How do I get an apartment manager gig?

February 26, 2009 4:24 PM

How does someone become an apartment manager? (East SF Bay Area, if it matters, which I imagine it does.)

I think I've got a good sense of what's involved in being an apartment manager and I even spent a few months doing routine maintenance work to help out another apartment manager I know. Any idea how I can get into this line?

posted by serazin to work & money (4 comments total)

Find property management companies in your area, and see if they're hiring. The Professional Property Management Association of San Francisco looks like it has some good links.

I work in the property management industry in Michigan. I'm on the corporate I.T. side of things rather than the field leasing/operations side, but I'd be happy to answer any specific questions.
posted by paulg at 5:57 PM on February 26

My personal experience: Mr. Rabbit and I developed good rapport with the manager of the building where we were renting. When he gave notice, he asked us if we would be interested in managing the building and introduced us to the relevant people at the home office. We managed buildings for that company for 3 years.

I don't know how common this is, though.

This was in Seattle, BTW.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 7:47 PM on February 26

There is no clear set career path to such a job.

There are some various certifications and classes that you can take. Doing that will help.

You need to amass the right skills. You need to know what skills those are, and be able to state in an interview why they are the skills. There is no correct answer to such a thing, but I would say some of the skills are: people skills, management skills, organizational skills, basic maintenance knowledge, basic knowledge of landlord tennant law in your area (state, local, fed), a sense of the local real estate market (rental market), and more.

You need to figure out what you have, and what you need, get a few designations - look into whatever local licesnes you can get, real estate license. becoming a public notary is not a badly little one for a building manager to have. (tells the owner that you passed a baisc background check, and good little service for tennants) -

and then try to sell yourself. - Get a resume together, and apply for any and every gig you can find.
posted by Flood at 8:03 PM on February 26 [1 favorite]

I don't know a single person who's had a good apt manager gig in the Bay Area who wasn't related by blood or marriage to the owners. Sorry.
posted by daisydaisy at 2:11 PM on February 28