How to leverage utility management services to increase your NOI

2 min read · Written By: May Galan, Senior Vice President, Association Management

Rising utility costs nationwide have a huge impact on investors NOI and not paying attention to these costs can affect your overall ROI. Build to Rent and SFR investors have a huge task of managing timelines for turn over holding times, move in and out, and utility expense recovery. Finding a solution to mitigate these costs can help save investors thousands of dollars per asset.

Imagine having to wait 10 or more days to activate utilities so that crews can make repairs and get properties ready for turnover. Or paying for utilities on properties that have been sold or because your operations team can’t meet the obligation of navigating deregulated states, calling utilities companies and being placed on hold for an average of 45 minutes or more and coordinating with field operation crews to ensure successful service appointments with utility providers is even more challenging when a proper workflow is not implemented.  These tasks can take hours from your operations team and if not done efficiently can mean thousands of dollars in unnecessary costs for your portfolio’s NOI. Every day counts.

Another component of utilities is the actual costs that can be leveraged with bulk discounts for investors that can give your portfolio a greater competitive advantage. Direct billing through the lease to tenants at a discounted rate versus direct billing from utilities companies can be used as a savings value for your portfolios marketing. Precedent Management can negotiate discounts with utilities companies in unregulated markets to save their investors and their tenants thousands of dollars.

A utility management partner like Precedent Management can help centralize and automate utility billing, reduce costs,  identify high usage which can indicate a leak or repairs needed which may not be reported by the tenant and reduce admin work of activation and de-activating utilities. Utility bills are paid on time preventing huge liability for unpaid utility bills that can become liens on properties in some states and thousands in late fees. Anything that can be done to reduce costs for your portfolio is a win. If you would like more information on how our services can help increase your NOI, please contact info@precedentmgmt.com