10 property management courses to upskill your team

What are the best online property management courses in Australia?

Your team's training needs will depend on the size and maturity of your property management business, as well as your and their professional goals.

Best courses for small property management teams

If you're a smaller agency, your upskilling focus is likely to be on courses that help your team be more versatile.

There's probably a rule in your agency that goes something like this: nobody is above or below doing a given job - there's just no room for that kind of attitude.

For courses that make your team more versatile, we recommend looking at numbers 5, 7, 8 and 10.

Best courses for mid-sized property management teams

Your focus at this stage in your company's growth is likely to be on excellence.

Your staff might have fairly defined job roles, but those that take the agency to its next level will be the best of the best.

Help them play those roles by stepping up the level of property management skills across the board.

The course pathways that might suit your high-potential staff members are likely to be numbers 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 10.

Best courses for larger property management teams

If you're looking at courses to take your PM team to a much higher level(and without packing them off to do their MBAs), property management courses on their own might not cut it.

In a team where people can specialise and stay within their lanes, choosing courses from adjacent fields can help them maximise their contribution to your business, and drive that agency maturity and leadership that takes teams from large to largest.

People from larger property management teams are likely to get more value from numbers 1, 2, 3,  7, 8 and 10.

10 best online course ideas for property management team

1. Business administration

Certificate IV in Business Administration

This nationally accredited course gives property managers the skills they need to understand and create financial, strategic, marketing, and other business documentation. It's a step down from an actual in-the-flesh MBA, but it helps team members develop a similar skillset that is sure to step up their game, no matter what role they're in.

Certificate IV in Business Administration and Certificate IV in Leadership and Management (Open Colleges)

For the budding leaders in your team who could also use the Certificate IV in Business Administration, Open Colleges runs a dual certificate program that lets students study both leadership and business administration.

This is likely to be a good course candidate for that high-potential individual on the road to becoming a senior member of leadership.

2. Leadership

Diploma of Leadership Coaching and Mentoring

Graduate Certificate in Leadership and Strategy

While we're on the topic of leadership, here are two more courses for those star performers who might not be quite ready to mentor and influence others in the team, or who lack the experience to take on a strategic role just yet but want to step up.

3. Negotiation and influence for business development and rent roll growth

The Psychology of Negotiation (QUT)

Negotiation Skills Training (WeTrain)

Negotiation and Influence (Monash University)

Got a budding BDM in your office or a number of individuals showing promise? You could do worse than enrolling them in one of these negotiation training courses. While many of them come with a spicy price tag, they are the real deal.

Before you overlook this option, consider also: a property manager's job is essentially one giant game of negotiation with tenants, tradies, owners, the sales team, and each other.  Negotiation skills are super valuable! Giving these skills to a deserving team member is likely to not only grow their confidence, but deepen their professional investment in your business's success.

We urge you to consider it if you can.

4. Legislation and consumer risk

Certificate IV in Property Services

A certificate IV in property services as we all know is a step in the direction to become a licensed real estate agent.

But with its focus on legislation and consumer laws regarding the sale and leasing of properties in Australia, it's also actually a great option for teams looking to grow the number of highly capable property management staff in their agency.

5. Marketing strategy

Real Estate Marketing (Online Marketing Institute)

Fundamentals of Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing Training

If you're a mid-sized or larger agency with staff wanting to stretch their wings professionally, marketing is an essential and transferable skill that can add huge value to your workforce. Marketing in most businesses is the engine of growth - not BDMs, although in real estate they do have to work together.

Having someone in your team who knows how to own that marketing strategy and drive business growth is uber important, and likely to deliver more original property management marketing ideas than your average career marketer.

6. Property management excellence

‍Service and Operations Training Bundle

For the career property manager with more to learn and more to give, you can't go past specialised property management training group Ireviloution, who offer a course bundle designed to take property managers from good to phenomenal.

7. Property investment and valuation knowledge

Graduate Certificate of Property (Deakin University)

Highly sought after agencies tend to offer services above and beyond a CMA. One skill you might consider bringing in-house (whether for yourself or your team) is property valuation and investment knowledge.

Why? Property managers are already custodians of the majority of rental properties in Australia. It's not a stretch to say that most property managers are in fact already asset managers. And as asset managers, they stand in a better position to provide asset management and investment advice than just about anybody else.

So why not double down on investment and valuation knowledge.

8. BDM training

Standout BDM Performance Program (RED)

Want a course more specific to BDMs to offer staff? Real Estate Dynamics offer an industry-specific BDM course designed to help your reps get more property management leads and sign more management agreements.

9. Choose your own professional adventure

Elite Agent Academy

Elite Agent offers a range of courses that can help you reach a broad number of goals, from real estate and property management services through to improving productivity and personal goals.

While the Street MBA program has been on hold due to COVID-19 (and floods, and whatever other cataclysmic disasters befell us most recently), it does offer a valuable inside look (literally!) into how other agencies are successfully dealing with certain challenges, situations and scenarios. It gives students a great idea of how to solve similar problems within their own workplace.

10. Go for a subscription model instead

‍Linkedin Learning

This is a great one for staff who might only have the time to invest in shorter courses: organise a LinkedIn learning account. Please note that the account is usually attached to a LinkedIn profile, so sharing an account might not be the best idea (unless you all really trust each other).

Masterclass

Alternatively, you could arrange for a Masterclass subscription (although you may want to put some parameters on how it should be used and when). Or, you might be interested in arranging for a Harvard business school subscription, or a relevant newspaper / magazine subscription for the office.

11. Bonus track: webinars and B2B content

How to calculate your local market share

Property management in the customer experience economy

One extra one for luck! B2B (business to business) companies (like Console, PropertyMe, PropertyTree, and any other business that sells something to your agency) all want to build trust with you by giving you high-quality and useful content.

One of the chief ways these businesses do that is by creating content that we hope educates, entertains, inspires and (most importantly) resonates with you. That's why it's always free.

So you may as well use it, right?

Keep an eye out for ebooks, calculators, downloadable content and webinars in particular for free access to the kind of learning you'd otherwise probably pay to read.

Or book a quick chat with one of our team.