Topic: How did you get started in the apartment industry?

I don't think I have ever met anyone who told me it was their dream as a child to grow up and go to work in the apartment industry. I started in college for a free apartment. How did you get started?

Great question! I've alway worked in some sort of hospitality or face-to-face customer service job. I started out in hotel management and ended up becoming a flight attendant. In 2008, oil prices skyrocketed and I was laid off from the airline that I was with. The community manager where I lived had often mentioned that I would be great working in the apartment industry. One day, her boss (the owner of the community) caught me walking out by the pool. He mentioned that he wanted to interview me for a possible management position at another one of his communities. Before you knew it, I was in! Needless to say I was very fresh to the multifamily industry, but I quickly learned that it was something that I wouldn't mind doing long term! Since then, I've learned so much and have advanced. I don't think that I want to do anything else!

It all started when I rented out rooms in my Barbie Mansion. :)

Great story, Denny. Thanks for sharing it. It sounds like you, like myself and many others I know, just kind of fell into the business. I have left the industry a time or two, but I always seem to be drawn back to it.

Impressive way to get started in the industry! It sounds like you got started at a much earlier age than I did.

You're right. Many folks didn't start in this field, or anticipate working with apartments. The industry has come a long way over the past few decades though.

My first position out of college was a Construction Project Manager for an apartment REIT, UDR. Never left the multifamily industry after 25 years. There's a lot of room for a variety of interests, applications & success in the apartment world.

I was working for a catering company when I was only 21 and did a job for an apartment community. After that, I was interested and checked with the office at the community that I was living in. It turns out that they were hiring and I became a Leasing Consultant 15 years ago...and I'm still at it today as a Regional Manager. Apparently I was meant for property management. :)

I was working in a hotel as a front office manager and my best friend (Tracie Guild) had been promoted to Community Manager at the community we both lived at. I was on vacation when she got promoted and she called to tell me. Tracie joked that I should work in the office. I came back from vacation and my first day back to work, I knew that I needed a change. I called Tracie at 9 am that morning and had my interview that afternoon at 3pm. A week later I got the job. 13 years later, I am still here. Thanks Tracie! :)

I started out in this great business by pure luck and coincidence! B)
I had owned my own business that just closed, had to move out of the house we were renting because the landlord was selling so it was apartment shopping time!
I had toured at a property and really didn't like it... I am a leasing agent's worst nightmare when it comes to touring, by the way. I object to everything! "the living room is too small, I don't like the view, etc. etc.".
But after the tour and knowing I was not going to lease, the leasing agent, for whatever reason, says to me "Are you looking for a job? Because I think you'd be really good at this and we are actually hiring right now." I thought to myself for about a half-second and said "You know what, I think I would be good also. Can I have an application?"
Two days later I was hired and, well, the rest is history :laugh:

WELL - it all started when I got this "late notice" on my door from the assistant manager about my rent! I was 19, in my first apartment away from home and struggling to make ends meet. After crying out to God for help (face down in my yellow shag carpet) I decided to get up and use the make-up sample I had from "Lady Love" cosmetics (vitamin E & aloe vera) to make the money I needed to pay my rent. I went door to door and made my way toward the office. When I reached it, I decided to try and sell the office staff too! 10 minutes later, I left the managers office with the last $50 cash she had (for make-up she didn't need) and went to 7 11 to get change. The assistant manager Suzie watched me work the manager and suggested that she interview me. When I returned I wrote a hot check and headed for the main office across the street to interview with the regional manager - Bill Brown! OMG I got the job and two day's later my check bounced. The first three years in the business they took my rent right out of my check!!!! The rest is history! I fell in love with property management! That was August 1978!! WHOOP WHOOP! :)

Love this question. 20 years ago I left my home in TN to follow my hubby to VA in the US NAVY. This also meant leaving my Retail Management job. When we went apartment shopping I made quick friends with the Apartment Manager where we rented. I asked her if she knew if the mall in the area was hiring for any managers. She said she didn't know but begged me to go see her boss for a leasing job. During the interview I was asked what I thought leasing was. My answer was "Well I am thinking it is like my bott store back in TN. We wanted every customer to leave with a pair of boots. I am sure in this business we would want everyone to rent the apartment!" Well....I was hired!!! I went on to be a floating leasing agent all over VA Beach, Norfolk, and various other cities in VA. The neat thing was that back then the industry was very different. It was not at all built like it is today. Follow up and tours were not the norm. But I had no idea. This was my natural way of being. I kept a notebook with me on all the apartments I worked for and was sending my visitors to all of them. They were leasing at one of them if I had anything to say about it. All my communities were leasing up fast. I was doing 20 years ago what we are all taught to do today. Following up. This allowed me to move ahead quickly. I continued on for 4 years with this company and needless to say, was bitten by the industry. I have been in it for 20 years now. There is nothing else I can do. I love it! I love teaching others all about it. I love seeing communities and team members become successful. This is a great industry!!!

I was working as a waitress at 17 and when I turned 18 a close friend of mine said "YOU HAVE TO COME INTERVIEW - YOU WOULD BE AWESOME" I was hired right away to work on a recent new purchase of Fairfield Residential - The property files were a mess and so was the community. My first few months there were tough. The manager left and so did all the leasing agents. My friend and I were the only ones left to run a 300 + units. Talk about being thrown into the fire! Fairfield did an amazing job turning it around I am so thankful for the opportunity I was given.

I remember we played a joke on April fools day - It was the time when everything was turning condo. We told the maintenance team we were sold and all had to find a new property. We all had a good laugh until about 6 months later :S We sold! We all managed to keep our jobs and i got promoted to Assistant :woohoo:


The friend has since moved on but I am so grateful for her =)

My mother was a Community Manager for a local apartment complex. She was in need of a housekeeper to turn the empty apartments, so at 19 I started cleaning apartments. I left the apartment industry for a few years, but we all know, you can't really ever leave :) By the time I was 21 I was back as a leasing consultant and worked may way up to an Account Executive.

I went through a few different companies and have happily settled as the Director of Leasing for a National Residential Management Company.

I started out when I was 20 working as a secretary for a realty office and was promoted to rental coordinator a few months after hire. It was a great stepping stone. Went on to property management with a large management company and for the past five years have worked for a small management company. I can't believe I am going on 14 years in this industry...

If you don't mind me asking what company are you with and do you have any properties in TN. It seems that everything here is being taken over or sold. I've been in the industry for 7+ years managing conventional/ distressed communities. Looking for more stable oppurtunity even considering relocating to stay in the industry.

I'm with Empire Realty who only has properties in Ohio. No openings that I know of.. Have you checked the job listings on here and gracehill.com?

For me, it started in the private sector about 2 years after college (1994). I went to work for a small local landscape architecture firm who had a few small clients in the multi-family industry. Very quickly we grew and became one of the front runners in multi-family landscape design & construction in the Dallas areas. Soon after we branched out to surrounding states and eventually across the county. It's great work and I've carried it with across 2 other firms.

I went to work for a printer, that turned out to be a vendor, and fell in love with the people! :)

I started as a community assistant for an University. The PM showed me all the great things that came with the profession, and unfortunately she passed away a few months later. She was an awesome trainer and mentor. Sooo its been my quest to be the best at property management. Seven years later, I birthed the Lease-Up Guy!

See you on the Leased-Up Side,

The Lease-Up Guy

The economy was still recovering after 9/11 and I found myself laid off with Office Management experience. I applied for an Assistant Property Manager position (stepped right over leasing, boy was I confident)and got the job. I like many others, fell in love with the industry. I moved up to Property Manager and hope to keep climbing.

I went into a Property Management office and said I would be great at this profession. They gave me a job as Property Manager on a new construction site. The rest is history.

I had been in retail management for many years and wanted a change. Real Estate had always intrested me, but I was afraid of not having a salary. I decided to try leasing first and started as a leasing agent in 2000. Within 6 months I had my fist site, and here I am today still in the Biz. I did leave for 6 months to try out an office job, but HATED being tied to a desk all day.

Actually I did ALWAYS want to do this. My dad got into maintenance when I was 7 and during the summer when he would be at work I was in the office. I would help the girls file and greet people. My dad and step mom got into mom n pop properties and our job was to show the apartments, deal with unruly tenants, trash out apartments and clean the pool. I use to tell my friends that and they'd look at me like I was insane because I was 13 by than and had no life other than apartments. When I met my husband at 19 he got into apartment maintenance too. Every property we'd go to I would make friends with the office girls quick and even filling in when needed. I eventually moved my way up to assistant manager on a tax credit property which I loved! I also worked front desk at hotels and always found a way to bring my apartment experience into play. I am finally being given the chance to prove myself on my own property. It's a C property BUT its mine! :cheer: :cheer:

Karla, that's awesome! You are doing what you love and I bet it doesn't even seem like work at all! Good for you and good for our industry!

I was working at a customer service booth in our mall. There was a regional director with a local management company that would come in to the mall and ask me to fax reports for her or make copies while she shopped. After doing this for her for 6 months she finally looked at me and asked if I wanted to come to work for her company as a property manager. Me not knowing ANYTHING about the industry was a little nervous starting at the top, but it was so worth it, and I couldn't see myself doing anything else.

Wow! That is just awesome :) Sounds like she was shopping for a new property manager like they were discussing in another post. Good luck to young man!

These are all great stories. Looks like no one had any leasing experience. I feel motivated to go out and start knocking on some doors now.

I may be the odd one out but I have wanted to be in leasing/property management since I first started renting as a 19 year old newlywed. I saw how the leasing agents treated me at different properties and thought "I could do that job so much better"! haha. I considered getting into real estate as well but then the market tanked and I didn't want to risk it. Then no communities would hire me without experience since there were so many experienced candidates also applying. I ended up getting hired to work in sales for a corporate housing company, which gave me enough experience to then get hired in leasing. Loving it so far, hoping to work my way up!

Mine started when my command knew I was serious about retiring after 25 years of military service. I was told to go into community where I thought I could do the most good, but it had to be a job where there were civilians in it. I picked the Housing Office for the command, and went on to become a manager and regional manager after I retired from the military.

I was hired as a teen to pick up the grounds of a apartment community before I went to school.

This is gonna be a long read. Yes, I *may* have dreamed of working in Property Management as a kid..

Let me start off by saying -
My dad has been the Maintenance Supervisor at the same community for 43(ish) years. It's a fairly large community and has seen a lot of changes over the years, but he is definitely a fixture.

My childhood home was an apartment at that community. We lived in a tiny 2 Bedroom until I was 15 when my parents finally bought a house! :)

As a kid, I had free reign of the community. It's sizable - just shy of 900 units, and has vast landscaping. The community also boasts 3 pools, and at that time a huge community party house and playground. (RIP Party House + Playground). I would go to the maintenance shop and write pretend Work Orders -- because these were the days before computers and the term 'Service Request' was even a thing. I knew the entire staff; Would hang out at the pool in the summer, would pop into the leasing office for candy. The property got golf carts sometime in the late 80's and I would take one for a spin every chance I got. I knew the property inside and out. I knew a lot of the residents, too.

I literally grew up in Property Management and knew more about it at the age of 10 than most people know as an adult. I remember someone getting evicted the day after Thanksgiving vividly and trying to process that as a kid. I also remember going on an emergency call with my dad one hot Saturday afternoon ... What started as a wellness check essentially turned into discovering that someone had moved out and left meat on a kitchen counter. (THAT SMELL, THO!) The bizarre and funny stories don't stop there, as anyone in the industry knows, but this isn't the place..

My parents both work in the industry; And provided a great foundation for both my sister and I. When I turned 18 and graduated high school - I did the thing that seemed the most natural. I took a job at the biggest competitor to my Dad's property. And I started in Maintenance. I was offered that job because I knew the product, I knew the clientele, and I knew the terminology. Plus, I really would take no s**t. Fresh faced and 18 among a bunch of older men was really character building, to say the least. And don't even get me started on going into some of the apartments.. I remember both of my parents asking if I was absolutely sure that this is what I wanted to do; Like it was a horrible, crazy trap (and it totally was a trap, only not so horrible..)

I would work at that property on the weekends in the leasing office for the OT and added experience. I ended up moving on from there after a property sale to another company and quickly earning a manager position. For the last 18 years, the industry has kept me busy and entertained. In 2009, I came to work for my current company. I started as a Property Manager. The community was the smallest I had ever worked, and as winter set it, I got bored QUICKLY. Senior Management saw this, and also saw a little light shining in me. I was promoted to the Social Media & Marketing Manager for the company, and it's what I do to this day. I LOVE MY JOB! It mixes a lot of things I am really passionate about, and it was my inspiration to return to school. I graduated last year.

So, a little girl chasing her dad has turned into a lifetime in the industry.. That's my tale. As we approach a holiday weekend, one rule applies at my parents house: NO SHOP TALK, no matter how crazy!

Mine is a fairly simple story of being in the military family housing as a resident, starwell coordinator, building coordinator, area coordinator, and later as a Sergeant Major in a community housing for the Base Support Battalion.

Housing soldiers in family and single housing units. For those that are not familiar with it they are similar to the civilian housing communities, just set up a little different.

So from there I went into the civilian sector of managing the housing for the military as community all the way up to regional position.

When I left that sector and went into business for myself training Housing Service Office personnel worldwide for the military.

I moved Florida on a divorce with two small children and got my first job as a Day Care Worker because one of my girls went for free being an employee...when I got my first apartment I became friends with the Assistant Manager there who was also a single mom and I asked her if she needed any help on the weekends. I told her if I could enroll people in a daycare, I could certainly enroll them in a community where I loved living...two weeks later, they called me and I began my career as a Leasing Consultant...I was thrilled beause an apartment discount came with the job and my biggest fear was becoming homeless with my children...three years later was referred by a friend for an Assistant Manager position and two years after that was promoted to Manager where I have remained for 21 years!!!!. Love my job and love everyday.
It never gets old because every day brings new challenges and stories...

I got started much like the many stories I've read. I was in between deciding what I wanted to take in college (want to go back as of 2016), dealing with a family crisis, and just doing small task around the property for the manager. One day after a few months of cleaning the pool and locking up I was offered a job.

One thing I love about leasing is interacting with others. I've heard so much that made laugh, sad, angry, and happy that I can't imagine getting bored anytime soon.