Welcome to The Rent Roll Starter Podcast with me, Ellen Bathgate.

This podcast is for you, the rent roll owner.  You’re going to love it if you want ways to get more leads into your rent roll.

Today’s episode is the second in our 6 part series: Ellen reads her Blog.

This is the recording from a Facebook Live I just recorded recently where I talk about my top 3 tips for a successful rent roll, especially in the new financial year.

In this video you’ll discover:

✔ How to create boundaries with your clients (without losing business or upsetting anyone!)
✔ The best strategy for social media in 2021 for rent roll growth
✔ How to review your goals for the second half of 2021.

PLUS, get access to additional training for rent roll growth after this live video!

I wrote this original blog at the start of 2021, and I think it’s even better now at the start of a new financial year.

Here are all the links to the resources mentioned in the video today:

Read the original blog post here

Download 2 pre-written social post templates

Need extra social media training? Register for The Social Summit here

If you want more ideas for growing your rent roll, register for my on-demand training: 5 Ways to Grow Your Rent Roll

Welcome to the rent roll starter podcast. My name is Ellen [inaudible] and I’m a property manager, turned rent roll owner, turned rent roll growth coach. If you want to discover how to grow your rent roll using cheap and often free marketing strategies, you are going to love the rent rolls starter podcast.

Welcome to episode three of Ellen reads her blog. In this episode, we are diving into a blog that I published at the beginning of 2021, titled three tips for a successful rent roll in 2021. However, it felt like the perfect time to review this blog because I recorded this stream on the 1st of July, 2021, a brand new financial year here in Australia. So as you listen to this podcast, this is the recording from a live stream I did on Facebook reading through these particular blog. So I hope you enjoyed this episode. Let’s jump in.

Hello there it’s Ellen from rent roll starter, and welcome to episode three of Ellen reads her blog. Now today’s episode is particularly exciting. Uh, we’re going to be going through a blog titled three tips for a successful rent roll in 2021. But I thought that this was especially timely given that today that I’m actually recording this episode is the first day of the new financial year. So it feels like the perfect time to just review things a little bit feel as though you’re having a bit of a fresh start shore. It’s not a brand new year, but it’s definitely a brand new financial year. So today’s episode is perfect for the first day of a new financial year. So let’s get started by reading a little bit of the blog. Now, whether you’re watching this with me live, whether you’re watching the video of it, the video of it on re-apply or whether you are listening to this on a podcast.

Um, I think you’ll enjoy this episode because the way we run these episodes is I read my blog, but then I’ll take a little pause to come back and she has an extra thoughts with you throughout the blog. So what I’m going to do if you’re watching the blog is I’m actually going to pull up the blog on line so that you can watch it online. And if you’re listening to this, that’s okay too. You can just listen along. So let’s get started on Ellen rates have blog three tips for a successful rent roll in 2021. If you’re in property management, there’s a good chance. You’ve struggled to find the perfect work-life balance at times. And if you’ve been in property management in 2020, or the first half of 2021, there’s a very good chance that it’s been the hardest time of your career. And you might be feeling like you’re ready to beat farewell to 2020 or in this case, the T 20 or in this case bid farewell to the first half of 2021, put it behind you and dive first into the new financial year.

But before you do, let’s take 10 minutes to perform a quick business and life audit. So you can step into the new year to make it the best year of your life. Now, before I keep reading, I just want to come back to you for a moment. I know that’s something that I’m really guilty of at the end of a calendar year is that I just want to walk away. I want to step away from it as quickly as I possibly can and move into the new year as fast as humanly possible. However, doing an end of year audit is super valuable. And today being the first day of the new financial year, why not take a moment to do a little audit on the previous financial year or the first half of 2021? Let’s keep reading. Let’s keep reading. So here are three areas to audit before you jump into the new year.

Number one boundaries, the last year included weeks, or even months of lockdowns. And as I’m recording this right now, I’m just pausing from reading the blog for a moment as I’m recording this right now, I’m in greater Sydney and we’re in lockdown. So back to the block. So you might have spent a lot of time on the phone and emails with your landlords and tenants. In fact, you might’ve spent more time communicating with your landlords and tenants in the last year, then all of the years before, because heaven knows they’ve needed it. Truth is as an amazing property manager or a rent roll owner. Of course you want to make yourself available to support your landlords and tenants at times of stress. Of course you do, but supporting landlords and tenants 24 7 comes with a cost, a cost to you, your mental wellbeing, your stress levels and your address levels and your ability to keep doing a great job in the future.

I’m just going to pause for a moment here, because I know that as a rent roll owner, as a property manager has someone who’s providing amazing service to your landlords and tenants. Of course you want to be available to them. I know that you want to deliver the best experience to them, and you want to support those, especially when you know what’s going on in their life. And you know that they’re under stress and they’re experiencing challenges themselves. So of course, of course you want to help your landlords and tenants. However, there’s a price to pay and there is a cost and the cost is usually one that you end up paying. If you are available 24 7, all right, let’s keep reading.

So as you step into a new year or a new financial year, it’s time to look at the boundaries you have with your clients, consider the hours you officially work versus the hours you are actually in contact with your clients. What message are you sending your clients? If you are communicating with them after hours, ask yourself a few questions. How do you, how do your clients currently contact you? So you might notice that you’re getting emails, text messages, phone calls, Facebook messages, Instagram, DMS, as well as messaging through your landlord and tenant portal. So at least down all the ways your clients currently contact you. So that you’ve got a bit of a starting point. You’ve got a bit of a starting point. Then ask yourself, how do you want your clients to contact you? It might be time to streamline the way your clients contact you.

So while it’s great to have many platforms for communication, you can actually teach your clients how to communicate with you. So for example, you could set up auto responders in Facebook business manager, so that any messages that come in after hours on Facebook and on Instagram, because you can link the two, these direct your clients on how they can access help after hours. So you can do a similar thing with your emails as well, so that you don’t have to be checking your phone after hours. I know I’m just going to pause here for a moment. I know that for me, that’s always been one of my biggest struggles. Like what if something goes wrong after hours? How do I make sure that, you know, we don’t end up with a property that’s seriously damaged. So streamlining these things, having auto running these things, having auto responders after hours can be a way of ensuring that your clients are still look after, after hours. Let’s keep rating.

Okay. So ask yourself this, how can you better serve your clients? Now, if you are going to set boundaries here, then you’ve got to set up systems that serve your clients. Well, right? So this might mean you need to set up a frequently asked questions. Section of your website. It means, might mean that you need to create a troubleshooting guide for your tenants. It might mean that you use artificial intelligence or chat bots to respond to some of your emails. It might mean that you need to build some chat bots for Facebook messenger, so that eat ads has questions for people, even when you’re not sitting there on Facebook. Because even during the day, you’re not going to be sitting on Facebook the whole time. Well, you shouldn’t be. So having this stuff set up in the background is so ground is so useful and such a wonderful way to serve your clients.

Well, having boundaries will protect your mental health and it will actually allow you to deliver even better service to your clients. As a result. I’m going to pause here before we keep writing the blog. I think one of the things that creating boundaries does is it forces us to come up with creative ways that we can serve our clients. It helps us develop systems and strategies that help support our clients, even when we’re not there. And look, even when it’s during business hours, it’s still great to have these systems and automations in place so that when we’re not at our desk or when we’re on the phone or when we’re at an inspection, our clients can still be supported and assisted. All right, let’s keep reading because we’re on to number two, social number two, social media, but you probably know how valuable social media can be for growing your red role and your agency brand.

So it can be easy to spend hours and hours scrolling, clicking, and watching and comparing on social media. Look, I’m guilty as charged, but as you are older, your social media use for the last year or the last financial year, creating a plan for your social media use. Here are three tips that you can consider can no more plan your social media posting schedule at least a week in advance, a month in advance. If you possibly can and schedule it that way, you’re organized with your social media. You’ll know your posts are appearing automatically without having to think about it for the rest of the week. If you need help with your social media planning in the comments below this video or in the description for wherever you’re watching this video or listening to the podcast or listening to the podcast, I’ll make sure that there is a link to register for the social summit, which is our free social media training.

And I’ll also include a link to the template for two social media posts you can download and use. So wherever you are watching or listening to this stream, you can find those links as well. Tip number two, set one time per day to check your socials. Having this dedicated time each day will reduce your chances of ending up on social media, mindlessly scrolling, and then tip number three is probably the hardest one. Certainly the hardest one for me to do remove social media for me, phone. And look, I’ve had to do this myself. If you’re hooked on social media after the last 12 to 18 months we’ve had, and you want to get social media back under control, delete the app from your phone, at least until you break the habit, if you wanted to get more help with or help with getting your social media back under control, come and register for the social summit training, which will be happening later on this year, you can register in advance.

Um, and that way you’ll get lots of tips about planning and stepping away from your social media in this training of it. Oh, well, there’s just one thing to remember with social media in, as we move into this next financial year, use social media to grow your business, your brand, your rent roll, but don’t let social media use you. Now. I know that you are quite possibly watching this video on social media, on listening to the podcast on a social platform. So the, the key thing here is just to let you use it rather than the other way around being deliberate with how you use it rather than the other way around. Uh, and I know that for me, that often means that I just have to delete the app. So I just have to delete the apps from my phone for a little while just to break the habit, because while they’re on my phone, I find it really hard to step away. So you do you, but for me, removing the apps from my phone just for a little while, a couple of weeks can be the exact reset that I need. All right, let’s keep reading.

Number three in this blog is goals. So we’re going to own it. Our goals, it’s usually at the start of a new year or in this case, new financial year that you’re thinking about your goals, or maybe, you know, new financial year’s resolutions, but this time think about your goals differently. Of course, you do want to be setting your goal growth goals for your enroll, but consider lifestyle and wellness goals in the context of your growth goals. So it’s common to set goals around growing your rent, roll by a certain number of properties in the year. But this time, ask yourself what it’s going to take to hit that goal. If there’s anything that the last 12 months have taught us the last 18 months now have taught us. It is the value of our health and our relationships with friends and family. So take a moment to look at your growth goals for the new financial year and just decide if they support you to maintain good health and strong relationships with those people that you love.

He’s there he’s get. He’s where it gets challenging. If you look at those goals and realize that you have to work 60 hours a week, miss out on family time, eat takeaway for lunch most days, and never have time to exercise in order to achieve those goals, you might need to rethink your growth goals. Joyce Sonata said it best, and I don’t know if I said her surname correctly, but this quote is awesome. If you don’t make time for wellness, you will be forced to make time forced to make time for illness, to set your rent, roll rent, roll growth goals wisely, and include goals that support your work, your wellness, your health, your relationships, and your lifestyle too. So even though the last 12 to 18 months has been a really difficult for property management, take the lessons, the learnings that you’ve received and use them to, to create inspiring and well-balanced goals for your new financial year. And if you want more ideas for growing your own role in this financial year, registered for my master class, that we’re running five ways to grow your rent roll, and you can just head to rent, roll starter.com forward slash five ways if you want to register for that.

So they’re my three tips on the three areas of your life to do a little old at all before you move in, before you move into the new financial year, because this is always the time that we are looking at well, where are we up to in our growth? Where are we heading for the, for the second half of the year or for the new financial year? But if you just take a couple of moments to audit those three areas of your life, to look at your boundaries, to look at your social media and to reassess your goals within the framework of your own health as well, it will be amazing to see the impact, that little audit that 10 minutes of your time has on the next six months. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Ellen Ray to Tableau, make sure that you check out the notes or the comments or whatever platform you are watching or listening to this so that you can grab all the resources I’ve mentioned. Thanks so much. Have a great day. Bye bye.