To make a long story short, I got a job as a leasing consultant at an apartment complex last June because I need somewhere to live, and they were offering a discount on an apartment with the job. I was promoted to assistant property manager within 5 months, and then about 4 months after that, I was promoted to the sole leasing manager at a new property the company took on. This isn’t to brag, just some context on how I thought the company appreciated me.
When I took my last promotion, I became salaried at about $35k a year (with no overtime) + an apartment where my rent is fully covered. It’s a very nice 2 bedroom apartment and the full rent is about $1760, which is terrifying. I’m extremely thankful that I’ve been able to live here without paying but, it makes it very hard to leave.
I started here in March, under the assumption that with a brand new property, there’d be little to no maintenance issues, and that while I would be the only office worker, I would have a maintenance person on-site for help. This is not the case. We have been open for 5 months now, and I still have no maintenance person, and not because no one has applied for the job. The owners of the property will not let our management hire someone because everything is still under warranty; however, they used the cheapest vendors for the construction, meaning we have had major plumbing, HVAC, and irrigation issues. I have over 10 appliances on property that haven’t worked for months. There’s also been minor issues pop up, such as unfinished paint jobs in the apartments or just stuff that wasn’t completed properly so they beed to be touched up. Of course, I’ve been the one that has to schedule everything with the vendors, deal with angry residents, etc. Half of the vendors I contact either never get back to me or take weeks to get an appointment made. I have worked more than 40 hours a week since starting.
To top it off, I was able to fully rent the entire 96 unit complex in 3 months which is the quickest the company has ever rented a full complex. By myself. With absolutely no recognition from corporate, not even a small mention in the second quarter debrief they just sent last week. I feel underpaid, unappreciated, and just completely let down so I’ve started looking for a new job. Leaving this job means that I would need to take on the rent for my apartment, which reminder: it costs $1760 a month. The state of my city being a college town and a major hospital/medical specialist location means that it’s impossible to find anything else to rent right now, and the chances of finding anything cheaper is also slim to none.
I’m only 23, but life literally feels like a nightmare already. How do people do this?