One of the most common associations of the term “property manager” relates to the management of apartment buildings or complexes. Also known as a form of multi-family residential property management, apartment management takes a number of specialized skills since the interests of the owners, the community authorities, and the tenants all have to be taken into account and balanced against one another. Although property management for apartments takes work, it can also be very rewarding since we are able to form many different personal relationships with all of the people involved in the property.
First and foremost, property management for apartments is governed by the basic interests of the property’s owners, the manager’s employer. Well informed and knowledgeable owners will typically set basic standards: a firm budget on expenditures, targets for revenue, and other perimeters. It is the property manager’s responsibility to maintain the property within these perimeters to the extent that this is possible, while relaying problems and unforeseen expenses to the property owners as well as warnings about the possible consequences of not addressing pressing concerns. Less knowledgeable property owners actually rely on the expertise of their property managers far more in order to learn about various problems – and possible remedies for them – that the owners may not have taken into consideration.
Next the property manager has to ensure that the apartments comply with legal standards applicable to the local area. Virtually every level of government – federal, state, county, and municipal – has its own standards that it applies to residential properties. These include legal mandates regarding fire codes, waste disposal, electrical wiring, parking and transiting, and so on and so forth. It is usually the responsibility of the property manager to be aware of all of these standards and ensure that the property is in proper compliance with all of the relevant rules and regulations. In fact, many property management contracts specifically place this responsibility on the property manager (or the property management company) and stipulate that they are responsible for any fees or penalties related to non-compliance. Since health and safety inspections have long been a significant source of revenue for local governments, maintaining compliance and being sure the property passes inspection is an important duty.
Finally, the property management for apartments involves a huge amount of human interaction and social skills since the resident tenants view their apartments as their home, with all that this entails. In that the residents reside in the units twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week, maintenance tends to be a larger concern; further contingencies have to be established and maintained in order to deal with emergency situations that develop at awkward times of day, on holidays, or other unconventional times. Further, tenants facing problems have a high level of expectation and in many cases these expectations are backed by various tenant rights laws on the books in the area in question. Therefore the property manager has to be responsive, able to deal with tenants in excited states, and generally accessible to all of the people living in the property.
As can be seen, property management for apartments entails a lot more than merely collecting the rents and ordering the maintenance personnel around. Instead it is a full time job that requires a good understanding of all the various concerns to be taken into accounts, as well as excellent budgeting, negotiation, and even diplomatic skill.
