Commercial Property Management Comes Down to Managing the Details

Commercial property management of shopping centers, industrial buildings, office buildings big and small all come down to managing the details of each particular property. Those details can be as obvious as collecting the rent every month to paying vendors, and as small as following up on a tiny spot of peeling paint on a hugs 50,000 sq. ft. building. It takes a keen eye for flaws and attention to detail that most people would not like. If you can focus on doing all the monthly work regularly as well as how to communicate with tenants to spot potential problems with their business, then it may be the job for you.

Most property managers only focus on one area of the business if they work for one of the big property management companies. Those big companies have people that specialize in various aspects of property management like tenant retention, vendor relations, site visits, and accounting. Only the actual property manager oversees them all and is more akin to a middle manager in corporate America. I learned the commercial property management business from a developer looking to branch out into property management, so I had to learn all the skills necessary to be successful. Now I work for myself and own a small commercial property management business for 11 years now.

I am actually in talks now with a property owner that is looking to hire my company to manage his office building after doing extensive renovations on the building himself and overseeing the property for the first year and a half he has owned it. He is now looking to move on to other projects and have me manage the property as he is tired of dealing with it.

Commercial property management by trained and licensed professional takes away all the hassle of the day to day details and problems, and if the leases are written correctly, can be paid by the tenants in their monthly Common Area Maintenance (CAM) part of their rent payment. Tenants typically pay what most of us know as rent to the Landlord to lease a space in their building. Obviously, more rent in paid for buildings in the nice part of town like Scottsdale and less rent in more challenging areas like south Phoenix. Tenants also pay what is called CAM, which takes care of the landscaping, outside lights, trash pickup, maintenance of the common areas and water for the landscaping. CAM can cover all kinds of things, limited only by what is included in the leases. Another part of a property managers job is figuring out what the annual budget is for all the Common Area Maintenance items and reconciling the actual payments versus the budget every year.

In conclusion, commercial property management by a seasoned veteran of the business can make owners lives much easier and provide a valuable service for their property. My name is Mark Belyan and I own ProActive Property Management here in the Phoenix metropolitan area.