Property Management Many transferees who are facing a tough housing market are looking at property management from a new perspective with US housing creating challenges with selling residential real estate.  Relocating professionals are finding this policy benefit timely if they are unable to sell their homes while moving for a new job outside of their current work location.  The implications of the decision to use the property management benefit is a forfeiture of the homesale program provision, if applicable. 83% of Paragon Pulse respondents report that those who use the property management benefit are excluded from the homesale program, reflecting this decision would not be made without serious consideration. The number of companies offering the property management benefit is spilt evenly between all respondents with 50% of all companies offering it to their home owner transferring employee base.   Of those respondents who offer property management to their transferring employees, 77% indicated that any compensation would include service fees to manage the property while the employee and their family are away. In addition, less than half of respondents indicated that property management could also include a monthly maintenance allowance, rent differential, refurbishment, tax gross up, lease fee and or rental advertising fees.   While 67% of respondents indicated that transferees opt to use property management when relocating 5% or less of the time, the next largest group of respondents, 17%, indicated that employees opt for property management 20% or more of the time. In other words, nearly one out of every five transferring employees chooses to use property management rather than sell their home. This statistic is a reflection of the current housing market and requires relocation professionals to provide the most up to date best practices in how to administer the benefit of property management for relocating employees. These best practices would include counseling the transferee on all the benefits and drawbacks of using property management as opposed to going through the homesale program, if offered.	Survey Participation     September’s Pulse data represents results from 24 corporate relocation professionals from organizations of the following size:   1,000 to 10,000          38% 10,001 to 20,000          8% 20,001 to 50,000         21% 50,001—100,000          21% 100,001 +                  12%   Final survey results are included in this document.
		September 2009 Survey Results  Of the total employee population, how many assignees do you mobilize annually? less than 20 33% 31 to 50 17% 51 to 100 25% 100 to 500 17% Over 501 8%       Will the employee be eligible for homesale assistance if they have utilized property management? Yes 17% No 83%     Do you offer property management assistance? Yes 50% No 50%     If yes, what forms of assistance do you provide?    Property Management service fees       77% Monthly maintenance allowance   23% Rent differential   46% Refurbishment   23% Tax gross-up   46% Other, please specify   8%     If a monthly maintenance allowance if offered, what is the criterion for which the payment is based upon? Percent of Home Value  25% Mortgage Payment  25% Other: Capped Allowance 50%     What is the typical period of time that property management is offered for? 1 year 27% 2 years 18% 3 years or more 55%     How often does a transferee in your relocation program today opt to use property management rather than go through the Homesale program? 0-5% 67% 6-10% 8% 11-20% 8% 20% and above 17%     If the only way an employee can transfer to a new work location is to rent a residence as his/her principle place of residence, is your company willing to pay a stipend to offset the loss of tax deduction associated with homeownership? Yes 17% No 83%
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