Customer Experience Specialist at Cottonwood Bayview Apartments

Leasing consultant roles at well-run residential communities share a common thread: the work is equal parts sales, service, and logistics, and the person who does it well holds the front door experience together. At Cottonwood Bayview Apartments in St. Petersburg, that role carries the title Customer Experience Specialist, which is an accurate name for what the job actually involves.

What the Role Covers Day to Day

You'll own the leasing floor experience from the moment someone walks in, calls, texts, or emails. That means greeting prospects and residents, responding to inquiries across every channel with accuracy and speed, and knowing the current availability and pricing well enough to answer any question a prospective renter might ask. You'll also inspect vacant apartments and the tour path daily to confirm everything is show-ready, which requires a trained eye for what "ready" actually means: clean, functional, and presentable against a defined standard.

Beyond direct leasing activity, the role pulls in some community operations work. That includes organizing the package room, supporting community events, assisting with social media marketing, and keeping vendor and community communications on track. These aren't afterthoughts. They're part of what keeps occupancy stable and resident satisfaction consistent.

The schedule is full-time and includes evenings and weekends, which is standard for leasing-facing roles. If you've worked retail, hospitality, or any consumer-facing environment on a rotating schedule, that experience translates directly here.

Skills You Bring vs. Skills You Build

This role requires strong verbal and written communication, a genuine comfort with people, and an organized approach to daily tasks. You need to already know how to manage multiple priorities without letting the floor experience suffer. Those aren't trainable in the first 90 days.

What the role builds is different. You'll develop a practical understanding of leasing fundamentals: traffic management, pricing conversations, objection handling, and how a well-run leasing office moves prospects through to move-in. Cottonwood also positions this as an entry point into property management, so if your goal is an assistant manager or eventually a property manager track, this is a legitimate starting point rather than a ceiling.

One Thing Worth Knowing About This Operator

Cottonwood Residential was an early adopter of Self-Guided Tours, which means the leasing process here is more tech-integrated than at many conventional operators. Prospects may tour without a leasing agent present, which shifts some of the relationship-building to before and after the tour rather than during it. Strong follow-up and responsive communication become even more important in that model. If you're comfortable with digital tools and understand that the leasing conversation doesn't always happen in person, you'll fit the workflow well.

• Full-time position with weekend and evening availability required
• Quarterly bonus structure in addition to base pay
• Health, vision, dental, life, and disability benefits starting within 30 days
• 401k and HSA with company match
• Three weeks of paid time off in the first year, plus 10.5 paid holidays
• Defined path toward future management roles