Tenant Screening and Landlord Services

Question-Our rental business has grown recently to the point where we now need to hire an onsite, inhouse
property manager. We are going to place ads to recruit candidates for the position however we are not sure on what we should put down as the Job Description. Do you have any suggestions on where to begin?

Answer-The hiring of your first property manager is important because it lays the foundation for the way you hire in the future as your business grows. The initial part of creating the job description is to create a job inventory. Start by creating a list of all the known duties that you would expect from a property manager. Envision the daily activities of the property manager. This could be everything from opening the doors to the office, answering the phones, to recording a maintenance request. Once you have a detailed a weeks worth of duties, then rank the duties by the level of importance and then by category. Use this list to determine the skills necessary to perform the duties. These skills would then be used to determine the qualifications needed by the candidate. Some of these qualifications may include education, experience, computer proficiency and language command.

Once you have completed the job inventory, go to one of the online job placement companies like Monster or Career Builder and look up the job descriptions placed by other companies for a property manager. Here you may find other job details which you may have not considered. You can use these guides to tailor your own ad based on your unique qualities and needs. It is advisable to use a sampling of 4 or 5 ads to analyze.

Having a solid job description for your property manager will certainly save countless hours of aggravation from unhappy property managers upset at having additional responsibilities that were not on the original description. The hiring process lays the groundwork for successful communications between you, other employees and your residents. Never underestimate the value of taking the time to be thorough in defining the job before the hire.