If you find yourself in the enviable position of “commercial property manager” or “supervisor”, you’ve likely had cause to celebrate your newly attained prime management position. These are words that have probably never been spoken in anything outside of jest, because as any good commercial property manager will tell you, the rewards for achievement can be very lucrative, but the challenges equal the rewards ten-fold. Never fear; if you’re eyeing out entrepreneurial opportunities in this vibrant and growing field or if you’ve just found yourself in charge of your businesses’ or companies’ property, we’ve created a little cheat sheet to help you on your way.
By Team Savant
Image: Mikita Yo
OK, so you may not be in charge of a skyscraper just yet. Still, you’ll find the principles of effective commercial property management are very much similar — albeit on a grander scale if your portfolio looks anything like the picture above. You’re going to be paying daily attention to many different spaces and areas, and then in others, you’ll be creating a maintenance schedule at pre-determined points based on what the function is. An open discussion with your manager or client will reveal their priorities, so have that talk sooner rather than later.
Let’s get started.
#1 ENERGY CONSUMPTION
In case you have not noticed (really), there is something of a cultural revolution taking place that has its roots in how we spend our natural resources, and if you mean to be a property manager worth your salt, you’re going to have to board that train quicksmart.
Now, before you can know what you’re going to be dealing with, each building, be it big or on the smaller side, will have a unique carbon energy footprint, and to figure that out, you’ll be wanting to conduct an “energy consumption audit”. You can find some free downloadable templates here.
Once you know the answer to that, you can go about replacing light bulbs, creating water-saving policies for breaks and restrooms, as well as landscaping and maintenance requirements. Paper usage, ink usage by your printshop or room, leaving lights on at night and how your appliances are used concerning our work-output needs can all add up to massive savings. Savvy managers will use the results from their audit to make the necessary changes. Once they arrive at their new carbon footprint result, invest in offsetting initiatives or contribute to companies that offset carbon emissions for you.
#2 REPAIR WHEN YOU CAN, REPLACE WHEN YOU HAVE TO
Here it comes: prevention is better than cure, and it’s not an exception in this context either. The earlier you spot potential problems, the easier it will be to handle them before they get out of hand. Take your windows, for example; if you find a chip, scratch or crack in good time, you could prevent it from becoming worse, which would require replacing the entire panel and depending on the size and thickness of that panel, that could cost you a lot more. However, a company that does Glass Polish could repair that issue long before it becomes a bigger problem.
#3 PEST MATTERS
Aside from being an irritation, these pesky little critters can also present a significant health risk to the people working in your offices, including you. If that were not enough, they could also cause severe damage; take termites, for example. If you have wooden frames, doors, beams or storage spaces like shelves, this could lead to potentially dangerous structural damage, which is not an event you want on your incident report.
And speaking of...
#4 INCIDENT REPORTS
This applies to whether you’re managing a building with multiple tenants or occupants. If it’s your business property or if you manage a property on behalf of someone else, the bottom line remains the same. You absolutely must keep an incident report log. Every time you or a maintenance team member responds to a call, it must be logged and stored accordingly. A yearly audit (or quarterly for that matter) of this log will tell what has taken place most regularly and where and who has been reporting it; this data can benefit insurers and auditors down the line.
#5 FIRE PREVENTION AND FIGHTING
Hands down, one of the essential considerations in your commercial property maintenance plan is a fire prevention and fighting plan—understanding how the triangle of fire-works (heat versus fuel versus oxygen) is already a great start. Then ensure that your fire extinguishers are readily and easily available, clearly marked, and as many as possible staff that know the difference between a solid combustible fire versus a liquid combustible fire and which extinguishers work with which, is a very serious “boss” move.