It is no secret that property managers have the arduous task of balancing relationships between property owners, residential boards, residents, and renters. Whether a property is a cooperative, condominium, controlled/or stabilized rental, issues such as insurance, staffing, building maintenance, capital improvements, and security are inevitable. While some owners act as their own managing agents, due to the complexity of operating real estate, most owners contract with qualified property management firms to handle the day-to-day operational needs of the property.
Because of the diverse makeup of the modern urban landscape and the complexities associated with many major cities, most properties are exposed to a host of activities forcing property managers to stay ahead of the next great calamity. Whether it involves quality of life issues such as graffiti, garbage removal, homeless encampments, or more serious crime conditions, averting a civil lawsuit and reducing ownership liabilities are a property manager’s #1 mission. Knowing where the risks are and how to reduce vulnerability and exposure is paramount to running a safe and productive property. To mitigate risk, it’s important that property managers delegate those assessments to seasoned professionals, such as Integrated Security Services. With experts in areas like property and casualty claims investigation, physical security, and access control security technology we can identify your risks and make sound unbiased recommendations. With a few simple proactive risk management strategies, better standard operating procedures, and technical upgrades, property managers will not only be better prepared for unplanned accidents and breaches, but ensure their greatest assets, the residents, are protected and don’t become their greatest nightmare.
Real Estate Risks:
Like any good financial investment, risk tolerance for real property managers is the degree of variability any property can withstand with or without proper planning. There are inherent risks in real estate investments, some unpredictable and unforeseen, such as catastrophic weather conditions or a pandemic health crisis, and external factors that are beyond the control of landlords and property managers. That said, like auto accidents which are sometimes unavoidable, car owners mitigate those risks by practicing safe driving techniques and purchasing vehicles with added safety features. Further, liability can be addressed by purchasing more comprehensive insurance coverage and limiting access to your car by more seasoned drivers.
To run a successful property and stay ahead of the unpredictable curves, property managers need to take advantage of the knowledge and tools that reduce liability and risk. Failure to address these common challenges creates a false sense of operational security. The buy-in, “if it’s not broken then don’t fix it,” is likely to lead to other assumptions about your property’s security and wellbeing.
A business-as-usual attitude will lead to serious consequences, possibly exposing owners/developers to expensive civil lawsuits and litigation costs.
Besides the recent volatility in market conditions, property managers also need to take into consideration factors that may have been missed or overlooked by ownership during property development or acquisition. Some disturbing examples of this are: “SF’s Millennium Tower has yet another problem” https://therealdeal.com/sanfrancisco/2022/02/24/sfs-millennium-tower-has-yet-another-problem/or residents in affluent Boulder Colorado who have had to deal with wildfires and flooding runoffs, environmental issues that recently surfaced due in part to the changes in global warming. A recent March 2022 fire caused over 20,000 residents to flee their homes. Residents are angry, some insurance claims are being denied and developers are scrambling to modify and make structural changes to their buildings.
Assessing Risks-Building Your Checklist
An integral aspect of any real property is the physical security of the structure and the surrounding environment. Regardless of whether your property is a Class A commercial building, luxury residential, hotel, or strip mall, how you secure that property will be the single most important business decision a property manager makes. With crime, mental illness, homelessness, and civil disobedience on the rise, it is more important than ever to harden your property by utilizing all available methods. Tools like professional security staffing, modern security technology, efficient lighting and well-written standard operating procedures can guide your staff and measure your property’s resilience under stressful conditions.
At Integrated Security Services our team of licensed security consultants offers a few ways to approach security assessments. We recommend a detailed security and safety assessment checklist that includes the following:
- Environmental or Neighborhood crime stats review. This includes interfacing with local police, fire, and building agencies to determine what past and present crimes and quality of life conditions are occurring within close proximity to your property. This review will determine high-risk trends and periods of the day when your property’s security needs more attention and dedicated resources.
- Inspection of all residential access points, including service entrances, roof, attached garages, freight elevators, storage, and loading areas. Special attention will be given to all perimeter doors, lock systems, lighting, digital access control monitoring, and landscaping.
- Emergency preparedness procedural review of all written security and safety protocols, along with general procedures for package control, deliveries, contractors, and visitors.
- Understanding staff hiring procedures, vetting, post-hiring training, and terminations.
Also recommended is what we call Penetration or Red Cell Testing. This type of investigation applies observation and other methodology to demonstrate a property’s vulnerability to compromise, including but not limited to surveillance, access penetration, and related pretext staff engagement. For best results: surveillance observation and testing are usually conducted over the course of several days during various times of the day when activity at a given property is either very high or low.
Combining these two strategies allows our consultants to make recommendations that are not only tailored to your property, but specific to very detailed conditions which may exist outside your zone of control.
Summary
In this rapidly evolving and ever-changing operating environment, with algorithms and AI cultivating investment opportunities, risk management must remain humanized or fail at achieving the emotional preparedness needed to address planned and unplanned for events. It is perfectly okay to look towards technology and apply these advanced tools to assist with your properties preparedness however technology cannot replace the trained and experienced eye of a seasoned security professional. While the security industry embraces how technology can rapidly analyze data and expedite certain labor-intense practices, it cannot replace strategic field canvassing, observation exercises, and other engagement skills that are a reflection of the true human experience.
Let Integrated Security Services help you with your next property assessment. Our hands-on approach takes the guessing out of preparedness and can offer property managers comprehensive studies, functional data, cost-effective fixes, and timely turnaround. Don’t wait for a crisis to contact us! Our team of professionals can be reached 24/7 at 888-808-9119 or at intesecurity.com.
SF’s Millennium Tower has yet another problem, The Real Deal, San Francisco Real Estate News, TRD Staff, February 24, 2022.
Residents Return Home After Fleeing Latest Colorado Wildfire, US News & World Report, March 28, 2022.
