The Fifth Rule of Thumb – Do You Need A Full Time or Part Time Manager

The first thing that you need to look at when you are trying to decide if you need a full time or part time manager is the size of your property. If you only have a few units, you don’t need a full time manager. However, if you have hundreds of units, you are probably going to want someone there all the time. An easy way to decide is to look at the square footage of the property. Any property with more than 40,000 square feet should probably have a full time manager. If it is less than 35,000 square feet, you can probably get away with a part time manager.

You should never wait to hire your manager. You want to have your manager hired and completely trained before you close on your property, or you are ready to open your doors for business. If you wait until after you have your certificate of occupancy before you hire someone, you will already be a month behind.

Your manager can work on learning your software and your systems before you open your doors. They can work on creating brand awareness by posting on social media and managing your websites. The worst thing that could happen is that you could open your doors the first day and have a long line of potential renters and a manager that doesn’t know how to use your computer system. You will lose a lot of potential renters that way.

When you are trying to decide if you should have a manager onsite, there are several things that you should keep in mind. Mondays are busy phone days. You want to make sure that your manager is available to answer the phone on Mondays. Tuesday and Wednesday are slow. These may be good days to give your manager off. If you want to change that, run ads with specials that will encourage people to rent from you on those days.

Thursday and Friday are busier, but Saturdays are crazy. Everyone wants to get that stuff out of their house now. This is why you can charge more on Saturdays. Sundays are calmer except between noon and two.

If you don’t feel like you can justify a full time manager, then make sure that you have a part time manager or employee that can be available between 4 and 6 p.m. on Monday Wednesday and Friday and all day Saturday. This will help you cover your busiest times.

Most of your tasks can be done online. There is software that will allow your tenants to reserve and rent the units online. You still need to have your manager show them the property and try to upsell them a better location, or packing supplies. However, you won’t miss out on clients just because your manager isn’t available 24/7.

No matter what type of manager you decide to have, make sure that you have someone who is well trained. Your manager can be the key to your self-storage facility. Success. Find the right balance for your facility. As always, happy investing.

The Fifth Rule of Thumb – Do You Need A Full Time or Part Time Manager?