Fil 260 Chapter 9

Front 1

What are a property manager's functions?

Back 1

1. Leasing and marketing function
2. Financial function
3. Maintenance function
4. Advisory function

Front 2

leasing and marketing functions of a property manager

Back 2

1. Advertise and show rental units
- in a multi-unit commercial property an important function is finding the tenant mix that maximizes value for the property owner
2. Negotiate leases- goal in negotiations should be to maximize the value of the owner's investment
- an important decision is the tradeoff between higher rent and higher vacancy or lower rent and lower vacancy
3. Provide for tenant needs

Front 3

Professional organizations of property managers, and designations they confer:

Back 3

1.Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM)- a branch of the National Association of Realtors

2. Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA)- an independent organization

-these both publish income and expense information that is used by investment analysts as benchmarks.

Front 4

Points to note:

Back 4

**Under old Illinois law a person had to have a real estate broker's license to manage property for outside parties

** new law has created a special licensed leasing agent category for managers working only with residential properties (can bew/o a license if you are an employee of the person/firm that owns the property

Front 5

rent controls

Back 5

-In few cities, notably NYC and Berkeley, CA, rents for many apartments are controlled by local government.
-In theory the controls protect poor tenants from greedy landlords.
- In practice, the controls often help wealthy tenants at the expense of small property owners.
- Economists feel that tenants still end up spending as much as if they paid market-level rents, cuz they must incur waiting costs, pay search costs, and make bribe-like payments to owners, agents or current tenants

Front 6

In one New York case many years ago:

Back 6

lessor was found to be within his rights in refusing to rent an apartment to a lawyer

Front 7

Another case in New York many years ago:

Back 7

lessor was found in violation of the rent control law when he replaced a human-operated elevator with an automatic, self-service model (deemed that it was a reduction in services- not allowed unless the rent is lowered)

Front 8

A building owner or property management firm generally is?

Back 8

- financially liable for injuries/damage caused by legal acts of an employee
- owner/management firm is not legally/financially liable for illegal acts their employee commits outside the scope of employment

**However, they may be held liable if they didn't carefully screen potential employees for criminal histories and worker then engages in harmful behavior that reasonable could have been foreseen

Front 9

Fair housing anti-discrimination laws apply to who?

Back 9

property managers renting residential properties, just as they do to brokers selling residential properties

Front 10

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

Back 10

states that individuals with disabilities can't be denied access to public accommodations

Front 11

Under the Fair Housing Act:

Back 11

disabled residential tenants must be permitted to make reasonable alterations, but that is at their own expense if the changes are made inside their units

Problems arise:
mental illness or substance addiction under treatment
-landlord may find it legally difficult to evict them, even if disruptive or threat to other tenants