You trust your property manager, don’t you? Why not, you may ask. After all they oversee, control, regulate and manage your properties for you without a hitch. But have you ever thought what makes them so efficient, professional, and accountable for the tasks they carry out? They are not born that way, let us tell you. It takes years of training, experience, and exams before a real estate property manager gets a license to perform transactions between the buyers and sellers or other realtors. They get to decide the details of the lease, the disposition and who is responsible for looking after which part of the property because they are qualified for the job. They have to have property management licenses. There are different types of property management licenses out there but it doesn’t mean that your trusted property manager needs them all. Any of the below mentioned licenses would do, depending on the type of property management activities they are entrusted to carry out.
Real Estate Broker’s License
Real estate brokers must have a license that allows them to list real estates, lease them or sell them if they wish to. They need to be over eighteen years of age and be a citizen of the United States. They also need to pass the exam that qualifies them as a broker. They can have no past criminal records, especially of forgery and/or theft. They need to qualify as real estate salespeople during the training period before the license is awarded.
Property Management License
To acquire this license, one has to pass a Property Management exam that includes questions on salesmanship, the management of properties etc. Even after passing the exam, they have to follow the pre-licensing instructions and the coursework to actually get the license. Apart from that, they need to be a certified law abiding citizen of the U.S.; and have no past criminal record. They also need to have at least a high school education degree to even appear for the exam.
Real Estate Salesperson License
In a lot of cases, you can only work as a real estate broker when you get this license. For a real estate salesperson license, you need to pass all the important educational courses after getting a high school education. You will have to appear for an exam, pass it and then pay a certain fee for the license. However, even before practicing or acquiring the license, you have to gain experience by going through a training period to learn brokership and property management. Citizenship and clean records are a must of course.
Leasing Agent License
A leasing agent license is specifically for someone who is only looking for residential leasing activities. That can be obtained when one is sponsored and the employer is a broker who holds a much senior position. The entire process includes submitting properly approved paperwork, going through a training period to learn how to lease residential properties, gaining experience and also passing the leasing agent exam. Clean records and more than a high school degree is required for acquiring this license.
So, there you are–the four basic types of licences required to become a property manager. A good broker or realtor or even the person who is leasing you the property, be it the government, a private or commercial property manager must apply for these licenses before they can carry out any activity.
When looking for a property manager in a town like Burbank, it is a good idea to go for professionals who are experienced and have been selling or managing properties since a long time. But more importantly, they have the correct license to carry out the transaction for you.
If you are still not convinced, you may even look into the real estate company for whom the property manager is working. To further the credibility of the manager, you can check whether the company itself has a license in its name or not. If it does, you’re good to go. Also it would be best if the manager has actually earned that license by working at the salesmanship wing during the course of training of the company itself.