Embracing Technology in Property Management: The Future is Now Title: The Digital Edge in Property  Welcome to the Mind Renovation Nation show, brought to you by Red Maples – your trusted source for institutional-style property management of small multifamily rentals. I’m your host, Nathan Bush. In each episode, we delve into the real-world challenges and opportunities facing small multifamily real estate investors. Today’s focus is on the transformative power of technology in property management. The Current State: Manual Processes and Missed Opportunities Did you know that nearly 75% of property managers still rely on manual processes and spreadsheets to manage their portfolios? This traditional approach often leads to inefficiencies, increased costs, and poor communication. The Technological Revolution in Property Management We’re at the cusp of a revolution, where technology is reshaping the landscape of property management: Property Management Software: Platforms like Buildium...

I believe you were born to be a leader and possess all the necessary skills and traits. You are also correct to believe that you have a lot of work to do, and this site is an interruption in your time. You should be assured this site is worth every second you spend reading, and I will prove it to you. In a recent study of the return on investment of investing in leadership training, participants found for every $1 in value paid the return was $6 in tangible benefits (Rhos, 2015). This means that if your time is currently worth $20.00 per hour and you study this information for 10 hours you would have invested $200.00 worth of your time into this information. According the Rhos’s study, the benefits you will receive will be greater than or equal to the value of $1,200.00. Would you invest $200.00 to make $1,200.00, if you had 0% risk of losing the money?  I know I would take my chances with that investment everyday of the week.  I have been called,  "A ...

If you are new to leasing there are so many options to generate great leasing leads. Sometimes all it takes is a little creativity. You can start leasing homes even if you do not have any listings. In my previous blogpost, I give some quick pointers if you are new to leasing, you can review the 5 baby steps  HERE . If you are new, you are probably looking for some tools to get your phone ringing off the hook. I previously wrote a post on how to market your leasing business, you can view that post  HERE . If you are looking for more ideas to market, that actually work to generate leads, Facebook, door hangers, and the IDX are the best ways to generate prospects even if you have zero clients. FACEBOOK CALENDAR: Facebook is a booming marketing tool but you must know how to utilize it. There is a lot of misinformation surrounding this platform. To be success it starts with building a business page and providing great Facebook content. Then you MUST build ...

Are you utilizing a team score board? If you are following the Leadership Engagement Process you know the following steps are important to engaging your team?   Step 1 is for every position to know the company mission and the mission of their job. Step 2 is for every position to know their number. Ensuring each team member has a one number they are personally responsible to measure is very important. You should give them one specific goal based on this number.   Step 3 is for every position to know their score. The Leadership Engagement Process utilizes a team scoreboard. This scoreboard is imperative in engaging your team members. Real Estate Managers, Brokers, and Realtor leaders can not effect behavioral changes their staff unless the staff member knows what the target is for every day, week, month, and quarter. Your scoreboard should be broken down into three parts a top, a middle, and a bottom. The top of the scoreboard should be your manager...

If you are new to leadership and you are looking for books that will help you in understanding how to become a great leader the following three books are an amazing choice. When I first got into leadership two of these books were suggested to me, and I currently pick them up from time to time as a refresher in building a strong team. The Customer Comes Second -  If you are looking for the perfect book about building a great culture, this book is amazing. I love the author’s philosophy on the importance of happiness in the workplace. I have found that shaming people to be better creates unhappiness and unproductive team members.   Bringing Out the Best in People - If you are looking for the perfect book about developing people individually, this is a great book. One of my favorite strategies is the concept of jumping on the bandwagon of team members who are going anywhere you want to be.   Leadership Coaching as a Strategy for Employee Development - If you a...

Leading Teams with the Right Words... When you are coaching your team especially in the real estate industry it is important to remember the Cycle of Resistance . Blaming, personal attacks, telling someone that they are wrong will never serve you. The first time the team member is blamed will be the time the Cycle of Resistance starts. It is ironic that Real Estate Sales Managers and Property Managers are often promoted to their position because of their ability to lease or sell homes, yet their skills of influence and overcoming objections don’t often promote with them. Managers seem to forget about the sale they need to make right in front of them.  This sale is to their team. In a professional since I like to use the terms “barriers and objections” interchangeably, in place of calling them “your team’s excuses”. What would you tell a customer if you were trying to close a sale? What would you say when they say to you, “I don’t have enough time to do XYZ to...

  How to use social influence to correct bad behavior It was a regular Tuesday at the property management office. It was around Lunch time (I know because I remember how hungry I was). I was in an important one – on -one meeting with a leasing professional on my team. The backstory for the situation looks like this…… This individual had been having a hard time. Their numbers over the past month had been low, really low. Their attitude was even worse. They were spreading their negativity to other employees and not truly being the blessing. The blessing I know they can be. First, of all, I do not know if something was going on in their personal life, because with this particular employee, they are very private. There private-“ness” to me translates to professionalism and I like that about them. From the time I started my career in Sales Management I learned three things: 1.        Never {ever} correct anyone for their bad attitude – 2. ...

At 7:00 am I posted a video for my sales team to watch. At 7:15 I asked the question, “What are your current goals for today? How many? By When?” This type of communication used to require me to drive to the office, hold a meeting, ask in person or wait for a response via email. At minimum It would require everyone to dial into a conference call. Because of the nature of email, I may or may not have received a response. Now with a quick “post” my sales team is motivated and committed to their goal for the day. These this type of cultural leadership changes have freed up the most valuable resource I have as a leader, time. In 2015 there was a white paper entitled Motivational Drives of Content Contribution to Company- Versus Consumer- Hosted Online Communities, and the authors wrote, “The results reveal that opinion leadership, self-presentation, and enjoyment positively affect content contribution; altruism negatively affects content contribution. In company-hosted online c...

It was 5:00 am, we had just started our walk. My friend, who is in an MBA program, leans over the side of the treadmill and asks this question, “What is the hardest thing leaders do?” I thought about it for one minuet and then I said, ‘” The hardest thing about being a strong leader is that I want my team to improve sometimes more than they want it themselves. It is difficult to help your staff find the drive to improve themselves, I wish I could get them to read, listen to podcasts, take courses or invest in their own development.” Being driven myself to succeed is the only thing I can attribute the moderate success I have had in my life.   “Human resource development (HRD) means competence building, commitment building, and culture building” (Kundu & Vora, 2004) . Underdeveloped staff cost organization millions of dollars. “In order to keep on delivering high-quality performance, it is of vital importance to invest in the employees by enabling and encouraging them ...

“I can’t get them to report their numbers,” he said with some frustration. It wasn’t just the reporting of the numbers that was an issue for this sales manager, it was the productivity of the entire team that was down, as well. This manager was more than frustrated, he was border line discouraged. I often heard, during our one-on-one coaching sessions, there was not enough time to ensure the numbers were reported. He would say, “The staff was already overloaded.” He would express to me that his organization was, “Short staffed and it wasn’t the staffs fault” Delegation of his tasks were not an option because the current assignments that he delegated were not being completed. I told him that if he was going to be a great leader, then he must embrace evolution management. Does the case above seem all too familiar? In the book, Servant-leadership Across Cultures: Harnessing the Strength of the World's Most Powerful Management Philosophy , the authors express the following abo...