Know the job you are hiring for. 

There are only a few onsite jobs in the multifamily world: Property Manager, Assistant Manager, Leasing Agent and then maintenance. The larger properties might have all of these positions in play, while the smaller ones may find a single-person operation. Either way, owners, management companies and HR departments industry-wide often make the mistake of not hiring properly for the job they have open. 

A Class B or C property might find itself needing a traditional property manager. Someone who will lease the apartments, manage the turnover of units, renew leases, maintain curb appeal—all of that. It’s not uncommon that this level of Property Manager may never see the budget, may never be involved in higher-ticket expenditures and may never be consulted about higher-level decisions.  But more and more, the industry is asking for something different from the position. The title tends to remain the same, but those traditional duties are either passed down to the Assistant Manager, or they are asked to cover all the basics and then be something more: A Business Manager. 

I mean, let’s think about it. That’s really what they are anyway. An owner is entrusting the business to someone else to manage. It’s all of the normal responsibilities plus managing the budget, vendor relations, insurance claims, dealing with legal issues, and so much more. So often do these managers find themselves navigating complicated terrain in managing complex cost and maintenance schedules, soliciting multiple bids for projects, all while scrambling to meet the frequent reporting needs for their management company bosses and owners. 

What’s in a title? 

Perhaps it is time to redefine, or at least relabel the role of Property Manager. These higher-level positions are industry equivalent to a Branch Manager of a retail store, VP of Operations to a mid-level corporation, or a Food and Beverage Manager of a high-level hotel. 

One could argue this is one of the main reasons for the massive turnover rate in personnel in recent years. If employees are constantly put in positions above their experience, they are being set up to fail. And similarly, if you hire a Business-Manager level staffer to do a lower-level management job, they will seek greener pastures for both higher pay and a bigger challenge. Management companies that hire poorly end up hemorrhaging staff regularly, crippling their efforts. 

While we can agree that fast food and fine dining are both restaurants, you would not have the same expectations from the manager of each establishment. Just because someone managed a 50-unit building for five years doesn’t mean that they can handle the kind of pressure that a larger organization will offer. 

All of these companies provide a wealth of training on the basics, from fair housing to software to client relations. Rarely, if ever, do you see any training to handle the higher-level situations. Unfortunately, there is no substitute for experience. No classroom, online training or textbook can prepare you for the situations and circumstances that may happen. 

Trickle down hiring failure economics

The same hiring mistakes can also be said of Portfolio Managers. This job has a specific set of skills and knowledge needed to be effective, and not all managers are suited or prepared to take on the promotion. 

The higher up the food chain we go, the more impactful the failures can be. If they are not good people managers they will cost you staff. Properties without staff will retain higher vacancy rates for longer periods, overtax maintenance and deliver underwhelming numbers for a longer period of time. Now the portfolio is underwater, and a company’s solutions are limited. 

Again, the failure was in the inability to properly identify the position for which you were hiring. 

Property management companies have one thing in common: They never say no to new business. However, simply because you took on 2,000 new doors doesn’t mean you were staffed to handle the business. What’s the first common move? Hire from within. Suddenly the company promotes a handful of Property Managers to Portfolio Managers, promotes a bunch of Assistants to Managers, and does the same with Leasing Agents to become Assistants. Then the only issue is hiring a bunch of new Leasing Agents. Simple right? 

But if these managers were not ready for the responsibilities of the promotion, then this could wreak havoc on a company. 

Option B is to hire new Portfolio Managers from other companies. But then we have to wonder why there are so many people in the market for a new job. Were they failed managers at other companies who were let go? HR at these larger management companies have such extreme limitations on what they can do in terms of employment verification. Nine times out of 10 it is simply the ability to verify the person worked there. No ability to find out about the past performance of the applicant. This leaves the potential for a dangerous amount of room for fabrication and revisionist history when it comes to résumés, and failed Portfolio Managers and Property Managers to float from one company to the next. 

If our industry wants to stimulate growth and stability, then they have to take a much harder look at their hiring practices. Not only in the form of how we interview, but how we evaluate past performance. But the most important key that seems to be lacking is the use of common blanket titles for jobs, like “Property Manager,” when what you may really be hiring for is something different. 

Craig Marquardo is VP of Multi-Family with VCS Property Management, the Multi-Family division of Portland, Ore.-based VCS Realty.