Ever wonder, or been asked, what do property managers really do?  Over 1,400 members of the real estate management profession helped answer that question. 

If you are curious about what those professional told us, you can find it in “What Property Managers Do: IREM Real Estate Management Job Analysis”. In addition to learning what real estate managers do, you will also find out what special knowledge they need to successfully perform their tasks and duties.

This comprehensive study breaks out task and knowledge requirements by a number of demographic categories, including:

• Primary job function (e.g., asset manager, regional manager, officer/director, site manager)
• Type of property managed (e.g., apartment, office building, condo, medical, retail)
• Organization type (e.g., REIT, full-service real estate firm) 
• Size of the company based on number of employees
• Years of experience in real estate management
• Country, state, province, and/or territory where the real estate professional works 

This information can be used by real estate management companies for:

• Recruitment
• Selection
• Performance appraisal
• Compensation
• Training and career development

Publication Date: 2016
Softcover, 103 pages
ISBN: 978-1-57203-238-5

Interested in discount pricing to include this course in your training program? Contact customcourse@irem.org

Seventeenth Edition

Click here to view Chapter Sample.
Click here to view the table of contents

This seventeenth edition of Principles of Real Estate Management highlights the current changes within today’s economy and their impact on real estate management, including online marketing techniques through social media and other outlets, the impact of sustainability, as well as sound maintenance techniques to keep any property primed for occupancy. Along with covering the foundations of real estate and economics, this edition also features more in-depth information on marketing and branding with additional images and graphics throughout.

Copyright: 2018
Format: Hardcover; 524 pages
ISBN: 978-1-57203-259-0

Running your own company is both rewarding and challenging, and should be pursued with careful consideration. In this course, you will explore key decision points on your path to starting a management company. You will also learn from experienced property management company owners on tips, best practices, and lessons learned. This course will help you to:

• Identify key success factors and other requirements for starting a property management company
• Determine your market niche
• Explore components of a business plan
• Determine strategies for business development
• Describe various types of management fees
• Recognize variables that affect company structure and staffing

Once you’ve completed your journey on the path to starting a management company, and reviewed the advice from property management company owners, you will have a solid understanding of key decision points for starting your own property management company.

Expected Duration

2 Hours

By Rosemary Carcucci Goss, PhD and Dustin C. Reed, PhD/JD

Gathered by the research team at Virginia Tech, this report explores the trends and perceptions of leaders in the multifamily housing industry, which has become increasingly competitive throughout the years.

With growing demands from owners, property management companies are constantly seeking ways to maintain a competitive edge in response to the new challenges in the multifamily industry.

Some noteworthy findings among property management firms include:

• Establishing competitive pricing for the services they offer
• Enhancing the value of their brand
• Satisfying HR needs
• Maintaining a technological edge
• Avoiding potential conflicts of interest

Copyright: 2016
Format: PDF; 30 pages
ISBN: 978-1-57203-241-5

Get ready to exceed your client’s expectations. Once you’ve finished this course, you’ll have what it takes to create and oversee quality, proactive maintenance operations that will minimize unexpected expenses and reduce risk. Register today and take your place among the industry’s high level practitioners known for delivering optimum property performance and maximizing value for the owner.

• Make a Plan. Learn to establish, execute and manage a preventive maintenance and risk management program, including budgetary considerations.
• What do you See? Realize the importance of proactive inspections that preserve the owner’s investment, and discover how to implement appropriate risk management strategies that reduce the potential for loss.
• Say What? Explore the ins and outs of major building equipment and systems. Speak knowledgably with maintenance personnel and contractors about how they work, what can go wrong, and guidelines and procedures to ensure proper maintenance and operation.
• The Lowdown on Maintenance Operations Management. Should you use contract workers? What factors should you consider? Learn how to select, manage and oversee the work of contractors. And learn to view your property’s operations from a 30,000-ft. level.

Take this course on its own or together with Budgeting, Cash Flow, and Reporting for Investment Real Estate (FIN402) with the Managing Maintenance & Budgeting Track.

Review the learning objectives of this course.

• Maintenance Forms and Checklists
• Before and After Disaster Strikes, 4th Edition
• Analyzing and Presenting Deep Retrofit Value course series
• IREM White Paper on Property Operations: Crisis Communications

Classroom: The classroom course is 2 days, including lunch and breaks. Typical course timeframe is 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day. Select a specific offering of the course from the dropdown menu above for exact dates and times. The course exam is taken online within 7 days after completing the course; instructions to access the exam are provided during the course.

The need for leaders at all levels is one of the top critical issues facing all organizations, as identified in an executive survey by Deloitte University Press. This is certainly true in the real estate industry as companies are shifting their focus from being performance driven to relationship driven. Real estate professionals are spending less time in day-to-day operations and more time leading the people who manage properties.

This Leadership Handbook for Real Estate Professionals provides the blueprint for both individuals and organizations to develop and harness the leadership skills required for success in today’s economy. It contains:

• A process that companies can use for cultivating leaders that bring out the best in their teams
• The leadership competencies as identified in What Property Managers Do: IREM Real Estate Job Analysis, based on a survey of more than 1,400 executives
• Assessment tools and other resources for implementing both organizational and individual leadership development plans

Leadership development is a very personal journey—this guide provides a map to leadership excellence.

Copyright: 2017
Format: Soft cover; 340 pages
ISBN: 978-1-57203-252-1

Get the most bang for your buck. Complete this course to learn how to position your rental property to succeed in your market. Discover what’s unique about marketing multifamily properties, learn what it takes maximize the value of the property, meet owner’s goals, and more effectively attract and retain tenants.

Register today and start dominating the marketplace.

• See the Big Picture. Understand the impact of business cycles on supply and demand, and how economics play a role in marketing and leasing.
• Take a Look Around. Learn to analyze the market including neighborhood and regional demographics, subject property and competition analysis, and rent setting strategies
• Position Your Property. Want to hit your target audience? Develop a marketing mindset and learn to incorporate advertising, public relations, social media, and analytics.
• Maximize Your People. Understand what it takes to run an effective leasing office, and the role that staff organization, communication, and incentives play in attracting new residents

Take this course on its own or together with Leading a Winning Property Management Team (HRS402) with the Managing People & Marketing/Multifamily Track.

Review the learning objectives of this course.

A standard calculator or smartphone calculator is recommended; Laptop optional.

• 10 Trends in Multifamily Property Management: Perceptions of Industry Leaders in a Time of Change
• Marketing Residential Properties: The Science and the Magic
• Practical Apartment Management, 6th Edition
• Leasing Forms and Checklists
• Comparison Grids App for iPhone and iPad

Classroom: The classroom course is 2 days, including lunch and breaks. Typical course timeframe is 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day. Select a specific offering of the course from the dropdown menu above for exact dates and times. The course exam is taken online within 7 days after completing the course; instructions to access the exam are provided during the course.

What does earning a designation mean for property managers? Higher compensation?  Bigger bonuses? Better benefits? According to the Profile and Compensation Study, CPM Edition, the answer to these questions is a resounding YES!

Analyze and compare the most critical characteristics of U.S. and Canadian compensation and benefit packages from detailed comparisons based on:

• Portfolio size
• Area of management specialization
• Level and type of experience
• Location
• Education

*Study based on a 2016 survey of IREM CPM Members

IREM, 2016
Research Report; PDF
54 pages

Managing Single Family Homes and Small Investment Properties is the result of an exciting collaboration between IREM and the National Association of Residential Property Managers (NARPM) that serves as a primer for agents and owners to introduce them to real estate management basics.

What you will learn:

• Management Agreement. Requirements for management agreements, state real estate license requirements
• Ethics and Legal Issues. Importance of ethics in property management, fair housing issues, resident-landlord and other laws related to leasing and property management, evictions
• Risk Analysis. Risk management program, common residential property hazards, insurance types, insurance claims
• Maintaining the Property. Maintenance guidelines and strategies, major residential maintenance components, working with contractors, creating a greener property
• Financial Tools. Property budgets and trust accounts, cost-benefit analysis, record-keeping and reporting systems
• Marketing and Leasing. Market analysis, rental rates, advertising, showing the space, resident solicitation, screening and selection, residential leases, lease renewal

How you will benefit:

• Gain an in-depth understanding of the intricacies of managing single family homes and small investment properties
• Maximize the value and financial potential of the properties you manage
• Secure a reputation as a manager who knows what it takes to lease and manage a property
• Earn the respect of residents

Classroom: The classroom course is 1 day, including lunch and breaks. Typical course timeframe is 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day. Select a specific offering of the course from the dropdown menu above for exact dates and times. The course exam is taken online within 7 days after completing the course; instructions to access the exam are provided during the course.

By Dustin Read, PhD/JD

Asset management is critically important to the success of many large real estate investors, yet it is often poorly understood by those working outside the field. This report addresses existing knowledge gaps by summarizing the results of more than 90 interviews conducted with real estate practitioners familiar with asset management as both a process and as a profession. The research results offer answers to the following three questions:

• What are the roles, responsibilities, and requirements of real estate asset managers?
• What education, training, and skills tend to contribute to long-run success in the industry?
• How do real estate investment companies source and develop asset management talent?

This report offers new insights into the roles, responsibilities, and requirements of asset managers working in different types of real estate companies. It also presents a typology that can be used to better understand alternative approaches to asset management and a discussion of the factors that frequently contribute to an individual’s success in the field. The analysis is intended to serve as a means of stimulating conversation about the relationship between asset and property management, as well as the steps that can be taken to support the ongoing growth and development of asset management as an attractive and rewarding career option.

View our series of reports that dive deeper into several of the asset management functions identified in "Real Estate Asset Management: A Process and a Profession"

• Acquisitions & Dispositions: The Role of The Real Estate Asset Manager
• Business Planning & Budgeting: The Role of the Real Estate Asset Manager
• Leadership & Operational Efficiency: The Role of the Real Estate Asset Manager

IREM’s Real Estate Asset Management Initiative explores the points of connectivity between the property management and the asset management professions, as well as ways to help individuals working in both fields collaborate more effectively. 

Copyright: 2017
Format: Soft cover; 64 pages
ISBN: 978-1-57203-251-4

“Fair Housing and Beyond” is offered jointly by the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM) and the National Apartment Association Education Institute (NAAEI).

This exciting course:

• Uses video-delivered scenarios to demonstrate how real-life situations require critical thinking and prudent decision making
• Vividly shows the serious consequences of incorrect responses and provides coaching on how to avoid costly mistakes
• Delivers relevant knowledge of fair housing essentials – practical explanations of how federal, state, and local protected classes and barred discriminatory acts impact property operations

What you will learn:

• The federal protected classes and discrimination
• Statutes that govern protections from discrimination against disability at the federal level
• Fair housing as it relates to property operations

“Fair Housing and Beyond” is appropriate for IREM Members, NAA Members, and others in the housing management industry. Management company executives, property managers, site managers, leasing professionals, maintenance technicians, office administration staff, and vendors all must comply with fair housing law, and would benefit from attending this seminar.

Classroom: The classroom course is 1/2 day, including lunch and breaks. Typical course timeframe is 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day. Select a specific offering of the course from the dropdown menu above for exact dates and times. The course exam is taken online within 7 days after completing the course; instructions to access the exam are provided during the course.

IREM Key Report
Insider’s Tips to Operating a Successful Property Management Company
Richard F. Muhlebach CPM, SCSM, CRE, RPA and Alan A. Alexander

Operating a property management company requires more than good communication and management skills. To be competitive, companies must have a sound infrastructure, strategic direction, and sufficient resources to achieve success. This report offers comprehensive guidance on all aspects of developing a successful property management business, and includes detailed coverage of:

• Strategies for successful staffing and company organization
• Components of a management proposal
• How to maintain ethical practices and professional standards
• Owner’s evaluation and selection of a firm
• Leasing commissions and other financial incentives
• Steps for managing new accounts and expanding business profitability

IREM, 2007
eBook, 80 pages
ISBN: 978-1-57203-155-5

If you like this white paper, you may be interested in the other papers in this series. For additional white papers feel free to access our papers on leadership.

Ever try to run a property or company, by yourself? You probably either lead a number of teams, or are a member of one or more.

Building and managing teams is one of the critical competencies required of successful real estate managers. It was ranked as one of the top leadership skills for property managers by more than 800 real estate management professionals in the IREM Job Analysis survey.

This whitepaper explains how leaders with emotional intelligence can build and maintain successful teams. This white paper will help you learn the following:

• The definition of a team versus a workgroup
• The essential conditions for team effectiveness
• The stages of forming a team and the leader’s role
• How the team leader can grow and support team growth
• Specific actions you can take to be a better team leader

Teams are more creative and productive when they can achieve high levels of participation, cooperation, and collaboration among members. But this isn’t always easy to achieve.

Even if you already have highly productive teams, it doesn't mean they will stay that way. If a team gets new members, takes on new responsibilities, undergoes a company-wide reorganization, or experiences any number of other possible changes, the teambuilding process may have to start all over again.

Real estate managers need to provide the direction and leadership to help teams achieve goals and operate cooperatively and cohesively. This white paper on Leadership Development: Building Teams can help you get the most out of the people you lead and the groups you manage.

Copyright: 2013
Format: PDF; 7 pages

If you like this white paper, you may be interested in the other papers in this series. For additional white papers feel free to access our papers on leadership.

What leadership competencies does a property manager need for success? Did you know that there’s a difference between a leader and a manager?

This IREM White Paper identifies sixteen leadership competencies a real estate manager needs to survive in the new economy. Derived from the IREM Job analysis, the leadership skills are based on a survey of more than 800 top real estate management professionals.

Today’s economy is forcing real estate companies to shift their focus from being performance-driven to relationship-driven. This White Paper focuses on how leadership development can help real estate managers move up the career ladder. The higher real estate managers move up that ladder, the more they will have to manage people and relationships, rather than systems and tasks. For real estate professionals this means less time will be spent actually managing properties—instead, their time will be leading the people who manage properties.

This White Paper also emphasizes the four basic components to help real estate managers assess their level of emotional intelligence (EQ), helpful tips on what it takes to be a good leader, and how to get started on the leadership development journey.

In the words of Christopher Lee, President and Chief Executive Officer of CEL & Associates, Inc., the real estate industry discovered that “leaders and leadership, not the number or size of buildings owned or managed, would become the discerning hallmark of those who prospered and those who failed ...A real estate firm without effective leaders might as well pack up and try something else. Leadership is the key to sustainability, productivity, profit­ability, and growth.”

Copyright: 2013
Format: PDF; 11 pages