The main difference between a property manager landlord and landlord is that the former usually don’t own the property, but they manage it. Those property managers can manage everything from single-family residences to apartment complexes, shopping malls, or any kind of building.
The responsibilities of a property manager are overseeing and setting up new leases, ensuring rent is received from each tenant on time, ensuring maintenance, repairs of the property, etc. And above everything, maintain communication with the owner and inform about all the issues about the property. According to iPropertyManagement.com 90% of property managers’ tasks include rent/fee collection, leasing, and maintenance or repairs.
Stats about property management in the US
Property management alone was a 76 billion dollars industry in 2018. 844,000 people employed by the property management industry by April of 2019 and approximately 281,345 property management industries are active; according to Buildium reports.
Although one might think otherwise, property management is stronger than ever. In 2009, rental vacancy rates were at 41%, meaning that 41 percent of all rental units in the United States were vacant and available to new tenants. But by 2018 the rates dropped to 25.2%. But the price of the rents made that percentage not mean much. In 2016. almost two-thirds of renters (65%) were 35 years old or less. Millennials are leading the charge in renting, and are putting off homeownership, a reason could be dealing with high college debt which hurts their chances of qualifying for a good mortgage rate.
But that doesn’t change the fact that rents are also expensive, depending on the state. For example, to be able to afford a two-bedroom apartment in New York, Massachusetts, California or Hawaii, you’ll need to make about $30.76 per hour and $36.82 per hour. But, in other states like Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama you can rent the same space apartments, making $14.26 and $14.92 per hour.
Concerns in property management
The main concern of the people in the business – also according to Buildium reports.– is lack of efficiency when trying to get multiple moving parts and parties to work together; followed close next to Maintenance. Also, growth, staff, and residents were the main concerns of the people in the industry. Ironically, one of the smaller concerns on the list is the use of technology, when it could help them the most. There are programs that streamline and automate many previously paper-heavy functions, such as paying bills, collecting rents, and tracking maintenance performed; making human’s jobs easier.
For example, there are also other programs that can work based on Amazon’s Alexa or Google Home, which can warn the property manager about problems with a property, possibly temperature problems, or with doors, which makes life easier for everyone.
Property management is a multi-billion dollar industry, with plenty of growth opportunities for companies. And you can even make more profit if you are willing to outsource, to cut costs in your company. And you also have to follow very closely the new technological tools that are going to be presented in your field of work to use them to your advantage, saving time and resources for what really matters.
Bustamante, J. (2019). Property Management Industry Statistics. Retrieved January 9, 2020, from https://ipropertymanagement.com/research/property-management-industry-statistics.