A new year is perfect time to reflect on the past twelve months through a lens of confidence for jobs well done and assessment for what could be done better. With the idea of new year’s resolution in mind, this period of reflection gives you a glimpse of what 2016 might have in store for you.
Think of the new year as a fresh start to accomplish all those things you have been wanting to do to to make your personal and professional life feel more complete.
For property managers, organizational and financial goals tied to a January 1st start date make sense. Starting a new year with an organized system helps you track financials and manage reports throughout the year, which is very helpful come tax time or when facing an audit. Proper organization will also aid in achieving your financial goals, as efficiency becomes streamlined and processes are monitored.
One of the most daunting tasks, however, in creating actionable new year’s resolutions is the crutch in knowing that the majority of the population never sees a resolution through to completion. Psychology Today recognizes tendencies for resolution failure to include personal reluctance and setting unrealistic goals and expectations. This means that a person should be emotionally ready to take the steps towards success and give themselves achievable goals with realistic results and benchmarks.
Other studies suggest, successful resolutions stem from clearly defined goals, accountability, and creating small habits that will eventually shape overall behavior. While creating a bucket list of behaviors for a better you is great activity, focusing on just one or two of these goals for your New Year’s resolutions helps make them more reachable. Sharing your resolutions with your friends, family, and coworkers creates an accountability system, making you more likely to follow through. And developing small habits that positively relate to your resolution will assist in a gradual, overall behavior change that will stick well beyond 2016.
Taking these suggestions for success into account, let’s revisit a popular resolution for property managers in 2016 – getting organized.
What does getting organized mean to you?
- Are you looking for a way to organize your files?
- Do you want to track income and expenses more efficiently?
- Are you losing track of maintenance requests and the status of a work order?
- Do you need a better way of collecting rent payments so you aren’t chasing down checks all over town?
- Are you looking to create a better accounting system for your properties, owners and tenants?
Creating a list of what you need to do to be more organized makes the overall resolution more achievable with clearly defined goals to tackle. From this list you can start doing research on ways to achieve these goals by developing small habits that will lead you to success.
This might mean spending a few hours a day mastering excel to track your properties, owners and tenants, or finding a system to help you manage maintenance requests.
The good news is, there are already great tools made specifically for property managers to get more organized in 2016. Property management software is an affordable way to organize all your business tasks through a simple-to-use, online system. Rental software provides powerful solutions for property managers to manage and track unlimited properties, owners, and tenants.
Software solutions help property managers tackle every organizational goal by giving them the tools to :
- Store files related to tenants and properties online, safely and securely, for easy access.
- Manage recurring transactions such as: utility billing, landscaping, or supplemental fees, that you may charge your tenants by letting the software automatically generate charges whether you are at a computer or not.
- Access multiple management reports to show property performance that can be emailed directly to an owner.
- Enter and track your own work orders, or allow tenants to place their own repair requests via the tenant portal
- Accept rent payments online from your tenants via ACH or credit card, and see the funds automatically deposited into your account, on time, every month.
- Access full bank, property and tenant accounting, plus powerful owner and security trust accounting.
While most people might struggle to get through the year sticking to their resolution, the right property management software gives property managers the chance to be part of the winning crowd who successfully achieve their New Year’s resolutions!
Here’s to a happy and prosperous New Year!
