Tiffany MittalChief Executive Officer, Utility Ranger · CEO of Utility Ranger, in-house utility billing software

Apartment Investors Club Podcast EP67 with Tiffany Mittal, Founder/CEO of Utility Ranger

16 Jan 2024 · 2 min

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2:01

In this podcast excerpt, the speaker outlines the key factors they considered when selecting a property management company for their apartment investment. They highlight cost‑saving tactics such as a zero‑markup maintenance policy, compare leasing‑agent incentive models ranging from flat bonuses (e.g., $500) to a full month’s rent, and discuss how overall management fees typically fall between 3.5% and 7% of gross revenue. The conversation also covers creative value‑add ideas—most notably installing in‑unit washer/dryers—to attract a different tenant profile and boost income. Finally, the speaker emphasizes the importance of choosing a manager whose background and mindset align with the owners’, believing this alignment will guide tough decisions in the future.

Chapters

So other things that we looked at besides creative ways to use your internal crews to make improvements or use them to kind of save money on the property level is there was also no markup on the maintenance. So that was a helpful side of it. But then there's other things like, are you charging fees to rent the unit? You want to incentivize a leasing agent So they answer the text at 9 o'clock at night. Right. So I understand a bonus, but there's different levels. You know, one person would say that leasing agent would get $500 for a bonus to lease the unit where another management company would say it's one month's rent. And I mean, that's a pretty big difference. Yeah. And so, you know, how those fees really pan out, the overall fees and gross revenue on the property were pretty similar. I've seen anywhere from 3.5% to 7%, on one property it's not going to make that big of a difference, but you want to also keep everyone incentivized to keep your property moving forward. And he had a lot of, the one we went with had a lot of creative ideas of how we could add washer dryers to the units. You get a different type of tenant profile when you start adding things like washer dryers to the units and ways that he's been able to do it also on some of his other properties. He had some creative ways for us to kind of increase that overall income that it just made sense for us to go one way versus the other. But it's, you have to go with your gut on this, right? There's not any, you won't know until you really get into it, right? But I think the person we chose, their kind of history aligns more with my husband's history on growing up in the apartment business. And I think they similar mindset will also hopefully end with similar decision-making when you come down to some of these hard decisions to make as a property manager or property owner.