Most New Owners Call Multiple Property Managers

When a property owner decides they might want a property manager, they usually don’t call just one company. They go on Google, search for property management companies, and start calling down the list.

They’re usually asking the same questions. How much do you charge? What areas do you cover? How soon can you start? How many properties do you manage? Can you handle maintenance? How do you deal with tenants?

The company that answers the phone, talks to them, and schedules a call first usually has a big advantage. Not always because they are the best company, but because they were the first company the owner actually spoke to.

If you want to see how this would work in your property management company, you can see how this would work for your property management company.

A Lot Of These Calls Happen While You’re Busy

The problem is most property management companies are busy during the day. You’re dealing with tenants, maintenance issues, vendors, showings, inspections, accounting, and owner communication. So when a new owner calls, you might be in the middle of something and can’t answer.

So the call goes to voicemail, and you call them back later.

But by the time you call them back, they may have already spoken to two other property managers. And one of them may have already scheduled a call or a meeting with them.

That’s how a lot of management accounts are lost before you even get a chance to talk to the owner.

One New Owner Can Be Worth Thousands Per Year

Let’s make the numbers simple.

Let’s say you manage a property that rents for $2,000 per month and you charge 10%. That’s $200 per month in management fees from one property.

$200 per month × 12 months = $2,400 per year from one property.

Now imagine you miss just 2 new owner calls per week that would have turned into management accounts.

2 properties per week × $2,400 per year = $4,800 per week in annual management value

$4,800 per week × 52 weeks = $249,600 per year

That’s a quarter of a million dollars per year in management revenue from calls you never answered or followed up with too late.

When you look at it like that, the phone is not just the phone. It’s where new doors come from. If you want to see how companies are fixing this, you can see how this captures new owner calls automatically.

Tenant Calls Also Take Up A Huge Amount Of Time

On top of new owner calls, your office is also getting calls from tenants all day. Maintenance requests, rent questions, lease questions, move-in questions, move-out questions, and general issues.

Those calls are important, but they also take up a lot of time and interrupt the day constantly. So your team spends a lot of time reacting to the phone instead of focusing on leasing, owner communication, and growing the portfolio.

When calls get answered, filtered, and organized first, your team can focus on the work that actually grows the company instead of being interrupted all day by the phone ringing.

After Hours Is When Many Owners Actually Call

A lot of property owners have full-time jobs. They don’t call property managers at 10:30 in the morning. They call at 6:30 at night when they’re home, sitting at the computer, researching property managers.

If your office is closed and the phone goes to voicemail, that owner will usually just call the next company on the list. But if someone answers, talks to them, and schedules a call for the next day, you now have a real opportunity to win that account.

This is one of the biggest missed opportunities in property management. After-hours owner calls are often very serious inquiries.

If you want to see what this would look like with after-hours calls being answered and scheduled automatically, you can see how this works for property managers here.

This Is Really About Capture And Follow-Up

Most property management companies don’t lose owners because they’re bad at managing property. They lose owners because another company answered first, followed up faster, and got the meeting scheduled first.

The companies that grow the fastest usually have systems in place so that every call gets answered, every lead gets logged, and every owner gets followed up with quickly.

That’s really what this changes. It makes sure the opportunities that are already coming in actually get captured and turned into new management accounts.

What This Means Over The Next Few Years

If you add even 2 or 3 new properties per month because more calls are being answered and more owners are being scheduled, that’s 24 to 36 new properties per year. Over a few years, that turns into a much larger portfolio without dramatically increasing your marketing.

That’s why a lot of property management companies start focusing heavily on call handling once they realize how many new owners actually start as phone calls.

If you want to see what this would look like specifically for your call volume, your office hours, and your leasing process, you can see how this would work for your property management company, see real examples of companies using this, or see how quickly something like this could be set up for you.

At the end of the day, most property management growth comes down to adding more doors. And a lot of new doors start with a phone call. The companies that make sure every one of those calls gets answered and followed up with quickly usually grow faster than the companies that let those calls go to voicemail and try to call people back later.