What is a building professional? A person that manages a property, building, or facility directly for an owner directly or as an outsourced third party. They help ensure that the property systems, functions, and staff perform optimally as possible.
Depending on the industry and type of building, property, or facility duties can vary and have more specialization in specific focuses. Plus, the terms or vernacular will be different for each industry, for example:
| Industry | Number of spaces |
| Multifamily/ Apartments | Doors |
| Hotel | Keys/ Beds |
| Hospitals | Rooms |
| Cooperatives/ Condominiums | Units |
| Office | Spaces |
Residential Property Manager
Apartments, Condominiums, Cooperatives
Duties will include:
Maintain and oversee administrative responsibilities for the office, including all paperwork, reports, daily logs, etc.
Negotiating agreements with vendors, suppliers, and contractors. Every community has either daily, weekly, or monthly needs for vendors contractors or vendors that require the evaluation and negotiation of pricing, dates, and times as well as all other terms.
Reviewing liability of the property or community– This goes into several different areas, making sure all appropriate insurance is maintained and that the property is finding ways to reduce liability to the management and or the owners.
They are acting as a representative in local law and legal issues. Each state and location will have different laws about the Screening, Background checks, Leases, Evictions, Use and Occupancy, Rental Agreements, Building codes, and permit needs as well as issues that may occur on the property.
Overseeing the day to day operations, this includes walking the property and performing visual inspections, making sure all daily and weekly operations are up to date as well as any projects.
Managing financial budgets and overseeing expenditures, paying bills and or processing, for most Property managers, budget time is the busiest part of the year, compiling, reviewing and processing the budget for the current and following years provides a lot of desk time. Also, taxes are part of what needs managing with the accountant for the building or property.
Planning repairs, projects, and improvements every property in time will need either capital improvements or repairs, budgeting, planning, bidding, negotiating and overseeing these projects can be very involved depending if outsourced third parties are not utilized.
Setting goals for occupancy rates, rents, fees and benchmarks Property managers will work closely with the owner or ownership of a property and or the board of a condominium/ Cooperative on setting and identifying critical metrics for the performance of the building or property. Most properties will focus on keeping revenue up (rent) while keeping expenditures (costs) down while ensuring the quality and or performance maintains at an acceptable level; this is usually a collaborative process.
Overseeing and managing staff, hiring, firing, and evaluations Depending on how many units, doors, or properties you are operating, There may be staff involved, and you will be responsible for the management. A team could include – Maintenance, Leasing, Construction.
Customer relations, maintaining good relationships with tenants and or unit owners While most of the job is focused on the building and or the property, you still are in the people business, and this plays a critical role in the job, the better you are at communication and relationship can go a long way in helping the other aspects of the job.
Ensure proper security measures/ protocols are being followed – You are the leader in making sure the building or property is a safe place for all people on the property, staff, guests, tenants and or owners some examples would be, i.e., Lighting is working, proper fire codes are being followed.
Keep current with other communities, buildings in the area; it is important to have a working knowledge of what other buildings charging to make sure that rents or fees are competitive. It is also a good idea to know other things like preferred vendors and or practices if you are not from the area.
Look to add value where possible to the property/ community You will end up being the expert of your building or property, looking ahead to ideas that can add value to the building or property can help ensure that they see the value in you.
Commercial Property Manager
Offices, Retail space
Duties will include:
Maintain and oversee administrative responsibilities for the office, including all paperwork, reports, daily logs, etc.
Ensuring rents and or fees are collected timely, making sure rents and or taxes are paid.
Negotiating agreements with vendors, suppliers, and contractors. Every building or property has either daily, weekly, or monthly needs for vendors contractors or vendors that require the evaluation and negotiation of pricing, dates, and times as well as all other terms. If you are in a suburban or city area, there are other concerns to be aware of, prevailing wages/ union contractors (depending on your location).
Reviewing liability of the property or building– This goes into several different areas, making sure all appropriate insurance is maintained and that the property is finding ways to reduce liability to the management and or the owners.
Acting as a representative in local law and legal issues, each state and location will have different laws pertaining to the Screening, Background checks, Leases, Use and Occupancy, Rental Agreements, Building codes, and permit needs as well as issues that may occur on the property.
Overseeing the day to day operations, this includes walking the property and performing visual inspections either daily, weekly or periodically, making sure all daily and weekly operations are up to date as well as any projects. Depending on the climate change of seasons can be an excellent time to inspect and evaluate the exterior.
Managing financial budgets and overseeing expenditures, paying bills and or processing, for most Property managers, budget time is the busiest part of the year, compiling, reviewing and processing the budget for the current and following years provides a lot of desk time. In addition, taxes are part of what needs to be managed with the accountant for the building or property.
Planning repairs, projects and improvements every property or building, in time will need either capital improvements or repairs, budgeting, planning, bidding, negotiating and overseeing these projects can be very involved depending if outsourced third parties are not utilized.
Setting goals for occupancy rates, rents, fees, and benchmarks Property managers will work closely with the owner or ownership of a property on setting and identifying critical metrics for the performance of the building or property. Most properties will focus on keeping revenue up (rent) while keeping expenditures (costs) down while ensuring the quality and or performance maintained at an acceptable level; this is usually a collaborative process.
Overseeing and managing staff, hiring, firing, and evaluations Depending on how many spaces, properties you are managing, there may be staff involved, and you will be responsible for the management. A team could include – Maintenance, Leasing, Construction.
Customer relations, maintaining good relationships with tenants, while most of the job is focused on the building and or the property, you still are in the people business, and this plays a critical role in the job, the better you are at communication and relationship can go a long way in helping the other aspects of the job.
Ensure proper security measures/ protocols are being followed – You are the leader in making sure the building or property is a safe place for all people on the property, staff, guests, tenants and or owners some examples would be, i.e., Lighting is working, proper fire codes are being followed. Some buildings will have a security staff (either in-house or outsourced).
Keep current with other communities, buildings in the area; it is important to have a working knowledge of what other buildings charging to make sure that rents or fees are competitive. It is also a good idea to know other things like preferred vendors and or practices if you are not from the area.
Look to add value where possible to the property/ building. You will end up being the expert of your building or property, looking ahead to ideas that can add value to the building or property can help ensure that they see the value in you.
Real Estate Manager for Healthcare Facilities (Hospitals and satellite buildings)
Property management for healthcare does differ from other industries. The different business model, along with the position of facility manager or director, changes to the role. There are many of the same duties and responsibilities.
Since the hotel business takes the role of the management of the asset to either a GM (General Manager) and CBE (Chief Building Engineer) handle the overall activity of the property, in some cases the best-known PM in this industry is possibly a regional manager and or a corporate engineer when it comes to the building or property management side of the business.
So now we know what the job entails:
- Part Lawyer
- Part Maintenance technician
- Part Sales Person
- Part Accountant
- Part Purchaser
- Part Boss
- Part Customer service
Now to the question is Property Management more of a science or an art?
Let’s look at the argument of science.
The job is data-driven, KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) numerous stats and data to show the performance of the business- Lease or rent performance, Room rate, occupancy, budgets. In addition to the numbers, there is knowledge of technical trades or focuses.
The argument of art is for how you skillfully handle nuanced situations with customers, tenants that in itself requires persuasion skills but empathy and listening (which now is a lost art). Also, managing contractors and vendors in negotiations need exceptional power. Not to mention the art of Mcgyver (a nod to the 1985 show) the practice of making solutions to stressful situations.
To accurately answer this question, Property Management in all its forms is both an art and a science. This exceptional career tests you both ways, and shows that to grow and get better the importance to develop your hard skills and soft skills.
In growing your skills, check out some of our other articles: