Building Your Dream Team – Being Patient and Waiting out the Perfect Candidate

Written by Apartment Management Magazine on . Posted in Blog

istock_000018548762xsmallI’ve recently started with a new company working on a lease up property. This property is still under construction, therefore, I am in the midst of hiring staff and building my team. Like any property manager, I want to build the dream team. The most dynamic and inspiring team that I can. I think we all strive for that. But how many times do we act out of complete desperation? Desperate for an assistant manager to ensure the rent is being posted timely, the late notices are going out, follow up on delinquency calls are being made? Desperate for a maintenance supervisor to provide leadership and guidance to our techs, a maintenance supervisor to be our backbone out in the field, to ensure work orders are not just being completed but properly completed, our shop is going to be stocked and inventoried? I’m just as guilty, I assure you, of hiring out of pure desperation to simply get the spot filled.

But this new company I work for….they really analyze every candidate I bring to them. (I have to admit, at one point last week, I wondered to myself, “How in the world did I even get hired?!?!?”) And while at first it seemed extremely frustrating to feel as though you had found just the right candidate and have them turned down via a second interview, I soon realized the integrity there was in waiting it out. Despite feeling that pang of desperation in needing a full staff on opening day, I realized that waiting it out was the best thing to do because soon thereafter, an even better candidate would arrive in the picture.

While I am still not fully staffed at this point in time, I relish the fact that I have learned this new way of hiring. It was all unbeknownst to me. Taking your time to hire? Why in the world would you do that? This is taking away from my time as a productive property manager! This is not efficient! Well, I assure you, when you have built the dream team because of patience and integrity, you will realize that it is in fact efficient. You won’t be hiring again in a year because it didn’t work out. You’ll have built a team that will provide the best customer service to your residents, vendors, prospects and corporate office. You’ll have built a team that will remain consistent for an extended period of time providing that same consistency your residents enjoy seeing in the staff.

I assure you, the long term benefits of waiting it out, outweigh the short term benefits of simply filling the position. So wait it out, wait for that perfect resume, ensure it’s not just fluff on paper, and build that dream team with a little patience on your part.

Brittney Nelson (1) Brittany Nelson | Company Website | LinkedIn Connect |

With over 10 years of Property Management experience, Brittney has been afforded the opportunity to work at an on site level from Leasing Specialist to a corporate level as a Regional VP. Her passion is being on site serving her residents, empowering her team and finding her prospects their next home. Brittney has a broad range of experience from renovation properties, stabilized properties as well as lease up properties.