Hours & Routine
For those interested in a property management career, the hours are up to the individual, within reason. As independent contracts, just as with any other independent contractor relationship for real estate practitioners, the company does not dictate hours. But, in order to build and tend to a management portfolio, the property manager will need to devote several evenings each week and some weekend time to the business for the first couple of years.
Like real estate sales, rentals will require showings when the interested parties are available. This generally means weekends and evenings. But, the other side, similar to listing homes for sale, is soliciting new business. Experienced agents know about farming and prospecting. We do the same sorts of things to build our management portfolios. There are mailings, FRBO contacts and other “networking” techniques all geared to getting “listings” or new accounts.
Once the portfolio (properties under your management) reaches a certain level, the property manager can back off of the prospecting and rely more on referrals for growth. As the workload increases, the property manager will spend more time managing and less time renting. Newer staff members will need the rental business to support their start-up careers. As the rental work is passed on to others, the number of evening and weekend hours can be reduced or even virtually eliminated.
Our requirement for property manager hours is this: be there when you are needed. Emergencies don’t happen 9:00 to 5:00. The property manager is expected to deal with emergencies in a timely manner. We require that the job get done in a professional manner. Property inspections can be done in the evening or on weekends. Marketing of vacancies can be done substantially from home or a home office. The physical presence of the property manager is somewhat less important than the ability to reach the property manager by some means, be it telephone, pager or cellular. Of course, new managers wishing to get rental business to supplement that start-up income will need to be in the office to receive calls which we handle in a typical “floor duty” or “up-agent” manner.
