Attracting the right people to Property Management

The pandemic has challenged us to reinvent the way we do things. This has been necessary to accommodate the constantly changing environments we face everyday. With the onset of the pandemic we have seen a rise in Property Manager churn, resulting in a loss of valuable industry experience. This knowledge will take a long time to replace as we begin to rebuild the workforce up again.

Property Management is long overdue for an overhaul in the way it is viewed by potential recruits. Building an understanding of the real estate industry is paramount if we are to attract quality team members back into this space.

Building an understanding of the real estate industry is paramount if we are to attract quality team members back into this space.

It has been for a long time considered the bottom tier job that gets your foot in the door of real estate so that you can progress into Sales. In fact, it is a highly rewarding career that attracts people with unique qualities, and who enjoy the work. Not only that, the property management division is a significant asset to the business. If you were to separate Sales and Property Management and sell them off individually, the real value would be in the Property Management Department.

In fact, it is a highly rewarding career that attracts people with unique qualities, and who enjoy the work.

Let’s face it – Property Management can be difficult – the relationships are more intense and there is a lot of legal legislation that you need to wade through on a daily basis. But for the people with the right skill set, it can be a rewarding career.

A recent survey on a PM Social Media post from the question “What do you enjoy most about your job” got the following responses:

• Everything.
• No two days are ever the same.
• I really enjoy looking at all different kinds of property/housing – it really takes you out of your everyday life.
• Putting roofs over families heads.
• Helping people.
• You are helping people with one of the biggest decisions/stressors of their life.
• When you know you’ve had a really positive and beneficial effect on someone else with what you contribute.

Property Managers do like their jobs and they generally have a more empathetic nature, which better arms them to handle many tricky situations. They have a lot more relationships to handle at the one time than any other department in Real Estate – ie if they manage 150 properties – there is a pool of 300-400 people that will reach out in any one day – that is a lot of demand.

Landlords and tenants give them a hard enough time, so the language we use around this department needs to be addressed. Consider that every time you pull a face or make a smart comment about Property Management – you are invalidating someone’s existence, making them feel unappreciated and unsupported, or perhaps that you don’t care about what they do. A change in language or body language needs to reflect that you show support, appreciation and understanding of Property Managers, and this will go a long way to make them feel secure.

A change in language or body language needs to reflect that you show support, appreciation and understanding of Property Managers, and this will go a long way to make them feel secure.

We need to start and attract more people into the field to take the pressure of those that are still there. There are ways this can be done. You can make the Property Management team thrive by:

• Make sure you take the time to have an understanding of the pulse of property management.
• Make sure the team have the right tools for their job and they are in working order.
• Make sure you have the right technology – the latest technology allows staff to get the job done quicker with fewer pain points.
• Make sure they have an environment whereby they have psychological security from peers and management and feel appreciated.
• Make sure they have recognition of a job well done when dealing with a difficult situation or when they reach KPI’s.
• Consider hiring a Virtual Assistant to the tasks that don’t need face to face interaction and are of an administrative nature.