Real Estate Agents are Leaving and the Property Manager Pool is Shrinking, But the Rental Market is Stronger Than Ever…What Gives?
There are currently 71,584 property management firms in the United States, according to InfoUSA, a database company. This number surged during the housing crisis which started eight years ago. Now that number is declining with two reasons for the change: 1) Real estate agents are exiting the property management business, and 2) Smaller property management firms are selling their business to larger competitors.
Unfortunately, the skills, knowledge and systems needed for selling real estate are very different from what is needed for property management. Some real estate agents found property management difficult, time consuming and unrewarding. And these agents’ sponsoring brokers found that the legal liability of property management can be very expensive, if not handled well.
As real estate prices have recovered, “accidental landlords” began selling their properties. Agents started making money on sales again, and those
In addition, smaller property management companies are finding it difficult to match the technology, systems and economies-of-scale larger property managementfirms such as Real Property Management enjoy. Investors have become more sophisticated and demanding during the past eight years. Many owners of smaller property management firms are baby boomers approaching retirement, and seek a profitable exit from their business. The combination of these factors is starting what will soon become a wave of industry consolidation.
As the Real Property Management organization grows, so does our buying power. This means even more advancements in our technology, economies-of-scale and service quality. We are more confident than ever that we will be able to improve our services to you, and continue to raise the standard by which all property management firms are judged.