Property Management & Operations Spotlight - Levey Miller Maretz, LLC

1. What do you see as the most important qualities or strategies that define successful property management in today’s market?
The most important qualities that define companies like ours are response time to clients and tenants and communication. Anyone that is unhappy with their current service is usually unhappy because they did not get quick correspondence. We are a boutique commercial real estate and property management firm, so everyone in our office is involved with every property. This helps us in being successful as we can all help each other in getting to the finish line. We use management software that streamlines payments and work orders, along with reporting and owner communication. All of this is what clients want in a property manager.

2. What trends or challenges are you currently seeing within your portfolio and market(s), and how is your firm adapting to meet them?
Commercial properties have been busy lately with people looking for space. Inventory is not great on the most popular commercial desire which is retail strip centers with high CAP rates. As for property management specifically, most of the clients that are looking for management are HOAs, and most have small numbers which make it hard to hire help to manage those accounts. The clients want to pay the smallest amount possible, but are looking for top notch service, so this is a difficult position for companies like ours as we want to give top notch service, but can’t price this service for nothing. To adapt, we can’t say yes to everyone that asks us to take on their accounts and we must be firm on our pricing to make it worth our time.

3. How does your firm add value to property owners and developers beyond day-to-day operations?
We treat properties like we own them, live there and it is our money. This mentality puts us in the owner’s seat and looks at every expense, every tenant, and every daily item that happens. We want our properties to look perfect, produce perfect income and expense and value add every day.
This may not be realistic, but this is what we strive for every day. There is nothing like turning a property around from a loser to a winner and there is nothing like making a property perform at the top of the game and having happy tenants and owners.

4. What sets your firm apart in terms of approach, service, or overall philosophy when managing commercial properties?
We are involved very heavily with all the locals, we are not this global company that you are just a number. As I said prior, we treat every property like it is ours, so we want to run it effectively and in the smartest way possible to avoid issues and produce great assets. Being pro-active instead of re-active is a key to having successful commercial properties. Trying to keep the CAM as low as you can while not compromising the property is also key.