What are property management services?

The services provided by a property manager or property management company are broad and diverse. Many companies offer both "full service" options and partial or "a la carte"? property management service depending on what a property or owner requires.

Full service property management generally includes all or most of the following responsibilities: acting as the first point of contact for tenants, building workers and maintenance contracts as well as maintaining professional relationships with an accountant, insurance agent and attorney if necessary; advertising, marketing, showing available space and leasing the property; interior and exterior maintenance-- whether it be the actual upkeep or coordinating contracts for needed work and services; collecting rent and fees from tenants; coordinating contracts, issuing purchase orders, paying invoices, purchasing supplies, and general accounting and banking needs; helping create, maintain and follow a budget for both short term and long term goals (ie. capital improvements); and administrative tasks like reporting and record retention which might include income statements, annual reports, rent roll, occupancy reports, historical records and file backups of online systems.

Some professionals can be hired as onsite managers to provide 24 hour availability to tenants for emergencies, more hands-on management and flexible scheduling. Offsite managers can be engaged to oversee multiple properties if the owner has a real estate portfolio.

Essentially, property management services provide all of the needed functions to run a property or real estate portfolio without involving the owner. This allows owners to completely hand over the responsibilities of owning a rental property, while still maintaining the financial benefits of the investment.