Vickie Bell (00:04)
Hi Ebony, how are you today?

Ebony Hall (00:06)
I'm good, how are you doing, Ms. Vickie?

Vickie Bell (00:08)
I'm fine.

Vickie Bell (00:09)
This week we're going to talk about whose job is it. You know, while I was out in the field, as I said, sometimes things were a little rough. The files, the paperwork, and everybody wanted to blame everybody else. Well, I don't do that part or, you know, that was the manager before me or that was the company before us. But today we're going to talk about

Ebony Hall (00:18)
You

Vickie Bell (00:32)
Whose job is it?

Last week, you looked at some of the responsibilities in our new series, Flipside, that the manager's responsible for.

We have this week, staffing. We have all size owner agent companies in our PBRA portfolio. They go from very, very large companies with properties from 10 or more in several states with large employee

and staffing.

a compliance department, for instance, with the larger companies. There's a training department. There's a regional manager. There's a site manager. There's an assistant manager. So the larger companies have an advantage that

of the mid-sized companies

don't have. And some of them are even smaller. They have been referred to by others, not us, but by others as moms and pops, you know?

And what that means is that they're small privately owned properties and the owner actually takes care of the responsibility of the PBRA program. And so

the owners take the responsibilities of manager, maintenance, assistant manager, and all of these entities that your larger companies have.

really doesn't make any difference whether you're a small or mid-sized company or a large company.

What we come out to look for in the MOR is compliance. And compliance is consumed of the way your files are kept, the information you have, are you within the HUD regs. Now it is harder on smaller companies than it is mid-size or larger companies. But we're here to help you. So if you have questions, you need any help and assistance, just let us know and we'll try to help you as much as possible.

Ebony Hall (02:03)
Mm-hmm.

Vickie Bell (02:27)
That brings us to the assigned roles and responsibility of whose job is

Vickie Bell (02:33)
first person we'll talk about

will be the regional manager. And I use the term regional

but some companies call them senior managers. Some companies call them portfolio managers. Regardless to what that person is called, their duties should be the same. And that is,

make sure that the property manager is doing what they need to do, make sure that they are in compliance, make sure that they're not behind, and to be able to answer questions to help the property manager along in the process. A lot of times your regional managers will have three, four, five properties in their portfolio. They don't just look after one property. They might have five properties.

And they have to make sure that all five of these property managers and any other office personnel that are there are intact with what the company's policies are and what the HUD compliance is.

So if you have trouble and you're a small company and you don't have a regional manager, you could call us. You could call HUD. And that's usually what smaller companies do. Now the mid-sized companies

Some of them have regional managers and some of them do not. But your compliance depends on your networking. And if you have a regional manager, that's excellent. Usually those properties don't have any problems, but it's when you get to the point that you don't have anyone to check behind the manager. And not to check behind them to scold them or anything.

just to make sure that they understand what they're doing and they're doing it consistently as they should.

Now the next person up under the regional manager would be the property manager. And again, they're called property managers, they're called site managers, and their duties are just overwhelming. And that's why a good regional will help them.

They have tenant management in terms of advertising for vacancies. They screen the applicant's background checks, the sex offender

If they do not have an assistant manager, they usually review the leases and the lease agreements. They collect rent and security deposits. They handle

the tenant complaints and conflict resolutions. If there's a misunderstanding on the property between residents, they handle all of that. They handle the evictions that are necessary with the local laws. They need to know the local laws for evictions. They do a little part of the maintenance too. They have to conduct routine inspections of the interior and the exterior.

And especially if you're getting ready for an NSPIRE physical inspection. They have to conduct the move in and the move out inspection.

Ebony Hall (05:28)
Thank

Vickie Bell (05:34)
They schedule the repairs for preventive maintenance. They make the preventive maintenance schedule to give to the maintenance person or staff. And they hire the, usually they hire the assistant manager and the maintenance staff.

They have to respond to the emergency repairs and the emergency maintenance issues and calls. They ensure that the property complies with the safety in the building codes for the city. As I read

in my mind what all they're responsible for. I might miss something. So don't say, well, Vicki said that you're responsible for this, that, and the other. I'm just telling you what they are responsible for, but it's according to what the company does. The larger companies, the manager's not worked this hard. The mid-sized companies, it's a check and balance, you know? Could be. The small companies, they're all that property has, so they have to do everything.

They're in charge of the financial and the rental rates and all of that. back to a manager though, a property to me is as good as its management staff and its maintenance staff. So keep that in mind. And we want to also look at the fact

that they have legal responsibilities because if you have an eviction you have to know the eviction laws,

So you have to know the tenant landlord laws and the housing regulations. You have to ensure that their lease agreement has everything that your state and local law has in it, even if you have to do it on a side document. They have to manage security. Security is one of the biggest things. In your larger companies, they have usually a company.

that does security in your mid-sized companies, could go either or. In your small companies, they're usually in charge of security. But sometimes they need to call in a third party. They have administrative duties, managers do, of recording receipts and leases and keeping the documentation up.

keeping the

up. Whereas with the large companies, they have a whole department that's dedicated toward that. The midsize, 50-50 according to what the company policy is. The smaller companies, you'll have to do that yourself. You'll be responsible for that. Remember, and it's coming to me to remind you that if you get help,

in the office, everybody has to sign the EIV waiver. And those people who look at the EIV documents off the HUD system, they have to take the security awareness training. So don't forget that.

The managers usually conduct meetings of the staff. It's the responsibility of the regional manager to make sure that the property manager is indeed meeting with the staff and everybody knows the problems with the property or, you know, stay in touch.

I call it the round table. the manager needs to discuss the issues with the other employees and staff.

The assistant manager. Now, the assistant manager's duties are whatever the manager assigns to he or she. Usually they do the same thing almost as the managers do.

A lot of managers don't allow the assistant managers to collect the rent or to keep the books, but some do. So it all depends on the company. The larger the company, they have a whole department toward finance. So the manager and the assistant manager don't have to do that. The assistant manager's duties are a little

less. They write out the request for maintenance to do repairs.

They assist with

move-in process and procedures. They might even do the move-in inspection report. They might even sit in on a dispute with some of the residents if there's a dispute on the property. So their duties are basically whatever the manager assigns them to do that will relieve or help the manager out.

your assistant manager needs to correspond with the residents. He or she needs to know the residents just like the manager does. I usually use the phrase backup.

The assistant manager is a backup to the manager. Not saying that the manager's a big boss if I have any assistant managers that are looking here.

You know, ⁓ but it's a teamwork. Your property will only run smoothly if you have teamwork. So do, by all means, keep that in mind. I have had some assistant managers say, well, I think I do everything. Well, you think you do, but you don't know the administrative duties that the manager has to do. So just work as a team and things will come out a lot.

Ebony Hall (10:07)
you

Vickie Bell (10:33)
better for all of you and all parties involved.

And just remember, regardless of whether you're the regional, the property manager, or the assistant manager, or even maintenance, remember,

fair housing.

Make sure that you're aware of retaliation. Make sure you don't compromise anyone's civil rights. And just make sure that regardless to which one of those roles you take or you have, that you

take a Fair Housing class every year.

So those are some of the things that the assistant manager does. And

I want to talk about what the other staff do in our next Tuesday Tip. I've kept you all long enough.

If you have any questions, if you have any comments, if there's anything that

you are doing on your property that you feel is worth somebody else knowing about, shoot Pam & I an email. And thank you for tuning in and we'll see you next week when we finish. Whose job is it? Thank you.