Pros
You have a lot of flexibility to try new things and see what works at your property. It is pretty much up to you to decide what works best. The short lived and former operations team was very supportive and willing to help solve a problem. Not “easy” on you, but was a great resource and made sure I had what I needed to succeed.
Cons
The NY office is the biggest downfall. Not a single person in the NY office knows what they are doing as it relates to student housing. They make irrational decisions with little to no knowledge of how their decisions can be implemented or will impact the property; as long as it “may” save money it makes them happy. The corporate marketing team means well, but they have no clue. The accounting team is overworked and doesn’t get anything done right. The CEO is high strung and weird. During my time here there have been lots of changes, the best change was bringing on knowledgeable people in the Charlotte office, the only issue is that they got rid of regional positions in order to do that. Now they’re bringing regional positions back and got rid of the operations leadership team in order to do that. I guess they can’t afford both at the same time. But they needed the operations leadership team; it made us all better because of the knowledge and competency. We no longer have anyone we can go to and get guidance on what to do. The rest of the Charlotte office is good, but their knowledge is limited. We moved a few steps forward only to move many steps back. Now we’re going through a merger and everything is up in the air.