How Property Management Companies Help Investors Attract Quality Tenants
Find the right brands for your commercial property
The success of your commercial portfolio depends on the success of the businesses that occupy your properties. In this article we show you how to attract quality businesses to your property with the help of your Property Manager.
How do I Assess the Quality of a Prospective Tenant?
Successful landlords plan their leasing strategy to attract the best quality tenants for that property. Commercial property management consultants can help you develop a leasing strategy, coordinate leasing of vacancies with your leasing agents and provide tenant qualification and vetting.
Here are some criteria I use to assess the quality of a tenant in relation to my properties;
Does the Business Compliment my Existing Tenants? - In multi tenanted properties, having the right mix of businesses will help them support each other. If you place a fitness supplement store next to a gym, both businesses will benefit. Having a range of dining and takeaway options in one place also helps by giving diners options, think dining precincts and bustling food courts. And a café next to a post office or childcare center will benefit from foot traffic.
Does the Business Cater for the Population? - If you have office space outside of the CBD, you might want to include a coworking office space to cater for the increasing number of businesses that operate from home but need to rent space for meetings or projects. If you are on busy arterial roads, provide services for commuters. Be aware of what other businesses are in the area and focus on types of businesses that are not already over-represented in your catchment.
Is the Business Financially Strong? - Understanding your prospective tenants current financial position and background is essential to ensuring you lease your premises to quality tenants. Look for businesses with sufficient working capital to afford their fitout and the first 6 months lease costs while the business gets established, and sufficient assets to cover any personal guarantees. Quality tenants can easily display financial strength.
Does the Business already have a Strong Brand? - Successful franchises make great tenants, with tried-and-true systems, processes and the benefit of head office support. The other benefit of working with strong brands is that once you have established a good relationship with them, they may consider expanding into other properties you own in different areas. It is not essential to only lease to already successful brands, and start-up or new business can also be assessed as a quality tenant if they meet the other criteria.
CP Pro Tip: Invest in different types of commercial properties in different areas to spread your investment risk.
Strong Management is attractive to quality tenants
How can my Property Manager Help Attract Quality Tenants?
Strong property management is essential to attracting quality tenants. Here’s how your Property Manager should be helping you attract and retain quality tenants;
Manage Outgoings Costs
When you are leasing your premises one of your prospective tenants most important criteria is lease costs. Your rent may reflect the market rentals for the area, but if your outgoings costs are too high this can be a major deterrent to quality tenants. Professional property managers should have good relationships with preferred suppliers and should be able to negotiate reasonable contracts for the maintenance, cleaning and insurance for your property.
Providing a High Standard of Maintenance and Cleaning
It is so important that high standards of presentation are always maintained in your commercial property. No quality tenant wants to lease a property where there is litter, graffiti, or damage. Make sure external lighting is always working and car park lines are re-marked regularly. Attend to potholes and other damage quickly.
An important message for us all.
Manage Parking Issues
Parking is one of the biggest headaches you can experience in commercial properties. And without sufficient parking even the highest quality tenants will not succeed. Your property manager should have strategies to manage any parking issues, such as enforcement where necessary, to ensure the maximum parking is available for customers and clients.
Be Professional and Responsive
Absent or unresponsive property management is one of the biggest risks to your commercial portfolio. Your property manager is the interface between you and your tenants and they need to respond quickly and professionally to any issues your tenants may have.
Literally going the extra mile.
Go the Extra Mile
I consider my tenants to be valued clients and without them my business would not exist and my commercial property would just be a well-maintained building with great parking and easy access from a couple of major highways. Sounds nice, but it won’t pay the mortgage.
For me, going the extra mile means being proactive, dealing with issues before they escalate, helping tenants with problems even if it is not strictly within the scope of my contract, (like getting my electrician to change their light bulbs because the ceiling is too high for them to do it safely themselves). I also priorotise building relationships so tenants know they can come to me when they have a problem. All businesses go through change, be it expansion, contraction, growth or closure, if you are aware of these issues before they happen you can mitigate any losses or capitalise on opportunities.
A large percentage of my referrals for new tenants or clients come through my relationships with existing tenants.
If your property manager is able to go the extra mile for your portfolio it will result in more enquiry from quality tenants, higher tenant retention and better financial results for your portfolio.
If you are interested in hearing how CPP’s Property Management service can help you attract quality tenants to your commercial property, email me today. My initial consultation is always free.
Regards,
Kirstin
