Working as a Property Manager at RE.

Hi All,

Had a quick look but couldnt find a heading on this.

There is a job going down the road at RE as "Property Manager"

I am in th media industry on 55k but the job is 45k which is a concern.

I spoke breiefly with a few workers there and they said its a great career starter in RE.

In what ways can you progress?

Thanks.

 

I only know anecdotal, but I've noticed that a lot of property managers try to get into sales roles, presumably because that's where they can make more money. I've also noticed that there's a lot of turnover of good property managers within many agencies.

I also know that the sales role can be difficult, especially in a declining market. Not everyone has the ability to succeed.

 

In a nutshell, generally:
» Assistant Property Manager, $45-50kpa | no responsibility, just helps the PM with grunt work and learns how to be a PM
» Property Manager, $50-55kpa | will have a portfolio of around 70-120 properties to manage
» Senior Property Manager, $55-75kpa | will have a portfolio of around 80-170 properties to manage + assistants to help with grunt work
» Rentals Department Manager $90-120k+ | manages the PM's and accountable to the business for how the rentals department performs

In upper class offices the staff get paid more, an experienced PM with 10-20years under their belt is a HUGE asset to a RE business and worth their weight in gold. You can see though how leveraged this industry is and how the workload could causes a lot of stress and angst for the PM which is one of the biggest reasons why there is so much turnover in the industry and you hear Owners always complain they have a new PM every 5 minutes etc. It is also highly competitive and generally hard for a new starter to get a job in the industry which is why businesses can get away with paying so low and people will do the job.

 

thanks, this role is $23.50 an hour (seems low) and why i likely wont pursue.

So most become real estate agents after?

RE estate agents are on the decline arnt they?

 

Wow, and we thought the pays in Mel/Syd is high!
It is pretty disheartening to see how low this job gets paid. It requires a lot of judgment, very fiddly, can be stressful and dangerous at times. Just saw a friend last week, well educated and well-versed in all PM matters, and someone offered her $25/hr for 15-hr week, driving 30 minutes each way, for 5 days/week. The Boss does her nails for double the money. So until the investors appreciate the needs to reward good people, the high turnover shall remain.

 

That's a new job title to me, and just searched Seek.com.au and couldnt find anything. Can you share a bit more? Thanks.

 

Agree Pumpkin.

I would be driving 20mins, 5 days a week, all for $800.
Would be $220 less than what im getting.

Didnt realise property managers were paid that low, spoke to a mate who is one this morning and yeh, he is on $24.20 ph.

 

Award wages

Go work as a temp for Hays - entry level will get you $30/hr minimum. You can then BS your way into a perm role somewhere as you have the required experience.

You will need a certificate of registration from Fair Trading before you can work in agency.

 

No, there is a real estate agent on every corner, in fact the is industry is becoming so over saturated with real estate agencies these businesses are now heavily investing in BDM's to get clients and suckering in their vendors to spending more and more on vendor-paid advertising.

I think you need to re-evaluate your definition of what a real estate agent is.

A real estate agent is a person licenced by the office of fair trading to deal/manage/sell property interests. Ironically real estate is an industry not governed by financial services guidelines and that's why you see every real estate agent also purporting to have great knowledge on investments and advice (to try and assist them selling the property etc), which I think is wrong as a lot of clients believe they are getting qualified advice.

There's mainly two classes of licences, a full licence or a salespersons certificate. If you want to run an office and have other licenced agents work for you, aka be a 'principal licensee' you need a full licence.

If you just want to sell property or manager property, working under a principal, such as an employee in a business, you just need a sales persons certificate, which the name is deceiving as one would think it only relates to sales but it doesn't.

 

Just think of it as a manager managing staff, they have various titles, businesses can call it what they want etc. The size, complexity and breadth of a business determines how many levels of management etc.

 

Wow! I was a senior PM 1980's and earning over 50K then, no wonder there is a shortage of qualified PM's if wages haven't improved ...

 

Chief, cook & bottle washer.

 

Yep, and also it doesn't help that you can do the Cert IV specific to get the full licence in less than 2 weeks full time course (think I did mine in 8 days). That's why I mentioned above a PM with 10-15-20 years experience is worth their weight in gold because passing the test doesn't equip you for the job, you need to learn hands on, and the people side of the business can't be taught you have to learn it first hand, just takes time.

 

For these 2 roles

» Property Manager, $50-55kpa | will have a portfolio of around 70-120 properties to manage
» Senior Property Manager, $55-75kpa | will have a portfolio of around 80-170 properties to manage + assistants to help with grunt work

Does this exclude or include the commission from the 70-120 properties? does that goes to the business? so is it 50-55k plus commission or just 50-55k only and nothing else?

 

Commission? Commission? what's that ... flat rate when I was working, cant imagine it would have changed.

 

Possibly a % of comms on new business brought to the agency.

 

No commission in PM, salary only. Businesses have huge leverage off PM employees, even more leverage in the Strata Management Sector where one Strata Manager can have a portfolio size of 100 schemes, and the value of each client is 10-20x more potentially. On top of that, strata managers aren't required to be licenced, not audited by OFT, don't operate a trust account, if you want a licence to print money with little risk that is the business you run, or a commercial carpark.

 

Nope, a BDM may have that type of engagement if they're employed on a contract as opposed to an award/salaried rate, but with the latter could still get performance bonuses based on new clients signed up which is self-funded from the money they bring in etc.

 

Maybe in Qld - NSW licence requirements

 

It's even worse in the regionals. Outside of Brisbane;
Assistants $35,000-$45,000
Property Managers $45,000-$55,000
Senior/Manager $55,000-70,000

The vast majority of wages tend to be on the bottom end of these ranges.