Community Manager

Community Manager at Encore at Heritage, Wake Forest, NC

Community Manager roles at mid-size multifamily operators tend to split your time three ways: keeping the financials on track, keeping the team focused, and keeping residents happy enough to renew. At Hawthorne Residential Partners, a Southeast-rooted company that ranks among the top 50 multifamily management companies nationally, this position at Encore at Heritage in Wake Forest carries all three responsibilities with real authority behind them.

What the Job Actually Covers

You run the community. That means owning the budget, managing delinquency, overseeing deposit accounting, and reading financial reports well enough to make decisions from them. Yardi and Knock are the primary tools here, so familiarity with both saves you a significant ramp-up period.

On the leasing side, you're not just supervising. You'll conduct tours, respond to leads, and guide prospects through the process yourself when needed. Renewals, occupancy goals, and pricing strategy all sit on your plate. You'll also manage the community's social media presence, which increasingly drives traffic at the property level.

Team leadership is a core part of the role. You hire, train, and coach both office and maintenance staff. Weekly team meetings, performance accountability, and day-to-day support are expected, not optional. You'll also handle escalated resident concerns and plan resident events, which requires some flexibility on evenings and Saturdays.

The schedule runs Monday through Friday, 9 AM to 6 PM, with Saturdays from 10 AM to 4 PM. One weekday off per week keeps the total at 40 hours, though community needs can occasionally shift that.

What Hawthorne Is Looking For

• High school diploma or GED; two years of property management experience covering both leasing consultant and assistant manager work
• Six months of experience as a community manager in multifamily, highly preferred
• Yardi, Knock, and Microsoft Office proficiency, highly preferred
• Valid driver's license required; CAM, CAPS, or a real estate or property management license preferred

The candidates who perform best in this type of role can read a financial report and act on it, defuse a difficult resident situation without escalating it further, and hold their team accountable while still being someone people want to work for. Those two things, financial clarity and people judgment, tend to separate strong community managers from average ones more than any credential does.

Compensation and Growth

Salary is supplemented by monthly leasing and renewal commissions plus quarterly performance bonuses. Benefits include medical, dental, and vision coverage, a 401k match, paid time off (including your birthday), pet insurance, paid parental and adoption leave, telehealth access, and company-paid life insurance.

Hawthorne runs a formal career path program, and the internal trajectory from Community Manager to Regional Manager is a stated priority, not just recruiting language. The Learning and Development team is structured to support that progression.