Centralization Push: Assistant Manager Roles Move Remote

Over the past year, Multifamily Dive has spoken with more than 20 apartment executives to understand how the industry views centralization and how companies are adopting this trend. In the coming weeks, we will publish a series of reports. This article is the fifth, focusing on the evolution of the assistant manager role.Click here to view the fourth article。

Assistant managers were not always called assistant managers.

"When I entered the industry, this position was called a bookkeeper," said Ian Bingham, senior vice president of business development at Indianapolis-based owner and operator Buckingham Cos., which manages 13,000 units in secondary markets across the Midwest and Southeast. Bookkeepers handled the financial and accounting tasks of the property, including collecting rent, processing renewals, and eviction processes, Bingham said.

Over the years, the role evolved into a learning role, becoming a stepping stone to future property management positions. Assistant property managers still handle bookkeeping, but may also coordinate maintenance staff, answer resident questions, or handle marketing tasks.

But as apartment operators of all sizesdiscuss and embracethe benefits of centralization, the assistant manager position has become a symbol of both pros and cons. If many duties can be handled by computer or phone, does the position really need to be on-site?

On the other hand, can an industry focused on customer experience afford to lose face-to-face resident contact? This article explores how the assistant manager role is evolving—or whether it will become history like the bookkeeper.

Focus on customer service

Like many peers in the multifamily industry, Shah Alam, CEO of Gaithersburg, Maryland-based apartment operator Pratum Cos., believes centralization can complement on-site teams. But Pratum, which operates more than 150 properties totaling over 15,000 apartments across eight states in the Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic regions, including the District of Columbia, does not simply view centralization as a way to reduce headcount.

"To me, centralization means moving the work that truly drags employees down—work that wastes their talents—to a centralized location, allowing employees to focus on the talents, knowledge, and qualifications they were hired for," Alam said.

Although many companies are moving positions off-site, Alam said Pratum still values the assistant manager role. However, it is using technology to let assistant managers focus on career development rather than mundane tasks.

"What we try to do differently is how to take low-hanging fruit work like data entry away from assistant managers, so they can truly focus on customer service and the service side of the community?" he said.

Currently, Pratum stands out among large and mid-sized operators. Many management companies view technology as a means to move data processing and collection roles off-site and save costs.

"In the multifamily sector, centralizing the assistant manager or bookkeeper role would be a huge success," said Vanessa Siebern, senior vice president for Northern California and the Pacific Northwest at Folsom, California-based FPI Management. FPI Management is thesixth-largest management companyin the U.S. "I think the more tasks we can remove from teams and centralize and streamline, the more successful we will be."

Administrative work moves off-site

If tasks can be handled by phone or computer, the people in these roles do not need to be on-site. A few years ago, some companies began sending employees to centralized locations, but this was not widespread.

But recently, the push to transfer these duties to another location has strengthened.

Camden Property Trust has had centralized service teams for years, with its contact center established in 2008. In April 2022, the Houston-based real estate investment trust eliminated on-site assistant positions and created a shared services group with roughly one-third of the original staffing.

"It has really made us more efficient," said Laurie Baker, chief operating officer at Camden. "It's not about cutting staff. It's about how to use team members to provide a better experience for customers and give members the opportunity to grow in different ways."

The centralization process can also create specialists, thereby improving efficiency. "In many cases, if the scale is right, you can bring a person to the corporate office to focus on collections and bad debt, and they become very specialized at it," said Spencer Gray, CEO of Indianapolis-based owner and operator Gray Capital. "It's not always an easy job."

At Atlanta-based apartment management company The RADCO Cos., assistant managers handle move-outs, deposit accounting, and high-level ledger interactions. However, the company has established a dedicated team to handle these tasks, eliminating the need for the position at individual properties.

"We have consolidated all of this work into a central processing department at our corporate headquarters in Atlanta," Chris Simon, senior vice president of operations, told Multifamily Dive.

Cutting staffing

Centralization brings many benefits, but companies would not do it if they could not save costs.

Traditionally, a 300-unit property would have a manager, an assistant manager, and one or two leasing specialists. By moving assistant managers off-site, many companies have found they can spread the administrative tasks of four to five apartment communities across one person.

According to Simon, by establishing a central processing department and business systems specialists to handle administrative tasks, RADCO has reduced wage costs.

"Not only have we reduced headcount, but by centralizing some operations, we have gained better consistency," Simon said.

Camden Property Trust saved $4 million annually by eliminating the assistant manager position. But it has not sacrificed employee and resident satisfaction, recently winning awards in both categories.

"Yes, you can centralize," said Tyler Christiansen, CEO of Odessa, Florida-based real estate technology company Funnel Leasing, which counts Camden as a client. "Yes, you can achieve cost savings, but that doesn't mean you have to do it in a way that leads to negative perceptions."

Advantages of centralized administration

Centralization provides management companies with a pathway to offer remote work opportunities in the management field—an area that traditionally has not had such positions.

When Fairfield, New Jersey-based owner Woodmont Properties decided to move its administrative functions off-site, it had an excellent candidate at one of its properties who was seeking a remote position.

"It's a remote position that appealed to someone we knew was highly efficient and skilled at digging into details," said Louis DeVos, vice president of property management at Woodmont. "It also has a customer service component because this person will be responsible for chasing payments when rent is overdue."

Camden has also offered remote positions to former on-site assistant managers on its shared services team—something unheard of in the previous generation.

"We were able to say to the on-site team, 'We are going to eliminate these 55 positions while creating new opportunities,'" Baker said.

Moving potentially confrontational tasks, such as rent collection, away from property assistants may have other advantages. "When on-site teams have to collect rent, you can put them in conflict with residents and tenants," Gray said.

Moving administrative positions off-site also improves efficiency and reduces distractions, DeVos said.

"You have UPS delivery drivers trying to get your attention, dog walkers, and prospective clients coming in," DeVos said. "They will get far more administrative work done in a day than they would on-site. That's the beauty of this position."

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