As the Commercial Real Estate Industry (and the rest of the world) prepares for the close of 2024 and looks ahead to 2025, many property managers are reviewing their goals for upcoming year. Hopefully, after reading my October newsletter article, some of you are ready to start the process of applying for the BOMA 360 designation—an award honoring operational excellence in building management. But if you are asking yourself how or where to start, keep reading.
As the Vice Chair of the BOMA 360 Council who has reviewed application and submitted several myself, I wanted to put together a few tips for prospective applicants. Some of the most common problems with these submissions can be easily avoided with the right approach.
Before you start, log into the BOMA website (https://recognition.boma.org/) & review the entire application. Read all questions to get a sense for what is required; some questions have overlapping answers and the same pieces of information can be used to answer multiple questions. Knowing questions ahead of time can help you construct the application more efficiently.
Create a spreadsheet to track the documentation elements and delegate responsibilities and deadlines to your team. The BOMA 360 designation is not just a solo endeavor; it’s a team project. The application is designed to engage all stakeholders: property management team, engineering team, vendors and tenants. A clear tracking system ensures nothing gets overlooked and helps everyone stay on schedule. Compare notes in the process and make sure that everyone (including the tenants) know what questions are being asked and you may find that you can help each other out. Engineering can gather all documents related to the energy savings and management plan: property management team provides the pandemic response plan; tenants supply responses to the Tenant Engagement Survey; vendors are responsible for their waste management strategies. Having a spreadsheet strategy with deadlines can help managers keep track of all the pieces of the application puzzle.
Read the entire question – does your documentation clearly meet ALL requirements listed? Be sure to read each question carefully and make sure your documentation directly addresses all its requirements. It’s surprisingly common to see responses that either don’t fully answer the question or provide irrelevant information. For example, a basic exterior maintenance management plan requires 3 elements: Pest control, storm water & fertilization strategies. If an applicant wants to apply for the exterior management plan (worth 2 more points) then they need to reference 2 additional elements of sustainable exterior management. However, I will see plans going for the 5 points, but sometimes don’t have address the initial 3 requirements. I have also seen applications that requested maximum points for Green Purchasing, but don’t substantiate that claim with the required documentation of what was purchased and confirmations for that building. In summary, a judge will be looking for the question to be answered in its entirety, so please ensure that you don’t provide a partial or irrelevant answer.
Ensure Your Documentation is Current and Building-Specific. Many companies have corporate policies that they use at multiple buildings. This may still be permissible to reference, but it should be noted on the documentation that the policies specifically apply to the building being submitted. As much as possible, describe and document the policies actually taking place at that specific building rather than generic policies on a corporate document. Some of the application questions explicitly require that elements such as trainings and fire drills take place within the last 12 months. If your paperwork shows that outdated information, your points for that question will not be granted.
Clarity is Key. The property manager’s team knows the building’s specific statistics and its daily operations best; the reviewer of the application doesn’t. Your goal is to make the review process as easy as possible by presenting your building’s achievements in clear, straightforward terms. Avoid overwhelming your reviewer with unnecessary information. Do your best to “hand your building off” to a reviewer on a silver platter and think about what documentation you would want to see if you were the one performing the review. Only upload lease sections and paperwork that answer one question at a time and highlight the specific language that you want the reviewer to focus on. A well-organized, clear application not only saves time for the reviewer, but it also improves your chances of scoring maximum points in each category.
Talk to others who have won the designation previously. Great minds think alike and reaching out for clarity only makes your application stronger, not weaker. Speaking with other professionals can bring the clarity you’re seeking and help understand what is being sought after. I would be more than happy to help answer any questions you may have directly. Feel free to send an email to sirlukejohnson.professional@gmail.com or call me at (760) 696-7710.
The BOMA 360 application may seem long and detailed at first glance, but don’t be intimidated. Think of it as a process of "plating" your building’s story. Just like preparing a well-balanced, beautifully presented dish, managers craft the narrative they want to showcase and finally present the finished product to BOMA for them to savor. When a judge sees a submission that has been prepared carefully and thoughtfully, it’s easy to recognize the effort that’s gone into demonstrating why their building is “best in show”. Once the property management team applies a winning strategy to an application that shows off how they follow the industry best practices, it is only a matter of time before they can also show off their new BOMA 360 designation placard.