Property Management: The secrets of turning around distressed properties

Property Management can be a tricky business. Weighing the goals of an owner with the requests of a healthy tenancy are problems we managers deal with every day. Repairs, leasing, code compliance, these are all things we are used to dealing with. Crime and drugs, however, are fortunately issues that most of us do not have to deal with across our portfolios. But what about when a manager is faced with these difficult challenges? Taking over management of a crime-ridden property is a challenge different than most face. Managers need to follow a short list of important tasks and when doing so, they may find that they have improved their client's property, resulting in a more financially successful entity and more importantly a better place for the residents of the property. When beginning management of a property with high crime, one should hit the ground running. First do an overall review of the property's security features. Changing these will make the halls of your property a less comfortable place for drug dealers to do business. During your survey, pay careful attention to lighting in the common hallways, courtyards and basements. Dealers do not like to frequent areas in which they are highly visible. If areas are dark, install brighter fixtures. Review the buildings access systems. In today's day and age, all access systems should use non-duplicating key entry. This key can be a traditional non-duplicating key or a fob/card system, but in either case, if installing a new system, require all tenants of record to visit your office with identification to receive their new keys. This process will help you weed out any possible illegal subtenants. Limit the amount of keys given out to the number of residents and their immediate families. Analyze the properties use of security cameras, if any. If they do not already exist, install several security cameras throughout the property. Cameras should be outside the front entrance, inside the vestibule and hallway and the common rooms throughout, including laundry or storage rooms. In addition, if the property can afford it, place cameras in all public hallways. Overwhelming the property with cameras will not only potentially identify the faces and activities of criminals but will serve as a great deterrent. Ensure that when you select cameras, you choose ones with high clarity so you can get quality photos of possible perpetrators. Address any graffiti in the hallways or along the properties exterior. Signs of graffiti or refuse around suggest a property in which little attention is paid by management. If you demonstrate a few times that you will not allow these conditions to fester, criminals and youth will simply tire of fighting with you and will seek a new home. Often criminals in properties have a specific connection to the building. A tenant or a tenant's son or grandson perhaps serve as a home base or even an actual apartment site for drug dealing or storing. Discuss this possibility with building employees and try to find out if this is the situation. If any lease restrictions are being violated, immediately begin a holdover proceeding to try to remove the tenant. In N.Y.C. properties, participate in the Clean Halls affidavit program which allows local law enforcement unfettered access into your properties. Police officers locating individuals and loiterers in your properties will now have the right to question and remove them if they do not have a reason to be there. More than just participating in the program, build a real working relationship with law enforcement. Police precincts are generally welcoming to owners who are pro-active and will work hand in hand with them to better their properties and neighborhoods. Provide the police with all the information they request, including identification about individuals in your building from their original applications. This information is often critical to police investigations. In addition to these clearly security related items, focus on a general repairs and maintenance plan. Often drug dealers make themselves at home in buildings with broken entry doors, cracked glass and other deferred maintenance that suggests that they will fit in under the radar. Once management follows all of these steps, it will often result in the complete eradication of the criminal element from the property. Remember, you don't have to eliminate crime from a 50 mile radius, you just have to make it clear that it is not welcome in your building and criminals will normally simply shuffle down a few doors or a few blocks away. Matthew Engel, CPM, is vice president of Langsam Property Services Corp., New York, N.Y.