Any residential or commercial property must be taken care of from both a physical and a tenant-relations standpoint,
and that is what a property manager does. He maintains and upgrades facilities while acting as liaison between
the owner of the property and tenants. In many cases, the property manager has the responsibility for attracting
tenants to the property as well. Since most property managers are in charge of a number of properties at any time,
the job can involve frantic work, unusual hours, and extremely difficult schedule coordination. “My desk looks
like a hurricane hit it all the time,” wrote one manager, adding that his paperwork burden isn’t just large, “it
scares me.” It takes strong communications skills, strong organizational skills, and a flair for numbers to handle
this demanding position. “Everything that goes wrong is your problem,” mentioned one property manager, pointing
out that a property manager has the most client contact when disasters occur, such as a flooded basement, a heating
system gone awry, or a burglary. This can be daunting for those who don’t perform well in crisis situations. One
respondent told us that the best property managers are “proactive rather than reactive.” The more they can anticipate
potential problems and prevent them, the fewer they have to deal with. When things do fall apart, often due to
short-sighted owners who won’t lay out sufficient money for upkeep, managers must respond quickly and decisively.
More mundane tasks, such as collecting rent and coordinating garbage removal, cannot suffer because of unanticipated
events. Many property managers feel that the best feature of the profession is the chance to work with a variety
of people on a number of different tasks: “I never know what my day’s going to be like,” as one put it. “I think
I know. I’ve made lists of stuff to do. But as soon as you cross one thing out two new things come up. It’s a race
to keep on top of everything. I love it.” While property managers spend a lot of their day dealing with paperwork
and talking on the telephone, the problems they deal with vary greatly from week to week and month to month, giving
most property managers a sense of creative challenge that keeps the job fresh. Onsite managers also have to show
prospective tenants around the site and meet with resident boards and committees, which can mean evenings or weekends
spent in meetings.
