[Ep 17] Evolution of our Property Management Business

Superhost Unveiled

In Episode 17: Evolution, we walk you through the evolution of our business from investing in our first property to what changes we will need to in order to grow further. Our hope is that our story will inspire others to challenge their goals and think bigger.

When we first started we did it all. We cleaned, communicated, answered calls at 5 AM and everything in between. Once we started managing other homes and grew quickly to six homes we started hiring a cleaning team.

It was also during this time that we knew that we need to consider software that will grow with us, instead of software that we will outgrow. This included property management software, pricing software, and turnover management software. Aside from the pricing software, we've tested and experimented with loads of other software to try to find the best one for us and our business. Finally, we've found one that works great. It does the work of a few different software all in one which has allowed us to not spread ourselves too thin. One thing you don't think about is how stressful it can get once you have 10-20 houses to manage and having to flip between 3-4 different apps or websites to keep up with all the moving parts.

One thing that we implemented that changed the game for our standard of cleaning was a walk-through process. A walk-through is simply a person (different from the cleaner) who is thoroughly trained to walk through the home, spot any mistakes that the cleaner might have made, and ensure that the home is ready for the guest. This may seem like extra work and over the top but it has saved us quite a few times.

Recently, we had a guest complain about the cleanliness of one of the homes and actually report us on Airbnb, we assume it was a black-mail type case of someone wanting a discount or refund. Since we walk-through the homes ourselves before the guests come, we are able to deny any claims by reporting that not only did our cleaner do a 52-point clean but we also had a specialist walk-through to confirm the cleanliness. It's insurance for us as well as our cleaners.

Another change we've made as we've grown is creating a maintenance program. We've noticed that something many other property management businesses fall short of is never treating the home as a home. They clean it after every guest but never put in the time to replace furniture, fix minor problems, and ensure the home is up to date. Now, each month we walk through the home and inspect for any maintenance issues such as a clogged pipe or broken toilet seat. We also train our cleaners to report any damage so that we can fix it in a timely manner.

As we've grown, our need for cleaners has also grown. In our first year as a property manager, we had periods of time when we were understaffed and it was rough. To prevent instances like this, we've stayed on top of hiring new cleaners. We have a newspaper ad that is continuously running in the local paper and we take in new cleaners as they call in. This way we are never left training 5 new cleaners at once.

When you manage 20+ houses, you go through a lot of products. Trips to the local Walmart become more frequent and frankly more annoying. This leads us to switch to automatic delivery of products from Amazon. We now have an automatic delivery for toilet paper, paper towels, laundry detergent, dish detergent, hand & dish soap, trash bags, and more. It has helped us be better prepared, no more last-minute stops to the store, as well as saved us money.

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