” If not, then why is it a policy? How can we rewrite it to make it more in line with who we want to be? If a core value or brand principle conflicts with a policy in any given situation, the winner is the brand principle or the core value. I was recently visiting the offices of a company I work with and I saw on the wall a laminated piece of paper. It looked something like this: It was a table, and down the left side it listed the company’s core values. Across the top was a ranking system from “Doesn’t display values at all” to “very much displays values”. And in each box on the grid, they had written specific examples of what kinds of interactions you would have that represented each value well or poorly. It was extremely clear and extremely powerful, because it showed exactly what the behaviors look like. It was a perfect illustration of how your core values take shape in each and every little interaction that you have. Who is this really for? A lot of property managers are struggling just to tread water. Especially for smaller or newer companies, that just comes with the territory. So you might be asking, “Hey, I barely have time to make coffee in the morning, never mind enough time to write core values. Does this whole thing even apply to me?” The answer, to me, is that it depends on where you want to go. In my opinion, any company who wants to continue to grow and hire new team members needs to prioritize core values. If you’re a sole proprietor with a couple of assistants, 100 to 150 doors, and no plans to expand, maybe you don’t need to go through this exercise. In a lot of ways, when you’re a team of one, your core values live within you. You may not need to write them up. The benefit of clarity isn’t as high when you don’t have staff. On the other hand, if you want to grow to 400, 500, or 1,000 units under management, it becomes increasingly important to clarify and clearly articulate what your core values are. Part of the recipe for having a very successful property management company is having clarity on core values and brand principles. The larger the organization is, the more intentional you have to be on how they’re articulated. Make your company core values Second Nature Remember, the key point here is the craft values that resonate with your staff and your residents, and that will help to strengthen your brand. It’s about being genuine and sincere, not being someone you’re not. If being resident-centric is one of your core values, consider how Second Nature’s Resident Benefits Package can help demonstrate your commitment to a positive resident experience.

February 18, 2025

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Differentiating your Brand by Getting Hyper-Focused on your Target Client

Tony Cline has over 20 years of experience in property management. After purchasing a real estate and property management brokerage in Denver, Colorado, he spent more than two decades as managing broker. Today he's focused full time on his work as a Property Management Success Coach. Tony is a Second Nature Triple Win Mentor. At its most basic, your mission is who you serve and how. To put it another way, it’s your ideal client profile, the specific work you do, and the work you don’t do. There is no single thing that is more important in building your brand, because your mission informs everything about how you present yourself to the market and to your potential clients. When you clearly identify your mission and who you want to serve, you can better connect with them and build a unique brand around that target audience, and filter out those that aren’t going to be a good fit . Here are some of my best tips for building a brand from your mission statement, based on my decades of experience as a property manager, business owner, and advisor. Narrowing your mission When I first purchased a small property management company, we aimed to be “the downtown Denver loft and condo sales, leasing, and property management specialists.” We actually took a map of downtown Denver and picked specific cross streets to define our boundaries. Looking back, that was a great decision because it helped me: Target a very specific group of clients Speak their language Deliver the best possible service to them It set us off on the right foot by imposing limits on the properties we would manage, rather than letting us bite off more than we could chew. Building with intention I see a lot of property managers start building a company without direction. It's like reaching your hand into a bag and pulling out a block and saying, “Okay, well, this is what I’m going to build with next!” And they put it on the pile. And when you keep doing that, you don't intentionally build anything. You build a Jenga tower, where if you put one more piece on the top, it's going to collapse. Instead, what property management companies need to do is take a step back to evaluate things. Decide what you’re trying to build, make that your mission, and develop a business and brand that supports that. Why identifying your client base is key Your mission statement should very clearly outline who your target client profile is. That target client profile is going to directly impact how you present your company and the kind of content you’re putting out. One of the biggest challenges in property management is differentiating your business. The problem is, a huge portion of people think we're all the same. We're property managers. Without anything to separate us from our competition, the only thing they know to judge us on is price. But with a clear mission and target audience, you identify specific pain points and speak directly to the people you want to do business with. That way you cut through the noise, rather than using general language that doesn’t stand out. Home cook, or professional chef? In my experience, a lot of property management business owners act like home cooks. They pick their ingredients based on what’s in stock, what’s on sale, and what looks good in the moment. They’re managing whatever properties they can bring in and whatever owners they can sign a deal with. They start building this pantry of ingredients, and then they realize, if the ingredients are always changing, they need to keep cooking something different day after day. Constantly adjusting your menu makes it incredibly hard to really learn what you’re good at cooking and what your craft is. Instead, you want to become a professional chef. They're intentional about what goes in each dish, and one wrong ingredient can spoil the whole dish. They master a dish through repetition and care until it’s the best it can possibly be. Having the courage to say no If you want to master your craft, you have to make tough decisions and start saying no. Taking on new clients who don’t fit your mission will ultimately hurt your business more than help it. It’s tempting to take on anyone and everyone, especially if you’re less experienced or just launching your own business. Saying no to them takes courage. One of the most important steps is realizing that it’s okay to not be able to help everyone. So many business owners feel a sense of obligation to be able to help everyone who walks through the door, but that just isn’t realistic. An antique store isn’t going to be able to help you if you want a new 4k television, but that doesn’t make them a bad business. You just have different needs than they can serve. It’s not easy to tell a potential client, “hey, I don’t think this is a great fit, but I appreciate you reaching out.” But that’s an absolutely vital step to take if you want to grow your business sustainably. Example: two different kinds of clients Let’s take a look at two different audiences in the property management space: investors who see their properties as financial assets, and “accidental landlords,” who might have inherited a home and want to rent it out. These are two very different groups with different knowledge, different expectations, and different emotions, so you can’t treat them the same. Investors are concerned with the financials and how you’re protecting their investment, so your messaging should focus on things like: Proactive repairs and maintenance Return on their investment Total days it takes to turn over the property Average maintenance spend per property across your portfolio These are the kinds of topics that are going to break through the noise for that person, because those are the things they care most about. You have to extend that messaging through all your channels, including your website, your sales pitch, or your social media channels. Accidental landlords, who might just be starting to learn about real estate investing, often have deeper emotional ties to it. They raised little Sally in one of the bedrooms and they want to keep the pink walls they painted. For them, the messaging you have to put out is about turning their home into their product, and how to make this people's number one choice if they have ten options to choose from. Because they have different concerns, so your messaging—and therefore your brand—has to be carefully tailored. You can’t use the same messaging to appeal to both of them, or it will come across as generic and bland. You can’t build a strong brand without a strong mission. Sharing your mission vs living your mission Your mission and brand aren’t just about messaging; they’re things you have to live. You can’t just put your mission on a shelf somewhere and forget about it, and you can’t minimize your brand to just a logo and a slogan. Delivering the experience that sales promises One of the biggest areas where a lot of companies miss the mark is allowing a disconnect between sales and customer service. Business development will make a pitch that clearly aligns to the company’s mission, but the rest of the team doesn't then continue that forward through their operations. That's why a lot of companies will churn out doors in the first year. New clients hear big promises from sales, but they don't receive a service that meets the expectations that were set. Your whole team has to be aligned on the same mission and brand so that you’re speaking the same language and delivering the same message. Every time you develop a new policy, it needs to be built on your mission and aligned with your brand. Quite simply, if they don’t fit your mission, then they shouldn't be policies in the first place. You've already committed to a mission, so anything in the company that's not in alignment with that has to be modified in order for you to really have clarity. Only once your team is fully aligned can you start talking about your mission externally. How your brand filters in the right owners One of the most valuable things your brand can do for your business is to help the right clients self-select. If you develop a clear enough mission, and shape your brand around it, you’ll get to a point where your brand is so strong, you never have to say no to anyone. They just won’t reach out in the first place. When a property owner who doesn’t match your target client profile looks at your website, or your social media, or your email newsletter, they’ll realize that they’re not a good fit for your business, and they’ll move on. The flip side is that the right people will be reaching out in droves, because they connect with your company and see the value you provide that’s specific to their problems. That’s the power of a mission-driven brand. Practice makes perfect Building a mission-driven brand can feel overwhelming. The good news is, it will eventually start to come naturally to you. The more reps you do, the better you get, the more narrowly you're able to define what you're doing, the more time you can spend getting intentionally better at that one thing. You also have to get those reps in with your team. When you think you’ve over-communicated your mission and vision—when you think if you say it one more time, if you incorporate it into one more meeting, if you ask one more question about it, that your team's going to revolt because they're sick of hearing it—you’re probably about thirty percent of the way there. Ready to start building your brand with intention? Start with our webinar on writing your brand positioning statement.

February 11, 2025

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How to Handle Bad Reviews: Tips for Property Managers

Mark Brower is the owner and designated broker of Mark Brower Properties. He has over 20 years of experience in property management and investing, and lives in Mesa, Arizona. Mark is a Second Nature Triple Win Mentor. You’re going to get bad reviews. That’s just a fact of running a business. It’s impossible to please 100% of people 100% of the time, and inevitably someone is going to turn to Google Reviews or social media to air their grievances. But if you know how to handle bad reviews, you can actually turn them into an opportunity. In fact, even the worst reviews from current or former residents can be chances for your business because they can help you grow, improve your level of service, and delight those unhappy residents. With more and more potential residents turning to online reviews for information, it’s business critical to manage them well and see negative reviews as an opportunity for growth. So let’s dive into how I handle negative reviews at my property management company, and how you can do the same. How do negative reviews impact a business? We all know that social proof has an enormous impact on businesses. Prospective customers are looking for evidence about your trustworthiness, reputation, and level of service. Over the last twenty years, people have continuously moved more towards doing their own due diligence before they decide to get on a call with a salesperson, and online reviews have been the key piece of that. People have more information than ever before, and they feel like they can trust it. What makes property management unique is that choosing a place to live is such a huge commitment. It’s one thing to weigh what kind of mattress or computer you’re going to buy. It’s another to decide what home you’re going to live in. And that means that the stakes for property managers are even higher. One of the biggest pieces in building trust is openness and honesty, and that means showing your prospective residents the truth—the good and the bad. In a recent survey of nearly 30,000 apartment renters, nearly 70% said that they look at online reviews to help make their renting decision. Crucially, 86.2% said they were more likely to consider a management company that had mostly positive reviews with a few negative reviews mixed in, rather than all positive reviews. Part of being a strong business leader is being upfront and honest, and that means taking the good with the bad, and taking responsibility for both. A negative review isn’t going to ruin your business, but how you respond to it could. What to do when you get a bad review Bad reviews can be scary. They’re never fun to see, and they can send property managers into a spiral if they’re not careful. Keep your cool One of the most important things to do in response to a negative review is to control your emotions. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have emotions. In fact, you should get emotional! But you need to channel that emotion into vulnerability, and take a critical look at your company to see what went wrong. Personally, my initial reaction to a one-star review is pain. I feel anxiety and pain in my gut as soon as I see it. And that’s because I have a very low tolerance for negative interactions with my company. I want everyone to be as happy as possible with us. So when that doesn’t happen, it hurts. Some people have told me that I should turn off notifications and have someone else on my team deal with reviews. I couldn’t disagree more. As the owner of the company, I need to lead by owning the outcome myself. But when I feel that pain, I always try to channel it inward, rather than outward. It’s not productive to get defensive or argumentative, especially when your response is public. Instead, I let that pain drive me to improve my business processes and look for where we went wrong. Always respond That said, it is important to respond to reviews. Personally, I don’t post a public response immediately. Instead, I call them directly to take ownership of the issue and let them know I want to fix things. Then, while I wait for a response, I look to learn as much as I possibly can about that person and our interactions with them. I’ll spend an hour or more looking through our email correspondences, phone logs, and past maintenance issues. My goal is to truly understand their point of view, see things from their perspective, and make sure I fully understand the situation before I reach out to them. Private vs. public responses I do respond publicly, because people want to see that you’re addressing concerns and taking action in response to complaints. When I call them. I want to see how I can resolve their problem directly. Most times they don't take my call, and then I text them. If I need to, I’ll call and text the next day, too, because I’m not giving up. If I still don’t get a response, that’s when I’ll leave a public comment, because you can't go too long without giving some kind of public reply. Here’s how I reply if I haven’t had the chance to talk directly with the resident first: Apologize: I’m so sorry to hear that this is going on. I never want someone to have a bad experience with my company. Make it clear who’s responding: This is Mark Brower. I wanted to make sure you heard from me directly. Thank them: Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention. Ask for more information: I'm going to try to reach out to you because it's important to me that I understand your experience. Here's my cell number, and here's my email address directly. And please watch for my call. I want to learn more about this. The reason that I like to reach out privately first is that not all reviewers are comfortable sharing details publicly. It helps me get more information on what’s going on and learn how things have gone so off-course. But responding publicly helps build that trust that you’re committed to solving problems. It shows that you take ownership and lead by leaning in. Thank the reviewer and take responsibility One of the most important steps I mentioned is thanking the reviewer. People want to feel heard, especially when they’re facing a challenge. When you thank them, rather than getting defensive, you’re showing them how much you appreciate their honesty, and building that sense of understanding and trust. And you should mean it when they thank you, because they’re doing you a favor. They’re bringing a serious problem to your attention so you can fix it. My biggest piece of advice is that you have to start with a premise that people that have a bad experience are reasonable and rational. There is always a reason that they’re unhappy, and treating them as if they’re being unreasonable won’t help anyone. Instead, take responsibility for the problem and assure them that you’re working to make it right. And never throw your team under the bus. Even if there was an error made by one of your employees, you should recognize that, ultimately, it rolls up to you. Blaming someone on your team only creates tension and resentment internally, and gives an unhappy resident a reason to lash out at that person. How to resolve resident complaints It’s one thing to connect with a resident to apologize, and to reply on Google Reviews. The hard part is actually figuring out how to resolve the underlying issue. Make things right Hearing people out and making a direct commitment to address the issue goes a long way. But fixing the problem is really what they’re after. That means taking a hard look in the mirror to find out what went wrong. Maybe the issue stems from a vendor you hired who didn’t reach an appropriate level of service. Time to reevaluate how you’re vetting vendors. Maybe you didn’t clearly communicate expectations or requirements. Time to take a look at how you can be clearer. Maybe your resident didn’t understand how your processes work, and that put them in a frustrating position. Take a look at your onboarding process to see where it can be improved to set them up for success. The key is to take ownership, recognize that it’s your problem to solve, and go solve it. Finally, there’s sometimes controversy around financial compensation. I will say clearly that I do sometimes reward unhappy residents financially, if it’s appropriate. In my view, if my team's behavior caused harm in your life, I'm going to make that right. What I never do is tell a resident, “Hey, I’ll give you $200 if you take down your review.” In my view, that’s inappropriate and unethical. It’s the polar opposite of taking responsibility, and it’s not the right way to do business. Communicate Communication is absolutely essential. Once someone has voiced that they have a problem, you want to over-communicate with them about every step you take. Even if you aren’t getting a response, keep providing them updates so that they know they’re being listened to and that a resolution is in progress. You should be clearly communicating when: You’ve seen the review You’ve uncovered the source of the issue A team member of vendor has been assigned to it Someone has been dispatched to the property, if necessary The issue has been handled Every time there’s a development, keep your resident informed. It helps prevent any further negative reviews, and shows them that you’re taking things seriously. Follow up After the issue has been resolved, make sure that you don’t leave it at that. Check up on them periodically about the problem and make sure that it hasn’t resurfaced. Ask them if there are other problems that you can help solve. Give them special treatment and smother them with customer love. This is where my competitive nature comes out. I make it a contest with myself to fix the relationship with the resident until they decide they want to update their review. I will never ask a resident to change what they posted. What I will do is make them feel so special and so appreciated that they’re driven to change it on their own. There’s no better feeling than someone who left you a bad review coming back and updating it to say, “Hey, I connected with Mark about this. He solved my problem and he’s been really fantastic about it. I really appreciate how responsive his team was.” That is one of the most satisfying things I’ve experienced as a business owner. Should you delete negative reviews? My general advice is not to delete negative reviews. Like I outlined earlier, prospective residents appreciate seeing both the good and the bad. They want honesty and integrity, and deleting reviews is counter to that. The only real way to have reviews deleted is by paying some company hundreds of dollars to do it on your behalf. I never engage with those kinds of companies, and I don’t think you should either. If you’re getting spammed with bad review after bad review, all from the same angry resident, that’s one thing. If they’re just repeating the same complaint, there is a process through Google Business to have duplicates removed. There is an avenue if you want to pursue that. But I think it’s unethical to remove reviews that are accurate and factual. Plus, it hurts your business anyway, so just don’t do it. I have seen business owners—not necessarily property managers—actually threaten people who leave bad reviews. They claim it’s defamatory and threaten legal action if reviews aren’t removed. I think that is a terrible practice, and using legal threats to preserve appearances is the absolute wrong thing to do. Instead, take my approach of trying to delight someone so much that they feel a sense of responsibility to delete their review on their own. Make them so happy that they realize, “hey, this isn’t a fair portrayal of my experience,” and they remove it or update it. But leave that choice to them, don’t make it for them. How to prevent bad reviews You can never fully prevent bad reviews, but there are steps you can take to make them less likely. As a business leader, if you claim to own your outcomes, you should be setting up your business to eliminate 99% of pain points. And in property management, that’s not easy, but it is possible. Understand the most common reasons for complaints Start by understanding where your complaints are coming from. Negative feedback doesn’t just happen out of nowhere. I see the one one-star review as a really powerful signal that something is not only a little bit wrong, but several degrees wrong. If someone writing a one-star review online about us is the escalation path in our business, we've got a big problem. One of the most important steps is to see where your residents are having problems further up the funnel, before they become public complaints. Take a look at your maintenance request history and see if there are common items that need to be addressed more regularly. For example, if a water heater is more than ten years old, you should be taking measures to prevent it from flooding the property. When you turn a property, you should be doing a one-time pest treatment to make sure there won’t be future issues. Get ahead of common complaints before they become bigger issues. Ultimately, your company should have a system in place to prioritize and identify what the biggest issues are that you’re facing, and to address them before they reach that breaking point. Create a great first impression It’s absolutely vital to create a good first impression with your residents. That’s why you need a rock-solid onboarding process. You should include things like a utilities concierge to make move-in smoother and set people off on the right foot. But you should also make sure your overall process is setting up clear expectations for both you and the resident, that you’re giving them the tools they need to have a successful time in the home, and communicating clearly. Think about what your residents and owners need A huge part of being a successful property manager comes down to empathy. You need to be able to put yourself in the shoes of your residents and owners and anticipate their needs. Keep in mind that their needs are going to change based on the specifics of the property, their age and ability, and more. Make sure you’re meeting them where they are so that you can keep them happy and give them a good experience. Regularly gather feedback Your company should have multiple layers of feedback and response for your tenants. You should have an escalation path built into your processes. If a tenant has to write a one-star review in order to get their issue escalated, that’s a business process failure. Your feedback process should be clear and intentional. Resident surveys and digital comment boxes can give you insight into where you’re doing well and where you’re not. And then you need to use that information to take action. You need to have the discipline and willingness to chase down those threads and really get to the core of the issues in your business. That not only unlocks really powerful learning, but also validates residents' experiences. Learn and grow Michael Podolsky wrote in Forbes recently, “Any business with a continuous growth mindset should welcome negative feedback.” Use that feedback to make change and take action. That’s what a true growth mindset and extreme ownership approach are about. Want to learn more about managing your business’s reputation? Join our upcoming webinar.

February 4, 2025

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Make Your Personal Story Part of Your Property Management Brand Identity

Property management is an inherently personal industry. You’re literally taking care of someone’s home, and it doesn’t get much more personal than that. So why do so many property managers shy away from sharing their personal stories? By embracing your personal story of how you go into property management, what you love about it, and why, you can develop a stronger brand identity. That means a stronger connection with your investors and residents, and a unique way to separate yourself from the competition. What’s your (brand) story? One of the unique things about property management is that everyone has such varied backgrounds. Almost no one goes to school to become a property manager, or grows up thinking that’s what they’ll do. And that means that everyone has their own story to tell about how they ended up where they are. Maybe you were an accidental landlord who inherited a property and had to learn to manage on the fly. You can lean into the hard work it took to learn the business, and how you empathize with property owners in a similar predicament. Or maybe you were a forward-thinking investor who managed your own properties, but then you discovered you had a knack for it and decided to expand your management business. Your story might be one of business acumen and knowing the importance of protecting an investment. Plenty of property management companies are family businesses, passed down through generations, so maybe that’s how you came into it. In that case you have lifelong experience and a deep knowledge of your neighborhoods and communities. Or maybe you had a real estate background and decided to transition from sales to management. Your area of expertise might be the legal and logistical aspects of the business. Whatever your story, you can make it a part of your brand and emphasize why it sets you apart from other property managers. Don’t be afraid to be personal and vulnerable; let your investors and residents know why you do what you do and why you love it. Why you should get personal When you embrace and share your personal story, you form better connections with others. It builds a sense of trust and camaraderie that makes people want to work with you, and to give you the benefit of the doubt. Beyond that, you become more memorable, and your story can lend credibility to your professional chops. Plus, when you lead with your story, you develop both a property management brand identity and a personal brand, which can open up more opportunities. Embracing your humanity to build trust and relatability According to an Inc. article written by Harvard instructor Carmine Gallo, storytelling is the secret to building business relationships. Gallo says that storytellers, “deliberately choose personal experiences that instill trust, build rapport, and motivate others.” Andrew Dunbar of Forbes agrees: Brands seeking to build loyalty and trust with their target audiences need to bake consistent storytelling into all aspects of their digital experiences. That means that investors who hear your story and recognize your vulnerability are more likely to want to work with you. When your story is consistent and they feel like they’re truly getting to know you, they feel compelled to continue building that relationship. It’s also important for your residents, who may only reach out to you in times of high stress, like when they have an urgent maintenance issue. In fact, research has shown that people with a high level of empathy are less reactive to stressful situations than those with a low level of empathy. In other words, a resident who empathizes with your personal story and feels a connection to you is less likely to send an angry email or yell at you on the phone. Instead, they’ll take a calmer demeanor, even when the situation is difficult. Differentiation Your story probably includes just how long you’ve been at it in the property management world. In fact, if you were asked to write a professional bio, it might be the first thing you include. Details like how long you’ve been licensed, how many doors you manage, and how long you’ve managed in your particular geographic area can all lend extra credibility to your business. Investors want to know that you have a proven track record before they start working with you, and residents want to know that you know what you're doing and won’t drop the ball if an issue arises. A personal story can also make you more memorable to your audience. In fact, cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner found that facts wrapped in a story are 22 times more memorable than facts alone. So if you want potential investors to remember you, tell them your story. Finally, your story can help you stand out from the crowd. In a service-based industry like property management where many competitors can be seen as equals, that’s more important than ever. You don’t want to be competing on services that are seen as commoditized, or just trying to offer the lowest price. Instead, you need to find new ways to differentiate. You can often find those differences in your experiences, areas of expertise, and your personal commitment to property management. Stand out because of who you are and where you’ve been. Personal branding According to Forbes, personal branding is more important than ever. By celebrating your personal story, you’re developing a personal brand that your audience can connect with and remember. It also makes you a better candidate for opportunities like podcast appearances, conference speaking engagements, and panel discussions. Those are basically free marketing opportunities, which give you exposure to hundreds or thousands of potential new clients. While it can initially feel uncomfortable to make yourself vulnerable, it can have tremendous benefits for your business and career. How to ingrain your story in your brand Your brand is in everything you do. That doesn’t mean you need to tell your whole life story every time you receive a call from a resident or prospective investor. There is such a thing as oversharing. But there if you look for opportunities, you’ll find that there are good times to tell your story and allow it to support your value proposition and the work that you do. Your website Your website is one of the most powerful tools that you have. Your company has full control over how it presents itself, what users see, and you tell them your story. Most property managers are tempted to keep themselves and their background to the About Us page, or maybe the Our Team page. While that can seem like it makes sense, you should expand beyond that. Your home page is a perfect place to introduce yourself and what your company believes in. It’s where you make a first impression, and your personal background should be a part of that. Share what you believe and why. You can also integrate your story into your Services page, emphasizing why each service that you offer is important or personal to you. And if you don’t have a Team or About Us page, you absolutely should, and you should use it as an opportunity to put your story out into the world. Chambers Theory, led by Tommy Chambers, is particularly good at highlighting their deep experience across their site. On the About Us page, the team breaks down their history, their mission, and their approach, including a note that Tommy is a third generation real estate professional with over 20 years of property management experience. The company also clearly lays out its core values, helping readers connect with them and setting them apart from the crowd. On the Team page, Tommy’s bio also lays out his upbringing as the child of U.S. Intelligence and State Department veterans, which connects to his company’s dedication to providing services to those serving their country. All of this connects back to the company’s work in the Washington, DC metro area. Social media Social media is another powerful arrow in your quiver, because it’s also an “owned” channel. You have full control over what you post and how you frame it. We’ve already seen the rise of the “LinkedInfluencer,” professionals who use LinkedIn as a platform to build their personal brand. Social media platforms can be great places to connect with your peers, customers, and potential customers. One of the best ways to do this is by sharing your story. On social, that usually means short anecdotes, telling your story in bits and pieces. That can include tales from your past, or examples of how you do business today. Mark Brower of Mark Brower Properties does a superb job of this on LinkedIn. He frequently posts on his personal page about relationships—with tenants, employees, and even his father—and how they connect to his business. He tells stories about everything from staff meetings to one-star reviews and the mindset that he brings to his work every day. Business cards, speaking opportunities, and more You might think that most places where you display your company, like signage and business cards, might be too small to represent your story. But when you think outside the box, you can find opportunity anywhere. Consider a one-line slogan that gives a sense of your background, experience, or values that you can include on business cards, in your email signature, and on ads, flyers, or stationery. This can help build a familiarity with you as an individual and add to the trust factor. Speaking engagements are also a fantastic way to help people connect with your story. Industry shows and smaller local property management networking events are great opportunities to join a panel discussion or give a breakout session presentation. Podcasts and webinars can give similar benefits without the hassle of travel or scheduling. Basically, anywhere that you’re using your logo, see if there’s a way to weave in your experience and your story. Obviously it won’t be a perfect fit everywhere, but you should at least ask the question. Building your property management brand If you’re interested in learning more about how your brand can truly set you apart, join our upcoming RBP workshop!

January 21, 2025

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Brand vs. Branding: Focus on the Experience You Deliver, Not Just Your Logo

Having a strong, well-defined brand is important for any business. But in property management, where business owners are constantly busy putting out fires (sometimes literally), it can be difficult to prioritize building a brand. Most property managers just don’t put enough time into it. Most property management companies commission a logo from a designer, build a website, and call it a brand. In reality, though, a brand goes a lot farther. Focusing on your brand beyond just branding can have an outsized impact on your business, and lead to happier residents and investors. What is branding? A lot of people confuse having “branding” for their company with having “a brand.” To simplify things and make sure we’re all using the same language, your branding is the visual and stylistic representation of your brand. It includes elements like: Logo, colors, and font Slogan Website Imagery, photography, and icons Branding is when you make sure the color of the ink on your business card matches the colors on your website, or when you put your logo on the side of a maintenance truck. It’s making sure your lease template uses the latest logo and colors, and that your welcome guide uses the same iconography as your resident portal. But your visual branding is only a subset of your overall brand. It doesn’t get at the heart of what makes your company unique, and it doesn’t account for how your audience sees you. That’s what a true brand is. What is a brand? Your brand is how your employees, customers, and potential customers see you. It’s how your company makes them feel, the reputation you carry, and the experience you bring to the market. Let’s look at a few different elements that make up your brand, and how they come to life for a property management company. Memorable experiences Every time you interact with someone, whether it’s on your website, via a phone call, or by fixing a maintenance issue, you’re building experiences they’re going to remember. Part of building a strong brand is giving consistent, positive experiences at every opportunity. It’s the steps you take, the words you use, and how you respond to issues. For example, Dollar Shave Club has created memorable experiences through their creative advertising and viral marketing. They back it up with a simple, quality product. Emotional connection A brand is about fostering an emotional connection with your audience. Maybe your brand is about making your audience feel heard and supported, or about making them feel like they can trust you. Maybe it’s making them feel like you’re a friend, or a professional, or an expert. It’s your job to decide what emotions you want people to associate with your company, and then to live that out every day. One company that absolutely nails emotional connection is Starbucks. By writing your name on your cup, presenting their shops as places of communal gathering, and leaning into special occasions with their holiday cups, they make a simple transaction feel deeply personal. Reputation Your brand is how people see you. It’s whether they like you, have positive experiences, and appreciate you. It’s what they say in Google reviews. And that goes for both your residents and your investors. Rolex is basically synonymous with high quality watches. They’ve built a brand almost entirely on a reputation for quality (and the price tag that comes with it). Your story Your brand is who you are, how you got here, why you care about the work you do, and your vision of where you go from here. Maybe you have an extensive background in real estate, or maybe you became an accidental landlord. Maybe you get satisfaction from helping residents keep a comfortable home, and maybe you love helping investors maximize returns. That all relates to your story and your values. Nike does a great job of embracing their history. They hold strong ties to Oregon—their home state—and advertise as an American company. Their history is so meaningful that one of their shoes has its own movie. Differentiation Your brand tells people how you’re different from every other property management company on the block. All of the elements we’ve already outlined add up to create a unique brand. That’s how residents and owners will see you, and how you’ll stand out from the competition. If you want a great example of differentiation, look to Whole Foods. They captured the mainstream market for high quality, natural and organic food nationwide. While natural and organic stores existed before, they weren’t seen as mainstream grocery stores. Whole Foods created a brand based on their differentiation from traditional stores and challenged the big players. Values and workplace culture The principles you hold, even when no one else is watching, are key to who you are as a company. They should help shape your brand and your culture. That brand is reflected in the team that works with you, and the environment they work in. Apple is a great example of a company that builds a great culture to uphold their values. For example, they were among the first companies in the United States to offer in vitro fertilization benefits for employees. Their mission is to use innovative technology to empower people and enhance their lives. What better example is there than IVF? This list isn’t exhaustive. There are plenty of other elements that contribute to your brand, like your mission, your communication cadence, when and how you ask for feedback,and your written style guide. All of those things are equally important. The important thing to remember is that your brand is all of these things put together, which creates an overall perception in the market. Brand vs. branding: why does it matter? As we outlined, your branding is just one piece of your brand. But why is a brand so important, anyway? First of all, a strong brand is a business advantage. Quite simply, it helps you stand out in the market and win more business. When you’re memorable and give potential customers a positive experience, it makes them want to work with you. Second, it helps build a connection and sense of trust. Residents and investors alike want to work with a property manager that they feel has their best interests at heart, and who they can truly trust to do the right thing. When that’s part of your brand and lived out in each daily interaction, it encourages a genuine connection. Finally, a strong brand gives your team members the principles and values that they need to represent you well. When your brand principles are instilled in your employees, they’re more likely to carry it out in their day-to-day work. They’re also more likely to feel connected to your company, do better work, and stay with the team longer. Brand expert Drea Buer, owner and founder of Respect The Brand, agrees that a brand is essential for any company owner. “A personal brand isn’t just a buzzword. It is the face and reputation that you put out into the world,” she says. “It’s how people connect with you.” As far as the benefits, Buer says, “When people trust you, they’re more likely to buy from you, refer others to you, and advocate for your business.” In her full video, Drea dives into why a personal brand can have an even larger impact than just a company brand. Building a Triple Win experience Ultimately, your brand should create benefits for you, your residents, and your investors. When you create a Triple Win, you bring a new level of success to property management. Remember, your brand isn’t just how you intend to present your business to the world. It’s also how your business is received. You need residents, investors, and team members to receive your brand positively if you want to be truly successful. If you’re looking to learn more about how you can create Triple Wins with your business, register for our upcoming RBP Workshop, where you’ll learn how a Resident Benefit Package can elevate your brand.

January 8, 2025

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