Choosing a career should always be fulfilling. Before you take a step on whatever profession you’re getting into, make sure you fully understand everything that’s related to it – property management, as example.
Few careers are growing faster and offer more exciting opportunities, including property management. However, there’s a question many people are asking themselves right now in 2021, “Is property management a good career? Still?”. If you’ve been wondering what a property manager does and what’s the pros and cons of becoming one, read on.
What is Property Management?
Property management involves overseeing and managing the day-to-day operations and maintenance of one or more rental properties. The rental properties could be condos, single family homes, multi family homes, apartments or even retail complexes. The responsibilities of a property manager include the following:
- Consultation
- Property Marketing and Advertising
- Flexible Showings
- Guaranteed Low Vacancy Rate
- Thorough tenant screening, record keeping etc.
- Lease enforcement and renewal
- Property reviews or periodic property inspections
- Handling maintenance requests and emergencies
- Finance and Accounting Reports (Rent Collection)
- Legal guidance and Security
- Evictions
What are The Roles of the Property Managers?
Being a property manager means taking on the role of middleman between landlord/property owner and tenants. When rental property owners don’t have the time, ability, or resources to be managing rental properties, they hire professionals. Some property manager duties are handling tenants, collecting rent, negotiating leases, maintaining the building, and increasing property value, among other things.
Becoming a property manager could be very rewarding, but as we said, any job has it’s good and bad.
PROS:
1. High Growth Industry
There is a rising demand for rental properties in most housing markets around the world. Take the Orange County Real Estate Market Report for June 2021, for example, the median sale price of single-family homes in OC remains over $1 million, with average days on market down to just 20 days. With prices continuing to rise, this is a great time for homeowners to take advantage to rent out properties or sell, plus, it also means a growing demand for orange county property management too. Property managers will always have opportunities to explore.
2. Competitive Salary
Becoming a property manager in virtually any housing market is a good bet as this is a real estate career in high demand. Yes, it’s not an easy task, but becoming a property manager sounds like even more of a good idea when the salary enters the conversation. It’s not just a guaranteed salary that property managers can expect, the perks are good too.
3. Makes You More Active
If you don’t like being restricted to an office or cubicle for 8 hours a day, then a property management career could be right for you. This job involves frequent visits to investment properties and meetings with landlords, contractors, and tenants. It’s an excellent career that has schedules that are long days but flexible. A career in property management offers a wide variety of tasks, making it a good choice for those who work well independently.
CONS:
1. The Pressure of Finding Tenants and Clients
Although difficult tasks such as handling tenant evictions and dealing with bad tenants are stressful, you can also generate property management leads through them or near their circle. Property managers are responsible for attracting property owners to their services. This isn’t an easy thing to do, as you don’t want to attract the wrong type of client, and it’s one of the downsides of being a property manager.
2. Difficult Tenants
Some tenants, contractors, and property owners can be very difficult to handle. For instance, a tenant defaulting on rent might refuse to move out of a rental property. This is why property management can be a very stressful career at times.
3. Requires Constant Attention
It is a full time job and some people go into this career not fully realizing this. Every property differs from the other. Whether you work for a property management company or you’re self-employed, you will often face emergencies that need to be dealt with immediately. Having to work in the evenings and on weekends will mean sacrificing time with your family or friends.
