IREM Tightens Requirements For AMO Accreditation

The Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM®) has updated and made more stringent the requirements firms must meet to earn and maintain its ACCREDITED MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION® (AMO®) accreditation. The AMO® Code of Professional Ethics, to which all member firms must adhere, also has been modified to complement the IREM Code of Professional Ethics. In the process, it has been made more rigorous and more reflective of industry standards.

“The AMO® credential is the only one in the industry that recognizes excellence among real estate management firms,” said IREM® 2012 President James A. Evans, CPM®, adding that “the new requirements to earn it are more relevant than ever to real estate managers, their clients, and the assets they manage. And,” Evans said, “firms with AMO® accreditation will be able to demonstrate to investors and clients that they don’t just meet industry standards—they set them.”

According to Evans, the requirement and ethics changes were driven by a Presidential Task Force charged with evaluating the relevance and value of the AMO accreditation program in the market. The group of industry professionals developed a set of best practices to serve as a useful and practical tool for real estate management company executives in operating their businesses successfully and professionally.

Detailed in the IREM® publication titled Best Practices: Real Estate Management Service, “the practices provide a reasonable framework for the professional delivery of real estate management services,” noted Evans, “and are reviewed and updated annually by the Institute’s Industry Standards Advisory Board.”

Only 537 firms in the U.S. and Canada currently hold AMO® accreditation. Collectively, AMO® firms manage over $289.1 billion in real estate assets, including approximately 2.6 million residential units and over 1 billion net square feet of commercial space.

AMO® firms must seek re-accreditation every three years to demonstrate that they are in full compliance with current AMO® program requirements. Over half of all AMO® firms have been in business for 25 years or more and nearly 90% have been established for at least a decade.