Property Management Courses

:unsure: I have over 3 years of Apartment Leasing experience. I was laid off, and am considering receiving training for Property Management since I am very interested in the field. I am thinking of taking an online course from Allied. Anyway, my question is with no experience as a Property Manager (only training) am I at all likely to find work as a Property Manager? Any suggestions for specific courses I should be looking for? I looked on Grace Hill and each class is $79 and they don't offer specific courses to become a Property Manager. So far, Allied was the only accredited one that did. It's $600 for a 6 mo. course.

It certainly is possible to find work as a property manager without experience but it will not be easy. Some Supervisors like to be able to mold someone to work in the manner they want. My guess is that you would be required to demonstrate other desirable qualities of a good property manager. These would include good organization skills, good communication both verbal and written, customer service skills and probably supervisory skills. If you have those qualities you can apply them to property mnanagement and learn as you go.

I am a Hiring Manager at a property management company and I actually prefer that the management candidates do not have property management experience. As Mark said below, we really like to train our employees ourselves especially because we are a smaller company and run our business quite differently than the big PMCs.

What I look for in on-site Managers is prior management experience in any industry, some sales experience, and a customer service background. My advice is to use your cover letter to really stand out and explain that, while you don't have property management experience, you do have these experiences that will lend well to the job. Another piece of advice is if the job description is available at the time of application you should use that to craft your cover letter, using words directly from the job description to describe your experience.

I think your best bet would be to apply for positions at smaller companies and get several years of work experience under your belt.

Hi Jenna;
Thanks for your comments. Too bad you aren't a Hiring Manager in my area...lol. Your advice was good and is definitely going to be taken under advisement :cheer: