So very true. Residents, employees, and communities are all very different. We, as managers, must find or set the boundaries that suit our communities and our personal lives. What works for one will not work for everyone.

Here in Oregon, property management used to be the career of choice for many parents. Changes in our state labor laws now prevent that. :huh:

One of the job requirements of every property manager I know is that someone must be on call 24/7. It's just the nature of this business. Sometimes that means my personal life has to go on hold for a few hours. The fact that I love my community and the industry makes this easy for me to accept. I love being needed and useful. :kiss:

We do try to have flexible office hours, but I try not to work 12 hour days. :side: Fortunately those days are fairly rare. And I have an assistant to help out on the weekends. :)

I tell my residents with preschoolers "don't blink, because if you do, your children will be grown and gone away before you know it." I tell my children, "I'm not old enough to have grown-ups" (but I don't think they believe me.) Fortunately, I have 150 replacements (my residents,) so my children visit frequently. ;)

For me, the rewards are worth going the extra mile. :)

I stopped reading at "my kids are grown and I have nothing better to do". Good for you; however, that's not the case for everyone. Employees are just as diverse as the residents they serve. We too have busy schedules, prior engagements,and lives! I'm active in my church, I have two pre-school aged children, I'm married, I try to work out 6 days a week. I have a life! I go to work everyday and do my best so that I can afford to live! My husband (who is in apartment maintenance) and myself have often been snubbed by our own employees because we HAD to get off on time to pick our kids up from daycare. The preception that we should be available 24/7 is unrealistic and unreasonable. The best leasing professionals can do is provide flexible office hours. Open later or earlier some days of the week. Stay open for 12 hours one day of the week. Have weekend hours for residents to choose from. Give them enough options to prove "we are doing our best possible".

I still feel that I am better off keeping my RESIDENTS happy and not leaving for reasons within my control. I would rather spend a couple hundred dollars doing that than a couple thousand in terms of turning and marketing a vacant unit and lose revenue on that vacancy at the same time. It is great that you are all about getting that lease; but I am more about KEEPING that lease as opposed to NEEDING to get a new one as best as possible.

Don't get me wrong, I do whatever it takes to make prospective residents comfortable enough with me and the community to make them want to spend their single biggest household budget item with me; but there is not much I won't do for an existing resident. My residents know that they can come to me with any issue and I will do my best within company policy and other regulations to resolve it. When I live on site; they know that I maintain an open door policy and strive to be a good neighbor. At the same time, I ask that residents respect my personal time for what it is. Unless whatever is happening is an emergency; they generally allow it to wait until the next day.


I can accept when a resident has reason to need to leave that I cannot control; but if there is something I can or should be doing to keep turnover to the following reasons, I will:

-Household size to such that they exceed occupancy and cannot resolve by offering a larger/smaller unit.
-Employment status/location including military deployment or transfer.
-Loss of income, or increase beyond income limit in affordable.
-Eviction for cause.
-End of school term/graduation.

If my turnover were only these reasons, then I am spending my resources wisely, retaining residents, and lowering costs to turnover.

Stephani is right - know your community. Renewals are completely different from working with Prospects. But any conventional property that closes its doors at the very time Prospective Residents get off work and are likely to come to look for an apartment will lose leases. Yes, of course, we are here for our current residents, but we must plan for our potential residents, as well. Summer showing hours can be different from Winter showings, of course, but again, the name of the game is providing overall customer connections and service to everyone. Thanks, Stephani for reminding us to plan accordingly! Johnny, it doesn't matter what anyone says, I am all about getting that lease and I am incredibly patient about working with students and their parents! :)

That renewal party would work better for conventional properties, or situations where you only have a few renewals or recertifications to do. If you have 10 or more (I have had months where I have had 12 or more full recertifications to do needing documentation to support). I am not going to be able to do 12 recerts in 3 hours if my residents are not prepared with the information needed.

It seems the take-away here is you need to know your community, understand your current and prospective residents needs, and plan/schedule accordingly. One thing I've seen work well at LITHC communities it a monthly renewal party. Once a month they open the clubhouse from 5-8 and invite all the renewing residents to come for pizza and soda, and to complete their recerts.