MMP731 Property Management Operations Assignment Sample

Management of Real Estate

Introduction to Management of Real Estate

This reflective essay aims to assess and discuss about the operations, opportunities, problems and issues faced by the property manager working in real estate industry. This has been done by having a conversation with a property manager where I asked him certain questions related to his experience of working in real estate. The interview was conducted with Mr. Will Jack Thomas, who has been working in residential property management for over six years and after that he shifted his focus to commercial property management. The interview was undertaken on 21 July 2020.

A property manager is the person or a group of people that are hired to manage and look after the day to day operations of a property of real estate (Adnan, Daud, Alias and Razali 2017). The property owners and investors who want to invest in real estate hire property managers when they are unable to manage the property on their own. The role of property manager is continuously changing and becoming more challenging day by day. The real estate industry is now moving towards the innovative technologies and accepting the use of these technologies for managing the work more effectively and efficiently. There have been ups and downs in the Australian real estate industry and especially the residential market has been observing drastic changes in past few decades (Barclay, Heitzman and Smith, 2017). There have been increasing prices of properties in major cities of Australia such as Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Hobart. The industry’s growth has been hampered because of the strict real estate policies and decrease in the interest of foreign investors in residential properties (Bate 2020). The practices of property management face challenges due to less trained or under-qualified workers, the major issue is posed due to communication problems with landlords or tenants, problems in retention of staff and constant increase in new regulations and requirements in the industry (Mr. Will Jack Thomas, Property Manager, interview, 21 July 2020).

Residential Property Manager’s Duties and Responsibilities

In today’s continuously evolving world, the duties and responsibilities of a property manager are constantly changing and the property manager’s job is no longer a ‘one-man job’ and they are working as a team now. However, the major duties of a property manager are almost the same.

Academically, Mr. Will Jack Thomas concluded that it is the duty of a property manager to make sure that the properties under them are taken care of and maintained properly. They check all the facilities, hire supervisors and divide duties among the maintenance staff and for other services like trash removal or landscaping when required. They have the responsibility to show the property to tenants and pay taxes along with maintenance fees. Mr. Will described that the job titles and roles of property managers vary based on their speciality. Real estate managers deal in the properties that generate incomes so as to provide the investors with high returns. They manage the financial work like payments of taxes, look after payroll and other bills for maintenance of properties. Other category of property managers is of community association managers who administer communal properties and see that fair treatment is given to all residents and they are paying their fees in a timely manner. Mr. Will further told about the onsite managers who take care of a single property such as shopping center and the related daily operations. Lastly, there are asset managers who are involved in selling, buying and building of real estate for investors and other businesses (Yuen and Li 2016).

Evolving Work Environment

The duties and responsibilities of property managers is getting more complicated due to the increase in regulations and legislation that one must be aware of, high expectations of landlords as well as managing the tenant’s issues and dealing with different types of people (Kirikkaleli, Athari and Ertugrul 2018). Therefore, it has now become important to hire a team for specific tasks and assign them duties in order to work more effectively and efficiently. As a team, everyone needs to perform their duties which can be marketing of properties, leasing and handling documents or the maintenance work.

Due to the emergence of advanced cloud technology, the use of new technology and innovations has posed challenges as the people do not have enough knowledge of the same (Montgomery, Squires and Syed 2018). However, with time the managers have learnt about the innovative technologies and hence it has become easy for the property managers to carry out certain operations via their devices. Nowadays, more and more customers are becoming tech-savvy and they like to search online before making a purchase decision. The portals have been introduced which make it easier for the buyers and developers to interact with each other and reduce the money spent on third party agents (Read and Sanderford 2018). The other uses of technology like 3D walkthroughs have impacted the real estate industry. New technology is being adopted and used by developers to make high quality walkthroughs on online portals for the home buyers to view and have a look at the property on their handheld devices or laptops/desktops.

Despite the use of technology, it is also very important for property managers to build and maintain good relations with the landlords or property owners as well as the tenants.

Value Creation by Property Managers

The property owners employ property management firms for different reasons. Some owners may have rental properties but do not have time or expertise to take care of the properties and deal with the tenants. There are some owners who just want to earn profits from their rental properties. In such cases, they hire professional property managers who take care of their property and provide them their share of profits (Faust 2016). The property managers deal with different people for different work. These include the clients, tenants, and other staff involved in tasks such as maintenance of property. As per Mr. Will, one of the challenging work of property manager is to employ the right people for right job. There is a requirement of professional teams that can look into the issues of the clients and tenants and solve their issues in the most effective way. Therefore, we can say that the property managers optimize property performance; work in order to keep tenants loyal, and create sustained rental income. The property industry is constantly changing and competition is increasing day by day. It is getting more technical and complex to serve the variety of tenants.

References for Management of Real Estate

Adnan, Y.M., Daud, M.N., Alias, A. and Razali, M.N., 2017. Importance of soft skills for graduates in the real estate programmes in Malaysia. Journal of Surveying, Construction and Property, 3(2).

Barclay, M.J., Heitzman, S.M. and Smith, C.W., 2017. Leverage and taxes: Evidence from the real estate industry. Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, 29(4), pp.86-95.

Bate, B., 2020. Rental security and the property manager in a tenant’s search for a private rental property. Housing Studies, 35(4), pp.589-611.

Faust, G., 2016. Commercial Property Management for Managers QuickBooks Desktop.

Kirikkaleli, D., Athari, S.A. and Ertugrul, H.M., 2018. The real estate industry in Turkey: a time series analysis. The Service Industries Journal, pp.1-13.

Montgomery, N., Squires, G. and Syed, I., 2018. Disruptive potential of real estate crowdfunding in the real estate project finance industry. Property Management.

Read, D. and Sanderford, A.R., 2018. Engaging Asset Managers & Property Managers to Maximize the Value of Innovation Districts. Journal of Property Management, 83(1), pp.20-23.

Yuen, C.B. and Li, T., 2016. Value of Professional Property Managers in Residential Project Development. Nang Yan Business Journal, 4(1), pp.56-67.

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