CoLiving Property Management That Works

[Grant Shipman]

Coliving or Rent-By-The-Room rental properties are known for high turn over, tenant drama, and property damage.  Who else wants to join with me in setting a new standard here?!  Over the past 22 years I've refined how to manage coliving properties borrowing from the wisdom/tradition of subcultures who have done this for centuries.  It's clear to me that if there is high turnover, drama, property damage it has nothing to do with the type of rental strategy but the quality of its execution.  Who else is with me here?  Please share thought, questions, challenges, etc.  Time to turn the tides! 

[Grant Shipman]

Quote from @Erwin Groenendijk:

Quote from @Grant Shipman:

Quote from @Erwin Groenendijk:

Guys, the thing is that room rental is an old concept that is known as something students always did and managed themselves with all the challenges that bring. 

Yes, it is more management intensive. Also right on higher turn-overs, the drama of more people living together, and yes they also wear down furniture faster than a normal family would do that buys their furniture themselves. 

The thing is that coliving is based on the room rental strategy and yet at the same time something completely different management-wise. If you want to manage coliving spaces in the right way it is important to set up a proper structure that is including customer service, maintenance, cleaning, and community management (and more). Including weekly cleaning for example which is not only for cleaning purposes but also for maintaining the quality of the apartment with direct communication with the maintenance and customer service team. The margins coliving brings should be invested in these teams to maintain control.

The entry barrier to start a coliving space is low, the next steps to make it a steady, bigger thing is the tricky part.

We own a coliving business in Barcelona (Spain) with over 300 rooms (aiming at 1000 rooms in the upcoming three years) and had our fair share of **** coming at us in the last two years 😉 

 Cool to hear about your experience. I've seen operations like yours that off a lot of DFY services (i.e. cleaning).  I think this can work when targeted to a higher net income niche of people who don't want to clean up after themselves nor work-out how to be a household- Barcelona, San Fran, & London are excellent locals for this.  How's your turnover look and what are your lease lengths if you don't mind sharing.  Have you tried households that mostly self run with the tools/context that the PMC give them?  I'd love to hear what your conflict resolution system is between house members (what tool do they have to solve their own conflicts?).  This has been our secret sauce and greatly reduced turnover. 

Lease lengths are about 6 months in general and we try to manage the apartments ourselves to maintain the quality and the coliving experience we are after. For conflict resolutions, we are working intensively with the customer service team and we will be hiring a community manager who is constantly managing the more complex situations. 

Curious to hear how you guys have been dealing with this. 

 That's so cool that you are actively addressing the issue of housemate conflicts.  Relationships/households can NOT form or grow without conflict.  One this is for sure, if there's an absence of conflict there's an absence of relationships.  Conflict is a key means in how trust is grown and respect between two people moves from general respect to personal respect...  That is as long as the conflict is handled well.  We give our households (coliving houses) the tool of the "5 On 5 Process".  We adopted this from living co-ops that have perfected it over centuries of shared environments, and it is powerful in its simplicity and effectiveness.  99% of conflicts our Property Manager never hears about b/c the residents resolves their conflicts and build stronger relationships and households.  That said, we are working on how to maximize the 5 on 5 process with onboarding videos, as many are conflict avoidant.  We tell our residents to never miss the opportunity of a good conflict.  Conflict is a sign of life and caring. Most of what people want is waiting for them on the other side of a conflict.  How are you 6 month leases received compared to other lengths?