7 Steps CRE Property Managers Need to Take Now for 2021 Success
So - you are a property manager in the commercial real estate space. You probably already know the anxiety of juggling several large properties while trying to manage an overwhelming load of photos, floorplans, and videos. Most people think property managers are simply landlords - but nothing could be further from the truth, right?According to an article published by iPropertyMangement about the state of the CRE industry, property managers often feel the pressure from service providers, brokers, and owners to quickly and effectively provide up-to-date information about a property at a moment's notice.[caption id="attachment_9039" align="aligncenter" width="523"]
Credit to iPropertyManagement for Property Management Industry Statistics[/caption]Commercial real estate property managers can waste hours trying to find the right file, locate a floor plan, or struggling to open a CAD file to answer a single maintenance question. For a team responsible for large commercial properties, the task of working with outside contractors, vendors, and service providers might feel like a big frustration sandwich.
These are the 7 steps that commercial real estate property managers can take to boost success in 2021:
The fact is that CRE property managers do not have to be stuck in the middle of profitability and growth with the right technology. If you are where the buck stops for all problems and solutions for a team of portfolio managers, asset managers, vendors, buyers, tenants, and brokers, it’s time to pass the buck to PocketBuildings to bundle, curate, and share all of your building data, videos, floor plans, files, and contracts in one place - at your fingertips.Here are the 7 steps that commercial real estate professionals can boost success in 2021:
Step 1: Decide to Use Smart Building Technology for Your Team.
This might seem like a mammoth task, but the reality is that it can be a one-time investment in making sure everything is safe and protected on a secure platform. When everyone owns separate parts of the building information infrastructure, files are lost when employees change jobs or individual parts of the construction is finished. A centralized hub shortens response time, prevents errors, and allows access based on their permission level without loss of time or files.
Step 2: Find the Right Smart Building Solution for Your Team.
Most property managers use a complex mixture of cloud-based solutions like Yardi, SalesForce, OneDrive, Dropbox, Box, Vimeo, Matterport, Docusign, and Argus to store and share data. The mixture of passwords and links floating around can be a painful combination of delays, errors, and data breaches. A smart building solution allows you to upload all of the building data into one centralized platform and share access instead of passing around sign-on and links exposing data to security risks.
Step 3: Gather All Media and Files Online for Each Building.
Integrate those local desktop folders full of files and media from online platforms into a one, easy-to-browse building profile. Having your files in an online profile using a smart building solution, allow you to collect and share your building information securely with stakeholders as well as present a professional appearance.
Step 4: Organize Your Buildings into Portfolios.
Placing your buildings in portfolios helps you create an organized, searchable structure to quickly locate materials and share with others. To create a portfolio, you simply type in some identifying information - like a name and an owner of the portfolio - and you are ready to add building content and share.
Step 5: Create Building Profiles for Buildings.
A professional profile for a building serves two purposes - forward-facing representation of the features of the building and safe storage of information for buyers, brokers, and service providers. Simply fill in a few details about the building such as the address, type of property, size, and portfolio you want to connect this building to form the foundation of the profile. After, you can add as much or little information as you want.
Step 6: Add Content Bundles to Each Profile.
Some property managers add all of their CAD files, floor plans, contracts, construction videos, marketing videos, and 3D tours to the content bundles. Since you can give access to a content bundle without exposing all of the sensitive information about your building, you can make your content bundles a true archive and roadmap forward for each property. Content bundles can become a one-stop platform for all building data from construction to marketing to leasing.
Step 7: Invite Brokers, Buyers, Service Providers, & Tenants.
Since you can share and assign permissions by portfolio, building, or content bundle, you can easily give brokers, buyers, tenants, and service providers access by permission level. If you want to delegate tasks to another team member or an employee leaves the company, changing access is a breeze with three quick clicks. No more links that expire or sharing login information.
Conclusion - CRE Property Manager Benefits
The obvious benefit of PocketBuildings for commercial real estate property managers is a huge time-saving. No longer do you have to engage in the painful time-suck of searching for files on a local computer or waiting until the right person is in the office to send a link. You can easily invite the right people with the right level of access with a few simple clicks.You can also share your buildings with other stakeholders - marketing, sales, operations, portfolio managers - to allow them to do their own work and streamline the interaction up and down the workflow. This means fewer calls and emails every day that starts with “could you do me a favor?” or “where do we keep a copy of _________.” When everyone can find what they need, everyone can do their job quicker and easier with less heavy lifting for property managers.
FAQs About PocketBuildings
1. How long does it take to set up a building?
On average, you can set up a building in less than three minutes. If you have a file with all of your photos, drawings, videos, and floor plans, then you can easily click and drag these materials into the file manager for easy upload. You can also link to Matterport 3D virtual tours, Vimeo, and YouTube channels.
2. How do content bundles help me streamline my efforts?
Content bundles allow you to give specific access to certain materials without sharing the whole building. For example, your vendor might need access to floor plans or CAD files to install a new sprinkler system. You can give them content bundle level access without sharing sensitive information like lease information or tenant lists.
3. Can I remove access to my buildings?
Yes. You can easily click on the X next to the person's name to remove their access after you finish a project or if a staff member leaves the company.
4. Do I need an AutoCAD license to view files?
No. PocketBuildings has a built-in AutoCAD viewer. Once you upload a CAD file into your content bundle, anyone with access can click on the file and it automatically opens in the viewer. You do not need an AutoCAD license to view files.
