Regional Manager, New Community Lease-Up

About this role

Overview

Avanath is proud to be recognized as a leading property management company that provides affordable housing for the workforce. Cultivating the American Dream is the purpose that binds the Avanath team. Every day is an opportunity to make a difference by helping residents find a home, delivering excellent service, and creating communities where people can thrive.

The Role:

The Regional Manager, New Community Lease-Up is the accountable regional operations leader for assigned affordable housing communities from pre-opening readiness through stabilization and formal handoff to long-term operations. The role translates each development plan into an organized, compliant, resident-focused operating launch and ensures that people, systems, apartment readiness, applications, marketing, compliance, financial controls, and cross-functional decisions move together against one plan.

Reporting to the Senior Director, New Community Operations, this leader directs Community Managers and community associates assigned to lease-up communities. The Regional Manager partners closely with Development, Construction, Compliance, Marketing, Applications and Property Systems, Accounting, Human Resources, Building Services, Asset Management, ownership partners, housing agencies, and service providers. The role owns day-to-day execution, identifies risks early, assigns clear owners and deadlines, and escalates decisions that could affect opening, occupancy, compliance, resident experience, or financial performance.

Success in this role is measured by safe, timely openings; apartment delivery and acceptance; application processing and file quality; move-in pace; occupancy and revenue performance against approved goals; budget control; audit readiness; team preparedness; accurate reporting; and a complete transition to stabilized operations.

The incumbent must demonstrate sound judgment, strong organization, urgency, accountability, integrity, and positive engagement with applicants, residents, team members, partners, and regulators.

• An Aptitude for Connecting - Must possess a strong sense for creating a sense of community, as well as the drive to go the extra mile to create a positive experience for all residents and staff. Your success and purpose are driven by the relationships that you build within your communities, including vendor partners, regulatory, and social services partnerships. This includes adopting a collaborative approach to create consistent, favorable circumstances that foster success and effectiveness for the Organization and the communities.

• An Authentic Attitude - Consistently demonstrate an open and professional attitude and approach when accessing and resolving resident and staff concerns. This includes, but is not limited to, seeking resources throughout the organization via the organization's support services and senior leadership.

• An Approach that is positive and Professional - Consistently demonstrate an approach of active listening and understand that your participation and support are integral to the success of Avanath, ensuring that each resident and staff member feels seen, heard, and valued as you and the staff work to resolve challenges.

Qualifications

• Five or more years of progressive multifamily property management experience, including multi-site or regional leadership responsibility.

• Demonstrated success leading one or more new construction or substantial rehabilitation lease-ups from pre-opening through stabilization.

• Strong working knowledge of affordable housing operations and applicant eligibility processes. Direct experience with LIHTC is required; experience with HUD, project-based rental assistance, tax-exempt bonds, HOME, local housing programs, or layered regulatory programs is strongly preferred.

• Ability to read and apply the Tenant Selection Plan, Affirmative Fair Housing Marketing Plan, regulatory agreements, income and rent limits, utility allowances, occupancy standards, leasing criteria, and agency requirements applicable to each community.

• Experience building and managing detailed project plans, readiness checklists, owners, deadlines, dependencies, risks, and recurring reporting across multiple communities.

• Working knowledge of property management, affordable compliance, customer relationship management, screening, document management, and reporting systems. Experience with Yardi and RentCafe is preferred.

• Ability to analyze budgets, leasing velocity, application conversion, unit readiness, rent collections, subsidy receipts, marketing results, staffing productivity, and operating variances.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present concise status, risks, decisions, and recovery plans to senior leaders and ownership partners.

• Affordable housing or occupancy certification such as HCCP, SHCM, CPO, COS, or equivalent is preferred.

• Valid driver’s license and ability to travel frequently within assigned regions, including overnight travel as business needs require.

Key Accountabilities

+ Lease-Up Planning, Governance & Accountability

• Own the master lease-up plan for each assigned community from pre-opening through stabilization, with clear action steps, responsible owners, target dates, dependencies, current status, and escalation points.

• Lead recurring lease-up meetings using one source of truth. Confirm decisions, document action items, assign deadlines, and follow through until closure.

• Establish opening and stabilization benchmarks with the Senior Director, ownership, Asset Management, Development, and Compliance. Maintain a written definition of readiness and stabilization for each community.

• Maintain a current risk and decision log covering construction delivery, certificates and permits, staffing, training, technology, marketing, application processing, compliance, unit readiness, move-ins, budget, and resident communications.

• Escalate missed…