Future Cities

Leave It to the Experts

By: Emma Buckland, Global President, Property Management

May 8, 2024 3 Minute Read

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Outsourcing is not a dirty word.

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There, I said it.

If you think about it, most of us “outsource” some of the most important tasks in our lives. We carefully select experts to help us with things like preparing our tax returns, personal fitness training, making home repairs and servicing our cars.

In return, we get the confidence, peace of mind and freedom to maximize the precious time we spend doing things that create the most value to us—both economically and personally. That’s the promise, in any case. But we all have stories about how outsourcing can deliver inconsistent outcomes.

At a minimum, we want a good experience with outsourcing. But wouldn’t great be better?

Good service providers have real passion, deep expertise and make the right investments to do the best job possible of delivering that crucial service we need.

But the great ones also know how to measure and enhance the service they provide to make sure it’s relentlessly improving. And they engage their staff to fully understand and deliver the things that matter most to customers, and reward them accordingly.

In commercial real estate, property management is no different.

Services like property management are often viewed as “commoditized.” The truth is, any asset manager who’s worked alongside smart, motivated and well-supported property management and accounting professionals will tell you the experience is anything but ordinary.

In fact, property managers and property accountants are the unsung heroes of commercial real estate. Recent history bears this out. We need only look back a few years to the pandemic, when these essential professionals worked on the front lines of commercial properties in markets around the world.

With today’s operational, technological and economic complexities, their role is more important than ever.

Property managers and property accountants are the COO and CFO of their assets.

From helping protect assets and maximizing the value of investments to delivering on a broad range of financial, technical and on-the-spot problem-solving skills, we’re asking a lot of these professionals. On top of this, we expect them to build great relationships with their teams, investors, tenants, vendors and members of the public alike.

And the ask grows ever more complex every day with expectations relating to sustainability, smart buildings, carbon accounting and the evolving need to develop data-led insights and recommendations.

In short, there’s a world of difference between good and great.

Many organizations that invest in and develop real estate have historically chosen to self-deliver property management.

In part, this is because some operators don’t realize there’s a way to structure a partnership that allows them to retain asset and property management fees while hiring an expert to deliver operationally.

In today’s environment, this is an especially compelling opportunity.

Moreover, when we manage ourselves, how do we know if we’re good or great?

We recently created an Investor Portfolio Management offering because we believe that most owners who self-deliver these services today want greatness.

The brave ones are asking themselves if property management and accounting are really their core competency, if they’re really set up to deliver, and whether they really know how to measure themselves.

They wonder if there’s a way to structure a partnership so they can maintain oversight but leverage a partner to execute for them operationally. They question whether they have the scale, appetite and focus to keep investing in tenant experience, data, accounting and procurement to stay ahead of their competitors.

Ultimately, they want the privilege of focusing on their core business.

After all, more time freed up to spend on an owner’s investment and asset management strategy can pay dividends, particularly in an increasingly complex economic landscape. But they need a partner they can trust to deliver greatness, no matter what.

I believe property management can be consistently great, but it requires a different kind of relationship dynamic. It’s about moving from the role of service provider to being a genuine strategic partner that truly understands the client’s competitive landscape, needs and priorities and is constantly evolving with them to drive present and future value.

And this requires investment, experience and differentiation across key areas—from a dedicated team delivering the latest best practices, to improved data and insights guiding improved portfolio performance with agility and efficiency, to accountability measurement, joint incentives and long-term planning.

If you self-manage your assets, ask yourself, “Are we good, or are we great?”

If you’re not sure, or if you know your organization might perform better with the gift of focus, it may be time to consider outsourcing. After all, whether in our professional lives or our personal lives, we can’t all be experts at everything.

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