Assistant Community Manager

The Role in Context

The Assistant Community Manager position exists because running an apartment community is genuinely a two-person job at the leadership level. Occupancy, delinquency, leasing traffic, resident relations, and daily operations don't pause when the Community Manager is out, in a meeting, or handling a vendor escalation. Hawthorne Residential Partners, a top-50 multifamily operator with a strong Southeast footprint, is staffing this role at Encore at Heritage in Wake Forest, NC. It's not an administrative support role. It's a developmental leadership seat with real financial accountability from day one.

Wake Forest sits in one of the faster-growing suburban corridors outside Raleigh, which means resident turnover expectations, renewal pressure, and leasing traffic all carry real weight here. The person in this role will feel that directly.

What the Job Actually Involves

On the leasing side, you'll conduct tours, work leads, and shepherd prospects through the full leasing process, including applications and move-in documentation. Renewals are part of your performance picture, not an afterthought. You'll also own the community's social media presence, which in 2025 is less about creative content and more about consistent visibility that supports traffic goals.

The financial side is where this role separates itself from a pure leasing position. You'll handle rent collection, payment posting, ledger audits, and delinquency follow-up, including the less pleasant work of coordinating eviction procedures when residents reach that point. Weekly delinquency calls are part of the rhythm here. You'll also contribute to financial reporting that goes up to regional leadership, so comfort reading and interpreting basic reports matters.

When the Community Manager is unavailable, you run the operation. That includes keeping the team focused and maintaining service continuity. It's not a fill-in role; it's expected accountability.

Office hours run Monday through Friday, 9 to 6, and Saturdays, 10 to 4, with one weekday off to keep the schedule at 40 hours. Evening and weekend availability may come up for resident events.

• Two years of property management experience preferred
• Six months in an assistant community manager role is a plus
• Valid driver's license required
• CALP designation is a plus, not a requirement
• High school diploma or GED equivalent

Compensation includes an hourly base plus monthly leasing and renewal commissions and quarterly performance bonuses. Benefits include medical, dental, and vision coverage, 401(k) with company match, paid time off (including your birthday), paid parental and adoption leave, pet insurance, company-paid life insurance, and telehealth access. Hawthorne also offers a formal Career Path Program, and this role has a clear line to Community Manager for people who want it.

What separates strong candidates here: It's not leasing instinct alone. The ACMs who move up fastest are the ones who get comfortable with the financial side early. Reading a ledger, catching a misapplied payment, understanding where delinquency is trending before it becomes a regional conversation. Those habits, built at this level, are exactly what prepares someone to run their own community.