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Property Management

One important role is that of acting as liaison between the landlord and tenant. Duties of property management include accepting rent, responding to and addressing maintenance issues, advertising vacancies for landlords, and doing credit and background checks on tenants. In exchange for the service they provide, property management companies charge landlords a percentage of the gross rent collected each month (typically 3-10%), in addition to lease commissions. If disclosed in the management agreement, repair costs may be marked by some property managers. Some property management companies manage home owner associations.

Property managers may manage construction, development, repair and maintenance on a property. Property manager relations with tenants give a face to the landlord and provide them the necessary buffer servicing their desire to profit and distance themselves from their tenant constituency.

There are many facets to this profession, including participating in and/or initiating litigation with tenants, contractors and insurance agencies. Litigation alone is at times considered an entirely separate function, set aside for trained attorneys. Although a person or persons will be responsible for this in their job description, there may or may not be an attorney working under a property manager. Special attention is given to landlord/tenant law and most commonly evictions, non-payment, harassment, reduction of pre-arranged services, and public nuisance are legal subjects that gain the most amount of attention from property managers. Therefore, it is a necessity that a property manager be current with new laws and practices in their given localities, cities and states.

Property management, like facility management

Facility management

In business, facility management (or facilities management) is the management of buildings and services. The services are sometimes considered to be divided into "hard services" and "soft services." Hard services include such things as ensuring that a building's air conditioning is operating efficiently, reliably, safely and legally. Soft services include such things as ensuring that the building is cleaned properly and regularly or monitoring the performance of contractors (e.g. builders, electricians). The term "facility management" is similar to "property management" but often applied only to larger and/or commercial properties where the management and operation is more complex. Some or all of these aspects can be maintained by data-rich computer programs.

It is the role of facility management to ensure that everything is available and operating properly for building occupants to do their work. The facility manager generally has the most influence upon the quality of life within a facility. Facility management may range from the small scale (e.g. single small building custodial services) to the large scale or even on an international scale (e.g. global service provision to a multinational corporation). Some facility management companies have grown to simply provide environments which other organizations may rent Office space on demand in order to do business in a "hotel" environment.

One definition provided by the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) is:

"A profession that encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure functionality of the built environment by integrating people, place, process and technology."

Another broader definition provided by IFMA is: "The practice or coordinating the physical workplace with the people and work of the organization; integrates the principles of business administration, architecture, and the behavioral and engineering sciences."

In the UK and other European countries facilities management has a wider definition than simply the management of buildings and services. The definition of FM provided by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and ratified by BSI British standards is:

“Facilities management is the integration of processes within an organization to maintain and develop the agreed services which support and improve the effectiveness of its primary activities”.

The British Institute of Facilities Management has formally adopted the CEN definition but also offers a slightly simpler description:

"Facilities management is the integration of multi-disciplinary activities within the built environment and the management of their impact upon people and the workplace".