Cedar Hollow: Leadership Vacancy and Leasing Slump
Cedar Hollow is a 310-unit community managed by a team of five: one senior property manager, one assistant manager, two leasing consultants, and one maintenance supervisor. The senior property manager resigned with two weeks' notice. In the following 60 days, occupancy fell from 94% to 89.7%. Leasing consultant A is closing 12% of tours against a team average of 28%; consultant B has been reliable and is closing 31%. The assistant manager has 14 months of experience and wants the interim role but has never built a budget or handled a major resident escalation. Corporate HR says an external hire will take 8-10 weeks, and the region has a hiring freeze except for revenue-critical roles. Overtime is up 22%, and two maintenance technicians have asked about transferring to another property. Ownership expects a 30-day stabilization plan and a permanent staffing recommendation.
1. Decide how to fill the leadership gap for the next 90 days. What are the tradeoffs between appointing the assistant manager, hiring externally, or borrowing a manager from another property?
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Use the assistant manager as interim, but do not treat that as a permanent appointment or as a solo assignment.
- Assistant manager as interim: Advantages are speed, property knowledge, and internal credibility. Risks are budget inexperience and escalation management. Mitigate with a written scope, a regional mentor, and a weekly review of leasing, delinquency, and resident escalations. Give the interim role a 90-day review, not an open-ended promise.
- External hire: An 8-10 week search leaves the property without stable leadership during the leasing slump. It also risks a poor fit in a constrained labor market. Start the search now, but do not wait for it to act.
- Borrowed manager: A temporary regional manager two days per week can cover budget approvals and escalations while the assistant manager runs daily operations. This is often the best bridge because it preserves internal development and adds experienced oversight.
Recommended structure: appoint the assistant manager as interim with a mentor, assign a regional manager for two days per week, and keep the external search open only for a permanent role with a clear scorecard. Do not promise the permanent job before the 90-day review.
2. Leasing consultant A's close rate is 12% versus 28% team average. How would you diagnose and address the performance gap without losing the employee or destabilizing the team?
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Diagnose before disciplining. A 12% close rate can come from tour quality, lead quality, availability, pricing, or personal issues. Review five recorded or observed tours, lead source, response time, follow-up cadence, and denial or application fallout. Compare A's leads with B's; if A receives lower-quality traffic, the gap is partly assignment, not skill.
Then act:
- Set a 30-day improvement plan with observable behaviors: response within one business hour, structured tour, same-day follow-up, and a written objection-handling log.
- Pair A with B for two weeks of shadowing and role-play, but do not make B the supervisor without recognition or pay adjustment.
- Coach daily for two weeks, then weekly. Track tours, applications, approvals, and close rate separately so the team sees the funnel, not just the final number.
- If performance does not improve, move to a formal plan with HR. If it does, publicly recognize the improvement.
Protect B from burnout and resentment by clarifying that peer coaching is temporary and by measuring B on team outcomes as well as individual leasing.
3. What retention and stabilization actions would you take in the first 30 days, and what metrics would show the plan is working?
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Focus on the two maintenance technicians, the leasing team, and resident confidence.
- Maintenance retention: Meet each technician individually within 72 hours. Ask what would keep them: pay, schedule, on-call burden, tools, or career path. The 22% overtime increase suggests workload strain; temporarily cap on-call rotations and authorize overtime only for turns and emergencies. If transfers are driven by leadership uncertainty, offer a written 90-day stability commitment.
- Leasing recovery: Reassign tour coverage so A is not sole host during peak hours. Implement same-day follow-up and a daily huddle on traffic, applications, and vacancies.
- Resident confidence: Send a brief resident communication introducing the interim leadership and service standards. Audit open work orders and respond to escalations within 24 hours.
Metrics for the 30-day review: occupancy stabilized at or above 90.5%, tour-to-application conversion at or above 22%, average response time under two hours, open work orders older than five days under 10%, overtime down from the 22% spike, and zero voluntary maintenance transfers. Report weekly to ownership. Stabilization, not immediate occupancy recovery, is the 30-day goal.