Hi all. I have an interview with a property management firm on Friday. I met their principal when I brought him in to pitch the guy who owns the business I work at (which I’m closing btw, hence bringing in the manager).
I’m a corporate controller looking to escape accounting. I have a big interest in building my own private real estate empire regardless of what I do for my W2 income. I have a my first baby property with 15 storage units. So I have corporate leasing experience from work and retail leasing from my stuff. I thought this might be an opportunity to learn the best practice ways of handling everything from an established reputable company.
Any property managers here? Was it financially rewarding? What’s a day in the life like?
I own a bit of commercial and residential properties. I manage the residential because I live there and/or have family in a unit, with a super. Well, really, my paralegal does it and I don’t pay her any extra.
The structure of fees for property manager, building manager, broker, are quite interesting, in the way a multi-car accident can be interesting. Wexford, etc, all have their fixed deals, and they are what they are.
The real bucks seem to be made getting a building to A quality and then flipping out when fully occupied for a back-in.
Yeah I have noticed most contracts incentivise managers to get units leased (as well they should) with kickers if the buildings are over 90-95 percent occupied
Thanks for your input. As an owner is it worth 7-10 percent of the rents for you to have your property on autopilot? If you could theoretically find a manager who could do it better than you do?
It is for my commercial properties (although I need to look at what the percentage is). I generally invest in non-retail properties like industrial shops and things like that. Not a big fan of retail spaces. The industrial guys pay more, seem to be more reliable tenants long-term, and don’t care what stuff looks like, so there is much less cost of upkeep (i.e., no shrubbery to maintain; dented, but functional, doors are fine).
It’s all in super-exciting places like Texas City, Pasadena, Corpus Christi, South Houston, Odessa, and other Eden-like locations – but where crap actually gets done.
A little different. The capital people buy crap building. Manager manages and improves. Capital sell, and there is a waterfall where Manager gets to keep some of the profits at sale.
THAT is where the money is. The rent commission/fee just pays for your infrastructure/daily expenses.
Now if only I can convince them I can add value to that process and they should give me a cut. “Will work for cashflowing real estate.”
Nah. I might be her property manager if I can convince yet another hiring manager that I’m a hard working problem solver. Then they can give me another W2 job I don’t want because I’m to craven to strike out on my own again.
Then if the pattern repeats itself they’ll either go out of business or have massive layoffs and keep me because I can drive a fork truck negotiate a multi million dollar contract and everything in between.
While past performance does not guarantee future results:
3 jobs ago I got to train 3 guys in Pune, India to do my job. Nice guys. Had a chance to stay at that investment bank but it was literally the most negative place I’ve ever worked.
2 jobs ago an MBA lady with 30 years with the company quit with no notice. I was given her job (in addition to my own) to “hold it down” while they found a candidate. That lasted for 3 years while I was given plastic trophies, attaboys etc… when I asked for the manager title and a significant raise they had a whole list of reasons why it “wouldn’t work right now”. They hired 3 people after I left.
1 job ago the plants I worked at hadn’t lost money one time in 60 years. Their products were so popular they had a 5 year backlog. But some other part of the business was getting crushed. So the CEO did layoffs everywhere. We went from 5 finance staff to 2 to handle multiple plants with north of 200 employees and $100M in revenue. Then I had to roll out Oracle on top of that. That was some serious unpaid OT.
With my current job I got the controller title and a team of 5 at a prosperous multinational company. Less than 1 month in they lost all their customers in the US and got sued (while the company sets records in the rest of the world). I got to lay off everyone in the US and I report to an empty campus every day to help the Germans close it down.
So I’m a bit down on W2 jobs right now. At this point I could start a hedge fund where I throw darts at a wall of companies. If I go work there, they’re doomed. Just short any place I work at and profit.
Understandable though. At least you have the foresight to keep in mind that the w2 work is just a vehicle to a greater goal. That’s hard to keep at the forefront in the midst of the grind.