10 Best Property Management Courses

The real estate market continues to boom. The old investment adage “safe as houses” has never been more true. As developers race to build enough homes for the burgeoning population and new real estate developments spring up like concrete wildflowers across cities, there has never been a more lucrative and reliable time to get into the property market and build a career.

This ongoing suffusion of newly available properties and the rise of the rental market has meant that property management has become a superb career to move into. Whether you are renting out a small AirBnB or looking to take charge of a real estate empire, knowing the basics of property management and how to effectively maintain and manage a sprawling portfolio is an incredibly valuable skill.

And you want to learn it! If you’re planning to take the reins of a property, either for yourself or someone else, knowing how to deal with tenants, ensure all licenses and regulations are met, and boost the value of your properties with simple sets are skills that are sure to pay dividends. These 10 great property management courses will put you on the right track.

Which Property Management Course Is Right for Me?

When faced with choosing an online property management course, the key is understanding your own ambitions. If you want to secure a career with a large housing developer or get involved in the brutal dogfight of commercial property management, it may be best to look at some of the accredited courses on our list.

The fundamentals of writing a contract, understanding deposits and obligations, knowing your way around regulations, and ensuring your wild-eyed loon of a tenant doesn’t destroy the place just for the fun of it, are all skills that every course on this list covers. So, if you’re just looking to start renting out your first place, even the smallest and most basic course on this list will give you all the tools you need.

The most important thing to consider is where you are in your journey, how adept you already feel, and what your end goals are. For most readers renting out one or only a few properties, an accredited course is overkill. Only consider these courses if you’re looking for a job managing someone else’s portfolio rather than your own.

We go into more specifics and detail about what you can expect to learn in a property management course in our Extra Credit section after our main course list.

A Note on Prices

With popular skills websites like Udemy and Skillshare, there are often frequent and notable discounts on offer. It’s rare to have to pay full price for a course and, if that’s the only option available to you, it can be worth waiting until the next offer rolls around.

Moreover, many of these websites offer further discounts or the entire course for free if you sign up for a monthly fee with their platform.

For simplicity’s sake, we’ve listed the highest possible price you can expect to pay for any of these courses. For academic and institutional courses, the story is different, and the price listed is often what you’re most likely to pay.

So, with that out of the way, let’s get the keys and take a look around the 10 best property management courses available online today.

Top 10 Best Property Management Courses 2023

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1. Fundamentals of Residential Property Management

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Why we like it

A great course for beginners, but one that doesn’t skimp on some of the more in-depth knowledge required. It is also slightly more holistic in its approach than other beginner courses.

Review

This is a beginner’s course with a slightly larger scope than just “getting your property rented.” Although it covers that effectively, it also takes a slightly more holistic approach and gives you an idea of the skills you might need, attitudes to cultivate, and some expectations about what a career in this industry would look like.

The legalese of property management is also covered in more depth than courses such as property management 101, and it also covers the basics of staff management and how you might look to grow your business as your portfolio grows.

This course, then, is perfect for beginners who are thinking about taking the profession more seriously than just renting out a single property but are not fully decided or don’t really know whether their conception of property management fits with the reality. Perfect for those who want to dip their toes in the water and get some practical skills out of it regardless.

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2. How to Start a Profitable Property Management Company

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Why we like it

An excellent course that focuses on creating a property management company as opposed to just developing the skills of property management itself.

Review

If you’re already managing a property or have recently acquired one that you intend to commercialize as part of a larger business, then this is a great course that takes you from beginner landlord to property mogul.

It deals with the fussy details of hiring contractors, more intense legalese such as evictions and nuisance policies, the fundamentals of real estate tax, and how to budget maintenance operations across a wider portfolio.

It also explains how you can offer to take command of another person’s portfolio and maximize it for their benefit – and your own. It talks about your basic fiduciary duties to someone else’s property and how you can take your motley collection of condos and cottages and turn them into a sprawling empire.

There is a good bit of content on return on investment, too, and how the housing market has changed and is changing and how you can take advantage. A great course if you’re a self-starter and want to take it to the next level.

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3. Managing Single-Family Homes and Small Investment Properties – NARPM

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Why we like it

A NARPM/IREM-accredited course that focuses on maximizing the revenue from a tiny or single property portfolio.

Review

If you’re looking for a course with a bit more of an educational heft, but your lens of focus is only on renting a single property or two, then this is a great course which still talks about some of the more ethical issues and risk management that you get from a NARPM course but stays within a fairly small remit.

It’s a great primer to the world of property management as a whole. NARPM courses are the gold standard and ultimately lead to full accreditation if you follow the path. This course doesn’t provide that, but it’s a nice taster of a more serious approach to a property management career and the first step on the longer path.

As such, even though you’re only dealing with a smaller property, it does a good job of introducing you to cost-benefit analysis, record-keeping, and reporting systems that will be required should you wish to expand your business further down the line.

It also takes place in a single day, for two hours, between the hours of 8 am and 5 pm – with the course timing announced ahead of time.

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4. IREM Certified Property Manager

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Why we like it

This IREM course results in full accreditation as a CPM to launch a serious, lifelong, full-time career in property management that can take you right to the very top.

Review

If you’re looking to get serious, this course is for you. Taking this 18-month (max) course results in becoming accredited as a CPM (commercial property manager). Once accredited, your CV can be emblazoned with the title, and you can hunt for jobs at the largest property managers and pitch yourself to wealthy property moguls offering to manage their assets.

Naturally, this course is utterly comprehensive, and every nook and cranny of property management is covered so that you can present yourself as the complete package.

However, to get accredited, you will need to pass the exams. Like all courses of higher education, they can be challenging, and you should only take this course if you’re certain you have the commitment and drive to follow through.

With an average salary that’s $70,000 higher than other property managers (whose salaries are not exactly piddling), and a fantastic chance to take on high-level management positions, this is a course for the careerist.

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5. Property Management From Ashworth College

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Why we like it

A lovely halfway house between a fully accredited and expensive course and a casual self-paced study. It has good support and aftercare, too.

Review

A self-paced, flexible study schedule that allows you to take up to a year to complete — but still carrying a diploma from Ashworth college that carries some heft — this is a great online course that takes roughly four months to finish. It’s a great bridge point between a full CPM qualification and one of the quicker online courses you can find on education and skills websites.

One of the advantages this course offers is the access to the larger library of materials Ashworth provides its students, and the jobs and career networks that continue to remain available to you once you complete the course.

Although not fully accredited by NARPM, it’s certainly a course that is recognized within the industry, and the pastoral care, Ashworth community and support network that is available with this course gives it a few advantages over the others on our list.

Materials such as mobile app, Binder, a property management textbook that’s yours to keep, and a learning resource center further augment the offering and makes this a great course if you want a community to go with your learning – despite the fact it’s all online.

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6. Property Management 101

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Why we like it

Simple and effective, this online course will arm you with all the basic tools you need to start renting your first property successfully.

Review

This course is ideal if you’ve just acquired your first property or have thought about putting a property you own out for rental but don’t know what the word “lease” means, or you have other large gaps in your knowledge. Property Management 101 is the perfect quick primer to get you assured of the basics of your obligations, and so you know that you are not making any drastic beginner errors.

It’s a fast course, simply presented and designed – as all 101 courses should be – for complete novices. It covers getting the property ready for lease, what you should care about when doing “move in” and “move out” expectations, the legalese, deposits, and all the other requirements so you can get your first property on the market with confidence.

There is very little depth, though; there is nothing beyond the basics. It’s wholly focused on giving you the essentials to actually rent one property out rather than being focused on the career as a whole.

What’s more, each topic is covered very briefly, and although the information you require is there, you will almost certainly need to do some follow up research to let out your property with confidence. If you treat it on that basis, however, it’ll serve you very well.

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7. Effective Property Management Advanced Course

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Why we like it

A three-part course, this property management journey is very comprehensive and covers all the material an accredited course would — just in less detail.

Review

If you’re looking to start a career in property management or rent out a series of properties but don’t necessarily want to plump for a fully accredited (and expensive) course, this advanced module follows the professionals and teaches you everything you need to run either your own portfolio or somebody else’s.

It focuses on giving you insights into the professional day to day and even spends a lot of time asking you whether it’s not just better to use a management company. Once it’s ascertained you want to go it alone, it shows you the steps to get there. It poses questions other courses might not cover, about whether it’s possible to run properties from a distance (and how you would do that), how to conduct market surveys, and how to formulate market strategies.

In every respect, this is a far more financially-minded course. It’s about maximizing your investment and getting the most money you can out of the properties you have.

Our criticism? It’s unnecessarily divided into three parts — Module 1 covers the basics of managing property, Module 2 explores the ins and outs of rental agreements, and Module 3 goes into brand awareness.

The financially minded element stretches to the course as well, as it’s effectively asking you to pay three times for three separate pieces of content, which in truth should be one long course. There’s also a four-minute lecture on rating the course itself. Some of the topics are covered in very wishy-washy depth, too. It basically drives you to want to use an exterior agent rather than take on the work yourself – which you may be looking for.

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8. Accredited Residential Manager Course (ARM) From IREM

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Why we like it

This IREM course is a great early career option for those looking to be a residential property manager.

Review

If you are in the early stages of a residential property management career, then this certification from IREM will put you in fantastic stead. It will help you rise the ranks either within your pre-existing company or help you forge one, having acquired a sound theoretical basis from which to work.

Covering the core competencies of budget management, leasing, maintenance, evaluating risk and – most importantly – creating an excellent relationship with your tenants so that you can attract and retain them for the long term, this course is packed with all you need to know and gives you the foundation to expand and develop your profession.

As with all IREM courses, it comes with membership to IREM and all that it entails and counts as credit towards becoming a fully qualified CPM. It’s a little tricky, requiring you to pass a 100 question ARM exam, and keep in mind this is not a course for a beginner: you need to have a portfolio of properties already and complete 12 months of experience managing that portfolio. So, this is for the serious careerist.

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9. Commercial Property Manager Course (ACoM) From IREM

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Why we like it

An IREM course that focuses on commercial property management – an altogether different kettle of fish than residential management.

Review

Commerical property management requires a slightly different skillset than renting out residential properties. Unlike setting rents for residential tenants, which often fits a fairly obvious template based on current market conditions, commercial property is more about making pitches, squeezing the best rent possible out of a business, and tying up massive multi-year contracts that allow you to get the owner of the property the best possible return on their investment.

Moreover, you’ll have a lot more staffing issues when dealing with large commercial properties. This type of management often requires significant efforts towards maintenance, as well as periodic employment of contractors to ensure all regulations are met and licenses maintained. This can be a very large operation depending on the demands and expectations of the client.

This course, administered by IREM, delivers early-career certification as an ACoM in all of these matters so you can launch your career. As part of the benefits of the course, you get to expand your network and meet future employers and your peers. The IREM Membership is bundled into the course, and you will get a crash course in high-end negotiation practices that will stand you in good stead for the rest of your career. It also acts as credit towards a full CPM course.

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10. Penn Foster Property Management Certificate

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Why we like it

This online course from Penn Foster, one of the premier names in property management courses, is a great way to advance a pre-existing career.

Review

An excellent course that does a good job focusing on the legal frameworks required to be an excellent property manager and gives you a solid grounding to look after multi-family residential properties and commercial and single-family properties.

Penn Foster has been accredited for 50 years, and the course is highly respected. It does not shy away from the nitty-gritty; expect to learn and understand financial accounting and the basics of real estate law by the time you finish this course.

As such, this course is probably best for those who have already begun a career as a property manager and are looking to finetune those skills and understand what the necessities are to take it to the next level. That does not mean a complete novitiate couldn’t take this course, only that they should expect to have to study quite hard to keep up with its demands.

One of the advantages of this course is the good support network that comes with it. You get access to a good library of materials and communication with your peers, which means you can get your networking in early. The aftercare of the course is a little less than the Ashworth program, but arguably Penn Foster provides a slightly higher level of education.

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