The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and the flowers are blooming. You know what that means? Spring cleaning season is upon us! Pair that with the stay at home orders brought on by COVD-19 and you’ve got a recipe for total organization.
When it comes to tidying up and getting organized, everyone always starts with big plans. After reading all the DIY blogs, watching every episode of Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, and gathering your supplies,you’re ready to transform your space into a masterpiece. But wait, where do you even start? The kitchen cabinets? The garage? Your overstuffed closet? And just like that, you go from excited to overwhelmed.
You can spring clean more than just your house, but that overwhelming feeling can follow you wherever you go. This is the perfect time to get your leases organized, but just like your house, where do you even start? Keep reading to find out.
Organizing Your Leases – Start Here
Start by organizing your lease documents. You’re probably thinking, “Yea, duhhh,” but trust me, you’d be surprised how many people skip over this step. This is one of the very first things we do with new clients. Often times, things are missing, or we find leases they didn’t even know they had.
It’s all too easy for situations like that to happen.Commercial leases are complex. They change a lot. They get passed around from contact to contact. Additionally, the state of a portfolio is largely impacted by the business itself. Not every organization has a dedicated team or manager accounting for the real estate.
So, whether you’re just looking to do some spring cleaning,preparing to move your data to lease management software, tasked with organizing a portfolio that’s never been managed, or some other scenario, this simple exercise is the best way to get started.
Use this list as your guide.
- Make a list of every lease in your portfolio: Not only is this a good test to see what you’re already aware of,but you’ll use this list as a point of comparison throughout the process.
- Make a folder on your desktop for every location and organize each document into the corresponding folder: Be sure to consider every document that could be related to the lease, including the actual lease, any amendments, memos, emails, notes, photos, or space plans. Look through emails from years past, filing cabinets, or the dark corners of your desktop to double check that you get everything. You might even have to call that manger that retired years ago.
- Create a concise naming convention: Once your documents are all organized, take some time to rename them using a naming convention that you’ll apply throughout. Not only will it be easier to identify the document right off the bat, it’ll make the on boarding process so much easier if you choose to work with a lease abstractor or software vendor.
- Compare to your original list of leases: One of the biggest benefits of the entire exercise is that it will help you identify the gaps in your portfolio,such as missing documents or forgotten leases. Is anything missing? Did youfind something that wasn’t on your list? Are there copies that you can get rid of?
- Bonus Step – Check the expiration of each lease: Now that your documents are organized and your list of leases is updated, take some time to identify the expiration for each one. It’s a fairly quick process and that’ll help you identify what needs your attention next.
Once you start getting things in order, you’ll quickly realize that this simple exercise will completely transform your portfolio, your management strategy, and the decisions you make about your real estate.
And guess what? You cleared one of the biggest hurdles of implementing lease management software! Keep the momentum going and schedule a live demo of the software today. With Quarem, you can transform those static lease documents into living digital profiles that’ll help you keep up with critical dates, income/expense schedules, reporting, and so much more. And don’t worry, you can securely upload and store all of your neatly organized documents too.
