Management Company Structure

[Joe Montone]

Hi All,

Thanks in advance for any feedback!  I currently work for a group of investors, helping them manage a multi family portfolio and developing their own property management company along the way.  I am curious at what point you all think it becomes difficult to maintain a "departmental" structure and the need to move to a "portfolio" based structure kicks in.  

Our portfolio currently sits just below 100 units across about 10 buildings.  We have one accountant and one person coordinating maintenance/tenant relations. It's already pretty hectic, and as we expand in size and territory covered, I wonder if this model is sustainable.  Does anyone have experience scaling a departmental structure to a larger portfolio?  I see it becoming a nightmare, especially from a maintenance/tenant relations perspective...  

Thanks again for any insight!

[Robert Gilstrap]

Joe,

I've gone from zero to 500+ doors and we've always been departmental or at least a hybrid.  I never understood the logic that a single property manager or portfolio manager can know everything baout maintenance, accounting, leasing , sales, renewals, etc. so we have dedicated leasing staff, dedicated accounting, and dedicated maintenance. The PM's just act as the main point of contact to owners/tenants, they do renewals, take the complaint calls, handle evictions, collect rents, do lease mods, etc.

Works pretty well. Give me a shout if you need specifics.