Below is an introduction to our documentation process that we use when we work with our consulting clients. The purpose of this document is to help get the policies out of the brain of the company holder and into a document that can be shared with the entire team. Once the team understands the policies of the property management company they can assist with documenting their processes that they do on a day to day basis, ensuring that they adhere to the company owner’s policies. Use this cheat sheet outline to begin to organize your company policies. At PM Success, we have documented over 500+ policies that you should consider when building out your property management policy manual. Note: not all policies will be applicable to the way you do business but should still be considered.If you are interested in more information regarding our complete list of policies, along with an easy system to quickly determine and document your own policies contact us at policies@pmsuccess.com

Introduction

The Property Management Lifecycle consists of five phases and is applied to four categories.

The five phases are:

1. Prospect

The prospect phase of the lifecycle is where we document all policies related each category where the prospects have not yet entered the onboarding phase.  All prospects begin in this phase prior to moving to any other phase.  Prospects will either advance to the onboarding phase or move directly to the closed phase.

2. Onboarding

The Onboarding phase of the lifecycle is where we document all policies related to onboarding a prospect. Onboarding is the process of moving a  prospect to being an active participant in our system. This is a transitional phase and it’s best to move through this phase as quickly as possible to increase trust and confidence and reduce error and confusion.  prospects entering the onboarding phase will move forward to the active or closed phases.

3. Active

The Active phase of the lifecycle is where we document all policies related to active participants in our system. Participants remain in the active phase, often for years, until something triggers a termination. 

4. Termination

The Termination phase of the lifecycle is where we document all policies related to the termination of a participant from our system. This is a transitional phase and it’s best to move through this phase as quickly as possible to increase trust and confidence and reduce error and confusion.  prospects entering the onboarding phase will move forward to the active or closed phases.

5. Closed

The Closed Landlords and Properties phase of the cycle is where we document all policies related to the archival of a landlord or property. This phase usually has minimal policies but is necessary as the endpoint of the lifecycle.

The four categories are:

Landlords & Properties

The landlord and properties category is where we document all information related to moving a landlord or property through the five phases of the lifecycle.  We differentiate between a landlord and a property since a landlord may own multiple properties and each may be addressed independently.

Tenants & Leases

The tenants and leases category is where we document all information related to moving a tenant or a lease through the five phases of the lifecycle.  We differentiate between a tenant and a lease since a lease may have multiple tenants that are added or removed from a lease independently.

Vendors & Maintenance

The vendors and maintenance category is where we document all information related to moving a tenant or a lease through the five phases of the lifecycle.  We differentiate between vendors and maintenance as vendors may address multiple maintenance categories.

Company & Team

The company and team category is where we document all information related to moving the company, team, or team member through the five phases of the lifecycle.  We differentiate between company and team as the company will have general policies and there will be policies that apply to the team and individual team members.

At PM Success, we have documented over 500+ policies that you should consider when building out your property management policy manual. Note: not all policies will be applicable to the way you do business but should still be considered. If you are interested in more information regarding our complete list of policies, along with an easy system to quickly determine and document your own policies contact us at policies@pmsuccess.com