Anyone who as ever lived in a local housing complex before has interacted with one or more Houston apartment managers. However, unless you have purchased a large, multi-family housing complex, you probably haven’t taken the time to learn everything that these professionals do as part of their job. Why should you care about this information now? You shouldn’t, unless you are interested in investing in an apartment complex of your own…or already have.
Houston apartment managers have a great deal of responsibility on their shoulders. Many would argue that these individuals actually have more responsibility then the typical residential property managers because they are responsible for a larger number of units and people. However, that’s debatable because there are some residential property managers that have a multitude of individual properties they are responsible for and some Houston apartment managers are managing complexes that contain less than 20 units. Below are some of the responsibilities most apartment managers handle.
- Marketing – Marketing is required for apartment complexes. Why? To draw in tenants and beat out the competition. The building managers are responsible for seeing that advertisements get placed in the newspapers, on billboards, flyers and many other places targeting the right crowd.
- Showing Units and Prescreening – Whenever an interested party wants to view a vacant unit, the apartment manager is the one who schedules the time and shows the apartment. If the person is genuinely interested in moving into the space, the manager will then sit down and have the potential tenant fill out an application and begin the prescreening process (involves background check, reference checks and validating employment records) to ensure the person is a right fit for the complex.
- Collecting and Distributing Rent – Houston apartment managers are also responsible for collecting the monthly rent from tenants and seeing that it gets deposited into the owner’s account promptly. If a tenant misses a payment, it is up to the manager to track the tenant down and collect the money. This also means that the manager is responsible for starting the eviction process, when needed.
- Coordinating Maintenance – Maintenance issues are generally an ongoing thing for apartment complexes because there are so many units. The manager will review the maintenance requests from tenants and coordinate the repairs so the owner doesn’t have to worry about it.
- Maintaining Tenant Relations – Finally, Houston apartment managers are responsible for maintaining good relationships with the tenants. This makes tenant feel easier about communicating with the manager when a problem arises and it also make it easier for the manager to approach the tenant regarding certain issues that may come up. Keeping a good rapport with tenants is also important because it increases the chances of renewing leases, which keeps the income flowing.