Having a well-structured, consistent, and intentional meeting agenda can help keep your team—and your company—on track. Setting and sticking to a clear agenda sets expectations with your team. It also provides an opportunity to directly lead your team toward key goals by focusing on the right things.
Once you’ve settled on a robust meeting cadence, you have to make sure that you’re maximizing your time. No one wants to sit in meetings just for the sake of it.
This article provides a clear property management meeting agenda template, so that you can make sure you’re hitting all of the most important points in your meetings, including financial news, maintenance reports, leasing and resident updates, and compliance changes.
Why do you need a property management meeting agenda?
Having a well-defined meeting agenda serves several important purposes. First off, it keeps your team focused. Everyone knows what to expect when you sit down together. Second, consistency allows you to touch on the same points each time you meet, meaning that you can better measure progress.
A meeting agenda also creates a central place for documentation, including what was discussed and what the take-aways and outcomes were. It drives accountability, follow-up tasks, and better time management from your team, and ensures that key items don’t slip through the cracks or end up on the back burner.
Essentially, your agenda illustrates what’s most important, helping you to better prioritize how you spend your time.
The specifics of your agenda will vary based on the meeting type. A weekly staff meeting is going to have a very different agenda than a quarterly investor report, for example.
What to include in a property management meeting agenda
Developing an effective agenda can take time, patience, and practice. Luckily, we’ve spoken to dozens of property management professionals and distilled their insights into a clear template for you. This template is best suited for a monthly meeting in which the larger team gathers to check in on key items and set priorities.
1. Welcome and introductions
You should always start each meeting with an overview of who’s meeting and why. That should include:
- An explanation of the meeting’s purpose: Are you reviewing property ledgers, discussing upcoming projects, or examining team performance?
- Expectation setting: What topics are attendees expected to stick to? How should they address follow-up or spin-off topics?
- Introductions: Make sure you introduce any new team members or vendors, including existing team members who don’t typically join this meeting. Make sure everyone knows why each attendee is there.
2. Previous meeting minutes
Next, make sure to review any key takeaways or outstanding items from the last meeting. If there were tasks assigned during the previous session, now’s the time to check in and see whether they were completed. If there are tasks that haven’t been completed, set a deadline so that they don’t fall behind.
You can also use this time to shout out notable accomplishments and achievements from the team. Take a minute to recognize team members who have done great work since the last time you met.
3. Financial performance updates
Next, dig into your financial performance a bit. This is where you’ll want to look at things like:
- Rent roll reports
- Budgeted versus actual financials
- Income by source, including a breakdown of rent, fees, and ancillary income
For monthly or quarterly meetings, you can also look at profit and loss statements.
You’ll want to use this time to also flag any budget items that are at risk, or any particular properties with big-ticket maintenance issues or other costs. This is a great time to look for patterns in financial performance to see if there are overall areas in which you can improve.
4. Property maintenance and operations
Once you’ve covered the monetary picture, it’s time to turn to maintenance. You should start with ongoing maintenance projects, especially urgent items or recurring problems like plumbing repairs, roof leaks, or HVAC issues.
Next, look at upcoming projects that may be planned in advance or happen annually. For example, plans for spring landscaping, winter snow removal, or summer pest control treatments should be covered here to make sure that everything is on track.
This is also a great time to review vendor performance. Take a look at recently completed work orders and what resident feedback looks like. Did any vendors go above and beyond, or perhaps fall short? Are there maintenance areas where you need additional vendors in your network to handle the workload?
5. Resident management and leasing updates
Next on the agenda is a look at leasing, resident retention, and marketing. Start by looking at occupancy rates, as well as current and upcoming vacancies. If there are open homes that have been listed for a while, evaluate whether they need a price adjustment, updated photos, or more marketing dollars. This is where you can really boost your listing strategy with new ideas from the larger team.
You should also be looking at resident retention and marketing efforts at this point in the meeting. What percent of upcoming lease expirations have already signed on for renewal? What kinds of incentives can you offer to boost renewal rates, if needed?
6. Compliance and legal updates
After you’ve handled financials, maintenance, and leasing, it’s important to take some time to review any new legal or compliance changes. Compliance is essential to maintaining a stable business, so it’s absolutely worth the time investment here.
First, look at any regulatory changes impacting property management in your geographic area. This is especially important if you manage properties across multiple counties and states, which increases the likelihood of more frequent regulation changes. Look at what the changes are and whether you need to make any changes to remain compliant.
Next, review any ongoing legal matters, especially those related to evictions. Make sure the whole team is on the same page and that everything is being done by the book to avoid any unintended consequences.
7. Strategic planning and improvement initiatives
Now it’s time to zoom out and look at bigger, longer-term projects. You’ll want to take this time to cover any large capital improvements, either in your business itself or at managed properties. Business improvements might include technology upgrades or hiring efforts. Property investments might include roof replacements or large-scale renovations.
You’ll also want to look at changes to your portfolio. For example, you may be onboarding a new investor client, or maybe an existing client has acquired new properties that you’re going to bring under management. You also might have clients who are planning to 1031-exchange one property for another. You should discuss these matters to make sure that your team is planning appropriately.
8. Actions items and next steps
The last major section of the meeting is reviewing action items and next steps. If you aren’t carefully recording your follow-up tasks, your meetings will be ineffective and work will get lost.
Make sure that you have a clear list of tasks, and that each one has a designated assignee. Team members shouldn’t have any confusion about who owns which items. They should also be given clear deadlines, and management should establish a transparent follow-up schedule to make sure everything is happening on time.
For example, if a unit needs carpets replaced, someone might be assigned to gather three quotes before the next meeting, and their manager should have a check-in set at the half-way point to make sure they’ve reached out to vendors.
9. Open discussion and Q&A
Before closing out the meeting, make sure that you leave time for open discussion and any clarifying questions. By giving everyone the opportunity to ask questions, you’re ensuring that they bear responsibility for understanding what’s been discussed and what’s expected of them.
If there’s time remaining, team members can use it for cross-talk, where they can follow up on open items with other team members. In property management, it often isn’t easy to get everyone in a room together, so make sure that you’re maximizing the time you do have.
Tips for running a property management meeting
Now that you have a better sense of what should be on the agenda, you’re almost ready for your meeting. There are a few crucial steps to making sure that your property management meeting runs smoothly:
- Share the agenda in advance, and only adjust it when absolutely necessary
- Start by celebrating wins, which can help engage and motivate the team
- Take clear notes so that you can go back and review key discussion topics
- If you’re meeting virtually, record the session for anyone who can’t attend
- Reserve of-topic discussions for separate breakouts
- Watch the clock to make sure you’re being respectful of everyone’s time
- Gather feedback about the meeting from your team to make sure it’s serving its purpose
Customize your property management meeting agenda templates with Second Nature
Using this meeting agenda template can drastically improve your meeting productivity. And when you have your whole team sitting in a room together, you’re paying a lot of salary for that time. Productivity is key.
If you want more templates that can help you optimize your property management business, you’re in luck. You can explore all of Second Nature’s templates and resources, which are completely free to download.