Run your property like a chess board.

Welcome to the property management blog, our diary of the property management business.

I had the chance to tour a self storage facility yesterday that has a site manager who likes to know his property and run it efficiently. This is not always the case with property managers. Some let the properties run them.

One thing this manager, Jim, does that helps him run his property is to look at his units as inventory. I know this is not news to any of you that rental units are inventory. But Jim also manages the flow of inventory. He segments his units a few steps further than most people, so he has a better handle of when units will be ready to lease, how challenging it will be to rent them, who he should put in them and how long he expects the renters to stay.

We all hope that our management software helps us manage and massage our inventory to understand it and direct it better. But do your site managers have this information in their heads? Do they visualize their property has a flowing inventory stream?

There is some power in this point of view that helps you use your units like chess pieces, knowing what pieces move in which directions at which times. In this way, if you have a unit that moves like a rook, you can use it like a rook and make it work well for you. If you try to move that rook like a horesman, your plan will be frustrated.

This also allows your site managers to be proactive and look several moves ahead in the game. There is a lot of power in that. Look at how your staff visualizes their properties. Do they have the best pictures in their heads?

bye for now, Tron

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