Our management company is talking about downsizing.

Hello! Our management company is talking about downsizing the office team members at the property level. We currently have 550 market rate units spread between 5 properties all within a 5-10 mile radius. How many office team members do management companies typically have for that many apartments and what are their job titles? And just curious, how many maintenance technicians for that many apartments?

The industry standard is usually 1:100. It is absolutely not enough, especially when you consider safety of employees in your offices. I think it should be more like 2:100 or even 3:100.
Your leasing staff should not be alone with a resident, your leasing office should not be closed because your agent is on lunch or tour, the property manager should not be alone, not your leasing agent or maintenance either.
I have been in situations with creepy or aggressive prospects/residents. My Maintenance have been assaulted, threatened and accused of SH or theft. Then it becomes our word against the resident or prospects word. I think it’s a liability issue and want the industry standard to change.
Not to mention having a property manager, assistant, two full time leasing and a maintenance supervisor and a maintenance tech would significantly reduce the stress on your team. Managers are constantly in meetings. Leasing agents are constantly doing tours or on the phone with prospects—who’s taking care of your residents? Who’s accepting deliveries? For maintenance, who’s handling the maintenance emergency and tending to the non-emergency work orders?
I also HIGHLY recommend a porter. Our porter would tidy the tour paths, tidy and replenish our coffee bar and lounge, the gym, the pool area and after a make ready had been toured it can get a bit dusty, she’d go in and do the spiff rather than the leasing team. She’d tidy the trash chute rooms and miscellaneous things that would otherwise take up our teams time.
So do with that what you will but your property will run smoother. Because my property at 197 units, we only had one manager, one leasing, and one maintenance supervisor. No porter, and we were all so stressed all the time and we all felt unsupported.

Anonymous member 331 while I realize our industry is tough, this is unsustainable. And we aren’t that different than many other industries where employees work solo or on a “skeleton crew”. No one can afford to staff for things that have occasionally happened or could happen potentially. We have to be smart about our safety but overstaffing is not the answer long term.

Anonymous member 848 I hear what you’re saying, but property management isn’t comparable to most “skeleton crew” environments. We deal with a constant, unpredictable flow of strangers, prospects, residents, vendors, delivery drivers and yes sometimes homeless or thief’s who shouldn’t be on the property at all. That alone changes the risk profile. Which the 1:100 ratio maybe worked 20 years ago but that model doesn’t work anymore.
This isn’t about staffing for rare, hypothetical events. In this industry, threats, confrontations, false accusations and unsafe situations are not theoretical, they really happen.
I’ve personally experienced aggressive residents, threats to staff, maintenance entering units under PTE and being confronted and situations that escalated to armed security on site. Many of us have similar stories. That tells me this is a KNOWN operational risk, not some super rare hypothetical case. Which is not to say that we don’t have our boring and slow days as well.
Overstaffing isn’t the goal. Risk management is. Two people on site instead of one: Reduces liability (witnesses do matter), improves response to emergencies and resident issues, reduces burnout and turnover (which is also very expensive), protects both staff and residents, keeps the office operational instead of shutting down for tours, lunches or meetings as I said before.
From a business standpoint, the math is pretty straightforward because one lawsuit, one serious incident or one major claim will cost far more than an additional $35–40k/year in payroll. And that’s before you factor in turnover, workers comp, legal fees or reputation damage.
I’m not saying “staff endlessly”, I’m saying staff REALISTICALLY for the environment we actually work in. One that involves high public access, conflict resolution, cash handling, home entry and emotionally charged situations.
Owners and management companies have a duty of care. If the business model only works by running properties at the bare minimum headcount regardless of risk, that’s not efficiency, it’s gambling with people’s safety and the company’s liability.
And beyond safety and liability, there’s just the operational reality we’re all watching play out. This chronic understaffing creates burnout, burnout creates apathy and apathy shows up as disengaged leasing teams, falling standards and properties that are permanently behind. We see constant turnover, a revolving door of management companies and sites that never quite recover because they’re always trying to catch up with too few people.
This isn’t a people problem, it’s a staffing model problem. The lack of staffing is what’s unsustainable. If we want stable teams, better resident experiences and assets that actually improve instead of just surviving, staffing HAS to be part of the solution, not the first thing we cut to save a buck.

From my understanding it’s 1 office member and 1 maintenance person per 100 units. We have closer to 300 units and we have 3 office staff and 3 maintenance people. Has always been this way in my area. My sister manages a community with nearly 600 units, she has a PM, APM, LM, and 3 LCs. And 6 maintenance

I haven't been a manager in a few years (I work in compliance now) but I managed 2 small properties (45 units) that were about 15 miles apart. And helped on a 3rd property on and off that was 20 units. Most of the time it was just me. I did all the paperwork (RD and TC), cleaned units. Painted units, all lawn care, and maintenance.

I'm 102 totally alone ...we vendor all maintenance. Safety wise this is not good imo 2 ppl on site always.