Rob Agate operates Agate Properties in Pittsburgh, PA. He is also a Zillow Rental Network member.
Rob Agate has property management in his blood. His father and uncle started the family business in 1985 with 6 units and grew from there to the 400 units Rob operates today. Rob started buying units himself at age 21, and when his father retired, Rob started managing those units too. He?s got a team of property managers and a maintenance staff, and has a lot of tips on how to bring property management from tradition to the 21st century.
?It?s all fundamentally about problem solving.?
Everyone should take their own approach to property management in order to feel gratified by the job. For Agate, that?s taking and breaking down problems. ?Honestly, a lot of people hate owning multifamily properties because they?re scared of bad experiences with tenants,? he says. ?I enjoy problem solving because that?s what it?s all about, whether its upset tenants or empty units or managing tough situations with employees. Just trying to make everyone walk away a winner: tenants, employees, property owners. Everyone walks away with a smile on their face, and feeling respected. There are always problems and not everyone is always happy but it?s how you take care of them when it happens.?
?If you use the same policy, you?ll always get the same results.?
Agate is a big proponent of seamless process. ?People enjoy that, and financially and legally, always treating everyone the same is the best thing to do,? he explains. ?For example, with late rent, or broken leases, have a policy in place and be consistent. Don?t bend the rules ? it sounds mean and bad but it can be seen as discriminatory because you pick and choose who you?re nice to.?
It also makes things easier for employees. ?If you use the same policy, you?ll always get the same results,? continues Agate. ?All your people will have the same results too: property managers, leasing agents, and any player at your company. Train everyone employees and tenants that you?re consistent. It will help when it comes to legal problems. And No matter who you hire you can place into that system and they?ll produce the same results.?
In executing on his tenet of consistency in policy, Agate also took one drastic, yet profitable, step. ?When my father retired is when we closed down a few offices and made one office,? he says. This has freed up those units for rent, allowed tenants to get ahold of management more easily, and increased staff productivity in his business.
?Every time there?s something new, we get it.?
Agate?s personal interest in technology happens to have contributed to his company?s bottom line. Being an early adopter of new technologies and programs has made his company more organized and more efficient. Agate describes, ?We do everything from mobile. Everyone has iPhones and iPads. We?ve got all our calendars shared on our phones, so everyone can see where they can find anyone at the company, and we sign all our leases on iPads.? They also access all their leasing materials and archives from their phones and tablets using cloud services like Dropbox and Zillow Rental Premier. ?You can log in anywhere, and you don?t have to drive 40 minutes to the office to access information.?
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Source: http://www.zillow.com/blog/pro/2012-12-12/rental-industry-scoop-rob-agate/
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