Property Manager questionaire

[donna]

My 2 cents on getting feedback on your business:

I think if the comment is about you or your business it's hard not to take it 'personally to heart' so you only want to hear the good 'positive' comments - however you and your business gets a lot more value from the 'critical' some times seen as 'negative' comments.

For example if there are comments on your fee structure by people who are using services equivalent to your own, then favourable or otherwise you and your business is getting valuable feedback (feedback a lot of other businesses have to pay to get) so I say take it on the chin and be thankful you are getting the feedback - it shows people care and that is way better than people ignoring your business or just giving you the info you want to hear even if is not true.

My 2 cents worth on 'online presence for business':

Websites are often the first contact point a potential customer has with your business - it doesn't take too much brain power to work out if you have got a website and it looks like a DIY job i.e. shoddy grainy graphics, and poorly written content then that will reflect negatively on your business. Get a professional presence and pay for it - don't succumb to 'free' or near free sites - there are plenty of good website designers out there who are reasonably priced and will give you a professional site - if you cut corners on your web presence what else are you cutting corners on? That is what your potential customers will be asking themselves.

Cheers,

Donna

[Glenn]

So Donna

At the serious risk of hearing what I do not want to hear.
Do you think I should have a web site and what should I have on it.
Should I have all the vacancies on it. With that goes the need to keep it updated all the time.
Should I have a tenancy application form and a management form on it.
Should I have a picture of everyone on my team with a short detailed work and investing history of everyone.
What sort of initial and ongoing costs in money and time does a good web site take.
How much bigger would my business be if I had invested in a web site say last year, the year before, or even when I first looked at the cost of creating one back in 1995.

[donna]

Hi Glenn,

This in my opinion only...in your line of work...

A website is good for marketing - broadening your reach (you may have desires to extend your business beyond Nelson and a web presence with no geographic boundaries is perfect for reaching a broader audience).

Also with a website you can manage a lot of your admin processes with automation - and online systems e.g. a client log in area for landlord statements, property inspections, forms

And if you are potentially preparing for an eventual sale of your business - efficient systems for marketing and management would improve its attractiveness and worth.

Cheers,

Donna

[Glenn]

Oh goodness bless you Donna but you have only answered the first line of my post.
That was the one I did not want to hear.

What about the other questions or is this forum not the place to air such things. Goodness it is just so hard being a dinosaur.

What is wrong with being different.
Glenn

[donna]

I have sent you a pm Glenn...happy to help you analyse it all.

cheers,

Donna

[drelly]

Hi Glenn,

Do you think I should have a web site and what should I have on it.

Yes, vacancies and contact details at a minimum.

Should I have all the vacancies on it. With that goes the need to keep it updated all the time.

Yes but that doesn't have to be a big deal. I can understand why you don't see the need in a busy market but if it's quiet, a good website can help get ahead of the competition.

Should I have a tenancy application form and a management form on it.

You can allow people to apply online... it might save you some time.

Should I have a picture of everyone on my team with a short detailed work and investing history of everyone.

A short work history might be good.

What sort of initial and ongoing costs in money and time does a good web site take.

Piece of string question but maybe from $1500 upwards to develop and ongoing depends on what support and services you want.

How much bigger would my business be if I had invested in a web site say last year, the year before, or even when I first looked at the cost of creating one back in 1995.

You would own at least half the South Island by now.

[Glenn]

You would own at least half the South Island by now.

Poor old Allan Hubbard has that place and look at him.
Hooked up on a dialisus machine, blanket over his knee, people marching in the streets for him, and he still drives a VW.

I bet he has not climbed remote mountains in Nepal.
But then I have not either despite trying.

I once asked a radio station sales person who wanted me to advertise with him.
Does it work.
Yes sure does sir he says.
In that case I do not want it because we already have enough work I told him. Funny thing but they have never tried selling me anything else since then.

[drelly]

Poor old Allan Hubbard has that place and look at him.

Not Alan's half... the other half!

Ha... must admit I deal with telemarketers the same way... I don't want to future proof my home, get Govt contracts, win a cruise or help with a short survey.

Since you're so busy, you could save a lot of time by directing tenants to a website instead of manually showing them your listings!

[Glenn]

Since you're so busy, you could save a lot of time by directing tenants to a website instead of manually showing them your listings!

True but they already look at the pretty pictures on Trademe.
I need to wait to see the whites in their eyes before shooting.
I can screen a lot just from the paper applications they make but often the people I deal with are not paper or web based. Just the world I have chosen (it has chosen me) to live in. I have a lot of illiterate and sub normal tenants straight out of a story book like clock work orange. The nurses no longer wear white coats so it is getting harder for me to work out who is who.
Web sites are as good as my commodore 64 on them. Then there is the other sub class graduated straight from school to the maternaty ward then into my loving arms. All need the warmth and touch that only a human give give.
A few grunts from me like
"sign here, tick that box, this is a wonderful flat it already has running water down the walls as well as in the toilet, pay your rent or you will be dead meat." mutter mutter.
Schools and the courts are just so PC these days. They need to meet me in person in order to relate and know how lucky they are.....

But you are right there are a whole lot of other brain dead people who will hand over their money happily in return for ticking a box on a computer screen. I guess I can channel all the living dead into the same little darkened room in return for lovely pixtures on a computer screen.

[drelly]

How much does Trademe charge a property manager to list on there?

[Glenn]

How much does Trademe charge a property manager to list on there?

It used to be $400 + GST per month.
Then recently they changed it slightly but the account still comes to around $440 inc.
I got a box of specialty cheese from them last month so they do look after their clients.
This is about half of what I spend on the newspaper.
I did use Finda for many years, and they did provide a good web site. After they sold out they became a lot less customer friendly.
Their " improvements" killed it for me.
I used to advertise their site on my newspaper adverts but in the end I just could not get them to do the minor changes I wanted.
Not that I have tried to change Trademe but they have been very helpful and customer responsive so to the point where I could not fault them.
Obviously my own web site would cost heaps less to operate than that but they have the high ground on hits just like the newspaper have the high ground on another sub set of society.

[Keys]

How much does Trademe charge a property manager to list on there?

Same as you Drelly, same as you.

[drelly]

At $99 per property is it worth it?

[Keys]

At $99 per property is it worth it?

5 empty per month? Yes, it's worth it.

[Perry]

Once again thanks for your comments, check out the website on Monday.

It now opens in Firefox & Opera, yet remains
too wide for the screen, without scrolling, but
I haven't checked or looked at much else.

Would you hand out brochures with blank pages
or incomplete or badly presented information?
In a sense, a web page is an e-brochure. There's
one word that sums much of the grievances we
see on PT: details and lack of attention to them
by PMs.

I am not alone in suggesting that lack of attention
to detail in any aspect of self-promotion will create
in the mind of the reader, the subliminal thought
that other aspects may also suffer from lack of
attention to detail.

Accept the critique, take it on the chin and learn
from it, without getting defensive. Distracting
attention or getting defensive does tend to indicate
that the benefit of the criticism has been diluted
and not used to full avail.

Get someone, several someones, with different
PCs and different screens and with several browser
programs to check your pages for good monitor
display rendering. Including a Mac user.

Then also consider getting someone to look at
grammar, spelling, syntax, readability, coherence,
consistency, completeness and so on, as distinct
from graphic design or layout aspects.

I'll help with one other aspect: the site mis-uses
and confuses in the use of the expressions:
late payment
and
missed payment
as those two expressions relate to rent.
.