Property management company org chart example
A third-party property management company of about forty-five office and site employees, managing fourteen hundred apartments across four communities and thirty homeowner and condominium associations, drawn at the level the owner of the company, a new regional manager and an association board president each need. Two lines of business share the office: apartment management, where the company employs the people on site and the property owner is the client, and association management, where the manager serves a volunteer board that is the client and never the boss. Accounting keeps other people's money, so it reports to nobody who spends it.
How a property management company is usually structured
A property management company is two businesses under one president. Apartment management is the larger: a regional manager over a community manager for each property, drawn stacked with one community open, because a community without a manager is the vacancy the owner calls about. Each community manager runs a site team of leasing, an assistant manager and maintenance, which belongs on the community's own chart, except the maintenance supervisor, who is drawn here because he has two lines. Association management is the other business, a director over association managers who each carry a portfolio of ten or so homeowner and condominium associations, and the chart is careful about what it does not draw: the boards. A board is the client, elected by owners, and it directs the manager's work without employing her; drawn above her it becomes her boss, and the company's own line to her disappears.
Maintenance has a director who sets the standard, runs the roving technician who covers every community, and holds the vendors, the landscaping and snow contractor first among them because it is the second-largest line on most community budgets. The maintenance supervisor on each site reports to the community manager, who owns the day, and carries a dotted line to the director of maintenance, who owns the craft, the safety program and the make-ready standard; a company that draws only one of those lines argues about the other every winter. The controller keeps the books, and the chart keeps the controller away from the people whose books they are: the property accountants and accounts payable report to the controller, not to the regional manager, because the money is the owners', held in trust, and the person who approves the spending must not supervise the person who counts it. The association accountant keeps thirty sets of books for thirty legal entities, with a dotted line to the association director whose managers need them every month.
Administration holds HR, which hires for the sites as much as for the office, marketing and leasing, which runs the listings and the website every community leases from and carries the leasing intern, and the IT contractor. Two cards report to the president directly and on purpose. The compliance officer answers for fair housing, for the affordable-housing set-asides at two of the communities, and for the reasonable-accommodation file, and she reports to the president rather than to the regional she audits, for the reason an internal affairs lieutenant reports to a chief. The law firm that handles evictions, collections and association counsel is a contractor beside her, on the chart because a community manager calls it weekly and marked because the company does not employ it.
Typical titles by level
The vocabulary these charts use, from the top down. Titles vary by country and by company; the levels don't.
| Level | Titles you'll see |
|---|---|
| Leadership | President, Chief Executive Officer; Chief Operating Officer, Director of Operations; Regional Manager, Regional Vice President; Director of Association Management; Controller, Chief Financial Officer; Director of Maintenance; Compliance Officer |
| Community level | Community Manager, Property Manager, Senior Property Manager; Association Manager, Portfolio Manager, Community Association Manager; Assistant Manager, Leasing Manager, Maintenance Supervisor |
| Site and office staff | Leasing Consultant, Maintenance Technician, Groundskeeper, Porter, Property Accountant, Accounts Payable Specialist, Association Accountant, HR Coordinator, Marketing and Leasing Coordinator; Leasing Intern (as intern) |
| Outside | Landscaping and snow, unit turnover and painting, pest control (as contractors); legal counsel for evictions and associations, IT support (as contractors); the property owner and the association board as clients, on the community's and the association's own charts |
Where these charts go wrong
Property management charts go wrong by drawing the association board above the association manager; by putting the property accountants under the regional manager, so that the person who spends the owners' money supervises the person who counts it; by drawing every leasing consultant and technician, which is a site roster, not a company chart; by giving the president every community manager as a direct report, so that a regional exists on the payroll and not on the page; by leaving the vendors off, so that the second-largest line on the budget has no card; by drawing site maintenance with one line when it has two; and by treating compliance as a checklist inside HR.
Questions people ask
- How is a property management company structured?
- A president over the lines of business and the office. Apartment management is a regional manager over a community manager per property, each with a site team of leasing, an assistant manager and maintenance on the community's own chart. Association management is a director over portfolio managers who each serve a set of boards. The office is a controller with the property accountants and accounts payable, a director of maintenance with the roving technicians and the vendors, and administration with HR, marketing and leasing, and IT. Compliance and legal counsel report to the president.
- Who does an on-site property manager report to?
- A regional manager, who carries somewhere between four and ten communities depending on their size, and who reports to the president or a director of operations. The property owner is the client and is on the community's chart as the client, not above the manager as her boss; the company employs her. In a company with two or three communities the president is the regional, and the chart should still draw the regional's line, because it is the first hire the company makes when it grows.
- Where does the HOA board go on the org chart?
- On the association's own governance chart, with its committees, and not above the association manager on the company's chart. The board is elected by the owners, directs the manager's work under a contract, and can end the contract; the company hires, trains, pays and can reassign the manager. Both are true at once, and the way to draw both is two charts: the company's, where the manager reports to the association director, and the association's, where the board hires the company.
- Should site maintenance report to the property manager or the maintenance director?
- Both, and the chart should say so. The maintenance supervisor reports to the community manager, who owns the day, the work orders and the residents, and carries a dotted line to the director of maintenance, who owns the craft, the safety program, the vendors and the make-ready standard across every community. One line without the other produces either a director with no authority on site or a manager who cannot get a unit turned. Draw the solid line to the site and the dotted line to the director.
Other industries
- ManufacturingTwo shifts, and quality kept out of production's line.
- LogisticsDispatch runs the day; supervisors run the people.
- ConstructionOffice and field, meeting on every project.
- Software startupSquads under a CTO; product managers on a dotted line.
- NonprofitThe board on top, programs beside the money.
- Medical practiceA clinical line and a business line, crossing at nursing.
- SchoolDepartments led by teachers who also manage.
- HotelSix divisions around one general manager.
- Marketing agencyDisciplines own people; pods own the work.
- Security & facilities servicesSites stacked under supervisors; a 24-hour control room.
- Sales teamRegions for closers, a team for openers, RevOps beside them.
- Accounting firmA partner pyramid, three service lines.
- Law firmPractice groups, and the business side that runs the firm.
- ChurchA board that governs, a pastor who leads, ministries below.
- RestaurantFront of house and back of house, meeting at the pass.
- IT departmentRun, build and secure, under one director.
- HR departmentPartners, specialists and operations: the three legs.
- Local governmentElected above appointed, and two officers who answer to the council.
- Utility companyField crews, a 24-hour control center, and a regulator in the room.
- BankThree lines of defense, drawn as lines.
- Staffing agencySales desks, recruiting desks, and a back office that pays two thousand people.
- HospitalTwo hierarchies that meet at the bedside.
- Retail chainHead office, the field, and a store drawn once.
- Small businessOne owner, two managers, and the jobs the owner still does.
- Finance departmentAccounting closes the books; FP&A says what they mean.
- Marketing departmentDemand, product, brand, and the operations under all three.
- Customer service departmentTeams on the floor; quality, training and scheduling beside them.
- Engineering departmentProduct teams under a VP of engineering; platform, data and security under the CTO.
- Operations departmentSupply chain, fulfillment and the functions that keep both honest.
- Product departmentProduct, design, research and the operations that measure them.
- Consulting firmThree practices, one firm behind them, and no engagement on the chart.
- Real estate brokerageAgents who are not employees, on the chart anyway.
- Insurance agencySales on one side, service on the other, and the lines where they meet.
- Dental practiceA clinical line the law draws, and a business line the office manager runs.
- UniversityAn academic line and an administrative line, and governance kept off the chart.
- E-commerce companyThe site is the store, the warehouse is a contractor, and the lines between them are drawn.
- Veterinary clinicThe doctors own the medicine, the manager owns the day, and the technicians answer to both.
- Auto dealershipThe front end sells the cars; the back end pays the bills; the chart shows where they meet.
- School districtSchools on one line, the money on another, and a board that governs from a second chart.
- Police departmentPatrol takes the calls, investigations takes the cases, and professional standards answers to the chief alone.
- Nursing homeThe administrator holds the license, the director of nursing holds the building, and the survey reads both lines.
Or start from a structure — functional, divisional, matrix or flat — or from your own spreadsheet. The guides cover a reorg, a merger, an assistant's chart and a consultant's deliverable.
Make it yours
Download the spreadsheet, replace the names, import it — the chart redraws itself. Or start empty and drag people until it's true. Building is free at any size.