Apartment Managing Moves Into a New Realm
When asked what she does for a living, Julie Mattoon admits that she is sometimes embarrassed to say the words “apartment manager.”
“There is this stereotype of [the apartment manager] as an old person sitting in an office smoking a cigarette,” said Mattoon, a 28-year-old college graduate who runs the 444-unit Park-West Apartments in Los Angeles. “But I have a staff of 10. I have a $50-million [property] that I run on a daily basis. I’m in charge.”
The often-maligned job of apartment manager is being transformed from caretaker to moneymaker among the larger properties, as giant apartment companies seek out newly minted professionals to boost the profitability of their costly investments.
In efforts unheard of a few years ago, the largest apartment companies have begun recruiting on college campuses and raiding the retail and hotel industry for managers. Salaries in this segment of the market have increased, with beginning managers in Southern California earning more than $30,000 annually. The perks--which were once limited to reduced rent--now include stock options and bonuses for the top performers who run mini-cities worth tens of millions of dollars.
“The expectations have risen dramatically,” said Fred Tuomi, who heads the Western division of Equity Residential Properties Trust, one of the nation’s largest apartment owners, with more than 1,000 properties nationwide. “They are [regarded] as entrepreneurial businesspeople.”
The vast majority of the nation’s apartments, to be sure, are still owned and operated by individual investors who don’t need or lack the resources to hire full-time, professionally trained managers.
In most cases, their apartment managers work part time for low pay, although they do get reduced rent or a free apartment. These managers’ duties are limited primarily to such routine tasks as collecting rents, processing new applications and tending to minor repairs. More than 250,000 people nationwide work in some form of apartment management, according to industry statistics.
But demand for better trained apartment managers has risen even among the mom-and-pop operators, according to industry observers. In response to requests from its members, the Apartment Assn. of Greater Los Angeles in the late 1980s began a four-week manager training program that covers antidiscrimination laws, eviction procedures, marketing and leasing.
“We did this because apartment managers didn’t have a good reputation,” said Rita McCutchan, the association’s training manager.
The push to raise the standards for apartment managers coincides with the growth of publicly traded real estate investment trusts, which purchased thousands of large apartment complexes nationwide during the 1990s. Their preference is for large--100 units and more--complexes equipped with everything from laundry rooms to conference facilities. This new breed of publicly traded apartment owner, unlike the more passive investor of yore, regards apartment properties as “stores” that must be skillfully managed to attract “customers” and maximize profits.
At Archstone Communities, a Denver-based apartment company, the typical apartment manager oversees a staff of six employees and is responsible for a $25-million, 300-unit property that generates $2.7 million in annual revenue. He or she must juggle a variety of responsibilities, from setting rents to selling Internet access to landing new tenants.
“The responsibility of running a [multimillion-dollar] business is significant,” said Patrick Whelan, chief operating officer of Archstone, which owns 274 apartment complexes nationwide. “We need the [apartment] managers to run those businesses for us. We depend highly on them.”
In an industry known for high rates of employee turnover, companies such as Archstone have worked to establish a more loyal corps of managers. In addition to making the job better paid and otherwise more attractive, the firms also can offer career ladders leading to higher-paying positions.
However, apartment company recruiters are often met with skepticism when they attempt to woo college graduates. “You run into people who don’t understand the complexity of the business,” said Scott Monroe, senior vice president of Archstone Communities. “We are competing with other [companies] that offer a career track.”
Three years ago, Jeffrey Richard Apra, now 27, left a major car rental company for Archstone. After starting as a leasing manager, a relatively low-paying job, the graduate of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo has worked his way up to manager of a 232-unit property in Del Mar, Calif. “I like the challenges,” said Apra, who handles everything from opening the front doors to drawing up the annual budget. “Career-wise, I’m doing very well,” he said.
