Real estate agents who innovate their business and offer property management enjoy an extra source of income. This can supplement closing sales and even be a full-time business.
To use a cheesy cliche, no real estate agent is an island. Top-producing agents often have teams that support them. These include assistants, ISAs and closing coordinators.
Marketing
Marketing in real estate agents management is a broad term that includes strategies for brand awareness, lead generation and more. Ideally, a real estate agent will partner with an agency that has the industry knowledge and advertising tools needed to achieve their goals.
One way to do this is by implementing keyword marketing strategies, which promote properties on the basis of the keywords potential buyers use in search engines. Another method is through display advertising, which places ads on websites relevant to your target audience.
Additionally, creating content like blogs and articles can help establish an organic connection with your audience. However, avoid being overly salesy, as today’s consumers tend to avoid content that feels too pushy. Instead, offer insights and perspective that add value to your audience’s lives.
Tenant Screening
Tenant screening is a key component of real estate agents management, as it helps landlords find responsible tenants and avoid problems that can affect their profitability. It includes requesting a rental application and conducting a credit check and background check on potential tenants.
Landlords should also verify employment information and ask a series of questions that evaluate an applicant’s track record of punctual rent payments. In addition, landlords should interview potential tenants to evaluate their personality and professionalism.
When choosing a tenant screening service, landlords should consider their goals and benchmarks, as well as the laws regarding protected classes. For example, landlords must ensure that the criteria they set for income levels is reasonable in relation to their neighborhood norms. This will prevent them from discriminating against qualified applicants or wasting time on unqualified candidates.
Rent Collection
While it’s true that some real estate agents can manage rental properties, their primary responsibilities concern residential property sales. Real estate agents are able to help investors find a property that fits their needs and then guide them through the process of making an offer, going under contract, and closing.
Managing rental properties requires a different set of skills than facilitating real estate transactions. Rental property management is a monthly source of income and requires a long-term approach to tenant relationships.
One of the most important aspects of rental property management is rent collection. A property manager can collect rent through a variety of methods and aggressively enforce late fees to ensure that the owner receives their monthly payment on time. This is critical for maintaining cash flow.
Maintenance
Real estate agents arrange the sale, purchase, rental and leasing of properties on behalf of clients. Property managers typically manage a property portfolio for an owner or investor on a fee basis.
XL Real PM offers full-service management solutions that are customizable to the needs of your property with leasing and daily management. Their leasing services include marketing your vacancy, conducting property showings with licensed real estate agents, tenant screening, lease drafting and security deposit handling. Their daily management includes rent collection, 24/7 emergency maintenance coordination, inspections, reporting and legal compliance.
They work in coordination with condo and co-op boards to create a service plan that improves the building for all members while ensuring individual unit care, member communication, financial reporting, and legal compliance.
Accounting
Real estate agents often have many tasks to complete throughout the process of selling or buying properties. From brokerage fees to marketing costs and memberships fees, there are many different things that need to be tracked throughout the year.
A well-established accounting system is vital to ensure that real estate agents have a clear picture of their business finances. Using an easy-to-use cloud-based accounting software, agents can easily monitor their profit and loss statement, balance sheet, and other financial reports.
The key to real estate accounting is setting up a chart of accounts to organize the way that income, expenses, and assets are tracked. By implementing an effective and efficient accounting system, real estate agents can get the insight they need to make better strategic decisions for their business.
