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This is the time of year when vacation rental and investment property owners start taking a hard look at the revenues for the past 12 months and the quality of customer service that they and their guests received. With so many different property management firms and rental agencies to choose from in most markets, there is no need to suffer from lackluster performance on the part of your service provider.

Here are some thoughts to ponder when deciding whether to stay with your existing property management company or make a move to a better, more professional organization.

First and most important, are the owners of the company available when you need to talk to them or do you get sloughed off to an inexperienced trainee when it’s an important issue that you need help with? Does the firm have a lot of turnover or can you count on the same professionals to help you year after year? Do you get a level of customer service that gives you a warm feeling or is there something lacking and you deserve better? Is your property bringing in the revenues you expected and is the firm continually improving its marketing program?

If you don’t have complete confidence in the company that is marketing your property for vacation rentals or long term leases, then maybe it’s time to make a change.

When you are comparing the services and fees of property management firms it’s a bit like comparing apples and oranges. How do you accurately evaluate the sum total of all the various fees and expenses so you can estimate your annual net revenue? Are there hidden charges and monthly administrative fees that reduce your income? What is a fair commission rate to charge and what are the competitors in your market charging?

In Incline Village, the community where I work and live, the range of property management services and fee structures runs the gamut from bare bones to deluxe.
If you are perplexed and confounded by these issues, then you are not alone. It seems that many property management firms (especially in the vacation rental business) try to nickel and dime their clients to death with excessive charges for cleaning, maintenance, credit card fees, administrative charges, processing fees, the list goes on and on.

Some firms charge a monthly administrative fee on top of the commission that they earn for managing a property. One can make an argument in favor of charging monthly administrative fees for short term vacation rental properties as they require more hands on attention to paper work with guests always coming and going. But charging this type of fee to the owner of a long-term rental property when all the paper work is done up front when the lease is signed is merely a form of gouging and should not be tolerated.

Processing fees for vacation rental properties are another bone of contention. Why should an owner or an owner-guest pay a processing fee? Companies that engage in this practice are trying to squeeze every penny possible out of the people who are really their clients. If you, your extended family or your guests have ever been charged a processing fee for making a reservation to occupy your own property, then you should seriously consider finding a firm that has more respect for you as a client.

Cleaning fees are another area that merits scrutiny. As a property owner you should not be forced to pay a cleaning fee every time you use your place, especially if there are no paying guests coming to the unit between your personal visits. Also, you should not be required to pay exorbitant sums for the annual “spring cleaning” that many firms insist on doing. If your property is supposed to be cleaned thoroughly after each paying guest, then why does it take several hours and cost hundreds of dollars just to clean a 2 or 3 bedroom condo in the spring time? Are the cleaning services padding their bills? Should you as a property owner and client of the firm have excessive fees extracted from you just because someone at the management firm claims that it took X number of hours to do the work in a unit that should have been reasonably clean to begin with? If you’re skeptical about the charges for “spring cleaning”, then it’s best to either do the work yourself or hire a reputable independent cleaning service. The place will look just as good and you will save substantial amounts of money each year.

It is not always easy to find the right combination of great customer service, reasonable commission rates and high-quality care for rental properties. You can expect to find 2 of the 3, but finding all three things is very difficult. Since many firms in this business tend to experience high levels of staff turnover, finding a firm with a well-trained and stable pool of employees should be your first priority. Even if you have to pay a slightly higher commission rate, you will more than make up for it with increased bookings, better service and fewer problems.

If you own any type of rental property, then On-line booking capability is another big issue, especially when you realize that searching on the Internet is rapidly becoming the research method of choice for both vacation rentals and long term rentals. Any firm that does not offer this service is way behind the times and should not even be considered.

The Internet is a great tool for both marketing all types of rental properties and managing the vacation rental business. Just having a web site with pictures and text is not sufficient in these competitive times. If you are working with a property manager who refuses to set up on-line booking by the time you are reading this article, then it’s time to change services. Select a rental agent who cares enough about you as a client to market your property 24 hours a day on the Internet.

Remember, when the rental office is closed, the only way that someone can book your unit is on-line via the Internet. If your property manager does not offer this service, you are losing business. Customers who search on-line normally want to book on-line and they will go somewhere else if they cannot book your property at the moment they are ready to make to a buying decision!

Don’t settle for anything less than great customer service, a responsive, professional and well-trained staff and owners who are available and care about you and your property. Your rental property is a big investment and having the right management services can make a lot of difference in your annual rate of return and the long term value that you derive from the property.

“99% of advertising doesn’t sell a thing.”

Sounds like something a local real estate agent might say after paying for yet another ad that didn’t produce, right?

You might be surprised to learn that the quote actually belongs to David Ogilvy, legendary founder of one of the world’s largest and most successful advertising agencies.

Yikes – if a man regarded as a giant in the ad industry is so negative about advertising’s success rate, how should you feel?

The Bad News is the Good News…

There is an upside here. If so much of the advertising in your local market is ineffective, you can gain a significant edge on your competition by having a better local advertising strategy than other agents.

Advertising vs. Advertising Strategy

Notice that I said a better advertising STRATEGY, not simply better advertising. There’s a big difference.

A better ad might get you a few more leads in the short term. A better advertising strategy can help you to have a consistent, meaningful message in your advertising, and will position you to get more business from your local market on an ongoing basis.

With that in mind, here are three tips to help you define your advertising strategy, and put it into action:

1) Have a Strategic Objective In Mind BEFORE you Advertise

Advertising for the sake of “building awareness” is probably the fastest way to flush your advertising dollars away.

Before you even think about buying an ad, you must have a strategic objective in mind – after all, why should you pay for any type of ad unless it helps you to reach your objective.

Here are just a few questions that you might ask yourself before placing an ad to help define what you want your advertising strategy to do for you:

- If I could be known for just one thing in my local market, what would it be?

- Which part of the local real estate market is not currently well serviced by other agents? Is there potential in this neighborhood/age group/demographic profile?

- Which part of the local market is emerging and might be a driving force for sales in future years?

- What’s changing in my market right now – immigration, aging population, young families moving in, etc – and how do I capitalize on the change more effectively than my competitors?

If you can answer even some of these questions, you will probably be on your way to identifying the basis for an advertising strategy.

For example, you may determine that based on trends and current prices, your market will become increasingly popular with first time homebuyers. As a result, your strategic objective may be to use your advertising to become recognized as the local expert in serving first time homebuyers.

2) Have a Specific Objective for Each Ad you Place within your Strategy

With a clear objective as part of your advertising strategy, you can now think about investing in ads that support your objective.

Here’s a tip – you can create advertising that generates an immediate response while also serving to build your brand in a particular market.

Continuing with the above example, if you ran a series of ads in the local newspaper offering a free “First-Time Homebuyers Report” available from your website, you would actually be running a direct response ad (aimed at getting people to download the report) that also delivered a brand building message (the message being that you are the agent for first time homebuyers to call because you are the expert in that field).

You can measure the success of the ad by looking at the number of downloads from your site while the ad was running – since generating downloads was the specific objective of the ad. If the ads don’t generate enough downloads to justify the cost, pull them or change them. Ads are only valuable if they get you closer to achieving your strategic objective.

3) Be Consistent

All of your advertising (online, print, directory, flyers, etc) should be similar in both style and substance within your advertising strategy.

Yes, a consistent look and style for your ads is important to help you get recognized in a competitive market.

But even more important is being consistent when it comes to the messages in your ads. You can’t buy a Yellow Pages ad that promotes you as the leader in client service, and then advertise your “low low price” in the local newspaper, and then distribute flyers that try to promote you as the family real estate expert.

Your messages can’t conflict! Again, here’s where an advertising strategy comes in. With a strategic objective in mind for your advertising, you will be able to focus your advertising dollars on communicating a single, clear message to potential clients about why they should call you.

An Advertising Strategy is Critical to your Success

If Mr. Ogilvy was right, then most of the advertisers out there in your real estate market are getting it wrong. This creates a huge opportunity for you to use an advertising strategy to drive business and outdo your competitors.

- Have a Strategic Objective for all of your Advertising – Know what you want to say about your business, and who you want to say it to within your local market.

- Have an Objective for Each Ad – Measure each ad’s results against the strategic objective you are trying to achieve – if you don’t, how will you know if the ads were successful or not?

- Be Consistent – Make sure all of your ads are focused on helping you reach your strategic objective by communicating a clear message to the market.

Advertising can be a tough game, but so can real estate. And in both cases, those with a well thought out strategy will almost always succeed over those that don’t have a plan.