Apartment Titles, Titles Everywhere!

I am so confused! When I first entered this industry back in the early 70s, our terminology consisted of standard terms, including “leasing agent,” “resident,” “onsite manager,” “assistant manager,” and “property manager” and “property supervisor. But then again, we were also using words like “tenant,” “complex,” and “unit”—strictly taboo today. What happened to our standard titles and terms?

The way I see it, our industry took a much-needed turn toward more descriptive, and maybe even more exciting, titles that incorporated words like specialist, consultant, and professional. The trend started with a handful of innovative companies, and as the years went on, more and more companies decided that they too should breathe new life into their organizations with more cutting-edge titles. The race was on—the race to come up with a better, more marketable title for every position! Today, our industry has so many different titles that it leaves my head spinning! Are we distinguishing between every single level of job progression by granting a title to each rung along the career ladder? If so, is that truly necessary? Perhaps we’re simply choosing titles for their catchy, creative, market-worthiness rather than their true description of the position.

Here’s a list of the more common titles I’ve come across lately, and believe me, this is by no means exhaustive! When you finish reading them, I think you’ll be as confused as I am.

Apartment Leasing Agent, Leasing Consultant, Leasing Specialist, Leasing Professional

Apartment Manager, Onsite Manager, Resident Manager, Business Manager, Property Manager, Community Manager, Community Director, Development Manager, Director of Resident Relations

Assistant Manager, Assistant Community Manager, Assistant Community Director, Administrative Assistant

Apartment Maintenance “Man”; Maintenance Supervisor, Maintenance Technician, Maintenance Chief, Resident Service Director, Service Technician, Maintenance Person, Resident Services Director

Property Supervisor, Property Manager, Area Manager, Regional Manager, Regional Vice-President

I’m certain I’ve missed many titles in active use today—but that’s exactly the problem. What are we doing with so many different titles? If it were up to you to choose new standard titles, which ones would you select? To tell the truth, I was so frustrated over the insane number of titles out there, I got this crazy idea that we should all work together to simplify things. But then, in writing this article, I came to my senses and realized we’d never get everyone to agree. At any rate, I thought you’d find the issue interesting in the event you hadn’t noticed it yourself.

What do you think?