Last modified on January 13th, 2016
By Alexis Hammond

Having strong people supporting your residents is important to creating a strong property management business. You want to fill your leasing office with high-quality people who are skilled at dealing with people and technology. If you’re a smaller business doing your own hiring, it can be a daunting task. Crafting a job description or a help-wanted ad is an art that requires practice. If you make the posting too vague then you will be sifting through far too many unqualified resumes. However, if the post is too specific then you might miss out on the ideal candidate with too narrow of a search pool. To help you create the perfect property manager job description, we have gathered together seven helpful tips.

Writing a Property Management Job Description
Before you can work your way through the following seven tips, you must first ask yourself, “why am I creating this job description?” By understanding why you’re creating a position, you can better understand the specific roles that your new-hire will have to complete.

#1: Create a Good Title
The position title is one of the most important factors in a job description. It’s the single component that will initially catch a viewer’s eye; as such, it needs to describe the functions that will be performed, as well as the level of the position. Take a look at some other property management job postings for ideas.

#2: Describe Why the Position Is Needed
In a brief one or two sentence statement, let candidates know a few things about your office. Tell candidates what kind of employer you’re, what your industry specialty is, why the position was created, and the future goals that you hope the right candidate will help your business achieve. By clearly articulating these details you can help candidates determine if their personality will fit into your office environment.

#3: Create a Bulleted List of Functions to Be Performed
A crucial part of any job description is the actual list of functions or tasks that the chosen candidate will be performing. Using bullets can help you to more succinctly display the necessary information. If possible, you should also include a time commitment for each task (this is especially relevant if you will be paying your new-hire an hourly salary). By clearly articulating responsibilities you can narrow down your candidate pool to candidates who are actually qualified for the position.

#4: List Qualification Criteria
If you’re looking for a certain set of criteria, then you should clearly list these requirements. Many job postings will ask candidates for the following types of criteria:

• Number of years of experience
• Education level
• Languages spoken
• Computer skills
• Marketing, social media, and web skills
• Industry or position specific awards won

#5: Describe the Office Hierarchy
It’s important for candidates to know who they will be working for and with. If the position is working as an office assistant, then you should clearly state who the manager will be. Conversely, if the position is for a senior marketing position, then you will need to provide information about the number of team members that the candidate will be managing. This type of information can help individuals better determine if they are interested in, and qualified for, the available position.

#6: Don’t List Salary Information
Save the salary talks for in-person interviews. All too often individuals will let a dollar sign determine if they are interested in the position. If a person is truly interested in working for your office, then they will inquire about the salary information during the initial interview.

#7: Check the Grammar and Spelling of Your Posting
While it might seem a bit obvious, far too often job descriptions contain typos and misspellings. If you want to attract a detail-oriented and highly-qualified candidate, then your help-wanted ad needs to be held to the same rigorous standards.

While it might take extra time to write a good job description, the time will be well worth it when you’re inundated with highly qualified candidates who truly want to work for your company. In this vein, these seven handy tips will help you to efficiently create a professional and informative help wanted ad for any office position.

You might also be interested in:

What Makes a Great Property Manager

Onboarding New Employees: 10 Tips to Keep Your Property Management Company Running Smoothly