Most people feel that property management is easy. How tough could it be to collect the rent, pay the bills and fix the toilets.  But that is like saying driving a car is easy, just turn the key and step on the gas.  What’s so hard.
Today, the property management aspect may be one of the single most important factors in the success of the real estate investment.  The proper property management team will bring organization, expertise, experience and consistent systems to the operation of your real estate.  The “anybody can do it” property manger can bring financial problems, liability, customer service nightmares and all out disaster.

What’s in today’s property management.  Your team needs to be an expert on many issues.
First is real estate investment theory.  If your manager doesn’t understand how it’s supposed to work, how to calculate your return, the general principals of real estate they can’t even help you enumerate the goals.
Next, accounting.  Accounting is the root of all decision making.  A 200 unit apartment complex may have upwards of 1000 transactions per month.  Being able to create accurate financial statements is key to making proper managerial decisions.  If you don’t have proper accounting, how do you know how your doing.  In addition, these need to be up to date accounting systems.  Hand ledgers are a thing of the past.  If you can’t even use Quickbooks at a minimum you shouldn’t be in the game.
Even if your accounting is not computer based, you need to be computer literate.  So many of today’s operations are computer based.  Web based advertising, communications(email), record keeping (accounting), materials ordering, tenant screening,  just to name the simple ones.  Larger firms include payroll, scheduling, cash flow analysis, work order tracking, even emergency dispatch is all computer based.
But these items are only some of the tools.  Let’s talk regulations.  There are more and more everyday.  Fair Housing Law, Civil Rights Law, HUD Regulations, State Building Code, Local Building Code, Environmental law, Title X Lead Paint regulations, Air Quality Standards, 
Rent Control, Rent Stabilization, and the list goes on.
How about liability- insurance is part of our everyday lives.  Your manager needs to know about insurance as well as risk management. Just understanding how the insurance industry prices and sells their product has allowed us to save client $50,000 in one year.  A properly  handled claim can mean thousands of dollars difference in your pocket.
Then there is disaster planning – and recovery.  Natural and man-made events have been ever present in the news.  How do you handle a flood, a fire,  an accident, heaven forbid another terrorist event.  When something happens it is the property manager who will be center stage.
Then there is the everyday stuff.  There is marketing – brochures, newspaper ads, web pages.
There is actually taking care of the customers – the life blood of our industry, that we are notoriously behind the curve.  In no other industry is the customer (tenant) treated with such animosity by the service provider(landlord).  Where other industries will bend over backward to make a client feel important, many of us treat our tenants as a number – 3b has another problem.
But the list goes on.  Your management team also needs expertise in contracts and contract law, negotiations, construction, maintenance, Human Resources, Employment law, Landlord tenant law.
So how do we make sure that  all of these things are happening with our real estate investment?  The key is having a system.  The most difficult thing in property management is consistency.  What investors are looking for is a consistent cash flow.  By having a system of planning, executing and evaluating the results you can achieve that goal.  Tried and true procedures, best practices, and education all working together in a proven system is the secret to long term success.