Six Important Qualities To Consider When Hiring A Property Manager

In any business, hiring the right person for the job is a relatively difficult task. It is impossible to predict whether or not that person will be a good fit for the property. A property manager manages the daily operations of a single or a group of rental properties. Duties can include:

Seeking and screening tenants
• Rent collection
• Property maintenance
• Handling on site staff
• Overseeing the accounting system
• Advertising vacancies

The criteria below outline the qualities of a good property manager, and this will help in making the decision whether or not to hire.

Past experience
A property manager who has previously managed properties is a valuable asset. Ideally one with experience should be well grounded in local real estate laws and regulations and should have good knowledge of standard operating procedures for rental properties.

Communication skills
A property manager will be dealing with everyone involved in the property, so excellent communication skills are very important. Amongst the tasks the property manager will be dealing with is tenant complaint and problems, prospective tenants, negotiating with vendors for maintenance issues and procurement, staff issues, reporting to the owners and many more.

Professional approach
Dealing with tenants, contractors and the owners in a proper and respectful manner is very important, especially when it involves sensitive business matters. The property manager should be able to solve the problem or issue at hand in a kind but firm manner.

Organization skills
Managing a property has several moving parts. A typical day for a property manager may involve renting out a unit, evicting a tenant, dealing with a maintenance issue, dealing with a problem tenant etc. In order to stay on top of all these various tasks, a competent property manager should have good organizational skills.

Computer knowledge
The management of properties has been made more efficient and easier with easy to use property management software available in the market. A competent property manager should be familiar on how to use and apply the software to the existing property. This requires familiarity with technology and software.

Multitasking skills
A property manager’s role is to handle the property and the people. This can be challenging in today’s always connected world with smart phones, social media and email. A manager dealing with a showing may be confronted with a water leak in a tenant’s room. There could be staff absences requiring the manager to fill in the current role and other roles. So the ability to switch tasks and not get overwhelmed is an important quality to have.

Because every property is different, our property management services are customized for each property. Contact us and enquire about our full-service property management that provides solutions for investors and their residential properties.