Number of properties per PM
- Thread starter DLB
- Start date
Hi Darryl
There are no rules, it depends how the office is structured, if they do trust accounting, how many times maintenance is done and especially what areas they are in. Low socio economic areas are burn out areas for pms.
It also depends on landlord/tenant personalities. some clients are better than others.
In our office we have around 250 properties per "senior" pm and the senior pm has an office administrator and an assistant pm to help. Trust accounting and quarterly inspections are outsourced as is marketing of new properties, it is done by a leasing specialist and not the senior pm.
The senior pm then has a focus on overlooking the management of the properties (landlord/tenant) communication, etc without having to worry about filling new properties, rent arrears, trust accounting or admin tasks.
sounds easy, but it is a high responsibility muti tasking position and believe it or not few people can efficiently deligate tasks while remaining in control. I still can't believe the amount of people that do not know how to effectively delegate! Amazing!!!
Management looks at all the dynamics and in our office the office manager and general manager constantly get rid of 20% of landlords/tenants that are causing 80% of the problems to minimise staff burnout.
We also avoid properties in bad areas to focus on providing better service for people in good areas.
That's just our office and is based on a property management only system, no sales. Agencies that have sales offices will typically leave a property manager alone to manage (or missmanage) 100 properties with no support until they burn out! Then they replace them!
There are no rules, it depends how the office is structured, if they do trust accounting, how many times maintenance is done and especially what areas they are in. Low socio economic areas are burn out areas for pms.
It also depends on landlord/tenant personalities. some clients are better than others.
In our office we have around 250 properties per "senior" pm and the senior pm has an office administrator and an assistant pm to help. Trust accounting and quarterly inspections are outsourced as is marketing of new properties, it is done by a leasing specialist and not the senior pm.
The senior pm then has a focus on overlooking the management of the properties (landlord/tenant) communication, etc without having to worry about filling new properties, rent arrears, trust accounting or admin tasks.
sounds easy, but it is a high responsibility muti tasking position and believe it or not few people can efficiently deligate tasks while remaining in control. I still can't believe the amount of people that do not know how to effectively delegate! Amazing!!!
Management looks at all the dynamics and in our office the office manager and general manager constantly get rid of 20% of landlords/tenants that are causing 80% of the problems to minimise staff burnout.
We also avoid properties in bad areas to focus on providing better service for people in good areas.
That's just our office and is based on a property management only system, no sales. Agencies that have sales offices will typically leave a property manager alone to manage (or missmanage) 100 properties with no support until they burn out! Then they replace them!
totally agree with Xenia.
We have over 2000 properties under management in Brisbane.
We have 11 property managers, but we also have 3 leasing consultants( they show all tenants through properties and process applications) another 3 inspections officers(that carry out all routine inspections) 4 Business development managers( that look after all new business enquiries) 3 office managers and 4 reception staff plus 4 in the business management unit( that can step into any role within the business when required) plus 1 that handles accounts.
We you look at the overall numbers involved in the business our staff to property ratio is below the industry average.
In our opinion, property investors have high expectations when it comes to the level of service that they expect in relation to the management fees charged. Unless a property investor feels that they are getting value for money, they will leave to either go to another agency that charges lower fees or they will look after the management themselves.
The way that property management business is carried out today, not one property manager can do it all themselves. And if they can they will only be able to do it for a short period of time. One of two things will happen. their bosses will want them to manage more properties or if there is a brilliant property manager that handle a slightly heavier work load, there companies do not want to pay them more to look after the extra work.
We have over 2000 properties under management in Brisbane.
We have 11 property managers, but we also have 3 leasing consultants( they show all tenants through properties and process applications) another 3 inspections officers(that carry out all routine inspections) 4 Business development managers( that look after all new business enquiries) 3 office managers and 4 reception staff plus 4 in the business management unit( that can step into any role within the business when required) plus 1 that handles accounts.
We you look at the overall numbers involved in the business our staff to property ratio is below the industry average.
In our opinion, property investors have high expectations when it comes to the level of service that they expect in relation to the management fees charged. Unless a property investor feels that they are getting value for money, they will leave to either go to another agency that charges lower fees or they will look after the management themselves.
The way that property management business is carried out today, not one property manager can do it all themselves. And if they can they will only be able to do it for a short period of time. One of two things will happen. their bosses will want them to manage more properties or if there is a brilliant property manager that handle a slightly heavier work load, there companies do not want to pay them more to look after the extra work.
In sydney - we have around 200 each - 2 property managers - close to 400 total -
This keeps us busy - we do the whole rent roll ourselves from advertising to end of month and all that in between !!!
Being a portfolio set up, the landlord deals with 1 person for everything - usually the manager that built the relationship with the landlord at the market appraisal. Other agents in town have 1 person doing the arrears - 1 the repairs - 1 the lease signs ups - so when the LL calls he needs to deal with several people to get the info he/she wants - UNTIDY !!!!!
How many you can manage REALLY depends on what else you have to do - do you show the properties or hand the keys out - who does end of month and the bookeeping ?? - does the property manager actually carry out the periodic inspections ( oh so important), who selects the tenants and goes through the applications - I thinks it best for 1 property manager to control the whole portfolio even if it was only 150 properties -
This keeps us busy - we do the whole rent roll ourselves from advertising to end of month and all that in between !!!
Being a portfolio set up, the landlord deals with 1 person for everything - usually the manager that built the relationship with the landlord at the market appraisal. Other agents in town have 1 person doing the arrears - 1 the repairs - 1 the lease signs ups - so when the LL calls he needs to deal with several people to get the info he/she wants - UNTIDY !!!!!
How many you can manage REALLY depends on what else you have to do - do you show the properties or hand the keys out - who does end of month and the bookeeping ?? - does the property manager actually carry out the periodic inspections ( oh so important), who selects the tenants and goes through the applications - I thinks it best for 1 property manager to control the whole portfolio even if it was only 150 properties -
This has + and -.
+ as you say - dealing with one person (other set-ups normally have a senior property manager that oversees the whole operation, you will also find that this person is the only one to talk to the landlords)
+ Gives the PM varity of tasks - PM does not get bored
- property managers that manage the whole lot (200 properties - wow thats i pretty high ratio) burn out quickly - not so good for the landlord as they are now dealing with a PM that hates there job.
200 kept us RATHER busy - I currently manage 176 (due to a shuffling of properties) and do EVERYTHING from putting through the morning rents.balancing and reconciling the books to outgoings/ingoings/applications/market appaisals - THE LOT and feel very comfortable in this BUT we dont personally show all the properties - the majority are done by the old $50.00 deposit and ID -
Over 200 is too much and the landlrods will NOT bein getting the correct service and the rent roll will NOT be well maintained - and you will go c.r.a.z.y.
Over 200 is too much and the landlrods will NOT bein getting the correct service and the rent roll will NOT be well maintained - and you will go c.r.a.z.y.
Hi GoAnna, yes it was missread, must be my bad enlgihsh
The senior pm needs to maintain control of all tenant and landlord communications and she is responsible for signing up the tenants. She deligates and outsources paperwork but needs to maintain control and is responsible for all client communication in our office.
It is an interesting question.
We recently had a meet up with the largest property management companies throughout Australia & New Zealand.
There were 12 different organisations represented, and the question was asked "what is the ideal Number"
Based on the total number of staff that are utlised throughout the property management business the average number of properties to property manager was less than 100 properties to property manager. Mind you, between the 12 organisations there were over 15,000 properties undermanagement.
Every company is different, depending on their structure.
We recently had a meet up with the largest property management companies throughout Australia & New Zealand.
There were 12 different organisations represented, and the question was asked "what is the ideal Number"
Based on the total number of staff that are utlised throughout the property management business the average number of properties to property manager was less than 100 properties to property manager. Mind you, between the 12 organisations there were over 15,000 properties undermanagement.
Every company is different, depending on their structure.
A PM should be able to handle 100 properties provided she has an assistant, water proof systems in place and back up office administration support. If there is one PM doing it all as there is in many cases it will lead to a disaster. Trust me, we've been there
In a structure like Jason Rose's property management mob, who gets called up at 2am because of disasters like hot water systems blowing up? Is the property manager on call every week, or is it rotated around the group?
Being on call 24 x 7 is a bit sucky in IT... let alone when you're actually dealing with people instead of computers.
Being on call 24 x 7 is a bit sucky in IT... let alone when you're actually dealing with people instead of computers.
In a structure like Jason Rose's property management mob, who gets called up at 2am because of disasters like hot water systems blowing up? Is the property manager on call every week, or is it rotated around the group?
Being on call 24 x 7 is a bit sucky in IT... let alone when you're actually dealing with people instead of computers.
Like any other business office hours are 9am-5pm for normal business dealings. Although there are people that expect the property manager to be on the other end of the phone 24/7 a good property management office should protect their staff from burn out which is a very common problem in the industry!
A high turnover of property managers is much worse than restricing calls to office hours.
That means that systems and strategies such as emergency procedures need to be in place to handle disasters after hours. Tenants are given instructions at their one hour induction with the office. In our office there is a dedicated maintenance team on stand by for after hours procedures while the property managers go home.
Tenants are also shown through properties after hours but calls to landlords to let them know how it all went, are again restricted to office hours.
Well done! We use the same model but are 10 times smaller!
My goal is 1500 within the next few years. How long has rental express been around? Very inspring, thanks for post!
We cap our portfolios per agent to 100 properties. We feel this number is adequate for a quality service to be provided. Once a property manager has over 100 the level of service per property tends to drop off. Some of the larger franchises push their managers to look after up to 300 properties!
This was the figure floating around in my head while reading this thread - 100 per PM.
That's only 2 per week, but it surely doesn't work out that way.
I remember Marg Lomas saying something similar in her books?
Larger franchises mean zip to me. They are all about creating a perception and delivering the minimum to maximise the bottom line for them.
promise world; deliver atlas.
And your statement confirms it. 300 per PM!!
GTFOH.
100 per property is on the light side. With good systems in place closer to 150for a portfolio manager is manageable.
I am not an advocate of the portfolio method. With the right technology, anyone should be able to easily and quickly access all the information regarding every property.
My primary reason I believe portfolio's do not work is you are asking 2 different personality types to do a job. Property Management has an admin side of tasks and a sales type. Presentations, follow up, marketing are all sales type processes and require a person with a certain personality which is different in dealing with arrears, inspections, filing and other such processes. You can never get someone who can do it all because they are roles requiring different types of people.
I'll also still argue that Property Management is just one real estate service and anyone is doing their clients a disservice by not offering a sales component as well as finance options etc, let alone losing the potential available to their business. Same goes with just sales offices, each real estate department is a natural fit with another.
Cheers
Kev
I am not an advocate of the portfolio method. With the right technology, anyone should be able to easily and quickly access all the information regarding every property.
My primary reason I believe portfolio's do not work is you are asking 2 different personality types to do a job. Property Management has an admin side of tasks and a sales type. Presentations, follow up, marketing are all sales type processes and require a person with a certain personality which is different in dealing with arrears, inspections, filing and other such processes. You can never get someone who can do it all because they are roles requiring different types of people.
I'll also still argue that Property Management is just one real estate service and anyone is doing their clients a disservice by not offering a sales component as well as finance options etc, let alone losing the potential available to their business. Same goes with just sales offices, each real estate department is a natural fit with another.
Cheers
Kev
