Number of Office Employees Per Apartment Community

Over in the maintenance discussion category, we've had an amazing debate regarding the appropriate number of maintenance techs required for an apartment community.

Now, I'd like to shift that discussion to the office team. How many total office on-site team members is appropriate for a community? (let's include anybody who works in the office on-site, including property manager, assistant PM, leasing consultants, etc)

(Please give the number of units managed, as well, so we can compare properly!)

For me, 3 full time staff for a 244 unit property is a good fit. Myself, my Customer Service Manager (resident billing / leasing) and a Solutions Provider (leasing) is perfect. Allows each of us time with residents and prospects as well as property face time and paperwork. We go down to 1 person on the weekends.

I am interested to hear from on-site managers how the ratio of apartments to team members may differ from the service side to the office/administrative side and why.

Working on the temporary side in property management, I'd say it would probaly depend on the age of community. We often see where older properties may temp maintenance out when the A/C season hits because of the age. More work for maintenance, but not necessarily more work for office.

I have always felt like the industry standard 1 person per 100 units is a good fit inside and outside. Recently, I have started on an older portfolio with some maintenance concerns. I only have 103 units, but im thinking a part timer would be a GREAT advantage on the ofc and maint side even if just temporarily.

It has been my experience that 80 units (between 2 buildings max) per staff member has been efficient.

I, alone, manage 141 units across 4 buildings in a 20 mile radius and I can attest that I'm never caught up completely with everything. Nearly all my time is spent on leasing & depositing rents/3 day notices that I've realized lately I havent even been able to manage my tenants/buildings properly. I've been keeping things afloat but am looking into a more manageable situation (PT assistant at least).

With my property averaging 83:1, I am going to go the opposite way and say that I wish I had another staff too! Granted, I am probably spoiled in that I have as much office staff as I do, but for me, more office staff means more facetime with residents and future residents, both inside the office and out. One of my favorite pieces of my day is getting time to be physically on the property (outside of the office). Chatting with residents, picking up the property, helping the maintenance team. If i can address a maintenance issue as a resident reports it to me, without having to fill out the work order and make them wait for an hour to get the guys there, I do. The relationship between residents and property staff is a crucial make or break issue. It's not good enough to just bethe voice at the other end of the phone, they need to know faces and have a connection there.

Tara, you bring up a great issue regarding what do property management companies want to actually gain from their on-site teams. They can probably "get by" with a bare bones staff that gets the essentials done, but that also probably puts them in the 60% average turnover our industry faces. Or they can see additional labor as an investment - having an extra part-time person is going to be an additional $10,000 per year, but you would then expect that person's efforts to directly impact retention rates, rent increases on renewals, etc to result in a net gain.

That is a risk of course, so the returns better be risk-adjusted to compensate...

This is a great discussion. With our properties, we keep our site staff at 1 manager to properties under 100 units. Properties in excess of 100 units typically have 2 or more personnel on-site. With that, at smaller properties that do not require on-site personnel, we will typically have a nearby Resident Manager assist with leasing and resident relations and they are compensated accordingly.

Once one of our properties becomes "red flagged" as having an issue with expenses or vacancies that sit un-rented for an extended period of time, we have expert leasers on our staff that assist our resident managers until the vacants are filled. We try to leverage our staff as best as possible.

Hi! I manage a 730 unit/17 building community built in 1970. I have 3 Leasing Consultants, a Leasing Director and an Assistant Manager. On the maintenance side...a Service Supervisor, Coordinator/Scheduler, Asst. Lead Tech, 5 Techs and 3 part time Fitness/pool attendants. Being a busy and older community...in the summer I could use an additional LC and always more maintenance! When I began last July, we were 85% occupied and 97% now...my team has done incredibly...but can honstly say my techs are always behind with the work load ( preventive maintenance was not a focus previously, sad to say) and my expectations!!