Would you say that you have a philosophy of property inspections? You probably do, even if you haven’t really thought about it. In essence, how you carry out your inspections is indicative of what your philosophy on the subject is.
Whether consciously or subconsciously, you’re making any number of decisions about what to look for and how thorough to be. In this article, we’ll see how a good philosophy can help you to get the most out of property inspections.
First Tenet: Be Thorough
The first tenet of a good philosophy of property management is being thorough. Think about it: how many times have you found something important simply because you bothered to take the trouble to look?
Inspecting every little nook and cranny may have seemed daunting to you when you started out in this business, and you may still find it daunting sometimes. However, being thorough is important if you are to go the distance in your inspections. Can you really afford to deliver sub-par results to your clients? What if you overlook something important?
Being thorough is about more than being fastidious, although of course that helps too. Being thorough means knowing how to pay enough attention to the right things. With a digital property management app, you can keep track of what you need to inspect on an industry standard checklist, or use your own if you prefer.
A digital property management app can also auto-format your reports, saving you the time and energy needed to type them out. Isn’t it easier to be thorough if you know that you are optimizing how you spend your time?
Second Tenet: See the Forest, Not Just the Trees
It’s not enough to simply pay attention to the details. After all, if all you see is individual details, you may miss something because you failed to see a larger pattern. Tenants don’t always leave messes or damage in obvious places, and some potential hazards may be hard to detect if all you focus on are small details.
Seeing the forest and not just the trees means being able to adopt a big-picture view as well as a close-up view. A good digital property management app can help you remember to take a big-picture view of inspections. Use next inspection alerts to remind yourself to check up on something next time, and checklists can help you direct your attention where it needs to be.
Third Tenet: Know Thyself
Quick, when was the last time you actually sat down and thought about how you work? Would you say that you are using best practices for optimizing inspections, and that you consistently identify hazards and damage?
Knowing yourself means knowing how you work and why. When you go into a house, how do you think about solving the problem of finding any damage? Are you stressed, or are you collected and ready to go?
A digital property management app can help you to figure out how you work in a number of ways. Use it to organize your schedule, and see how much time and trouble that saves you. Rely on it to auto-format your reports, and see how much time that saves you. By knowing yourself, you can perfect your own personal philosophy of property inspections.
