What’s the latest in the property management industry?
There are approximately 80,000 property managers in the United States. Approximately two-thirds have one to four employees and revenue under $1 million. Ninety percent have a single location. Amazingly, 66% do not have a searchable web address. This last fact underscores the state of the property management industry in our country.
The vast majority of property management companies are mom and pop enterprises without technology, systems, processes or training. Perhaps this is why the property management industry has such a poor reputation among property owners.
During recent national research commissioned by Real Property Management, we heard horror stories about property managers with unethical practices, poor tenant screening, bungled evictions, and bogus maintenance and repair charges. As the leading property management organization in the country, we were appalled. The findings make us even more committed to achieving our purpose: improving lives and our communities by continuously elevating property management standards, and abiding by our values of integrity, innovation and reliability.
Last year we started converting all 270+ offices to a new standardized operating software. Standardization will allow us to truly identify best practices and provide better service to property owners especially those with investments throughout the country. Although we have always provided some of the best training in the industry, this year we announced a new certification program for office staff. We are also piloting proprietary software that will improve our processes, and communication with property owners and tenants. Collectively, these initiatives are designed to radically improve our operations and service levels.
To improve, we need your help. Please respond to customer satisfaction surveys we send to you. Call your local office if you have a question, complaint or issue. Your feedback, good or bad, will help us continuously improve.
As the leader in residential property management, the Real Property Management organization believes it is our obligation to set new standards and start reversing our industry’s negative reputation. During the coming months and years, we believe our new initiatives will deliver fundamentally better service, and raise the bar for all our competitors. We hope to create a new trend – increasing respect and recognition for professional property management.
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.
Hi Bob Pifke! This Article is really informative. I admire the points you explained about the rise of the property management Industry.
Interesting article. When you say that 66% of property managers do not have a searchable web address do you mean they do not have a website? Or that they do not their website ranking in search engines? It should be interesting to see where the industry is heading when it comes to online initiatives. What’s your opinion?
Some of the 66% may have a website, but the sites are not searchable by Google. The main point is that they are very small and unsophisticated operators with a very small portfolio of properties under management. This also implies little training or sophistication.
We believe these ma and pa operators will succumb to more advanced property managers like Real Property Management offices. The situation will be very similar to what happened to travel agents with the emergence of the Internet. Technology is making our offices more successful, more efficient, and helping them provide better customer service. Because of the competitive advantage technology is offering us, our offices are acquiring competitors at an increasing pace. We see this trend increasing in the future.
Hi Bob, thanks for your informative blog. It helps us to educate home owners and tenants what standards and automated systems actually mean to the consumer. Great Job!
What % of the 80,000 do you think will have 5000+ units under management. Seem like a hard stat to locate. I guess this would be considered enterprise level.
In November of 2016, the National Association of Residential Property Managers (NARPM) and Buildium conducted a survey of property managers and shared the results in their report “2016 State of the Property Management Industry Report.” 1,464 property managers were surveyed.
Among respondents, only 5% reported gross income over $2 million per year and only 1% had 51 or more employees. Since 5,000 units under management should generate $6 – $12 million in gross revenue and probably require 50+ employees, there is probably a fraction of one percent of property management companies handling 5,000+ units.