Launching a Property Management Company

[Paul Khazansky]

Our real estate development company is about 6 months away from completing our biggest project to date - a 59 unit building located in Baltimore, MD.  As part of this development, we decided to enter a property management business, with our building being our first "client".  We do have the backbone of a very capable partner who's been managing smaller properties for us to date (4 - 6 unit buildings), but this property management initiative would be taking the concept to a new level.  

I'm really curious to hear from experienced property management operators about what's crucial to get right in the initial stages of launching such business.  Based on my review of prior threads, it sounds like Appfolio is software of choice for many professionals in the field.  Surely there are many other crucial layers to property management business that we should pay attention to, so any advice would be much appreciated. As an FYI, managing our own building is our first step; going forward, the goal would be to become a third party property manager to (hopefully) thousands of units.