So once you know what you’re looking for in a property manager, it’s time for the hunt to begin.  The key is for the candidates to come to you.  For one, you want to cut down on the time and effort you have to spend in this process, and for two, when the candidates come to you they are demonstrating that they want the job.  They are pursuing an opportunity, vs you twisting someone’s arm into taking you on as a client.

Have you ever shopped property management companies?  If you have, you’ll notice this approach is a stark contrast.  Enough calling around waiting for returned calls, dealing with take it or leave it attitudes, and reviewing BS management contracts.  The process I’m talking about sets up a filter, and you only deal with the gems that make it out of the small spout.

You need to write an ad and put it in the paper in the employment section.  This is going to cost you about $300 if you leave it in for a month, and I recommend you do in order to get a lot of inquiries.  It’s important to think about the wording of your ad, and what it instructs the candidates to do.

I care that my manager lives or works close to my units, so I’ll put the general location of the units in the ad.  I’ll also put full or part time and the number of units.  I include a couple of skills that are required, let them know I’ll be training them, and then there’s instructions for how to inquire.  By letting them know I’ll be training them, management companies understand that they need not apply.  I don’t want them.

I put an email address in the ad as the only contact information.  Why?  This instantly weeds out anyone who’s not online or competent with a computer.  I don’t want to take calls.  I do want to see what the candidates say when they email, what their email address is, how they write, what their grammar is like, what information they volunteer, etc.  This is a fascinating process!  I use an anonymous email address that my tenants and current property manager won’t recognize if they were to see it.  No need to rock the boat there.

My ad says to email for more info and an application.  Seems simple enough.  I would expect people would write something like:

Hi, my name is Mike Steeler and I saw your ad in the paper for a property manager.  Please forward me more information and an application.  Thank you.

I get all kinds of responses.  I get resumes (which I largely ignore), I get questions about the hours, one guy asked if he could bring his kids to work, I hear about recent divorces and the need to make money for retirement, and I get sales pitches as to why I should hire them for the job.  Whoa bessy!  Just follow the process.  No matter what comes in, I respond with a written job description and an application.  These are simple Word docs that have no tricky formatting and are designed to be edited by the applicant.

If someone is emailing from someone else’s email account, I make note of that.  They might be needing to go to a friend’s to use the computer.  If they can’t spell or write in all caps, I make note of that.  If they print out my app, handwrite the answers, then scan it in and email it back that way, I know they are clueless and had someone else do the technical end of it.  If they don’t answer all the questions, it goes right in the circular file.

The last part of my application asks the candidate to attach a picture of where they live and their vehicle.  I want to see where they live for two reasons:

  • I’m looking at how neat and clean the exterior is
  • I want to see if it’s an apartment

Now they could send me a pic of a house and they could be renting the house, but I also ask in the application when the last time was that they rented.  I don’t want a renter.  I want someone who owns.  This is huge!  Owners understand how to maintain a property, they appreciate what goes into it, and they understand that costs can get out of hand if you aren’t careful.  Renters don’t understand any of this, and they live within the world of tenancy.  They think like a tenant because they are a tenant.  Renter status is an instant dealbreaker for me.

I ask for a picture of their car in cases when hauling stuff might be necessary, such as a lawnmower between buildings.  Other than that, I don’t really judge what kind of vehicle they drive.  I just want to see that they have a reliable one.

Finally, I have them email photos because it’s another filter.  I need them to own a digital camera and I need them to know how to email photos to me.  I’ve had applicants tell me they don’t have a camera so they weren’t able to send pics, or that they had to borrow one, or that they’d send them later, etc.  Delete those responses.

My experience has been that I get about 5:1 inquiries for every completed application.  Many people look at the job description and app and I don’t hear back from them.  I’ve received a couple of nasty grams back - people saying that they are a manager and don’t expect to clean, mow lawns, etc.  They have 20 yrs experience and don’t do those jobs.  Great.  Next! 

Someone with a lot of experience could easily be a detriment to me.  They will likely be set in their ways and won’t be teachable.  I don’t claim to be right about how I do everything, but I know that I’ve plowed my own ground with how I’m running my business and I’m not interested in norms.  Norms represent mediocrity.  I’m not interested in average results.

Next time I’ll talk about some of the serious inquiries I received and how I chose who to interview and ultimately who to select.