Independent rental owners Jim Stewart, Brent Sobol, Mike Butler and Dan Lieberman offered rental housing owner/operators more than 60 management strategies during the session “Owner/Operator/Manager Best Practices:
60 Great Tips” held at the 2011 NAA Education Conference & Exposition in June in Las Vegas.
Following are a selection of comments and ideas that may be of interest:
• Ask someone who has never been to your property to tour it and evaluate the user-friendliness of onsite signage. This will help show the owner and its staff how well-marked the community is.
• Send an “Is Everything A-OK?” letter to residents 90 days before their renewal date. This gives owners the chance to fix any trouble spots that might exist but had not been mentioned by the residents in the past.
• Owners should always have a camera handy to take on-the-spot photos of damage or any other suspicious activity or situations. These images can potentially be used as evidence in the minds of judges and juries should the owner ever need to go to court.
• Pay $10 to employees whose names are mentioned positively by residents who complete resident survey forms.
This inspires greater customer service and is a morale booster for staff members.
To purchase a CD-ROM that includes the full audio for this and all NAA Education Conference sessions, visit
www.prolibraries.com/naa.