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Toni Baker
I had to leave the industry when my twins were born. Of course, I aged. As long as a property management company wants someone who is aesthetically appropriate as well as the "appropriate age", they are missing out ten-fold. Maintenance deserves as much or sometimes more than a manager, but when you hire a child, you get childlike attitudes, I know I have twins in College, amazing what they learn (or don't). So if you have any properties in Ohio, look me up! I have a great work ethic, just not great opportunities.
Posted 1 year 9 months ago
Heather - PM Group
This is such a loaded question!
I am a HUGE fan of commission-based pay. That's how I have received the majority of my pay in the last 20+ years, bonus & commission. It teaches you work = pay, not show up = pay.
I've been on both sides of this argument. During Covid I had an entire property team leave one by one to collect unemployment - during the height they could collect $950 per week by not working. Unfortunately, this was a smaller property with only 4 full-time employees. The payroll is based on the revenue collected from the property site and at the time the rents could not support paying higher wages. Maintenance was paid at approximately $16 - $18 per hour, Leasing was roughly $17 + bonus, and the manager was making approximately $52K salary per year. But over 4 months, they all left - who wouldn't want higher wages with no work? The last to leave was the manager and it was out of pure frustration. Alone with roughly 200 units, tried everything to hire someone...anyone to work at the property, but we just couldn't get anyone there. We limped through with using some contract labor and bringing in another manager to oversee the property part-time, but that manager also worked at another property full-time.
That is an excellent example of how we burn out the good managers. The manager that left out of frustration had been at that site for over 3 years. Worked in the industry for about 8 years, and now she makes a little more money but moved to the property management division of a real estate firm where she is MUCH happier. She no longer works in the traditional multi-family industry and it's a shame, she was such a valuable employee. It wasn't the wage that drove her away, it was the lack of support. It was the abandonment and filling her plate so full that she broke. We cant ask our PMs to take on properties that have no staff and no budget. This is where real estate-based PM companies are winning. Their employees are making roughly the same wages but come in ready to work and seem to do so enthusiastically. They are better at using technology to be more efficient. They are not using "seat fillers" so that a property can say we're open 7 days per week. This model needs to go, it's very outdated. Having a manager on-site 7 days per week for 8 hours a day isn't accomplishing anything - it's leading to apathy & turnover.
Part of the answer is in some of the hiring practices. I see jobs listed daily with a $50K salary for Property Managers. In return, the management company wants a 4-year degree, designations galore, a personality test, a video interview, and a ridiculous amount of unnecessary crap just to get through the door. As an industry, if we're asking for all these hoops we better be ready to pay for them and cater to them.
Who is going to work for $50K per year to use their 4-year degree? That math doesn't make sense. All these certifications & designations are crap and expensive and also come out of the employee's pocket. The crazy personality tests we use through the online job boards (Indeed, wize hire, etc) are useless. This signals to the prospective employee that we see you as a herd of cattle channeling through this process, we don't care and just need you to go through this process. Whichever one of you hits the scoring matrix with the closest percentage will be the one we choose. No future employee is answering these items honestly! They are choosing the answer they think the management company wants.
So, before they ever become an employee we are already setting expectations. We (the property management company) don't care and are doing the minimum/easiest process to get you (the new employee) in here to fill a spot. In this regard, hiring has to change. We need to change the bar for entry to get more talented team members.
Using education as the bar has not worked. You get lots of applicants that have degrees, which is great, but this in no way proves they will be a good team members. I argue that the opposite is true. I have found they become more prone to job-hopping. The education & certifications tell them they should make more money. So, anytime a slightly better pay increase comes along the employee and their degree are gone. I'm finding that my heavily degreed employees want to be coddled, that's all they have known. There is a segment entering the workforce that was coddled their entire educational career, they are bringing that to the workplace. In college, they couldn't meet a deadline so they got an extension, if the professor didn't want to grant it they went to the administration. Students have been catered to because organizations didn't want bad press. Better to give in than have to defend your company or organization in the public arena. Students have been taught that they are special & unique, and they should follow their bliss. If things are hard, take a moment. This attitude is ruining the workforce.
(My moment is that deep breath I take while on the phone to keep from saying all the stuff that I really want to say. Instead, I take my "moment" and put on my best customer service voice, smile, and explain why we can't have 9 emotional support monkeys in an apartment!)
As Property Management Companies we need to do a better job from the beginning. By this, I mean from the very beginning. When we accept a property into our management portfolio we need to do a better job at communicating with the property owner. These sites cannot operate on bare bones. I know we have a fiduciary responsibility to the owner to make these sites profitable, but management companies need to set reasonable expectations at the beginning. I agree that the 1 per 100 is so outdated. Our customers/residents have changed. This is an "I want it and I want right now" world we all live in. The customer's expectations have changed over the last 2 decades and therefore our on-site personnel has more demands than there were previously. Each customer/resident can now contact a city official, tweet, post something on Facebook, and leave a google review before a manager can even get off the phone or a maintenance tech can grab a key. *** Let that scenario sink in for a moment. *** Before you can even begin resolution, your on-site personnel is dealing with 5 issues, instead of just 1. We need to staff properties based on issues, not on the number of doors.
In the above-mentioned property, we were able to raise wages in 2022 because we were able to raise rents. Did that solve the staffing issue? No, it didn't. Even with much higher wages, we still only have 4 people at the property (actually 3.5 - 3 full time,1 part-time). They need support. Maintenance doesn't want to be on-call 24/7. This has always been an issue and needs to be solved. We are using a 3rd party at a couple of sites for evening calls, and it is a little cheaper & very reliable, but I'm not sure all of our sites could afford this. Our managers are still working 50+ hours per week, most work 6 days. We need to stop talented people from burning out.
Also, I say this AGAIN - the on-site 7 days per week model needs to go away. Having seat fillers just so we can say the office is open 7 days per week leads to apathy and adds to the turnover.
1. Change hiring practices. Remove barriers to get a better pool of applicants. Let's get talented people and train them - CONSTANTLY!
2. Keep our talented workers. Train constantly, not the boring once-a-year Fair Housing class.
3. Empower your Property Managers (really empower them)
4. Keep maintenance happy (they need supplies, and reasonable working expectations. Remove the 24-hour on-call, that needs to be a separate position that is paid for.)
5. Remove the "Middle Fat" - Change the structure of your property management company*
6. Be clear with expectations (When I took over as a Regional, I found that some of the on-site personnel didn't have any clear direction or instructions, they didn't know)
7. Higher Wages (If we ask them to do everything and be there constantly, we need to pay them for everything)
*I could write a book on "middle fat" in property management companies. Almost all your problems, both financial & employee-related, can be solved by removing a lot of the structure within your PM company. The real reason a lot of your on-site personnel are stressed, overworked, and want to do as little as possible lies in the next level up. Most companies have VPs on top of VPs, then there's a VP for every division, VPs for every region, then managers over each segment within the region, then Regional managers. It's all too much. This goes for me as well. I worked for a large PM Company as a regional with several properties. My job paid very well, had a car or the option to use my own with a reimbursement, hotel stays, and a per diem. The traveling was rough, but I stayed with it because I was well-compensated and enjoyed the work. I got a bonus for meeting the budget and another bonus for outperforming. Do you know who actually accomplished this? The on-site staff. Do you know who got rewarded? Me. Trust me the on-site staff knows if they work harder, solve problems, and save money - there's no real benefit for them. I reap the reward for their hard work.
Removing the middle layer of fat frees up a ton of capital.
Instead of paying more wages for no reason, I've used other tools to get more work out of my employees. Tie their wages to things they can control. It puts their earning power in their hands. I've had success with using a reward program for the maintenance staff for having work orders with no callbacks. Maintenance has an incentive to do the job correctly the first time. My current managers stay longer because I used to be one. I know it's hard. We've had success using a percentage model instead of a flat rate. (CAN NOT do this in all states) Their compensation is tied to the income of the property. So when the property does better their paycheck is better. I have happy property owners and happy employees.
I'm not a fan of paying leasing agents bonuses to lease. It's their job, it's right in the title. Especially when they are not doing or paying for the marketing. I do pay for retention. It costs less to keep a resident rather than get a new one. Renewals always pay more than a new lease.
Sorry for the long tirade, but the whole model needs to be re-worked. From the top to the bottom.
I am a HUGE fan of commission-based pay. That's how I have received the majority of my pay in the last 20+ years, bonus & commission. It teaches you work = pay, not show up = pay.
I've been on both sides of this argument. During Covid I had an entire property team leave one by one to collect unemployment - during the height they could collect $950 per week by not working. Unfortunately, this was a smaller property with only 4 full-time employees. The payroll is based on the revenue collected from the property site and at the time the rents could not support paying higher wages. Maintenance was paid at approximately $16 - $18 per hour, Leasing was roughly $17 + bonus, and the manager was making approximately $52K salary per year. But over 4 months, they all left - who wouldn't want higher wages with no work? The last to leave was the manager and it was out of pure frustration. Alone with roughly 200 units, tried everything to hire someone...anyone to work at the property, but we just couldn't get anyone there. We limped through with using some contract labor and bringing in another manager to oversee the property part-time, but that manager also worked at another property full-time.
That is an excellent example of how we burn out the good managers. The manager that left out of frustration had been at that site for over 3 years. Worked in the industry for about 8 years, and now she makes a little more money but moved to the property management division of a real estate firm where she is MUCH happier. She no longer works in the traditional multi-family industry and it's a shame, she was such a valuable employee. It wasn't the wage that drove her away, it was the lack of support. It was the abandonment and filling her plate so full that she broke. We cant ask our PMs to take on properties that have no staff and no budget. This is where real estate-based PM companies are winning. Their employees are making roughly the same wages but come in ready to work and seem to do so enthusiastically. They are better at using technology to be more efficient. They are not using "seat fillers" so that a property can say we're open 7 days per week. This model needs to go, it's very outdated. Having a manager on-site 7 days per week for 8 hours a day isn't accomplishing anything - it's leading to apathy & turnover.
Part of the answer is in some of the hiring practices. I see jobs listed daily with a $50K salary for Property Managers. In return, the management company wants a 4-year degree, designations galore, a personality test, a video interview, and a ridiculous amount of unnecessary crap just to get through the door. As an industry, if we're asking for all these hoops we better be ready to pay for them and cater to them.
Who is going to work for $50K per year to use their 4-year degree? That math doesn't make sense. All these certifications & designations are crap and expensive and also come out of the employee's pocket. The crazy personality tests we use through the online job boards (Indeed, wize hire, etc) are useless. This signals to the prospective employee that we see you as a herd of cattle channeling through this process, we don't care and just need you to go through this process. Whichever one of you hits the scoring matrix with the closest percentage will be the one we choose. No future employee is answering these items honestly! They are choosing the answer they think the management company wants.
So, before they ever become an employee we are already setting expectations. We (the property management company) don't care and are doing the minimum/easiest process to get you (the new employee) in here to fill a spot. In this regard, hiring has to change. We need to change the bar for entry to get more talented team members.
Using education as the bar has not worked. You get lots of applicants that have degrees, which is great, but this in no way proves they will be a good team members. I argue that the opposite is true. I have found they become more prone to job-hopping. The education & certifications tell them they should make more money. So, anytime a slightly better pay increase comes along the employee and their degree are gone. I'm finding that my heavily degreed employees want to be coddled, that's all they have known. There is a segment entering the workforce that was coddled their entire educational career, they are bringing that to the workplace. In college, they couldn't meet a deadline so they got an extension, if the professor didn't want to grant it they went to the administration. Students have been catered to because organizations didn't want bad press. Better to give in than have to defend your company or organization in the public arena. Students have been taught that they are special & unique, and they should follow their bliss. If things are hard, take a moment. This attitude is ruining the workforce.
(My moment is that deep breath I take while on the phone to keep from saying all the stuff that I really want to say. Instead, I take my "moment" and put on my best customer service voice, smile, and explain why we can't have 9 emotional support monkeys in an apartment!)
As Property Management Companies we need to do a better job from the beginning. By this, I mean from the very beginning. When we accept a property into our management portfolio we need to do a better job at communicating with the property owner. These sites cannot operate on bare bones. I know we have a fiduciary responsibility to the owner to make these sites profitable, but management companies need to set reasonable expectations at the beginning. I agree that the 1 per 100 is so outdated. Our customers/residents have changed. This is an "I want it and I want right now" world we all live in. The customer's expectations have changed over the last 2 decades and therefore our on-site personnel has more demands than there were previously. Each customer/resident can now contact a city official, tweet, post something on Facebook, and leave a google review before a manager can even get off the phone or a maintenance tech can grab a key. *** Let that scenario sink in for a moment. *** Before you can even begin resolution, your on-site personnel is dealing with 5 issues, instead of just 1. We need to staff properties based on issues, not on the number of doors.
In the above-mentioned property, we were able to raise wages in 2022 because we were able to raise rents. Did that solve the staffing issue? No, it didn't. Even with much higher wages, we still only have 4 people at the property (actually 3.5 - 3 full time,1 part-time). They need support. Maintenance doesn't want to be on-call 24/7. This has always been an issue and needs to be solved. We are using a 3rd party at a couple of sites for evening calls, and it is a little cheaper & very reliable, but I'm not sure all of our sites could afford this. Our managers are still working 50+ hours per week, most work 6 days. We need to stop talented people from burning out.
Also, I say this AGAIN - the on-site 7 days per week model needs to go away. Having seat fillers just so we can say the office is open 7 days per week leads to apathy and adds to the turnover.
1. Change hiring practices. Remove barriers to get a better pool of applicants. Let's get talented people and train them - CONSTANTLY!
2. Keep our talented workers. Train constantly, not the boring once-a-year Fair Housing class.
3. Empower your Property Managers (really empower them)
4. Keep maintenance happy (they need supplies, and reasonable working expectations. Remove the 24-hour on-call, that needs to be a separate position that is paid for.)
5. Remove the "Middle Fat" - Change the structure of your property management company*
6. Be clear with expectations (When I took over as a Regional, I found that some of the on-site personnel didn't have any clear direction or instructions, they didn't know)
7. Higher Wages (If we ask them to do everything and be there constantly, we need to pay them for everything)
*I could write a book on "middle fat" in property management companies. Almost all your problems, both financial & employee-related, can be solved by removing a lot of the structure within your PM company. The real reason a lot of your on-site personnel are stressed, overworked, and want to do as little as possible lies in the next level up. Most companies have VPs on top of VPs, then there's a VP for every division, VPs for every region, then managers over each segment within the region, then Regional managers. It's all too much. This goes for me as well. I worked for a large PM Company as a regional with several properties. My job paid very well, had a car or the option to use my own with a reimbursement, hotel stays, and a per diem. The traveling was rough, but I stayed with it because I was well-compensated and enjoyed the work. I got a bonus for meeting the budget and another bonus for outperforming. Do you know who actually accomplished this? The on-site staff. Do you know who got rewarded? Me. Trust me the on-site staff knows if they work harder, solve problems, and save money - there's no real benefit for them. I reap the reward for their hard work.
Removing the middle layer of fat frees up a ton of capital.
Instead of paying more wages for no reason, I've used other tools to get more work out of my employees. Tie their wages to things they can control. It puts their earning power in their hands. I've had success with using a reward program for the maintenance staff for having work orders with no callbacks. Maintenance has an incentive to do the job correctly the first time. My current managers stay longer because I used to be one. I know it's hard. We've had success using a percentage model instead of a flat rate. (CAN NOT do this in all states) Their compensation is tied to the income of the property. So when the property does better their paycheck is better. I have happy property owners and happy employees.
I'm not a fan of paying leasing agents bonuses to lease. It's their job, it's right in the title. Especially when they are not doing or paying for the marketing. I do pay for retention. It costs less to keep a resident rather than get a new one. Renewals always pay more than a new lease.
Sorry for the long tirade, but the whole model needs to be re-worked. From the top to the bottom.
Posted 1 year 9 months ago
Nathalie, this reminds me of what Virginia Love mentioned a while back about overwhelming our on-site teams: www.multifamilyinsiders.com/multifamily-...ng-our-on-site-teams
Posted 1 year 9 months ago
Nathalie Santiago
The workload has tripled over the years. As someone mentioned, 1 for every 100 units is antiquated. Especially when there are now 20+ programs and apps to run a property, all promising to be time savers but really aren’t. They’re meant to make reporting easier for executives or to track KPIs. It’s just another thing for the on-site team to add to the never ending to-do list.
Posted 1 year 9 months ago
I try to work with everyone and work hard to keep them motivated and I give them achievable goals! It is still not enough! I feel like I am the one not equipped to deal with today’s generation and all of the issues presented. Sometimes I feel like I need a psychiatric degree. It is tough!
Posted 1 year 9 months ago