A good property manager needs to be kind and personable, yet firm and strict. They need to have good leadership skills, supervisory skills, communication skills, organizational skills, office skills, conflict resolution skills, and sales skills. You may also need basic plumbing and electrical skills, marketing skills, and the ability to be on call 24/7.
Depending on the size and number of properties you manage, you will have a team of people you are responsible for hiring, organizing, and delegating responsibilities to. These will be people like maintenance staff, cleaning crews, pool and laundry maintenance, parking coordinators, office personnel, leasing agents, realtors, lawn care crews, etc. Being a strong leader you will dictate the pace and integrity at which most of these people will perform. It will also be imperative that you have supervisory skills to ensure that each of these people is performing their tasks in an efficient, timely, and responsible manner.
Your communication skills will need to be flexible based on what part of your job you are performing. Whether you are talking to service providers, city regulators, advertising agents, or prospective clients, you will need to have a strong ability to interpret and communicate the needs in every situation. You will need to be able to listen intently to what the needs are and determine how those needs can be met to best suit your tenants and the property owners.
Office and organizational skills will be essential. All paperwork and documentation must be processed completely and be easy to access at all times. This may be done largely on a computer, but signed copies of leases and other agreements should be well organized and easily accessible in the event of an emergency or other urgent situation. If you are ever overwhelmed, you need to know how to communicate the need and value of an office assistant to the property managers.
There will be conflict. No matter how hard you try, you are in the people business, and people have conflicts. If there is a problem between tenants, staff, whatever, you will need to calmly listen to the entire situation, process it, and then make the best decision possible to alleviate the conflict. Sometimes, hard decisions have to be made and hard messages need to be communicated, so you need to be up to the task.
No matter what properties you are managing, even if they are constantly at full capacity, you need to have sales skills. You need to be constantly reselling your property to your current tenants to encourage them to want to stay in your property even after their lease expires. You need to create an atmosphere where they will refer others to your property management company and where you will be sought after as a place worth waiting for.
For smaller problems, even if you have a maintenance person, you might find that you need to take care of quick plumbing or electrical problems that cannot wait for the availability of maintenance. A general knowledge will make you more valuable as a property manager and will increase the satisfaction rating among your tenants.
Property management can be a rewarding career if you have what it takes. Do you?
