A Successful Property Manager Must Have an Owner’s Perspective

{Read in 5 Minutes} Potential clients, referral partners, and other professionals often ask me, “Eric, what distinguishes you from all the other property managers out there? Why should I hire you?” My answer is simple, yet deep. “I manage with an owner’s perspective.”

Not all property managers manage the buildings under their care with an owner’s perspective. Most don’t. A small number do. What does this mean? What does it mean to have an owner’s perspective? Why does it matter?

What is an “Owner’s Perspective?”

Simply put, to manage from an owner’s perspective, property managers must act as though they own the building when analyzing problems and formulating solutions. Now, by “act as though they own the building” I do not mean that they should walk the halls of the building dictating orders to others like they’re the owner. That kind of attitude doesn’t help anyone. What I mean is that property managers must ask themselves things like:

“If I owned this building, what would I do to solve the problems this building is facing right now?” or “If I owned this building, what would I do to proactively avoid future problems?”

But these questions must not be asked as an afterthought — to truly have an owner’s perspective, property managers must internalize this way of thinking so that they approach every aspect of their management relationship from this perspective. It means property managers must have a particular attitude, and not just formulate a few questions to ask in order to convince themselves that they are doing right by their client. In truth, property managers who manages with an owner’s perspective never really ask themselves those questions — they live that attitude and viewing the building’s management from an owner’s perspective becomes their default way of approaching everything about the building.

Why does having an owner’s perspective matter?

To properly understand the importance of having an owner’s perspective, one must understand what the opposite of an owner’s perspective entails. If you don’t manage with an owner’s perspective, this means you are – at best – managing from a manager’s perspective. In other words, you are a manager-for-hire and you act like it. Think about it. If you owned a piece of rental property, or you were a condo or co-op board member looking to hire a property manager, would you be happy hiring someone with the following attitude:

“I am going to manage this property for pay and I will treat this property like I am being paid money to manage it.”???

Of course you wouldn’t be happy with a property manager with this kind of attitude.

Who would?

A manager-for-hire lacks the concern over the wellbeing of the building that an owner has. A manager-for-hire would rather spend the owner’s money to solve a problem and no time or effort of their own developing the strategy to solve the problem — after all, it’s easier to spend as little of your own time as possible while spending someone else’s money to solve a problem.

By contrast, an owner does not think this way. An owner’s process is the opposite of a manager-for-hire’s. An owner will put much thought and effort into solving a problem before spending any money. The problem is thought out, a cost-benefit analysis is performed, potential problems are considered, and their solutions charted out. Affordability plays a big factor in the consideration. Short-term and long-term consequences are examined. All of this happens before the owner spends one penny on the solution to the problem. A manager with an owner’s perspective does this — a manager-for-hire does not. It’s that simple.

A manager with an owner’s perspective will thus manage a building by investing time, concern, effort, and care as though they own the building themselves because that’s what the owner would do.

And THAT makes all the difference in the world.