Advantages of the Commercial Property Management Transfer Checklist
When a new property manager takes over the management of a client’s property, they must take full and professional control through a handover strategy and process. Every property will have its challenges and some are quite complex.
The transfer process will necessarily cover all current property issues plus occupancy history and financial performance. If the property is large and has many tenants, the process takes a long time. A checklist will help you stay on track and accurate.
So how do you start with all this? Here are a few things to help you get started and put them on a transfer checklist. This will help you attract new clients and properties to your brokerage portfolio. You can add to this list the area factors and the things you know are important for the property type:
- Interview previous property manager about property and tenants. If possible, make an audio recording of the process on your cell phone or MP3 recorder. The information from the interview will be invaluable as you move into property management in the future.
- Get a copy of the lease schedule. While you shouldn’t think of it as accurate (because you haven’t verified it yet), it will give you something to work with. Always remember that the lease schedule is only as good as the person who gave it to you. In a handover process, you may not get the accuracy you expect.
- You will need copies of the lease agreements to compare with the lease schedule. When you have many tenants in a property, you will need to verify many lease agreements, in addition to other occupancy documentation. It requires personal involvement. Each lease must be read and verified. Potentially, each lease can be different and special. You will need to understand the differences and include them in your property management control system.
- Get copies of current rental bills. Rental invoices should be checked to see if the rents are correct and should be compared to the property’s lease agreements. Also watch out for rent changes and critical dates on those leases that will impact rent.
- Consult the delinquency and seniority reports to know the status of the actions and rental recoveries.
- Get an up-to-date tenant contact list so you know who to talk to in the tenant mix and how to reach them.
- Get an outgoing status report and an updated expense report. That will give you an idea of how expensive the property is to run compared to others of a similar type in the same area.
So now that you have all the basic information about the property, it’s a matter of going through the information and making sure you understand the factors and pressures. You can then inspect the property with some confidence.
