Department of Apparel, Housing and Resource Management, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Wallace Hall 295 W. Campus Drive, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061–0131, USA
Department of Apparel, Housing and Resource Management, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Wallace Hall 295 W. Campus Drive, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061–0131, USA
Department of Apparel, Housing and Resource Management, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Wallace Hall 295 W. Campus Drive, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061–0131, USA
Intensifying competition and increasing market demands are forcing many third-party apartment management firms to re-evaluate their approach to business development and client prospecting. In some instances, these companies are becoming more selective about both the assignments they take on and the property owners with whom they work. Careful consideration is frequently given to a number of factors to determine if new business opportunities are a good strategic fit. This paper examines how sophisticated fee management firms make such determinations by examining the perspectives of executives representing 25 of the largest multifamily operators in the United States. The results indicate heavy reliance on relational approaches to business development, limited long-range planning, and informal channels of communication often encourage fee managers to pursue new business in an ad hoc manner despite market conditions favouring more systematic behaviour. A series of best practices are put forth to address these concerns.
Read, D. C., Goss, R. C., & Hopkins, E. (2017). Strategic business development and client prospecting in the third-party apartment management industry. International Journal of Strategic Property Management, 21(4), 346-356. https://doi.org/10.3846/1648715X.2017.1317297
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
