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Introducing Group Rate Internet from Second Nature

At Second Nature, we strive to deliver the best possible experience to residents and property managers alike. We’re always looking for new opportunities to help property managers provide better service, grow their businesses, and give residents homes they want to stay in. Now, with the introduction of Group Rate Internet, we’re able to deliver yet another benefit that residents want, while improving the experience for property managers. What is Group Rate Internet? Group Rate Internet is gigabit-speed˙ internet delivered directly to single-family rental homes, incorporated right into your lease. Thanks to the power of our network, Second Nature has negotiated group rates with some of the nation’s largest internet service providers, and we’re passing the savings on to you. Residents get high speed internet at a discounted rate below what they could get on their ownº, while property managers have a new way to grow their business. Why are we doing this? These days, internet service is a necessity. But until now the process has been time-consuming, frustrating, and expensive. Subscribers face complicated setup and cancellation processes, and when they need to reach customer support, they’re often left on hold. We wanted to bring a better experience to residents and modernize the way they receive internet service. Understanding the single-family market 98% of residents across the United States pay for internet service in their homes. But until now, they’ve struggled with inflexible contracts that don’t align with their lease terms, convoluted phone trees, and expensive hidden fees. Most single-family property managers haven't had the ability to negotiate better rates with ISPs, leaving residents to pay retail prices for essential services. That's where Second Nature comes in. By leveraging our nationwide network, we're able to secure group rate pricing that's lower than what's available on the market—giving property managers a new way to offer high-quality, affordable internet without the headaches of individual negotiations. Difficulties of scattered-site Internet coverage areas can be confusing. When you have properties in multiple areas, they may be serviced by different providers, making it even more difficult to negotiate a one-size-fits-all deal. That’s why Second Nature works with multiple major ISPs to provide maximum coverage, no matter how wide your management area is. Cutting costs and making life easier On average, customers typically pay $80-120 per month for gig-speed internet. Plus they get hit with fees for equipment, setup, early termination, and more. Now, with Second Nature, property managers can provide gig-speed internet, with no installation or cancellation fees, at a fraction of the price that residents are already paying. How does the program work? Like all of the pieces in our Resident Benefits Package, we’ve designed Group Rate Internet to be as easy as possible. From data exchanges to support, we fully manage the process so your teams don’t have any extra work. Integration with property accounting systems to check eligibility Second Nature starts by gathering property details directly from your property accounting system (PAS) to automatically confirm which ISPs serve each property. We confirm eligibility and pass that data back into your PAS, so it’s always available to you. Once a property is marked as eligible in the PAS, you’ll be able to include an internet service addendum in any future leases for that property. Billing operates directly through the PAS, with no extra tools or logins to keep track of. Integrated with the lease cycle When a resident signs a lease that contains the Group Rate Internet Lease Addendum, they’re enrolled into the program, and Second Nature works directly with them to complete setup. We’ll reach out directly to residents to make sure they know how to get set up. If necessary, they’ll schedule professional installation for equipment at a time that’s convenient for them. Because there’s no separate internet contract for the resident, there are also no setup, equipmentª, or cancellation fees, and no struggling to align their utility contract with their lease term. Internet is billed right alongside rent, so residents don’t have an extra monthly bill to manage. Dedicated support We all know the pain of waiting in a phone queue to try to solve a technical issue. That’s why Second Nature offers dedicated phone support for residents using Group Rate Internet. That way residents aren’t calling you for help or getting stuck in phone trees with their ISP. Residents call Second Nature directly, and if they need technical support from their ISP, we can make a warm handoff, making sure they’re on the line with a representative before our team leaves the call. No endless transfers from person to person. Easy transition at turnover When a lease is up and a resident decides to move out, Second Nature provides move-out information to residents. Depending on the ISP, the resident may not even have to return equipment. In most cases, it just stays with the unit, and service is turned off until the next resident moves in and a new lease starts. When a new resident moves in, one phone call is all they need to get their gig-speed service up and running. It’s a simple transition when someone else moves in, all managed by Second Nature. Get started Want to see how you can provide gig-speed internet to your residents? Schedule a demo with a member of our team to walk through Group Rate Internet. ˙ Compared to average nationwide gig speed price of $80-120/mo (source: USA Today) º Up to 1 Gig Internet speed, subject to availability. Internet Service powered by Second Nature is provided through Second Nature's preferred third-party Internet service providers. ª Residents may be subject to fees if equipment is damaged, lost, or stolen.

Calendar icon March 19, 2025

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Learning to Empower your Property Management Employees

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. Managing a team is hard, especially when you run the company. You want to empower your teams to be more than just button pushers, while also keeping a high level of execution and not putting your business at risk. It starts with hiring the right people, identifying their strengths, and putting them in the right seats. But beyond that, you have to make sure you’re giving them the room they need to learn, grow, and sometimes fail. Learning to let go of control over every detail, and instead trust your employees, will help you see more success, keep your best employees longer, and establish yourself as a true leader of your business. Getting started with hiring When I was just ramping up my property management business in Colorado, I fell into one of the classic traps that small business owners face. I just wanted to put butts in seats. I wasn’t hiring with intention. When you’re in grow-at-all-costs mode, it’s easy to start hiring whoever you can for whatever roles you can. But the danger is that you put people in the wrong positions and you don’t set them up for success. The lesson I learned very quickly was that I needed to be looking for people who were passionate. First, they needed to be passionate about the type of work we were doing. Second, they needed to be passionate about the types of properties we were managing. I learned that I needed people on my team who were bought into the long-term vision. They needed to have the same core values as we did if they were going to be successful. And beyond that, I wanted people who had the desire to learn, take on a challenge, and become better. Putting people in the right spots The specific skillset and attitude you need might vary by role. For example, in a sales position, you want people who have the drive to own everything, and may even have aspirations of becoming their own boss some day. But in operational roles, you may need people who are more focused on the small details, who like to get in the weeds and solve problems. Each person has a specific role to fill. I think of it like getting dressed in the morning; it doesn’t do much good to have 5 pairs of pants but no shirt. Learning to let go of control When I first started leading a property management business,I started out as too much of a control freak. I didn’t want people who would challenge my ideas or thoughts. I thought I was the smartest person in the room, and it was my business, so I was in charge. As a result, I held back my team. I didn’t give them ownership over their work. And it hurt my business. But then, in 2006, I got sick, and it became absolutely necessary to hand over control. It was the only way for my business to survive. I couldn’t own everything. I had to give people the opportunity to step up. And when I did, there were people there who really flourished. They just needed to be given the space to do it. It’s one of the most important lessons I’ve learned in business. People need to have authority and ownership to excel in their role. You need to give them direction, and then you need to get out of the way. You can’t steer a parked car; you have to be in motion to change direction. Getting comfortable with the occasional mistake One of the biggest sticking points for a lot of leaders—especially in property management—is a fear that, if they give responsibility to someone else, that person will make a mistake. I have two responses to this: First off, mistakes are inevitable. Of course they’re going to happen, but that’s okay. Second, the stakes really aren’t that high. We’re not driving ambulances and getting lost on the way to the hospital. Really, what’s the worst that can happen? If we’re late getting a payment out to an owner, maybe we’ll get an upset phone call. We’ll feel like we have egg on our faces when we have to apologize. But we’ll all move on from it and we’ll find a way to make it right. Realistically, holding back your employees is costing a lot more than letting them make a mistake. When you create an environment where it’s okay to make a mistake, you create an environment of trust. And when you have that, you have a successful workplace where people want to work. Besides, why have someone on your team if you aren’t going to trust them to take on responsibilities and grow? Holding onto your best people Keeping talented team members is tough. Turnover is a big issue in all small businesses, but especially property management. There’s a ceiling on growth, and a lot of good employees hit it pretty quickly. There just aren’t that many positions to grow into when your team is only four or five people. And that means there’s no big promotion or big raise that they’re working for. I believe you can still keep your best and most ambitious contributors. You just need to give them something worth working for. I always say that people will suffer for a cause, but they won’t suffer just because. You need to give people a north star to work towards, and you need to hire people who believe in what they’re doing. When people are bought in on your company vision, and when the work they’re doing is directly tied to it, they can continue to grow even in the same role. Final thoughts One thing that I try to bring into my leadership style every day is believing in people more than they believe in themselves. I truly believe people are capable of more than they think they’re capable of. Everyone carries some level of impostor syndrome, and a great leader can help them overcome it by believing in them, coaching them, and empowering them. When I see that someone has the right values and they’re bought in, that’s when I start to give them more and more guidance on how to improve. Most people will rise or fall to the level of your expectations, so set your expectations high, and then give them the support to meet it.

Calendar icon April 24, 2025

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My Ideal Meeting Cadence for Property Management Companies

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. One of the most popular frameworks in property management right now is EOS, the Entrepreneurial Operating System. EOS is a system that helps organizations increase discipline and accountability through several tools, including a very specific meeting cadence. Now, to officially implement EOS, you have to be a licensed implementor and go through specific training. What I’m advocating is something of an EOS-light approach. I’m not a licensed implementor, and the meeting cadence I’m going to outline for property managers has been adapted, but it does have some roots in EOS. I’m also not a purist. I don’t believe that you have to do everything exactly by the book to be successful. I’d advocate looking at this framework critically, putting it into practice, seeing what works for your organization and what doesn’t, and adapting. Setting yourself up for success The first thing to know about implementing a new property management meeting cadence is that, without a clear mission, vision, and values, this all means nothing. I’ve written before about how policy should follow your mission and values, and this is no different. So if you don’t have those things nailed down in your organization, that’s a better place to start. The second thing to know is that this is going to be a little bit uncomfortable. There will be awkward moments along the way as your team gets used to a new way of doing things. You’ll need to get comfortable being uncomfortable. In my mind, the number one determination of whether this plan will be successful is whether the owner of the company has the discipline to see implementation through, even when things get weird. And they will get a little weird. Now, let’s walk through the meeting cadence that I recommend to my clients at Property Management Success, and what each meeting consists of. Daily huddle meeting The first big piece of the meeting cadence is the daily huddle, which you may also know as a standup. The daily meeting, which I recommend scheduling at the beginning of each day, is intended to be short and to the point. We’re not all going to get comfy in a meeting room for 30 or 60 minutes with our laptops and our breakfast. Daily huddles should hit a couple of key points: What do we need to know right now to execute today? This might include items that are blocked by other teammates, things that are holding up other people’s work, or anticipated challenges. What are the urgent items that need to be addressed? Are there fires that need to be put out? What needs to be done by the end of the day to keep everything on track? I find daily huddles valuable not just for the work that gets addressed, but also the team building element. It brings the team together everyday and gets them in the mindset of working as one. This is especially important when you have remote team members who may not see the rest of the team all day. Finally, I always wrap up the meeting with one question, and this is where things can start to get uncomfortable. Ask the team, “What’s one example of our core values in action that you’ve seen since we last met?” This can be awkward to answer, but you just have to embrace the process and wait it out. Eventually someone will share an honest, vulnerable story, which will continue building up the importance of core values to the team. And I promise, once you get into a routine, this gets easier. Weekly meeting Next up is the weekly team meeting. In the official EOS workbook, this is known as the L10. Weekly meetings should typically be sixty to ninety minutes, and focused on the overall performance and progress of the team. KPIs and scorecards One of the most important elements of your weekly meeting is going through your key performance indicators and metrics. Everyone on the team should take their turn to report out their numbers and whether they’ve hit them. This gives leadership and opportunity to flag metrics that are consistently being missed, or KPIs that might need to be altered. Something to keep in mind is that KPIs need to be actionable. That means that if your team didn’t hit it this week, you can develop a clear plan on how to hit it next week. Those actions should be decided in the weekly meeting. Quarterly rocks Your quarterly rocks are the bigger projects that you have going on, which may take anywhere from a few of weeks up to a whole quarter. Rocks are important because they keep your team focused. The importance isn’t just what’s on them, but also what’s not on them. If you have too many rocks, nothing will get done, and if you don’t have enough, you’ll start picking up additional projects and stretching yourself too thin. As the name suggests, rocks are set quarterly during planning meetings. Here are some examples of what rocks might look like for a mid-sized property management company: Implementing a new software tool Instituting a new pricing structure Building out a knowledge base Setting up a Resident Benefits Package Testing out a new marketing strategy Hiring for a new role on the team Rolling out a new management agreement Realigning team responsibilities or structure These are all projects that are going to take more than just a week, but are important long-term goals for the company and need to be checked in on regularly. Each week, you should be looking at whether your rocks are on track or off track. If things are off track, add them to the issues list and make sure to address it before the end of the meeting. Finally, have another quick share on your company’s mission and vision. Ask the team, “what did we do that’s in alignment with these?” This is essential to building culture, because it helps build on wins. It gets the team used to winning together and inspires them to keep up the good work. Quarterly planning meeting One level up from your weekly meeting is quarterly planning. This one is pretty self-explanatory. Basically, your team should meet each quarter to evaluate the progress that’s been made, along with the work that needs to be done in the upcoming quarter. Depending on how large your team is, you may or may not have all members attend. If your team is on the smaller side, everyone should be there. If the team is bigger, you may need to focus on leadership and management. The first major part of quarterly planning is reviewing the previous quarter. This is an opportunity to remind the team of the good progress that’s already been made before turning to new projects. By focusing on the positive outcomes first, you can increase engagement from the team and build that continued sense of winning together. Look at your rocks from the past quarter and evaluate where you were most successful, as well as what adjustments you need to make. From there, look forward. What are the next steps that you have to take? This is where you build your rocks for the next quarter. It’s helpful to have the full team present, especially team members who will directly own those rocks, because it helps get buy-in. People will be more invested in projects that they helped select and scope than if you just assign something to them. Annual review The last major meeting I recommend property managers add to their cadence is the annual review. This should include everything that you’d normally do in a quarterly planning meeting, plus some extras. In addition to planning new rocks, you’re also planning the overall goals for the year. These can include new KPIs, growth metrics, and other performance indicators for the year. This is also a great opportunity to reinforce your mission and vision. Focus on reminding people why they’re doing the work they’re doing and where the company aspires to get to. Reinforce the service—and quality of service—that you want to deliver. Beware the pitfalls Implementing a whole new meeting cadence like this isn’t easy. It can be especially difficult in an industry where everyone already has a lot going on and their schedules are stretched thin. Focus on delivering value One of my biggest pieces of advice is to make sure that you’re actually providing value in these meetings, and that you’re not meeting just to meet. If a meeting isn’t serving you, find out why and adjust accordingly. On top of that, think about the opportunity cost and wage cost of having everyone in a meeting. That time is expensive. If it’s not creating value, it shouldn’t be happening. Get your KPIs right A lot of companies I’ve seen have set up KPIs to say that they’re tracking KPIs. But in reality, they’re tracking the wrong things, or they’re tracking the right things the wrong way. If you’re meeting every week and reviewing KPIs, and you consistently find that you’re hitting them every time and blowing them out of the water, that may be a hint that you’re either setting your goals too low or you’re tracking busywork. On the flip side, if you’re consistently missing your KPIs, you may be setting sights too high. Utilize milestones to stay on track When you meet weekly to check the status of your quarterly rocks, make sure that you’re actually looking at whether things are on track or not. I’ve consistently seen teams say, week-in and week-out, that their rocks are on track. But then when the end of the quarter comes, suddenly the rock isn’t complete. When you build your rocks in your quarterly planning sessions, build in milestones. Milestones help define what “on track” actually means, and will help give team members a sense of where they stand with major projects. Final thoughts I really like this meeting cadence. I’ve seen it work for a lot of property management companies. But there’s a reason I started out this article by saying that I’m not a purist. A meeting for meeting’s sake is horrible. You shouldn’t be meeting just because it’s part of a framework. You can absolutely adjust this cadence to make sure that you’re using your time well. And even if you do stick to this cadence, don’t feel like a 60 minute meeting has to be 60 minutes every week. If you finish early, great! Don’t keep people there for the full time if you’re not making progress. Don’t waste people’s time. Interested in learning more about how to optimize your company processes? Join me and Melissa Gillispie for a Triple Win Live session on optimizing your company's KPIs. Register now!

Calendar icon April 1, 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.

Calendar icon 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.

Calendar icon February 20, 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.

Calendar icon February 11, 2025

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