Rental management can be as little as the owner with a list of contractors to rent, maintain, and sell properties or the staff can consist of hundreds of thousands of staff scattered across wide geographies operating as a full blown large service business. The latter is a much larger endeavor, but discussing the basic roles a management company fills for properties provides a useful backdrop to understand the full range of operational responsibilities. So what are these roles?
Regional / Executive Property Manager
Oversees the activities of a number of property managers overseeing specific properties or closely connected properties in a portfolio. The regional manager will have profit and loss responsibility, budget responsibility, capital project management responsibilities. Skills will include customer service, leasing and sales, marketing, maintenance oversight, accounting oversight. Typically, a person in this role will have an undergraduate degree in business, hospitality, or a related field. Additionally, this person is well served to have completed industry standard certifications. The executive property manager will be responsible for staffing, evaluating, and managing a property management staff and will have previous demonstrated skills in this area. This person may be an office of the company and will likely have greater than 10 years and possibly greater than 15 years industry experience.
Property Manager
This individual in this will have demonstrated skills maintaining, overseeing, and managing all activities of a property. They will have a proven "ownership" attitude toward the property. Their basic skills will include customer service, leasing, sales, some marketing, basic accounting (especially the income statement) skills, and maintenance management and oversight. The role may include profit and loss responsibility and will include budget responsibility. They will be actively involved in interviewing and recommending staff selection. They may have an undergraduate degree and will have 5 or more years experience in the industry leading progressively to this role.
Site Manager
This role is similar to the property manager, but will likely be a less experienced person with less education and certifications completed. This individual should have a proven plan and interest in developing the skills of the property manager or executive property manager.
Leasing Assistant
This individual will have a demonstrated capacity for great customer service, a process oriented focus on that capacity, and is likely a very out going individual. Preferably, the individual will show some capacity to fill and support property management roles from and oversight and administration perspective.
Maintenance Manager
This individual will likely have many of the technical skills for major subsystems on a property. Additionally, they will demonstrate capital and maintenance project oversight. Skills will be developing and reviewing bids, overseeing project budgets, interviewing and identifying skilled maintenance technicians. The maintenance manager may be pursuing or have an undergraduate or technical degree.
Accountant / Bookkeeper
Skilled expertise ensuring all transactions are recorded and properly assigned in your bookkeeping system is essential to the efficient effective management of your property. Oversight by outside accounting is essential to an effective accounting effort.
Asset Manager
This role provides sophisticated finely tuned financial analysis and tracking of investment real estate. They are responsible for long range planning and business plan development for investment real estate. The asset manager will be responsible for cash management, capital improvements, rent structuring, budget tracking, short and long range goal planning, consultation for acquisitions, financing, refinancing, and sales. Responsibilities often include wide spread geographies.