Business Talk
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Business Talk
How Good Communication Transforms Property Management Challenges
Stepping into the world of property management requires more than just collecting rent and fixing toilets. Angelia from Cani Property Management reveals how her background in industrial engineering transformed her approach to managing properties, filling the gap between mere maintenance and genuine value creation.
Through engaging conversation, Angelia unpacks the operational side of property management that investors rarely get to see. She shares how communication failures create the biggest challenges in the industry and offers practical solutions for navigating these complexities. "Most difficult tenants really just want to feel seen or heard," she explains, demonstrating how leading with professionalism and documentation while acting quickly prevents situations from festering.
What sets great property managers apart? According to Angelia, it's approaching the role as a COO for your portfolio rather than just a rent collector. She advises property owners to look beyond price when hiring managers, focusing instead on value, transparency, and communication style. For those considering entering the field, her guidance is equally practical: "Study it like a business. Learn the laws, build the systems from day one, and don't try to do it all yourself." The result? A property management experience that creates "serious impact, income, and freedom" for all involved. Whether you're a seasoned property investor or considering your first rental purchase, these insights will change how you view the crucial role property managers play in your investment strategy. For more information or to connect with Angelia, visit www.canipm.com or call/text 407-760-7772.
Welcome back everybody to Business Talk. Thanks for joining us again. I'm your host, dda, and in today's episode I will be speaking with Angelia. She works with Caney Property Management. How are you doing today, angelia?
Speaker 2:Doing. Great Thanks for having me here today. I really appreciate the time with you.
Speaker 1:You're very, very welcome, very welcome, so, listeners. In each episode, our guests share practical tips and valuable advice that can help you navigate life and stay ahead in your journey. Today's episode, we're going to bring some some important information when it comes to managing multiple properties. Angelia is going to talk about conflict resolution, hiring property managers, common mistakes landlords make to avoid issues, as well as talk about tenant screening. But before we go any further, if you do like this video, please feel free to subscribe to it. Also, comment it helps out our guests as well and please also, if you can, we're going to go ahead and share some, maybe a story or two. Angelia might have one for us, but if you don't mind, angelia, let's start with your background and give us a little bit of insight on how you got into property management.
Speaker 2:Sure, honestly, this is probably the craziest journey, and I always hear from other people that are in property management. They're like well, I didn't like grow up and say I want to be a property manager. You kind of like fall into it, right.
Speaker 2:And my journey was is pretty interesting. So I I'm an industrial engineer was in manufacturing and operations. I help businesses scale through systems and strategy. But my partner in all things he had been in property management for more than 18 years and he would share with me all these challenges and everything that they would go through, and I would just see how broken the industry really was in property management and I felt like there was a massive gap between property managers who just maintain the property and those who create value. And with my background in systems processing and building a strategy behind asset management in the manufacturing world, it was really just almost like an ease to fall into this. Because there's so much similarities there and being able to bring that in leadership and scaling, we decided we were going to rebrand and build together this property management company. So what drew me in was truly just the opportunity to do it better. I wanted to be able to treat those investors and tenants like humans and help them build businesses that are really machines that can scale.
Speaker 1:Well stated. I like a couple words that you use leadership and value. You know in business, right, we always want to make sure we bring value to our clients and also do the relationships. All these things are very, very important. So good job, kudos for you for saying that. What is it you know as a property manager? What does a typical day kind of look like in your world?
Speaker 2:Right. Well for us again, because we've built those systems and we've got an amazing team. Fortunately I'm not in the field changing toilets or fixing toilets and changing locks. We do have that build a team. But when we talk to our property manager, it's being proactive with repairs, it's making sure that things are handled in a way where we're building that high level strategy and partnerships for growth, partnerships for growth With the property managers. You know they're making sure that repairs are happening in a timely manner and that the communication is happening between the tenant and the repair person, whether it's our in-house repair team or an external vendor, if that's what the owner wants to do and then keeping that proactive management with the owner so they know what's going on I, it's in the day, it's their asset.
Speaker 2:Um, within property manager, you know that property management that's that's really. It's communication. It's constant communication and just making sure that everybody on the on the chess field is in their appropriate places and moving at the right speed. Um, for, for myself, I get the opportunity to even see on the back end of operations, making sure that vendors are paid, with our accounting team, and making sure that all the employees have everything they need their tools, their training and the time to execute what we said we were going to do. So for me, sometimes it's I'm meeting with realtors or training or working on pipelines or just troubleshooting those types of things, and I like to sometimes refer to myself as more of like the architect, but not the wrench turner.
Speaker 2:So but, I, still get to see all of those problems that happen and, at the end of the day, we're not just managing those properties, we're really managing the people, the cashflow and the trust with all of those that we touch.
Speaker 1:Very well stated. So, angelia, you know every industry has challenges, right? If we want to use that word. Are there any challenges in your industry as a whole that you see, that you?
Speaker 2:can share with our listeners 100% communication, I think, and communication goes both ways. So when you whether you're managing 10 doors, or whether you're managing 100 doors, or whether you're managing 1,000 or 10,000 doors if you don't have the right systems in place, then those biggest challenges are going to completely be revealed, and the biggest of those is lack of communication, unclear expectations and then just outdated processes to get it done. Owners want proactive updates. Tenants want to be heard that hey, I have a problem and I want to make sure someone's doing it right, and so our job is to make sure that no ball gets dropped.
Speaker 2:And that's where those that automation, standard operating procedures, team structure, accountability you just can't fake that operations.
Speaker 1:Good point. You know there's that word that we call two words conflict resolution, and I think you kind of summarize it a few times in terms of if you build that communication correct me if I'm wrong and you're out there sharing, you know, communicating with your clients, that's going to help reduce that conflict resolution, correct.
Speaker 2:For sure, absolutely. You know, within conflict resolution we approached everything with empathy and evidence. If you have both of those things, then generally you can get to the appropriate resolution. Most difficult tenants really just want to feel seen or heard, and so we lead with professionalism. We document everything, everything has a picture, everything has a timestamp, all of those things, and we act fast so we just don't let situations fester. I remember I had a person in my childhood that just said bad news doesn't get better with time and that's a really important thing to follow. So we know when sometimes we have to draw that hard line, but we do it respectfully and we do it legally, so there's never a power trip. We just set clear boundaries. And that's why we actually named our business Constant, never-ending Improvement Canai Property Management is because we want to make sure that we're constant and never ending in that improvement, even when conflict arises.
Speaker 1:Wow, Very cool. Hiring a property manager. There's probably a few steps that someone should look at that is looking to hire a property manager. What say you about maybe three, four or five steps to look for?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's not just a price driven strategy. I mean, for some people it is all about price, but you steps to look for yeah, so it's not just a price-driven strategy. I mean, for some people it is all about price, but you got to look at value, transparency and communication style. You can ask do they have a system for maintenance? How often will you hear from them? How often do you want to hear from them? Because that may be the difference of who you decide to go with. And then what happens if something goes wrong? And if it's important to you, is that property manager truly investor-minded or are they just collecting rent? So a great property manager is going to be like a COO for your portfolio, and if you want someone that's going to be thinking in terms of ROI, tenant satisfaction and asset protection and not just putting out fires, those are the best questions to ask.
Speaker 1:Wow, very good. So, in terms of technology, every industry has technology that's changing their industry and the way they do business. What is it? Anything that's actually helping you manage and I know you have systems in place. We talked about that. Anything else that stands out?
Speaker 2:So I am pro-AI everything. I know a lot of people kind of worry about AI, but I definitely think that technology really makes everything better, faster. We can just be more responsive. We do use Appolio, but this may be just me sitting on a platform. You're about to say something that probably isn't completely politically correct, but I'm just going to say the platform that you use, if you actually use it and use it in the way it's intended, then that can definitely change the way that you manage. You know, it's not just a tech solution alone, but you've got to have the humans invest in the solution. Too often have I seen companies that have this amazing tech stack but then the people don't want to use it.
Speaker 2:right, so it's like just use what you got, use it well, invest in the education on the technology piece, and it's just going to help you do more with less. So, again, that's why I love AI and we do incorporate it in multiple functions that we do, and we do incorporate it in multiple functions that we do, and it's good stuff.
Speaker 1:Well, can you share a memorable experience with our listeners? No-transcript.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean there's quite a few. I mean trying to narrow it down to one, so I think it's the biggest one. That I would say is that when you we had a tenant that was just furious about a maintenance delay, they just weren't happy. The delays were happening and, honestly, rightfully so. We had our system in place but again, one moment of communication failed and instead of blaming our tech and instead of blaming the team, we just owned it. We picked up the phone and made it right, and so it turned that call from the tenant being angry to being loyal and then giving us a five-star review on Google. So leadership, you know, shows up in those ugly moments and humility goes a long way, and I think for me, that just continues to teach me that you just got to be truthful in all things. It's important to do that.
Speaker 1:Wow, you know, and I can see the passion that you have, which is so awesome itself with what you do. Let me ask you another question as we wrap up here. If someone wanted to get into property management, what kind of advice would you give them?
Speaker 2:Well, since I kind of fell into property management myself, I would say study it like a business. Learn the laws, build the systems from day one and don't try to do it all yourself. Learn the laws, build the systems from day one and don't try to do it all yourself. The one thing that I can truly say about the property management industry is the property managers that really care. They're open about their processes and procedures. They want to see other property managers win. So property management isn't a passive business. It's operations, people, risk management all rolled into one. But if you do it right, you can create some serious impact, some income and some freedom. But just don't wing it Like educate yourself.
Speaker 1:Educate. Yes, that's always a powerful word in itself. You know listeners as we wrap up, you know. If you definitely like this episode or what we're doing, please feel free to subscribe and like and also leave a comment for Angelia as well. With that being said, angelia, could you provide our listeners with a phone number as well as a website, maybe, to get ahold of you?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Our main website is super easy it's wwwcanipmcom. So canipmcom, and if you want to get in touch with me personally and ask me any questions I love questions you can reach me at 407-760-7772. You can text that too, and I actually will respond.
Speaker 1:Yes, you have a good way of doing that. Will respond yes, you have a good way of doing that. So thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to speak with our listeners regarding your business, and I know they learned a lot from this episode. So, again, you know, listeners, please feel free to leave a comment and like this video and subscribe to the channel. With that being said, hopefully we can have you back on again in the near future.
Speaker 2:This was so much fun. Thank you again so much for this opportunity.
Speaker 1:You're very welcome. Thank you for tuning in to First Media Consulting Podcast. If you enjoyed the podcast, subscribe today To nominate a business you would like to recommend to be on our show. Go to firstmediaconsultingcom or call. Thank you for listening.