Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/119220
COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVE The Top 5 Ways To Keep Your Manager Focused And On Track By Dave Reynolds A All right, so you've got a manager for your manufactured home community. You've got a lot depending on them – if they fail, you are unlikely to hit your budget. So how can you best insure that this person you've hired is going to be a success? There are really five key drivers to the success of a manager. And if you fail to follow these, your chances of winning are slim. Hire the Right One It goes without saying that a lousy management candidate will be a lousy manager. Yet many community owners settle for the first warm body that will take the job. Don't follow this pattern of behavior, because it's harder to fire someone than to never have hired them before. If you interview the candidate and you can immediately see that they have poor people skills, poor judgement, the inability to see things the same as you do, and some dark side (drinking is probably the most common), then don't hire them regardless of how desperate you are. Instead, go back to the well and look for another candidate. If you are trying to hire someone that already lives in the community, then go on to the next. If you are hiring from outside, then run another ad. Taking the easy way out on hiring always ends up in disaster. Proper Training Even if you hire a good candidate, they will fail without proper training. You will need to go out and spend a day or so with the new hire and show them how everything should be done. If you do not have the time or interest in doing this, then utilize a third-party to train them, such as the Certified Community Manager training program at www.CCM.com). But don't even think about avoiding training all together. How in the world can anyone do a job to your satisfaction if you don't even bother to show them what the job looks like in the first place? Mystery Shopping We mystery shop our managers weekly. Why? Because it's essential that we know exactly what happens when a customer calls. Do they say the right thing? Do they answer at all? If you have manufactured homes to rent or sell in the community, then you cannot possible succeed unless the manager answers the phone in a professional way, and then encourages the customer to come down and look at what's available. When we have had homes sit unsold in a certain park, we have always found that the problem could have been easily avoided by mystery shopping the manager – that's why we now do it weekly. What is mystery shopping? Basically, it's calling the manager – pretending to be a potential customer – and seeing what they manager says and does. It's been a staple of the apartment industry for decades. Constant Review of the Collections List Nothing is going to get your community into trouble faster than unpaid rent. Without income coming in the door, how are you going to pay the bills? The manager that delays or refuses to file evictions will sink your ship faster than the Titanic. That's why we review the collections report with each manager weekly. We even compare the current period to past periods, to watch for progress or failure. We cannot afford to have managers who are not going through the steps to make sure we get paid. This type of analysis is simple: you billed X and you've collected Y – so what's the amount uncollected. Obviously, by the end of the month it better be near zero, or things are not going to work out. Friday Fax If you do not stay in contact with your manager, then they are going to think you really don't care and just let everything drop. However, staying in contact can often fall into a waste of time, with the manager droning on about meaningless items or even personal stories. Instead, make them focus and send you the important information relating to the property on the same day every week, so that you can see what they're doing at all times. Information would include any move-outs or move-ins, status on delinquencies, repair issues, etc. Conclusion When managers fail, it's normally because the owner has either hired the wrong person, trained them incorrectly, or failed to give them the key drivers that you want watched over. The good news is that these fatal flaws can all be avoided with simple strategies and little cost. Since the manager is the only thing you have in the field, shouldn't you do whatever you can to make them succeed? T J Dave Reynolds has been a fixture in the manufactured home community industry for nearly 20 years. In addition to ranking as the 18th largest owner of manufactured home communities in the U.S., his websites www.MHBay.com , www.MobileHomeParkStore.com and www.MobileHomeUniversity.com are the industry leaders, garnering over 75,000 page views per day. You can reach Dave at Dave@mhps.com. APRIL 2013 7 THE JOURNAL