A day in the life an apartment manager
The phone rings for the 12th time that day interrupting Ryan and Debi Burleson’s quiet evening at home.
Without thinking twice, Ryan Burleson answers the phone, talks briefly with the distressed caller and gathers his tools. Their job is never done.
The Burlesons are managers for the Continental Apartment Complex, off-campus student housing. This is their second year on the job, and by now there isn’t much that would surprise them, Debi Burleson said.
“We never get away from it. We always have to be on our best behavior,” Debi Burleson said.
Being a manager means being ready for almost anything.
“It goes in cycles,” Debi Burleson said. “There are times of stress and there are times of quiet. Some times are more stressful than you’d ever think possible, and you can get overwhelmed.”
These two veterans have dealt with 2-foot-long hair clogs in bath tubs, flooding from broken pipes and a car going through a basement laundry-room window, just to start the list.
“We like it,” Ryan Burleson said.
One of their biggest pet peeves as managers is when people don’t report a problem to them until it’s gone on for a long time, Ryan Burleson said.
He said there was one apartment where the oven wasn’t working, but the tenants didn’t report it until a whole quarter had gone by. When they did report it, they found that it wasn’t plugged in.
“I can’t imagine six girls living without an oven for that long,” Ryan Burleson said.
The two split the responsibilities between them to try to distribute the work evenly. Debi Burleson takes care of the rent collecting, cleaning and sign-ups for the next year. Ryan Burleson takes care of most of the maintenance.
“Maintenance is disgusting,” Debi Burleson said.
“It’s not so bad with rubber gloves,” Ryan Burleson said.
Debi Burleson said she didn’t have any idea the job would be so much work when they originally took it. She said she really stressed about everything for the first six months.
“Not everyone can do this job,” Ryan Burleson said. “You have to really be a people person, be able to sacrifice your privacy a little bit, be courteous and be responsible.”
One of the things that made it worth it, Ryan Burleson said, was when some of the tenants last year got together and gave them a thank you note for all their work.
“The best thing is meeting new people every year and getting to know a lot of people,” Debi Burleson said.
Ryan Burleson said he can’t walk around campus without seeing someone he knows.
The Burlesons are expecting their first baby in April, and Debi Burleson says the job will be really nice to accommodate it.
They get free rent, utilities paid and a salary that depends on the amount of work they do during the month.
“It’s such a good deal,” Debi Burleson said, “and it’s so right for us.”
Debi Burleson said in an average day she wakes up with a whole list of things to do.
“I take the most urgent first,” she said. “My most important job is to make sure all the rent is collected.”
She answers phones for questions on apartment prices, does cleaning and yard work and, depending on the time of year, plants flowers or shovels walks.
“We’re kind of like janitors in some ways,” she said.
One of their biggest fears, Debi Burleson said, is that people will only identify them with their position. She said they want people to see them as their friends, not just as their managers.
Ryan Burleson said they also have had to learn not to take things personally.
“Because we’re in a position of authority, some people say things,” he said.
Debi Burleson said you have to get a “tough skin.”
The only bad confrontation they had to deal with was with a non-resident who had been booted in their parking lot.
“He had bent the signs down that warned about booting and told me he didn’t know,” Ryan Burleson said. “I had just straightened them earlier that day.”
Both spoke highly of their tenants and said they’ve also had other managers comment on how well-mannered they are.
“We’re lucky to have good people who don’t start fires and stuff,” Debi Burleson said.
She said that being manager has really taught her how to understand people and work with their different personality traits.
Ryan Burleson said he’s learned “responsibility more than anything.” He said it will look great on his resume later.
“With Ryan and I, our main goal is to make people feel comfortable coming to us with problems. We try to be open, friendly and accessible,” Debi Burleson said.