Maintaining a commercial properties is difficult enough without having to worry about breaking your budget. We’re talking the dreaded Property Management budgeting here. As a property manager, your ability to budget your annual expenses from the start can help to determine whether repairs and upgrades can be completed on schedule. When you’re able to prepare, plan, and execute, you can not only enjoy the benefits of happy tenants, but you can save a heck of a lot of time from those annoying property complaint calls and emails. While the responsibility to budget falls on you, unfortunately, so do the consequences of poor planning.
Don’t stress! We’re here to offer up some helpful tips to help you to get out in front of your annual budget this year, helping you to plan for contingencies.
LOCK IN YOUR FINANCIALS
Get your information together fast!! Some of the documents that will help to you set an appropriate budget include:
- TTM (Trailing Twelve Month) Financial Reports
- Current Rent
- Current Occupancy
- Vendor Contracts
It’s suggested that you get this information together as early as possible and to make sure it’s organized. You want to make sure that other members of your budgeting team have clear access to this information as well.
POLL YOUR TENANTS
Tenants are your VIPs when it comes to excelling at your job. Happy Tenants = Happy Property Management Firms. Lend a listening ear and take notes when they offer up suggestions, ideas, and solutions to problems they may be facing on the property. Throughout the year, keep a running tally of improvements and upgrades that your tenants have requested. This will help you to organize and tackle these issues with an order of importance. For example, addressing a leaking roof should rank more important that repaving a parking lot. Make sure that you’re building these types of repairs and upgrades into your annual budget.
LET THE PROS ASSIST
Every industry relies on specific software to help simplify and organize job information. Property Management is no different. Utilizing the proper Property Management Software can make everyone’s job easier, especially when it comes to managing annual building budgets for your properties. Ensure that you’re using software that contains a built-in accounting feature. This will not only help you to keep tabs on the annual expenditure, but you’ll also be able to keep an eye on income. Some software even allows you to keep track of nearby comps in the community, so you’ll have a better idea on when it’s time to revise lease agreements with incoming tenants. By remaining competitive in your local market, you’ll have a better chance at securing additional funds to funnel into the next year’s budget.
The roofing experts at CP Rankin work alongside an array of Property Management firms across the county and understand the importance of annual property budgeting. Offering budget management assistance, we’re standing by to help tune your fiscal year numbers — at least as far as the roof is concerned. Contact us today! 866-ROOF-322