Why Thinking Like an Asset Manager Can Elevate Your Approach to Property Management (BOMA 2025 Preview)

Your daily decisions as a property manager have a direct impact on the value of your building—but do you know why or how? Thinking more like an asset manager—taking a fiduciary responsibility in your building and spending dollars like they were your own—can change the way you practice property management.

Cary Fronstin, executive vice president of Foundry Commercial, and Mark Dukes—BOMA Fellow, chair and chief elected officer of BOMA International from 2021-2022, and senior VP of real estate operations for Healthpeak—will tackle this attitude shift head-on in their Tuesday, July 1 session at the 2025 BOMA International Conference & Expo, “Thinking Like an Asset Manager and Its Impact on Performance.” This session will break down key financial metrics and help attendees understand how their decisions impact long-term asset performance.

What’s the Difference Between Property Managers and Asset Managers?

The lines between these two positions have become blurred in recent years, Dukes and Fronstin explained—but at heart, a property manager tends to have a more hands-on role in problem-solving, interacting with tenants, and serving as the owner’s eyes and ears. “An asset manager is more focused on the numbers, the business side, and the return on the investment that the owner made,” Dukes explained.

The session will also delve into what being an asset manager entails, empowering attendees to best work with their asset managers—or decide they’d like to move into asset management themselves.

How Does Thinking Like an Asset Manager Drive Value?

As a property manager, you’re positioned to recommend building improvements that will save on operating expenses over the long term and help with customer relations and leasing. That directly drives value, and it’s important to realize that so you can make better decisions that add to that value.

“Building managers don’t realize it, but a lot of their decisions and recommendations ultimately impact the value of the investment,” Fronstin said. “When they’re making a recommendation for a capital improvement, when they’re making a recommendation for evicting a tenant, accepting a new tenant, or spending extra time with tenant relations to try to retain a tenant—all of those things impact the value of the building because ultimately, the higher the NOI, the higher the building value. Building managers make daily recommendations that directly impact NOI.”

“Property managers play an important role in value creation and growth,” Dukes added. “Whether it’s part of your title or job description, property managers make a difference every day—not just on customer satisfaction, but on growing the value of the real estate.”

“From an operational standpoint, if you keep your building well-operated—the air conditioning’s always working, the property’s always looking the best it can—that goes a long way,” Fronstin said. “And you’re meeting your tenants and retaining your tenants and understanding the challenges of the building. Are they looking to expand? Are they looking to contract? Are they happy? Do they want more amenities? Being more involved, that ultimately adds to a higher level of occupancy and obviously the higher the occupancy, the higher the rental income is going to be, which will be part of the NOI equation that you really want to add value to.”

What to Expect from This Session

Dukes and Fronstin will lead attendees through a hands-on exercise covering the valuation process so the audience can see in real time how real estate managers add value. Attendees can expect to gain clarity and knowledge about asset management that will help them elevate their performance as a property manager.

Need to register for the 2025 BOMA International Conference & Expo? There’s still time—sign up today!