IREM Brochure Highlights Career Opportunities

By Teresa O’Dea Hein, Managing EditorChicago—The wide array of career opportunities in real estate management are detailed in a new, 25-page brochure published by the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM). Written in a fresh, upbeat style, this comprehensive brochure describes what the different jobs in real estate management entail, what the market opportunities are, how to access them, and who the employers in general can be.“We realized that no one had put together a top-down view of the industry for young people or career-changers,” Craig Cardwell, CPM, president of Allen & O’Hara Education Services Inc., Memphis, Tenn., tells MHN. Cardwell is in an especially good position to understand the need for this brochure because his firm develops and manages student housing. “We have 40,000 students who live with us but most of them have no idea there’s a business here, unless they apply to be a part-time community assistant or leasing associate. It’s been under the radar screen of most students.” To catch their eyes, Cardwell explains, this brochure is bright orange, generously illustrated and not overly wordy. And it also includes typical compensation ranges for a wide variety of property management positions.“Real estate management offers great job growth, a variety of job opportunities, and you can make good money doing it,” he adds.Furthermore, Cardwell points out, “Real estate management is far more recession-proof than banking. The real estate is going to be there and needs people to manage it and either restore or enhance its value,” he tells MHN. “Certainly in these times, when value is so under pressure, those who can figure out how to increase value are going to have a bright future.”Cardwell, a 38-year veteran of the industry, also served as the 2007 and 2008 chair of IREM’s Student and Academic Outreach Work Group. His company operates 64 communities in 21 states at 57 universities and employs about 1,400 full-time and 450 part-time employees. Many of the company’s employees started off by living in its communities, Cardwell reports.Funded by the IREM Foundation, the brochure can be downloaded free from the organization’s Web site: http://www.irem.org/pdfs/iremfirst/2008_IREM_brochure.pdf. Plus, a printed copy of the brochure can be ordered free by calling the IREM Customer Relations Department at (800) 837-0706, ext. 4650.In a survey conducted by CNN and Careerbuilder.com in 2007, property/real estate management was listed among America’s top 40 careers. A year earlier, in a survey of the top 50 careers in America conducted by Money magazine and Salary.com, the position of property manager was ranked number 23. Both surveys considered job growth, average salary, education need, and working conditions in the rankings. Many real estate management professionals are reaching retirement age in the near future, so real estate owners and investors must increasingly seek replacements for them, points out IREM President Pamela W. Monroe. “This demographic reality,” Monroe says, “combined with a management function that has become more complex and sophisticated, has created an almost perfect storm that is boosting demand as never before.”IREM has 80 U.S. chapters, eight international chapters and several other partnerships around the globe, with over 18,000 individual members and 500 corporate members. Collectively, IREM CPM members in the U.S. manage over $1.5 trillion in real estate assets, including 8.4 million residential units. An additional 977,400 residential units are managed by IREM ARM Members.