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Residential management group emphasizes continuing ed

Story Type: News

Southwestern Idaho’s professional group for residential property managers, NARPM, is readying its members for a changing rental landscape as apartment construction accelerates and newcomers arrive to take jobs in the state.

Like so many people in business, NARPM’s president, Cory Tanner, is watching closely to see how the behavior of millennials will affect his own operation, Bolton Property Management. And he’s positioning his group, the southwestern Idaho chapter of the National Association of Residential Property Managers, to respond to upcoming market changes professionally.

Idaho NARPM held a strategic planning session in October to come up with priorities for the coming year. One priority was professional development. NARPM will hold sessions this year for its members on issues such as fair housing law, account collections, and tenant safety.

Another topic was licensing, which is not now required for residential property managers in Idaho. NARPM doesn’t hold a position on the issue, but discussed it at the strategic planning session. Within the 60 or so members of Idaho NARPM, there are those who support licensing as a way to weed out bad actors and bring more professionalism to the industry, and those who oppose it as a violation of their privacy.

Tanner, who falls into the former camp, is licensed as a property manager in Utah, where he also manages real estate.

“The Division of Real Estate audits my trust account, they’ve audited my operating account, they do an annual evaluation that some may look at as a hassle,” Tanner said. “All they’re doing is making sure that if we’re using a trust account we’re using it appropriately. There is some value to it. But there are other property managers who say, 'I don’t want somebody poking their nose in my business.'”

Apart from licensing, NARPM members are also trying to increase their community service activity.

Tanner, who has an MBA from Purdue University and a BA in communications from the University of Utah, worked for Johnson &amp; Johnson in New Jersey for a decade before returning to Idaho and starting his property management business. His company manages about 250 properties around the Treasure Valley. He has watched local building trends closely and said he expects them to affect local property managers eventually.

“We have certainly seen an increase in multi-housing complexes and units across the valley,” Tanner said. “At the same time, the vacancy rates have remained fairly low. We’ve been able to continue to fill those vacancies. But at a certain point, that’s going to have to level off. You can’t build indefinitely.”

Phyllis Barker, the majority owner of Group One Property Management in Boise, said property managers at her company are working with professionals who are moving from out of state to take jobs at companies such as the St. Luke’s and Saint Alphonsus Health Systems, Micron, Hewlett-Packard, and Albertsons.

These renters are looking for mobility.

“Most want to rent for 6-12 months to study the valley and choose a neighborhood that fits their desires before they buy,” said Barker. “They prefer to be as close to downtown as possible.”

Like the professionals who work with Barker, millennials tend to rent rather than own, which is good news for property managers. But Tanner said the millennials he works with tends to demand mobility even within the traditional structure of renting.

“Even within lease terms, they want some flexibility,” he said. “If they need to up and leave for some service project in Africa, they want to be able to do it.”

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Source: Idaho Business Review (Boise, ID), Feb 02, 2016