Rental properties demand a great deal of attention. Managing the business aspects alone—loan payments, taxes, accounting, and maintenance—can require more time than facility and plant managers have to give.

Facility managers can’t always offload certain tasks that demand their specific skills and attention, but there are opportunities to delegate work that is better outsourced or accomplished with tools. These are the key areas that facility managers should examine to reduce their energy input and maximize where their skills are truly needed.

1. Automatic Water Detection

Water damage accounts for an enormous amount of property damage, with estimates of $11 billion each year in insurance claims. Water can destroy foundations, cause rot and, over time, completely render the building unusable. Facility managers should do routine maintenance such as inspection of drain pipes, gutter cleaning, and sealing concrete, but even the most disciplined reviews can miss small things. Facility executives should look into leak detection services that help protect their physical plant from water intrusion at the first sign of trouble. The saying “a stitch in time saves nine” is particularly true for water damage. It’s crucial to stop it before it’s too late.

2. Green Operations to Reduce Operating Expenses and Preserve Fixtures

Facility managers should consider adding cost-effective environmental solutions to their properties. Water features, for instance, can be remotely managed to operate alongside the HVAC system to provide a synergistic effect. By having the water act as a heat sink or a cooling tower, the facility manager can have the benefit of increased efficiency, ultimately lowering the utility costs while not forcing the capital equipment to work as hard and prolonging the useful life of the system. Many features offer remote access to control water flow and manage the feature when the facility is closed for the day.

3. Security and Building Management

Facility managers should look for a solution to more passively maintain the ingress and egress points of their buildings. Maintaining physical staff or security is expensive and has clear limitations. Access control and visitor management can be a headache if the facility manager doesn’t have the right tools in place. Managers can stretch their human capital much further by having a central system that can provide custom access codes for one-time deliveries or detailed time stamps of each visitor to the property. Security breaches are enormously costly for the company, so having a reliable, stable system is critical for facility managers.

Facility management is a time-intensive and demanding job. It requires long-term planning and managing the microscopic day-to-day details. Employing select tools wisely can save facility managers their time and also save their companies enormous amounts of money by preventing problems and reducing staffing needs. Time is a facility manager’s most precious asset because their skills are not easily replicable or quick to train. Facility managers should try to win back as much of their valuable time as possible by implementing remote management tools to reduce the time spent on these types of tasks.

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