At your local fire department, they do “pre-plans” and in emergency medical services, it’s called “standing orders”. These are the playbooks and predetermined plans on how to do what these organizations do. The plan details what each member of the team is responsible for and why.

In multi-family property management the planning often begins with a budget. Our industry is becoming ever more competitive: maintenance costs are increasing, vacancy rates are rising, and concessions are putting pressure on effective rental rates. If you want your property to operate at peak performance levels you need to develop, review and execute a plan. Failing to plan is essentially planning to fail.

First, your management team should have a playbook of well thought out plans on how to proceed with everyday operations. These well-defined procedures ensure that daily tasks are done correctly and consistently. Rent collection, apartment showing, rental application and screening, work orders, and property maintenance should be performed to pre-defined playbook standards.

The next aspect of the playbook details plans for those unusual situations that we all hope will never happen. Accidents, fires, floods, deaths, hazardous materials, thefts, hurricanes - you name it, it can and will happen. Outline pre-determined actions on what your staff will do to stabilize the situation, who needs to be contacted, and who is responsible for media and tenant relations. How you handle these situations can greatly impact how your property is portrayed in the media, help mitigate the total cost of the situation, and aid the process to return things to normal. A disaster drill once a year is an invaluable tool in making sure your plans work and that everyone on your staff knows what to do. Evaluate your business, your processes, and establish priorities. Evaluate your business, your processes, and establish priorities.

Many property management professionals are good at the planning already discussed. However, in the area of annual planning, we as an industry often fall short. Rather than taking the time to set goals and strategies, we focus on day to day operations. We end up working harder but not smarter.

An annual planning process starts with gathering information. Not just last years numbers, but market information, physical inspections, demographic information, all the data needed to determine the current status of your property and identify what you want to achieve over the next year.

As you determine needs, your strategy will develop, the numbers will fall into place and the resulting action plans are your roadmap to achievement.

The most important step is to re-evaluate. The plan that seemed perfect in December may be unachievable based on circumstances in June.

At Sunrise, we even plan to plan. Every 90 days we take a corporate planning day for our senior staff. We evaluate our progress, review goals and plans, and make sure we are on target.

Try it, you’ll find planning can be quick and easy. A plan helps you to focus your team, improve performance, and save both time and money.

Jesse Holland is president of Sunrise Management & Consulting, in Latham, N.Y.