You’ve got your foot in the industry door – but where can you go for a next step? Our overview of management and staff positions spells out the different roles and responsibilities.

Real estate management offers job opportunities at many levels – as front-line site managers, as mid-level property and regional managers, and as company executives. In addition, there are a variety of staff positions – accounting, marketing, maintenance, human resources – within the industry that support overall real estate management responsibilities.

It is important to realize that the responsibilities associated with these positions often overlap. At the property level, there frequently are many similarities between duties of the site manager and those of the property manager. At the asset level, parallels can be seen between the duties of the regional manager and those of the asset manager. Job titles and duties will vary greatly depending on the type of organization and the kind of property being managed.

A site manager is responsible for the day-to-day operations of a single property. The title of site manager is most typically tied to the managers of residential properties, including apartment and condominium projects and homeowners’ associations. Site managers responsible for multifamily residential properties may be called on-site managers or, if they reside on the properties they manage, they may be referred to as resident managers. The site manager for an office building may have the title of building manager. Less common are site managers for retail properties.

The site manager forms an essential link between the property’s tenants or residents and the property manager. Charged with responsibility for routine operations, the site manager typically is accountable for:

  • Maintenance of the physical plant, ensuring that the property is properly maintained, and routinely inspecting the grounds and equipment to determine if repairs or maintenance are needed.
  • Dealing with technical operations, such as mechanical and electrical systems.
  • Marketing and leasing of the property, showing vacant space, negotiating and enforcing the terms of rental or lease agreements.
  • Tenant and resident relations, including handling requests for repairs and resolving complaints. For this reason, strong communication and people skills are required to perform effectively as a site manager.
  • Collecting rents and maintaining accurate records of property activity, including income and expenses, which enables the property manager to chart the financial performance of the property.
  • Supervising on-site staff, which generally includes maintenance personnel and contractors performing a variety of services to the property, as well as leasing agents.

A regional manager, sometimes called a portfolio supervisor, has responsibility over a large number of properties, frequently covering a broad geographical area. This portfolio can comprise commercial properties or residential properties or a mix of both.

No matter the property type, the regional manager has supervisory responsibilities over the property managers of each property in the portfolio as well as the properties themselves. For this reason, recruitment, training, development, and supervision of property managers are key duties. On a regular basis, regional managers will visit the properties in their portfolios, which can entail extensive travel when properties are widespread. These site visits are vital to monitoring property performance, auditing operational and financial activities, conducting market analyses, and making marketing and rental rate recommendations.

A regional manager monitors property performance, scrutinizing revenues from the portfolio and analyzing costs to ensure a profitable operation. In many cases, responsibility for identifying and analyzing major capital expenditure programs or repositioning a property to ensure highest and best use rests with the regional managers. More routinely, regional managers ensure that the operating and capital budgets for each property are prepared properly and approved and that monthly operating statements prepared for submission to the owner are in accordance with client objectives.

The job title of property manager typically is associated with a single large property or several properties. The role of a property manager for residential properties as a rule is supervisory in nature with oversight of multiple properties, each having its own site manager. The property manager for commercial properties, on the other hand, typically will be responsible for a single large building or multiple buildings that do not have site managers. In these situations, the day-to-day management is handled directly by the property manager with the support of an administrative assistant and other staff.

The property manager functions as the liaison between the property owner or owner’s agent and site personnel. The property manager has primary responsibility for the tangible asset, which the property represents, and focuses on managing the physical property – overseeing the day-to-day operations of site managers and other site personnel or work being contracted by the management firm. Generally these operations follow a management plan, which the property manager has designed and the owner has approved. This plan governs all aspects of the physical plant, financial operation, tenant relations, market positioning, and community image building.

Of utmost importance, property managers are directly responsible for maintaining and creating value in properties. This is done by improving the net operating income of a property, which results from optimizing rental and other income to the property and minimizing operating expenses.

The management company executive focuses more on the operation of the real estate management business enterprise and less on the management of the properties that are being managed by the company and part of its fiduciary responsibility. The management company executive’s duties and responsibilities vary widely from company to company depending upon its size, its problems and opportunities, the talents of the management team, and the executive ownership role within the company.

The company executive, typically the chief executive officer, is, above all else, an entrepreneur and the major producer of new business for the organization. It is the company executive’s job to optimize the economic results of the business operation through effective, strategic management of its opportunities and resources. Time is spent in planning for the company’s operation and growth, developing and supervising the real estate management team, establishing and enforcing company policies and procedures, developing and maintaining a technology platform and infrastructure, and executing a viable organizational structure.

The focus of a real estate asset manager is on the property as a financial asset, and decisions made by asset managers are those that impact a property’s financial performance. In many cases the asset manager is the representative of the owner and responsible for selecting a third-party management company and monitoring the performance of that company. In all cases, the emphasis of asset management is on activities that will add value to each property under management. Operational functions, performance goals, and caretaker roles are left to the property and site managers.

The definition of asset management continues to evolve, and the responsibilities an asset manager holds may vary greatly from one professional setting to the next. Still, as a rule, the asset manager always has an eye toward long-term appreciation of the property as well as short-term cash flow.

Overall, when performing asset management functions, the manager progresses through the property’s life cycle and becomes involved in acquisition through operational oversight throughout the holding period and eventually sale of the property. To perform competently, the asset manager must be mindful of changing market opportunities and economic factors affecting tenancy, aware of financial developments that can lead to alterations in the physical or financial structure of the project itself, and knowledgeable of capital markets and financing opportunities.

Learn more at IREM >

You might also be interested in...

Course: Careers in Property Management: What Students Need to Know
Students — explore property management with IREM’s free, self-paced online course: Careers in Property Management: What Students Need to Know.