As a
California City property management company, we help people find housing. That’s an important part of life - housing.
Because of what we do and our passion for it, we find ourselves engaging with members of the community quite frequently. We also work closely with government entities, utility companies, and other professional service providers in and around California City. We have great relationships with vendors and contractors. We network with other
property managers, real estate agents, and brokers.
Relationships like these are important. They help us do our job better, and they help us serve our clients and our community better.
We’re sharing what we’ve learned. Here’s how to build and maintain positive relationships with California City’s government and community.
Why Do Community Relationships Matter?
Whether you’re renting out a property in California City, providing plumbing services, selling homes, or even looking for a home, you need to build relationships in order to get things done. Our world is both more isolated and connected than ever before. You need to find the building blocks that bring us together and leverage what can be done when several different people, groups, organizations, and leaders are working towards the common good.
Community building occurs one-to-one. You need to build relationships with individual people and with collectives, whether we’re talking about groups or organizations, or other businesses.
Many people get involved in community outreach because they believe in where they live and work. They want to make it stronger and they want to be of service to their community. Sometimes, they get involved in the community because they want to win allies or build new businesses. That’s okay, too. You want to gather as much support as you can from within your own community. And, if you’re able to provide a service to those who agree to work with you…even better.
Provide Education and Information
The first, and possibly most important thing you can do to forge stronger community relationships, is to be a resource. Provide education and information. Offer to train people in your areas of expertise. When you provide education and you help people to learn something new, you become a valuable part of the community and you grow your network of people.
As property managers, we know that there’s sometimes confusion about what we do and how we help. When we can share our stories with people, we know that we’re not only selling our services, but we’re also demonstrating how our knowledge, skills, and talents might be useful to the people who need us. Someone who inherited a house, for example, might understand how to rent out that house. Someone dealing with a tenant who hasn’t paid rent could get some valuable information on the legal process for evictions in California. Tenants who suddenly find themselves needing to move out of their homes because it’s inhabitable will understand who we are and remember what we do when they need us.
There are several different ways for you to provide information about who you are and what you do that will educate and inform your community. You can:
- Put together a website, if you don’t have one already.
- Write and share a blog.
- Create frequent social media posts that share a little bit of education around topics that you know people like to discuss.
- Provide public speaking services. If your local real estate association is hosting an event, for example, you might be a good speaker to discuss
fair housing laws or
service animals or self-showing technology.
- Network professionally and socially. Attend local business meetings. Join groups. Talk to people inside your industry and even in other industries. The more we know about how lenders provide home loans, for example, the more we can be resourceful for our investor clients who want to expand their portfolios. It’s important to talk to everyone who touches some part of what you do.
Prepare your 10-second elevator pitch for when you’re introducing yourself to government entities, community partners, and even new friends. Then, prepare to dive a little deeper into what you do in a way that provides value and education. If you’re the local resource for all things property management and rental homes, you’ll find yourself staying pretty busy and well-connected.
Learn How to Listen
You cannot work on relationships with anyone if you’re not willing to communicate.
Where does communicating start? With listening.
Active listening is a skill that will help you communicate with everyone, including your local government officials, the business partners you work with, your customers, and the members of your community who you’re consistently trying to reach.
As California City property managers, we’ve found that our communication strategies improve immensely when we listen to our tenants. So do our relationships. We have an easier time-solving problems. We get a consensus when we need it. We are less afraid to dig into difficult issues.
Listening isn’t always easy.
Sometimes, it may seem like you are doing all of the listening and none of the talking. That requires diplomacy and excellent communication skills, but a lot of the time, when you’re talking to someone new or even an old friend, people just want to be heard. Maybe they’ll start complaining. Maybe they’ll start gossiping. When you listen actively, you can quickly separate the communication that’s valuable from the communication that is filler and fluff.
Sharpen those active listening skills.
Listen with empathy and compassion. When you can manage that skill, your partners and fellow community members won’t be afraid to come to you when they need help or have bad news. Always lead with listening. It’s better for your relationships and for all of your communication strategies. People will be far more willing to engage with you when they know they are working with a good listener.
California Laws are Strict and Guidance Helps
One of the best reasons to get involved in your local government is to influence local laws. The rental laws in California are notoriously strict. We find ourselves working within the strict confines of fair housing laws, rent control laws, just cause eviction laws, Section 8 considerations, support and service animals, habitability issues, and security deposit laws.
It’s a lot to keep straight.
When we feel like we have a seat at the table, even locally, we feel more empowered to make valuable and lasting change. Instead of things happening
to us, we can feel like things are happening
for us.
Get involved in your local government activities. It’s good for your relationship building, it’s good for your community presence, and it also gives you a voice. You can be a real part of how decisions are made within your community.
Plenty of opportunities to donate your time and service exist around California City. If the local government isn’t your first choice, pick a charitable organization or a philanthropic group. Volunteer hours are always time well-spent, and they’ll help you build better relationships and better businesses.
When we need legal help, we call on our friends and colleagues in the legal field. Developing those community relationships have helped us save our rental
property owners and real estate investors from expensive lawsuits and claims. When we have an emergency
maintenance issue that could affect habitability, we call on our preferred list of vendors and contractors. We know that the time we’ve invested in forming good relationships will help us solve the repair problems that pop up from time to time.
Sustaining the Relationships You’ve Built
