Property Management vs. Asset Management

Las Vegas Property Management vs. Asset Management

 

There’s no question that the Las Vegas Property management and real estate market has been rapidly evolving ever since the development of true towns and cities began to increase in America, replacing much of the spaced-out farmland and homesteads of the prairie. Today’s prototypical real estate agent had better be flexible and adaptable to those changes – it’s likely that over your lifetime, the market will continue to advance and change even more. Some of the changes that real estate agents have had to adapt to in recent years includes, primarily, learning to be fluent with the different technologies that have become available that can help both buyers and sellers organize their thoughts, research current market trends, and even work with their banks online. However, another line is becoming blurred in the real estate market, and that is the border between Las Vegas property management and asset management.

If you’re unclear, property management refers to pretty much every transaction of commercial or residential real estate. This can involve rental units as well as those that are occupied by their rightful owners. Depending on the situation, a property manager fulfills tasks such as rent collection, lease enforcement, tenant relations, maintenance and repair scheduling, as well as assisting individuals with a long-term purchase of a home. On the flip side, asset management focuses on the money that changes hands. This field involves optimizing the amount of revenue potential that each property has, and works to improve the value of the property. These roles are related, and they often intersect in the broad world of real estate, but they are distinct, and it is only recently that people have begun dabbling in both instead of focusing on exclusively one position.

It does not help that many agencies, firms, or companies will try and appeal to the masses by using the most general terms possible when describing the individuals who work there. “Real estate agent” is an umbrella term, and “asset manager” is becoming an unofficial title for anyone concerned with the value of property, particularly with agencies seeking to advertise a higher quality of work, referring to the property itself as an asset instead of the revenue. Additionally, it used to be the case that asset managers pursued higher education before or concurrently with their entrance into the work force, particularly in the fields of mathematics, business administration, economics, or similar fields, while property managers would focus on hands-on experience instead of classroom education. However, this has become complicated by the fact that it is becoming increasingly less common for individuals to start working after high school instead of pursuing advanced education, no matter what field their potential career will be in.

Another reason it is difficult to understand the difference between asset management and property management is because depending on the individual situation, sometimes an asset manager is highly involved in the property, such as collecting the rent or lease and negotiating, especially on behalf of the property owner. On a similar note, it’s not unheard of for a property manager ends up working closely with financial analysis, such as creating plans for staying within annual budgets, coming up with ideas to increase the value of the property, and offering counsel and resources regarding lenders. That being said, the primary difference is that asset managers deal with the ins and outs of the finances and legalities of all of the transactions rather than the maintenance and marketing of the home.

So how are you supposed to know who to hire? The short answer is that it depends! There is no truthful saying that an asset manager is necessarily more useful than a property manager, or vice versa. For instance, a single family looking to sell their house and relocate to a new one is probably more than fine just hiring a property manager and not working with an asset manager, because the transaction will be more or less permanent, and the family is not attempting to use their newly-bought to home to generate more income in the same way that the landlord of an apartment complex would be wise to work closely with an asset manager. In this case, the asset manager will work with the property owner to find out how best to make more capital. As the cast of residents in the complex changes, this will be a constantly-evolving task.
Hopefully now you have a better understanding of the difference between an asset manager and a property manager and that you’re able to see the value (pun not intended) in each role. There is no way to predict for sure exactly where the market will go in the future, and at least for now, both of the professions have a an important role to play in each real estate interaction, and neither one is more important or more legitimate than the other.

 

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