The Warriors won the NBA title this month in an exciting series versus the Boston Celtics. Steph Curry, the star of the team (and local Charlotte product!), won NBA Finals MVP and fellow starters Andrew Wiggins and Klay Thompson played well. But one of the major reasons they were able to pull off a series victory was the play of their bench. Less heralded Warrior’s players- namely Jordan Poole, Kevin Looney, and Gary Payton, Jr.- gave the team great minutes while the starring players weren’t on the court. “Strength in Numbers” was the team’s slogan during the regular season and it continued in the playoffs leading to an NBA Championship.
This is also applicable for landlords utilizing the vendors they have to do maintenance and repairs on their rental homes. I got a call last week from someone interested in our property management services. When asked what prompted the call, she said that her handyman had gone back to the workforce; this left her without anyone she trusted to do the work on her rental home in a timely, well done, and reasonably-priced manner. I could empathize.
When COVID hit, many people who had little time to make home improvements suddenly became very interested in their homes. Part of it was being home and seeing many of the issues their homes had that they had ignored. Some of it was just making improvements so they could enjoy their home as they were around much more. Either way, it led to vendor demand to increase which led to scarcity of vendor availability and price increases. This hit property managers as well. The advantage swung to vendors as they had more work than they could handle, putting them in a position to refuse jobs and not call prospective customers back. This trend continues now.
The good news for experienced property managers is that most have a deep bench of vendors. While we use many of our “stars” regularly to service our homes (and have for years), it is helpful to have a list of secondary vendors who are proven to do good work. Going to Google as sudden needs arise and hoping that a vendor is going to provide tenants a good experience is not ideal. It is far better to incorporate new vendors on a regular basis on smaller jobs to ascertain if they meet expectations. Cultivating a good vendor list is an asset that makes a property manager’s job much easier and keeps owner clients and tenants happy.
Though property managers have a built-in advantage of managing large number of homes which can make working with them attractive (repeat business), smaller landlords can also build good vendor lists by:
- Being courteous with vendors and trying to make things easy for them
- Paying quickly and in full
- Providing pictures and details upfront of what needs to be done so they can minimize trips and maximize their revenue
- Working with their schedules and only accelerating issues that are truly time-sensitive
- Providing referrals to them from friends and family that need similar services
- Writing 5-Star Google reviews (when warranted)
The Warriors would arguably not have gone far in the playoffs and won a championship if they did not allow their bench players to play meaningful minutes and make them feel like a valued part of the team. Smart landlords should do likewise and use secondary vendors on occasion so they are in the fold and can be utilized when the need arises.
Happy Landlording!
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