How to Hire a Great Property Manager

Hiring a property manager well comes down to four things done properly: scoping the role honestly, screening for the skills that actually predict success, checking references that mean something, and making an offer fast enough that you do not lose the candidate to someone else.

None of this is complicated, but it is easy to skip a step under time pressure, and the property management market punishes shortcuts more than most. This is the playbook we run through with agencies before every search, along with a look at how long it realistically takes and where processes commonly stall.

1. Scope the role before you write anything

Write down the actual portfolio: number of properties, geographic spread, property mix, and how much trust accounting, arrears and tribunal work sits on this desk versus being handled elsewhere. Decide the salary band against current market pay — the property manager salary guide is a useful starting benchmark — rather than anchoring to what the last person was paid three years ago. If you are not sure the role justifies a hire at all, work through signs it's time to hire another property manager first.

2. Write a job ad that tells the truth

Vague ads attract vague applicants. State the portfolio size, the suburbs, the support structure and a realistic salary range. Property managers who have been burned by an underscoped role before will screen out ads that hide these details, and the candidates you actually want have the market knowledge to notice the omission. See how to write a property manager job advertisement for structure and an example outline.

3. Screen for the things that actually predict success

• Comfort with trust accounting and end-of-month reconciliation, not just familiarity with the software.
• Direct tribunal or dispute experience relevant to your state — this varies significantly by jurisdiction.
• Evidence of managing a comparable portfolio size and mix, not just years in the industry.
• How they talk about a difficult owner or tenant situation — listen for ownership of the outcome, not blame.
• Whether their current or most recent portfolio genuinely matches what you are offering; a mismatch in either direction is a retention risk.

Structure the interview around real scenarios

Ask candidates to walk through how they handled a specific arrears escalation, a difficult routine inspection outcome, or a tribunal matter, rather than asking hypothetical questions. The way someone describes a real situation tells you far more than how they answer a textbook prompt.

A simple two-stage interview structure

4. Check references properly

A reference check that only confirms dates of employment is close to worthless. Speak to a direct manager where possible, ask about portfolio size and complexity they actually handled, how they responded under pressure, and whether the manager would rehire them. Be specific rather than accepting general praise.

• Ask for the size and mix of the portfolio the candidate actually managed, not just their title.
• Ask how they handled a specific difficult situation — a tribunal matter, an aggressive owner, a serious maintenance dispute.
• Ask directly whether the referee would rehire them, and if not, why not.
• If a candidate can't provide a direct manager as a referee, ask why, and treat the answer as part of your assessment.

5. Move quickly and make a real offer

Property managers worth hiring are usually talking to more than one agency. A process that drags across several weeks of scheduling delays loses good candidates to agencies that decide faster. When you make the offer, put the whole package in writing — base, allowances, bonus structure, and start date — so there is nothing left to negotiate informally after acceptance. For a realistic sense of how long each stage should take and where delays typically creep in, see how long should it take to recruit a property manager.

Common mistakes in property manager hiring

• Advertising a portfolio size that includes properties genuinely handled by someone else, then losing trust once the candidate starts.
• Running three or more interview rounds for a mid-level role, which signals indecision and gives competing agencies time to make an offer first.
• Skipping reference checks under time pressure, then discovering the gap only once trust accounting responsibilities begin.
• Making a verbal offer without confirming it in writing quickly, leaving room for a counter-offer to intervene.

If you'd rather have an experienced hand run the search end to end, our employers page sets out how we support agencies through the full process, or you can browse candidates already registered by contacting us directly.

Frequently asked questions