Construction and Property Management Reflective Report - Essay Example

Construction and Property Management Reflective report   Writing a reflective report can only be organized if one reviews the very first lesson for the first semester that established the coverage of the whole module. For the whole semester, the topics covered well really expansive. Although I have a good background of certain topics such as business, finance, basic accounting and economics, there were still many branches of discipline in social sciences that I must be familiar with. Nevertheless, I resolved to review my notes way back high school days so I would have a good foundation.

Also, I took advantage of researching in the library anticipating some topics like business management. I also looked up some construction and property management journals and articles on the Internet and wrote down some terms that I must be familiar with. As expected, I must be able to apply all my previous knowledge to the property and construction industry. Having a concrete background in finance and accounting would really be of great help. The first lecture was all about residential and commercial transactions.

I believe the first lecture illustrating the difference of amount between the two transactions caught everybody in the class by surprise. The term commercial is often thought of as something with a higher value than residential especially when speaking of transactions. To my amazement, residential transactions provided the bulk simply because there are more homes needed than just office buildings. Many people even in business circles overlook this fact and fail to explore the opportunity residential property transactions represent.

This got me very interested so I tried to read more about such transactions and their sources. This is not to totally discount the good opportunities behind commercial transactions but simply looking deeper at how the housing industry sector affects the whole property business. The figures moved me since I gained a lot of fresh insights and one of them is the fact that doing your homework about a certain industry can give you leverage. This is applicable especially when one is out there in the field with many competitors like in the area of sales.

One must be always updated with trends and statistics surrounding the construction industry. Looking back at the beginning of the semester, the first half of the semester was very interesting since most of the topics covered were quite general in nature. The topic that I found interesting most was management. Although I didn’t have a background in management since all I am familiar with is business, I spent some time reading in the library at the very first start of the semester. Management has a very wide scope yet application of theoretical concepts are generally the same.

I appreciated understanding the difference between leaders and managers and evaluated myself. I also enjoyed the different management styles and took time in knowing myself better. I took some personality tests and leadership style tests because I believe that a good manager is aware of himself. I also think that the role of managers is very important. In application to Construction and property management, a property manager is usually equipped with skills as well as information about the industry but that does not make him a complete manager.

From what I have learned, a good manager must have good communication skills, interpersonal skills, negotiation skills, writing and speaking skills that can enhance his leadership. A property manager is not just confined to his desk looking at plans or schematics; rather, he is interacting with all kinds of people on a daily basis. So of one hopes to be a good property or construction manager, he must be ready to deal with people. I think some engineers, architects and technical people need to realize this fact especially nowadays when sales and marketing is part of the whole construction and property industry.

Even in residential transactions, rentals of property require good communication and negotiation skills aside from just knowing the safety regulations or blueprint of the property. In business transaction, clients are lost are gained depending on customer relationship exhibited by property managers. As time passed by, the topics touched on procurement methods. This part of the semester enhanced my skills in working with a team especially when doing group work assignment. During the procurement methods projects, I understood how vital procurement method is in project development.

When the delegation of tasks was done, I immediately gave time researching the topics assigned to me. It could be said that group assignment projects should be always be done in class since students develop important team building skills that they would need someday in the field. An important aspect of group work assignments is collaboration so a project can be accomplished. Everyone must help one another because if we let down a team member, all of us would get delayed in a project. There are times when we had to disagree about methods but the leader was a good facilitator so we end up settling our differences.

Time is also another issue when working on a project which all team members must realize. In large scale construction projects, tools like PERT can help engineers or managers track a project’s progress but people’s willingness to collaborate and communicate still matters a lot. Another interesting topic that made read me read a lot is marketing. As aforementioned, customer relationship skills can gain or lose customers in property management which is why marketing is very vital. Poor marketing planning can highly affect a property no matter how beautiful it maybe.

It is also important to maintain a balance between finances, operations, human resources and project management. Indeed, being a property manager can be very challenging especially if one lacks experience. All the theories and concepts learned must be applied in the right situation which only experience can teach. In conclusion, the whole module is very relevant to students taking this course. I improved my researching skills, communication skills, reading skills and even presentations kills.

More group work assignment should be given especially ones that would do a case study so problems can be solved. Learning has never been this enjoyable and meaningful this semester.