So the Great Recession is a thing of the past. Or is it? Secure, well-paying jobs are still few and far between, and the real estate market — though on a general upswing — still hasn’t fully recovered from the beating it took, leaving many homeowners still underwater.

Faced with foreclosure, a lot of folks have vacated their homes and started renting them out to let tenants pay the mortgage while they wait for values to come back up. It’s not at all an uncommon practice, but what is new in that space is the use of property management.

Since the vast majority of these homeowners didn’t choose to become landlords, they’re farming out some of the the responsibilities to property management companies so that they don’t have to deal with the day-to-day issues that can eat up a lot of the average working joe’s free time. Others are finding property management software to help them manage the property.

In both instances, newly minted landlords with little experience or desire are starting to realize the value inherent in property management, which can only be a good thing for the property management community at large.