Property Management Potential in Rural Communities

When exploring the potential of opening a property management franchise, you’ll want to pay special attention to one of the key components of success: location. After all, pretty much anyone dealing in real property will tell you, ‘location is everything’, right? This advice rings true for an aspiring property manager, especially, as the location you decide on for your business will inform numerous aspects of it: the types of properties you manage, the investors you partner with, the tenants you’ll attract, the vendors you’ll work with, and so on. In the same way you want your marketing and messaging to be direct and focused, you want to be very strategic in where you place yourself to be successful.

Many new property management entrepreneurs will find the allure of major metropolitan spaces, such as the Greater Toronto Area or Metro Vancouver, difficult to resist. There’s obviously a great deal of money in these locations, and the attraction makes a lot of sense. That being said, everyone is thinking the exact same thing, and your chances of standing out from the crowd become a lot more challenging. Exploring ‘rural’ urban centres, outside of these highly-populated areas, offers unique opportunities and a great deal of potential.

For illustration purposes, let’s consider the famed ‘Golden Horseshoe’ in southern Ontario. Boasting nearly 20% of Canada’s entire population, and over 50% of Ontario’s, the area is ripe for anyone intent on managing property. A largely unregulated province when it comes to property management (currently only condominium property managers require a specific license), there are fewer barriers to entry than other spaces in Canada. Naturally, the GTA will be on most peoples’ radars, as we’ve already considered. Plenty of money to go around, but plenty of competition as well. The eagle-eyed entrepreneur will look at a location like this, however, and recognize untold potential in the urban centres considered ‘rural’ to the GTA–lakeside communities like Barrie or Orillia, or ‘bedroom’ communities like Peterborough or Oshawa, for example. This doesn’t mean major metropolitan areas are unfavourable, or that you aren’t able to expand into them in time if you choose; rather, you can build a solid foundation–and incredibly successful business in its own right–without actually stepping into that highly-crowded ring.

As you continue mulling over the all-important location for your property management franchise, here are a few helpful and insightful benefits in favour of ‘rural’ urban areas to consider:

• ‘Rural’ urban centres often focus more specifically into a single property type, or stream. If you’re interested in managing vacation properties, then targeting locations where people vacation is paramount. Similarly, if you’re intent on managing single family homes (a hallmark of Real Property Management), stepping outside major metropolitan areas can be a huge boon. ‘Rural’ urban centres tend to spread wider rather than taller, so single family dwellings are more prevalent and likely to be rented in them.

• Investors get more bang for their buck, plain and simple. Major metropolitan spaces demand significant investment from individuals, often for even modestly-sized properties like condos. While the numbers may not drop multiple zeroes off the end when looking at ‘rural’ urban areas, the investment required–and thus the barrier to entry for new and existing investors–is often much lower. This means more opportunities for you to match investors with quality properties, the potential for multi-door portfolios increases, and you can do so by staying within your niche and not feeling the need to branch out and become a ‘manager-of-all-kinds’.

• Often, in these smaller urban areas, property management is underrepresented. Rather than competing with all the other big names in the space, opening your franchise in a somewhat smaller space ripe with potential is just good business sense. Instead of climbing your way to the top in the GTA, why not set the standard and tone for property management in a city like Oshawa, and build your business from there?

Location has a huge impact on the trajectory and success of your business. Splashing in the larger puddles may seem exciting at first, but with how busy they are, there’s a much higher likelihood you’ll get mud in your eye. Finding amazing puddles that are just the right fit for where you want to make a splash will set you up for tremendous success now and in the future–so get those boots on and connect with RPM today!

If you are interested in learning more about property management opportunities in your area, fill out our quick contact form and the Franchise team will get back to you.