Newbie Property Manager from LaGrange, Georgia

[Dorraine S.]

Hello, all. I've worked as a court reporter for the past seven years, but being that I live in what I call "Podunkville," small-town living, there is not enough court reporting work available in my neck of the woods to provide a decent salary, so I had to search for a regular ole 9-to-5 job, which I found with a very small real estate company. I've known the owners of this real estate company for the past 20-plus years, and they're great folks, a pleasure to work with. I'm very excited about this new avenue. Sure hope I can pull it off.

My dream job would be to rehab historical homes, revitalizing historical neighborhoods. That's never gonna happen, unless I get filthy stinkin' rich, which I can also guarantee you ain't gonna happen. I have no experience in construction or historical requirements, but I'm still passionate about it. I realistically know that my rehabbing historical homes will never come to fruition, but being in the real estate field does satisfy some of that desire. I did meet, this week, with our local D.A.S.H. (Dependable, Affordable, Sustainable Housing), chapter to discuss our real estate company partnering with them in an effort to revitalize neighborhoods, and it was a very productive meeting. So I think I'm where I need to be, and I'm ready to go forward with it.

I consider myself to have great organizational skills -- a place for everything and everything in its place -- and I'm dogged about adhering to rules and regulations. The fact of the matter is, my brain simply will not function when things are out of order and in disarray. Sloppy don't work for me, to say the least. And I'm sick enough to enjoy reading O.C.G.A. That ought to tell you a bit about my personality, unfortunately. :cool:

So I'm hoping that I can help this company perform well. We'll see. Time will tell whether I have what it takes to be a property manager. I'll be the first to admit, though, that I have a lot to learn in this field. So I invite any and all input, guidance, and criticism. I don't know what I don't know, so please don't hesitate to update me.

The owner of the real estate company I work for started out by simply buying homes and renting them. He currently owns just under 100 homes. He recently acquired his real estate license, and is working toward his broker's license now. In an effort to grow the company, his prime focus, of course, is property management, so we're starting at the ground floor to build a property management division.

In the state of Georgia, a property manager is required by law to be certified. Don't know about other states. Since I am not yet certified, I can only manage "this" owner's personal rental property. My goal is to be certified within a year so that we can take on additional landlords. I don't know what the procedure is for getting certified, and I don't know if it's possible to get it accomplished within one year. I reckon I'll be Googling some more, huh? And as every newbie has done, I have followed the ole cliche of buying every book I can find. I've purchased the following:

1. Every Landlord's Legal Guide
2. The Unofficial Guide to Managing Rental Property
3. Property Management for Dummies
4. The CompleteLandlord.com Ultimate Property Management Handbook
5. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Success as a Property Manager
6. Tough Management
7. The Next Level
8. God is My CEO

Being that we are a veeeeery small company, starting from the ground floor, we have our work cut out for us. The employees in the office do not have an e-mail account. That should tell you how "behind the times" the company is. And please don't take that as a criticism of the company. It's not. It's just that it's been operated as a "mom & pop shop" for many, many years, which, of course, is expected, as his "real estate" company did not exist until just a few years ago.

I love Microsoft Outlook, and no one in the office uses it, so I need to set that up, too. Is that "ground floor" enough for you? One of my first thoughts would be to have an Outlook calendar for the maintenance crew so that they can check their schedule on their cell phones via Google Calendar-Outlook Calendar synching. I don't know if property management software allows for synching with Outlook or Google, but if it did, that would be ideal!!!

We need a new website, and we need GOOD property management software; although, I don't really know what constitutes "good." LOL.

I've been with this company for one month, and I've spent the majority of my time organizing files and working on collections. I'm ready to get into the good stuff.

I also want to say how very glad I am to have found this forum. I Googled "property management forums," looking for a good one, till I was blue in the face. I am relieved to have found an ACTIVE forum with a large variety of participation. I'm trying to get a better handle on how to navigate this forum, finding the categories I'm looking for, etc. By the way, can anyone tell me how to insert a hotlink? Haven't figured that out yet. Attempted, but failed. LOL.

I'm looking forward to y'all keeping me on the right track. I'll have tons of questions, so bear with me. :lol:

Sorry to have written a "book" in this post, but I'm just overjoyed to be here.