What makes a good PM...

Question

As we know a PM can make or break your real estate investment..  What makes a good PM in your opinion..   Just putting it out there.. Not a new member here, and currently have a PM and self manage local properties too... Have fired and hired several PMs..  Looking for opinions, thoughts, analysis, experience...

Jeff Copeland · Answer

I came into real estate and property management with a masters degree, after careers in the military, public sector, and higher education. I don't bring that up to brag. Rather to point out that even with a pretty broad professional and educational experience, I honestly believe Property Management is one of the most difficult professions to master, mainly because it is so broad - you have to know a lot of stuff, about a lot of different stuff, to be a good property manager, such as:

• People skills - dealing with owners, tenants, contractors, government officials, real estate professionals, etc.
• Project management skills - timelines, logistics, financing
• Administrative skills - property management software, rent collections, leases, contracts, renewals, bills, payment processing
• Construction and renovation skills and cost estimating
• Marketing and Advertising - if prospective tenants can't find your rental listings and become leads, then you won't last long
• CRM and Database management - lead capture and workflow
• Due Diligence - interpreting tenant screenings, background and credit checks, etc
• Technology - PM software, electronic lock boxes, real estate apps - probably the toughest on this list to keep up with
• Legal - landlord/tenant laws, Fair Housing laws, Credit Reporting laws, privacy laws, evictions, etc.

I could go on and on. But my point is, there is no single trait or silver bullet that makes a good property manager. Rather, it's a long list of expertise in a variety of complicated fields!

Chinmay J. · Answer

Both of you make great points.. I operate a model where my PM manages the property and tenants, and I manage the PM. I give very high points for being proactive, good communicator and professionalism.

I have learned to be wary of PMs who are one man army. Couple of PMs that I ran into for my properties in Richmond, VA (one guy contacted me from reading my posts on BP) just could not do it all. They were one man army. It's not easy to manage 20-30 properties they said they were managing, In vetting one of the guys, I found out that he was actually working a regular job and doing this on the side.  So God knows how he did it all.

After getting frustrated with both, and letting them go, I hired a big corporate PM, and they have been doing pretty good job.  They have separate departments for Legal Issues, Lease Signing, Maintenance, Accounting. Things move a little slow compared to if I were to do everything myself, but I sleep much peacefully at night knowing that if one guy were to go on vacation or fall sick, or something bad were to happen to him/her, I won't get screwed.

Cassie Villela · Answer

I am a PM, and I pay a PM for an out of town property I own. Here's my short list:

1) Communication:

I want to know what's going on with my investment. As a PM, I text/email/call owners any time there is a big issue and send them an incident report or some kind of maintenance documentation. I like the PM I hired because she does the same. I never have to wonder how things are, because I trust her to inform me if there is an issue.

2) Experience:

Look for someone who has been doing it a while and has their team set up. The hardest part about managing rentals is having reliable contractors to call. That takes time to develop. Our service provider list is our biggest asset because those relationships took years to build.

3) Proactive Mindset:

Many PMs are reactive (like most people, I suppose!). Look for someone who thinks ahead. I like to do regular inspections and give owners a report of upcoming maintenance issues, not just current problems. I also send out regular email reminders to tenants for things like HVAC filter changes and other maintenance they need to upkeep. You want someone who is solving a problem you didn't even know about before it even happens. ;)