Commercial Property Management... Where Do I Begin?

[Christopher Gamboa]

I’ve been managing a strip center a few industrial warehouses and some flex space for a couple of months now and things have been going pretty well so far but I know I can be doing more to get these properties to up to there max potential. The only problem is I’m not sure how to did that? If there are any commercial property managers on here that are willing to help and share some tips on how they manage there buildings I’d really appreciate it. A couple of questions I’ve been trying to answer are how do you schedule regular maintenance on the properties? How are you tracking income and expense on your properties? And is property management software worth it if so which ones? I know Ive got a lot to learn to in the property mangement fIeld and hopefully some more experIenced Property Mangers can poInt me In the rIght dIrectIon. Any help would really be appreciated! Christopher Gamboa

[Jeff Kehl]

@Christopher Gamboa I'm an investor not a PM so take this for what it's worth. But if you were managing for me I would absolutely expect you to be using software to track income/expenses, rent roll and leases and to create periodic reports. 

In terms of what you could be doing, my main ask would be to focus on raising income through rents or ancillary services and lowering expenses where possible. If the property is on a long-term or net-lease there might not be much you can do in this regard.

But in that case, the value you'd provide would be more strategic and relational by maintaining contact with the tenants and keeping up with what's going on in their industry and that specific business.

CCIM training would be a great start. I'd also expect you would be networking with the local chamber of commerce/economic development groups.