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SUCCESS STORIES AND SAVVY ADVICE FROM FOUR PROPERTY MANAGERS WHO HAVE MADE THE JOURNEY
And if you're starting your career in property management, chances are, you've endured a tenuous tug-of-war between risk-taking and patience; enthusiasm and endurance.
To make matters more complicated, navigating a multigenerational workforce - one in which your colleagues and supervisors, as well as tenants, owners, maintenance staff and vendors, likely belong to any of four generations - comes with its own set of challenges. You're eager to make a difference, but your colleagues may subscribe to the all-too-familiar "pay your dues" mentality regarding getting ahead.
While there is no cookie-cutter model for becoming successful in property management, it might help to know that you are not alone. In an exclusive panel discussion, IREM brought together four relatively new property managers from four different areas of the country to share tips, tricks, experiences and advice for successfully breaking into the field of property management.
EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
Take all of your best laid plans - and scrap them. In a business centered on working with people, no two days are the same.
"There's really so much going on, you never see the same thing twice.
Of course you've got your routine, day-in-day-out operational things, but no matter how odd or strange or bizarre a movie might be, the truth of real life in the real estate management business is stranger than fiction," said Nicholas Dunlap, CPM, vice president of Dunlap Property Group, AMO, in Fullerton, Calif.
Aside from vigilantly researching career opportunities and learning the nuts-and-bolts of property management, preparing for the unexpected and staying flexible when things don't go exactly as planned can go a long way in easing the learning curve.
"The one thing about plans is that they never work out how they're supposed to," said Emily Goodman, CPM, ARM, regional property manager of CORE Realty Holdings Management, Inc. in Greensboro, N.C. "When you do go out and get a job, whether it's property management or something else, stay in that job, stay focused, stay driven and you will be successful at what you do."
PATIENCE REALLY IS A VIRTUE
Being taken seriously by peers was one of the biggest struggles all four panelists experienced at the...