Building structures are only as good as the care and maintenance they are accorded. As a property owner, you’re responsible for keeping up with constant care, repair, and management of your commercial property. Below are some tips that will help you manage a commercial property.
1. Have a Strategy
Like every other activity you set out to do, having a strategy in place to help you manage a commercial property is important. It’ll give you a clear picture of your end goal regarding how improved and up to standard you want your commercial properties to be. That said, there’s much to do when managing a property. The trick is to prioritize what is most important to avoid your tenants’ feeling like their needs aren’t being met. For this, create an open line of communication so they can tell you what will benefit them the most.
Schedule your days and the respective repair and maintenance tasks per your correspondence with the involved parties. Commercial properties like school buildings are high-traffic areas for the most part. If possible, wait for schools to close before embarking on major necessary repairs to avoid inconveniencing children in a private school program. With commercial properties like a hall or entertainment buildings where traffic is almost always peak, you can close down for a few days to conduct the needed maintenance. With such properties, you must inform the locals of the upcoming closure so they can schedule their days around it.
2. Coverage Costs
As part of your efforts to manage a commercial property, research on what kind of commercial building insurance you should get. The amount you spend on premiums will mainly depend on the value of your commercial building. The rates might be higher if your property is located in a place with higher risks of heavy storms, natural disasters, or places prone to fires like California. However, it’s not about the amount but the benefits. With insurance, you get financial protection for losses incurred from theft or property damage.
Commercial property insurance will also help businesses as lenders and investors associate your property with less risk. In some cases, lenders require property owners to maintain insurance coverage for the term of their mortgage on a commercial building. Without one, they won’t approve your application.
3. Invest in Waste Management
Commercial buildings produce a lot of waste. Therefore, to manage a commercial property, you must devise a plan for waste removal and proper disposal. In the spirit of going green to cut environmental pollution, start by reducing waste production. You can change how you design and acquire your goods and materials if it’s not environmentally friendly. For example, using double-sided printing for papers to save on paper.
Begining a waste sorting system for your tenants and residents is also a good idea. It will minimize environmental damage by helping you properly dispose of each type of waste. Besides that, partner with waste disposal professionals in your local area. Here, explore your options through online and on-the-ground research to get the best. Investing time in this will be crucial because you need professionals who will also be attentive to your property’s hygiene.
You’ll also want to adopt a recycling program for the waste produced. Look for local metal recycling companies near you. Pick an affordable, professional, and reliable one because it’s a service you require often.
4. Hire Management Contractors
To manage a commercial property and ensure the smooth running of everything, you must stay on top of regular repair and maintenance. You’ll thus need to regularly hire the relevant professionals because you may lack the expertise for that. As with any other professional service, you must research extensively to get the best general contractors. Look up different companies online and look at their reviews from former clients. You can also ask for referrals from friends or family.
In vetting your building contractor, ask about the experience and make sure you choose those with more years in the job. Ensure that they are qualified and licensed to do the job. Ask for their estimate and compare it to other potential contractors to pick the best bid within your budget.
A great tip to help you manage a commercial property is to have a contractor on retainer for the building’s repair and maintenance. Doing this will help facilitate prompt action, which is key to ensuring a conducive environment for your tenants. Don’t wait for issues to arise; start looking for someone to help with maintenance now.
5. Adopt Preventive Maintenance Habits
Your primary role is ensuring the flawless running of the commercial building. The reputation and value of your commercial building will be directly tied to how functional it is. In your efforts to manage a commercial building, you have to be proactive in solving the minor faults within the structure before they become more significant problems.
Listen to your tenants and look for a working system through which you can receive their complaints and solve issues. Keeping your tenants happy will help retention, which is good for your business. You have to put in place a contract that outlines what damages they are liable for, if any, and the care and maintenance requirements of shared spaces.
Upgrade your space per your tenants’ requirements to make it convenient for their businesses. For example, get paving contracting services to install a parking space if you have a gymnasium or hospital tenants in your building. This and other such businesses where customers stick around for a long time require a parking space for convenience.
Buildings like manufacturing ones work with vital equipment whose downtime or failure can be costly. Regular maintenance is thus essential to a manufacturing facility. You can adopt maintenance software technology to track and report on preventive maintenance initiatives.
As a commercial building manager, you’ll need to be organized because so much goes on, and you may easily miss some details. Write down a preventative measure list and tick all actions achieved when they are. Periodically start with interior checkups and wind up with the exterior, ensuring to note any glaring issues.
6. Invest in Commercial Building Cleaning
Maintaining a commercial building has much to do with its cleanliness. You need to ensure the space is clean for both the hygiene of the tenants and the overall aesthetic appeal. Some properties will require more regular cleaning than others.
Suppose your commercial buildings are clothing retail shops. In that case, they’ll not require as much cleanliness and regular maintenance as a chain of hospitality properties. With hotels, restaurants, and diners, hygiene and cleanliness are extremely important. If the renters are corporate offices, the shared spaces, such as the parking lot, loft areas, and stairs, will require regular cleaning.
The commercial building washrooms must also be cleaned consistently throughout the day. This includes tasks such as disinfecting, sanitizing, and sink cleaning. Set aside a routine cleaning budget as you manage a commercial property.
Leave the commercial cleaning to qualified experts who know what products to best use. Do your research before hiring any company. Ensure that they are qualified and disciplined in their timekeeping to avoid incidences of late coming, which can derail your renter’s business activities.
The pricing you pay will depend on who your renters are because buildings with high foot traffic, such as educational centers, shopping centers, and healthcare facilities, tend to attract more dust within short periods. In such a case, you must schedule and plan the cleanings around hours with less traffic. So choose a company that understands this. You can conduct fumigations over weekends, but ensure you have notified your tenants beforehand.
7. Stay On Top of Commercial Plumbing Maintenance
Your commercial plumbing system is subjected to wear and tear daily. The daily stress and challenges of operating a business may cause you to forget about the needs of this important infrastructure. However, that’s the last thing you want to do. Issues with the plumbing can make life difficult for the tenants and cause them to look for other options.
Think about it. Would you want to run your business in a building that constantly experiences toilet backups, low pressure, or regularly doesn’t have water coming from the fixtures? Partner with a seasoned commercial plumbing service to avoid such issues on your property. These professionals can easily detect potential issues in their early stages and perform the necessary fixes to ensure you continue enjoying optimal service.
8. Partner With Roofing Professionals
In your efforts to manage a commercial property, ensure that small roof problems are solved immediately. Seemingly minor faults can quickly become a huge issue if ignored for long. Some roof repairs are also costly, so ensure regular checks and maintenance to save on the cost.
With commercial buildings, avoid DIY for solving problems because you may escalate the situation if you’re not knowledgeable. Instead, schedule regular roof maintenance with professionals who can easily detect faults. Roof cleaning is also necessary to avoid the accumulation of garbage on the roof.
Issues like a leak on the roof may seem small but should be urgently tended to. When neglected, the leak will weaken the quality of the roof. It’ll also result in molds in the building and staining of the ceiling, which will cost more money to remove.
Simple and early repairs are advised because they’re cheaper than an entire reroofing. Get a qualified roofing contractor to come and inspect your roofs. Your contractor will first inspect the interior of your commercial building to ascertain whether the roofing issue has resulted in any structural damage.
For an exterior inspection, your contractor will look for a damaged gutter system, disfigured or damaged shingle, and worn-out caulk. If there’s damage to the decking on your roof, the restoration procedure will be more expensive and tasking. To repair any punctures in the roof decking, reframing could be necessary.
9. Keep Up With HVAC Maintenance
Whether you own or manage a commercial property, there’s always a lot you have to do to keep it functional. The health and safety of your tenants are of great priority. That’s why you must ensure regular HVAC system maintenance and cleaning.
However, before that, install an appropriate HVAC system for the building’s needs first. You can pick a variable refrigerant flow system if you need one for heating and cooling in several spaces in the building simultaneously. A combination HVAC system is also a good fit for your commercial building because it can be customized according to the renter’s needs.
To help you manage a commercial building, you can create an HVAC system ventilation checklist. You can use an online template to create this and share it with the renters so they can regularly do a quick check. Some minor HVAC issues can be easily fixed.
For instance, loud noises may be due to the accumulation of dirt. If there are any anomalies like a drop in temperature or persistent issues that aren’t solved with a quick fix, get a commercial HVAC repairs professional to come in and fix the issue. Consider getting a professional on retainer to ensure you always have someone to turn to for regular maintenance and emergency repairs.
10. Aim To Reduce Utility Costs
To successfully manage a commercial property, you must look for ways to save on unnecessary costs because most repairs and maintenance will be a bit costly. Get some ways to lower maintenance costs without compromising the quality of the services you’re offering your tenants. As a property manager, you can put yourself ahead of the curve and ensure a profit by using commercial property management software to help you in decision-making and organization.
Such software will help you juggle several tasks at once. It will also aid in scheduling tasks like inspections and regular maintenance. You can cut costs by reducing energy use by monitoring some energy-consuming procedures like security systems or lifts. You can also hire window tinting professionals, as tinted windows will help save on energy while giving the building an aesthetic look.
When you manage a commercial building, every decision you make in its regard affects your tenants and will determine your tenant retention rates. Understand your target market and your tenants’ needs, and supply services that will make your commercial building an attractive option. Providing great service is the key to success.
