Resume Template: Property Manager

From working independently to managing a cohesive team, your day to day can differ wildly from one week to the next and requires both very technical and interpersonal skills.

When it’s time for you to look for your next job opportunity, you might find it difficult to explain your past work experiences in a way that demonstrates all of your capabilities.

What’s the best way to stand out from the other applicants? A well-written property manager resume can help.

You’re qualified for the position, but so are many of the other candidates. Sharing your information in the right way can help show that you are the best possible person for the role.

We’re going to help you do just that.

Ahead are all the tools you need to write a great property manager resume, get the attention of the hiring team, and land more interviews.

Summary

1. Resume Template
2. Formatting
3. Writing Your Resume Summary
4. Areas of Expertise
5. Writing Your Work Experience
6. Writing Your Education Section
7. Additional Sections
8. Resume Points to Remember
9. Resume “Don’ts” to Remember
10. Some Helpful Tools

Let’s begin with a sample property manager resume to demonstrate how all the resume pieces fit together. Then we will break each section down to really drill into how to write the best property manager resume you possibly can.

When writing resumes, some of the biggest mistakes people make just come down to simple formatting.

You need to get the attention of the hiring manager — and fast. Did you know that the average hiring manager typically only looks at a resume for about six seconds?

Because you want to make sure that your most relevant details actually get seen, you should always put your best work first. For most of your property manager resume, you should utilize a format called reverse chronological order, where you put your most recent positions first and work backward.

One of the most important things is that your resume needs to be easily understood by human reviewers and bots (which we’ll get into later). Choose a sensible, easy-to-read font like Arial or Times New Roman and stick with clean, clear formatting. When in doubt, just remember that simple is usually the way to go.

Utilize whitespace. Line breaks and spacing help guide the eye and will make your resume easier to understand. Avoid long paragraphs of text and always double-check for spelling, typos, and misaligned margins.

Remember those six seconds we mentioned earlier?

If you only have six seconds of the hiring team’s attention, you only have a very short amount of time to make a great first impression — and convince the hiring team to keep reading.

How can you grab their attention?

The best way to quickly get the attention of a hiring manager is by starting your property manager resume off with a resume summary. A resume summary is a brief, informative paragraph at the top of the page that describes your top selling points.

If it helps, think of this section as your “greatest hits.” In two to three sentences, list the top skills, attributes, and experiences that you have that you think make you the perfect candidate for the job you’re applying for.

Remember, you only have a few sentences, so avoid repetition or overly general language and be as specific as you can.

Here are some good and not-so-good examples of summary statements for property managers:

What are the differences between these two summaries?

The first example is specific, informative, and inspires confidence in your abilities. It lets us know not only what you did during your time in this position but also that you were successful and had an impact.

The second example is very general and doesn’t really tell us why you are a good candidate. It also uses personal pronouns, which is generally not recommended in resume writing.

Next up is a list of your key accomplishments.

Yes, a list.

Remember, the hiring manager may have just seconds to look at your information and determine if you’re a good fit. By following your resume summary paragraph with a bulleted list, you are giving the hiring team a quick way to see your qualifications.

So, what should you include in this section?

This is where you put the skills you have that could set you apart from the other candidates. Do you have any leadership experience or knowledge of a particular kind of software?

Pro Tip: Be sure to carefully read the job posting. It will usually list the exact skills the employer is looking for, so if any of them match your skillset, be sure to list them in this section.

Try to think about this section in terms of hard skills and soft skills.

Hard skills are technical skills, like computer programming or data entry. Skills in this category are quantifiable and can usually be taught, meaning you get better at them with practice.

Soft skills are less objective. While you use them at work or in school, they can’t necessarily be taught. You may have heard of this category referred to as “people skills,” and it includes things like reliability, communication, and teamwork.

As a property manager, you have a mix of hard and soft skills, so make sure you include skills from both categories here.

(See below for a helpful table of some suggested hard and soft skill ideas you can include on your property manager resume.)

With your captivating property manager resume summary and informative list of key accomplishments, at this point, you’ve captured the attention of the hiring manager.

Now you have to convince them that you are the perfect candidate for the job.

This is when your work experience comes into play.

Remember reverse chronological order? With few exceptions, your most recent role is probably the most relevant for the job you’re applying for, so make sure to list it first.

For each of your previous jobs, use three to five bullet points to demonstrate what you did in the role and what you accomplished there. It will be easier to demonstrate the impact you had in your previous positions by starting each bullet off with an action word (examples below). Be specific: You don’t have a lot of space, so keep it brief, informative, and try not to repeat yourself.

If you have any quantifiable information, like sales data or social media statistics, be sure to use them in your descriptions.

Except for in very rare cases, most resumes should only be one page in length. This means that you might have to be selective about what roles you choose to include.

Don’t feel like you have to list everything — pick the roles that are most relevant to the job you’re applying for.

The first example starts each bullet off with an action word and shares your accomplishments. It is specific and inspires confidence by using quantifiable information and strong language.

The second example is too general. It doesn’t really tell us anything about you or the role, other than outlining some of the basic duties of property managers. Nothing about these descriptions is memorable.

PRO TIP: It can be difficult to determine what aspects of your job are worth listing here, but this is another place where the job description can come in handy. The skills listed in the posting can help you draw out the things you may have learned in your previous roles.

What About Bots

When we went over formatting earlier, we discussed how to make your property manager resume easy for human reviewers to read. But there’s a good chance that a hiring manager won’t be the only one going over your materials — a bot might take a look, too.

Companies will often receive so many applicants for an open role that it’s just not possible for the hiring teams to look at every single resume. That’s why employers will utilize tools called Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS).

An ATS is a kind of software that will scan resumes for certain keywords, usually pulled from the job posting, and set aside those materials for the hiring manager to read. Candidates who both make it through the ATS and get approved by the hiring manager are the ones who will get called in for an interview.

So how can you impress an ATS program?

Getting through an ATS is all about keywords. The more keywords you use from the job description, the more likely it is for your resume to get flagged by the system. If you don’t use keywords, your materials might get thrown out — even if you’re qualified for the role.

PRO TIP: Use keywords exactly the way they appear in the job description — not synonyms. Synonyms won’t get picked up by the ATS. For example, if the posting says, “Experience with Microsoft Office” and you write, “Experience with Word,” your materials won’t get flagged.

In order to get through an ATS, some applicants will choose to write the descriptions of their past experiences in paragraph format, rather than in bullets, in order to fit in as many keywords as possible.

Here’s what the two options look like:

Traditional

Fleming Property Management
Property Manager | Wilmington, DE | February 2012–Present

• Manage every aspect of the leasing process, including marketing, lease drafting and negotiation, and administration of the agreement
• Successfully market 1,000s of residential and commercial units with a closing ratio of 35%
• Work closely with local contractors to maintain, repair, and improve the property portfolio

Paragraph

Fleming Property Management
Property Manager | Wilmington, DE | February 2012–Present

Manage every aspect of the leasing process, including marketing, lease drafting and negotiation, and administration of the agreement. Successfully market 1,000s of residential and commercial units with a closing ratio of 35%. Work closely with local contractors to maintain, repair, and improve the property portfolio.

As you can see, both examples use the same number of keywords and will impress an ATS.

The biggest difference here is that while the first example takes the form of a scannable list, the second example creates a big block of text. If both examples make it through the ATS, which example do you think a busy human reviewer would rather read?

The bulleted list is more tailored to a human reviewer because it’s informative, but also brief. That’s why Big Interview recommends using the bullet point format for the descriptions of your work experience.

The Education Section

Your work history will make up the bulk of your property manager resume, so now that that’s done, the hard stuff is over!

Up next is the education section, where you will share the details about your educational background.

Remember reverse chronological order? You’re going to use that idea again here: Start with your highest, most recent degree and work your way backward. For example, a bachelor’s degree would be listed before an associate degree.

Be sure to list where you attended, the field of study, and when you graduated.

If you graduated pretty recently, feel free to list your GPA. It’s more relevant to your property manager resume now, but it will be less so as time goes on, so be sure to reevaluate this the longer you’re in the workforce.

Example:

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration
Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA
Class of 2008

If you have any relevant certifications, trainings, or online coursework, you can include them here.

Example:

• Licensed Real Estate Broker, DE
• Leadership Workshop, University of Delaware Online

Alternative Sections to Include

If you have extra space and/or other areas of interest that don’t fall into the other sections, you can consider adding other categories.

Some of the sections you could include are:

• Awards and honors
• Publications
• Noteworthy Projects
• Social Media Influence
• Speaking Engagements
• Hobbies/Interests
• Volunteer Work

What if You Have Limited Experience?

Contrary to what you might think, it’s definitely okay to apply for a job when you have limited experience.

If you are making a career change or got your degree recently, in order to gain experience in a particular industry, you need to get a job in that industry. It’s all about showing how the experience you do have makes you a good candidate.

In reality, you might have more experience than you realize — just not in the form of paid work. Think about any of your experiences that could show your knowledge of the industry, like specific coursework, trainings, workshops, or internships. Don’t forget about volunteer opportunities or summer jobs.

Pro Tip: As a property manager, you know there are plenty of interpersonal skills that go into the job. Think about the experiences you’ve had that show those skills. For instance, do you have any leadership expertise or have you completed any team-building workshops?

Find a friend

If you’ve been working hard on your property manager resume, you’ve probably been staring at one page for hours. This level of concentration can make it really easy to miss mistakes like typos and spelling errors. Find a friend with fresh eyes — and a good grasp of grammar — to take a final look.

Keep it brief

Remember, you have to fit all of your information on one page. Don’t feel like you have to include every job you’ve ever done and keep your descriptions informative, yet brief. Utilize bullets and avoid big blocks of text.

Remember the basics

It may seem obvious, but don’t forget to include your contact details like your email address and phone number. When you’re so focused on the content of your resume, it can be easy to forget the little (but important!) stuff.

Don’t use the first person

The words “me” and “I” have no place in resume writing even though you’re talking about yourself. It may feel weird at first to not use personal pronouns, but it really is best to avoid the first person.

Don’t be passive

Remember, you don’t want to just list the basic duties of the roles you’ve had — you want to show what you’ve accomplished. This will be easier if you use strong language, include quantifiable information, and start each bullet off with an action word.

Don’t forget about the job description

It’s very important that you carefully read the job description. Not only is this where you’ll find the important keywords to get through an ATS, but you can also use it to double-check that you’ve correctly submitted all of the required materials.

Property Manager Power Words

• Assisted
• Provided
• Initiated
• Generated
• Maintained
• Supplied
• Organized
• Arranged
• Scheduled
• Tracked
• Mediated
• Planned
• Formulated
• Coordinated

Property Manager Skills List