Taking care of commercial locations is a demanding job. With the rise of firms that purchase properties as investments rather than to directly run the sites themselves, commercial property management service companies have emerged to help them take care of buildings and tenants. You may be wondering what commercial property management is and how you might take advantage of it.
At its core, the management of properties is a contractual agreement. The services provider is required to, according to the terms of the contract, handle a set of designated tasks on behalf of the property owner. In some cases, they may also be assigned certain powers to act as the contracting party's authorized agent.
What Can a Property Manager Do?
Most of the functions of a business owner can be assigned to a property manager. For example, a company that invests in office buildings for lease across the U.S. might elect to hire a commercial property management service firm in each of the cities where it has offices. The manager might then be responsible for tasks like collecting rent from tenants, performing basic maintenance and hiring contractors to do repairs and improvements.
Every property management business handles these things a little differently. For example, some may choose to have staff members deal with lawn maintenance while others might elect to subcontract the work to a local landscaping operation. If subcontracting is allowed, the contract should include a third-party assignment clause that allows the management firm to designate specific tasks to contractors.
Why Would You Hire a Property Management Company?
Clients go this route for a handful of reasons. An investment trust, for example, might not have resources in a city where they just bought a building. To get things presentable as quickly as possible, they might bring in a manager to tidy the place up.
Similarly, it can be helpful to have someone who knows the area. Many management firms do things like running ads seeking new tenants, and they often field inquiries from folks who might be looking for offices, retail spaces and other types of commercial locations. Likewise, they usually have a developed local social media presence and relationships with media companies that they can use to solicit new tenants for properties.
Finally, they have to know the laws in the region. If you're trying to lease a location, it's good to know what the rules are about things like billing, evictions, and maintenance.
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