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Property management offers a lucrative career in real estate, with jobs in leasing, administration, and management. Leasing consultants must be competent in sales, including phone skills, while administrative roles require detail-oriented, tenacious individuals. Property managers need leadership and management skills, as well as industry experience. Starting as a leasing consultant is a common path to becoming a property manager.
The field of property management offers many opportunities for the individual seeking a rewarding, challenging and lucrative career in real estate. Candidates looking for property management jobs should be aware of the basic structure of many property management companies and the skill sets that property management companies look for in personnel.
Property management jobs are generally found in three main areas; leasing (sales), administration and management. While most on-site property management staff can rent apartments, leasing is usually the responsibility of a consultant. To be a successful leasing consultant, an individual must be competent and comfortable with all aspects of the sales process, including speaking with customers over the phone, meeting face-to-face, and following through to the sale.
Talking to potential customers over the phone is a big part of a leasing consultant’s day. Therefore, it is extremely important for the consultant to stand out on the phone. Ironically, this is the only area where a large percentage of leasing consultants work. This means that there can be a huge competitive advantage for anyone who chooses to do well on the phone.
Being good on the phone isn’t simply about being able to politely answer a customer’s questions. The successful leasing agent is one who is not afraid of the telephone and is willing to take customer calls and make calls to potential customers. Leasing agents must also be able to effectively sell the client on the virtues of community and consistently make appointments for clients to visit the property over the phone.
The leasing agent is essentially a sales position; therefore, it is absolutely critical that agents have solid sales and people skills. Agents must be able to interact, relate, and connect with a wide variety of people. They must be proficient in providing meaningful and relevant information to customers and they must not be afraid to close the sale.
Administrative property management jobs are usually the next step from the leasing position. Property management functions are usually the responsibility of the assistant manager, accountant or community administrator. Those with administrative positions typically collect rent, submit debtor and credit balance statements, process the statement of accountancy of deposits (SODA) for residents who have moved, oversee the eviction process, address violations of resident contracts, and perform basic accounting tasks and advanced.
It is very important that those with administrative property management roles are detail oriented, consistent, tenacious and possess effective organizational and time management skills. It is also important for administrators to be able to handle and diffuse sensitive, difficult and upsetting situations that arise. Unfortunately, the manager’s job often requires them to deal with people in the worst possible way.
A property manager must possess the skills required by administrative and leasing personnel, as well as leadership, training and management skills. Most companies also prefer a property manager with previous industry experience. Therefore, individuals interested in becoming property managers should expect to start their career as a leasing consultant and then work their way up.
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