Assistant Business Manager - Affordable Housing

A Hiring Company; Saint Paul (MN); On-site; USD 55,000 - 65,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision

401(k)

Paid time off

MN Earned Sick and Safe Time

Mileage reimbursement

Certification support

Job summary

SAIL is seeking an Affordable Assistant Business Manager for its East Metro portfolio. You will handle resident service, compliance support, and leasing tasks with a focus on accuracy, audit-readiness, and timely processing.

Strong communication and willingness to learn affordable housing compliance are essential. You will work alongside the Affordable Business Manager, with centralized teams supporting on compliance, maintenance, and accounting.

Qualifications

• One or more years in property management or another detail-heavy administrative role.
• Comfort with recurring documentation work and deadline-driven paperwork.
• Strong written and verbal communication with a warm, professional approach to residents.
• Willingness to complete Fair Housing training and apply standards consistently.
• Ability to travel reliably between community sites.

Responsibilities

• Greet and assist residents in person, by phone, and by email with patience and accuracy; log interactions.
• Prepare initial certification and annual recertification packets; collect income and asset documentation and keep files audit-ready.
• Respond to inquiries, schedule tours, and process applications; maintain waitlist and apply eligibility standards.
• Post payments, maintain resident ledgers, and issue delinquency notices as scheduled; escalate decisions as needed.
• Enter and route work orders, schedule vendors, and prepare for inspections; keep offices presentable for first impressions.
• Raise file questions and program questions to the Business Manager early, with documentation ready.

Skills

Attention to detail

Written and verbal communication

Customer service

Travel between sites

Fair Housing training

Computer proficiency

Yardi experience

Tools

Yardi

Job description

Legendary Service. Operational Excellence.

In affordable housing, the details are the job. We are looking for someone who takes real satisfaction in getting them right, every file, every packet, every time.

About You

You are the person who notices the missing signature before it becomes a finding. You like a checklist, you finish what you start, and you would rather do it accurately the first time than do it twice. When a resident walks in confused about a form, you slow down and walk them through it.

Picture a Tuesday. You open the office, greet two residents on your way to the desk, and enter three work orders before nine. Mid-morning you call a resident to collect one last verification document for a recertification packet. After lunch you show a unit to an applicant, then update the waitlist and post the morning's payments. Before you leave, you flag one file question for your Business Manager so it gets answered before the deadline. Nothing dramatic happened. Everything got done.

That last part matters to you. You know the difference between what is yours to handle and what belongs to your Business Manager, and you raise the second kind early rather than working around it.

Ask yourself

• Do you take genuine pride in accurate, complete, audit-ready paperwork?
• Are you patient with work that repeats on a schedule, month after month?
• Do you stay warm and unhurried with residents even on a full day?
• Do you prefer clear processes and defined responsibilities over making it up as you go?
• Do you speak up early when something looks wrong instead of hoping it works out?

If you said yes five times, we would love to meet you.

About SAIL

SAIL is a high-performance Twin Cities multifamily property management and marketing firm. Our standard is simple: Legendary Service. Operational Excellence. We manage affordable communities with the same discipline, care, and precision we bring to every community we touch, because the residents who call them home deserve nothing less.

Our core values

• Giving Our Personal Best
• Intellectual Curiosity
• Valuing Relationships
• Enthusiasm

About the Role

The Affordable Assistant Business Manager supports day-to-day operations, compliance paperwork, and resident service across SAIL's affordable portfolio in the East Metro. You will work alongside the Affordable Business Manager, who owns the portfolio, sets priorities, and holds the scorecard. Your job is execution: complete packets, accurate files, clean ledgers, and residents who feel taken care of.

You will also have real support behind you. SAIL's centralized compliance, maintenance, marketing, and accounting teams handle what does not belong on site, so this seat can stay focused on the work in front of it.

This is a strong seat for someone who wants to learn affordable housing compliance properly, with certification support and a clear path toward a Business Manager role.

Key Responsibilities

Resident Service

Greet and assist residents in person, by phone, and by email. Answer questions about forms, payments, and requests with patience and accuracy. Log every interaction so nothing depends on memory.

Compliance Support

Prepare initial certification and annual recertification packets. Collect and follow up on income and asset documentation, assemble complete files, and keep resident files organized to an audit-ready standard. Support the Business Manager and SAIL's compliance team during file reviews.

Leasing and Waitlist Support

Respond to inquiries, schedule and conduct tours, and process applications in the order received. Maintain the waitlist accurately and apply program eligibility and Fair Housing standards consistently in every interaction.

Rent and Ledger Administration

Post payments, maintain resident ledgers, and prepare delinquency notices on the community's schedule. Make courtesy reminder calls and document every contact. Bring accounts that need a decision to the Business Manager.

Operations Support

Enter and route work orders, schedule vendors against the Business Manager's direction, prepare for inspections, and keep the office and common areas presentable and ready for a first impression.

Escalation and Handoff

Know the line between what you handle and what goes up. Raise file questions, resident conflicts, program questions, and capacity issues to the Business Manager early, with the documentation already gathered.

What Success Looks Like in Your First Year

• Certification and recertification packets assembled complete and on schedule, with no returns for missing documentation
• Resident files maintained to audit-ready standard at all times
• Payments posted and delinquency notices issued on the community's schedule, every month
• Waitlist accurate and applications processed in the order received
• Inquiries and tour requests answered within SAIL standard
• Progress toward COS or TCS certification underway

Qualifications

Required

• One or more years in property management, affordable housing, or another detail-heavy administrative or customer service role
• Comfort with recurring documentation work and deadline-driven paperwork
• Strong written and verbal communication, with a warm and professional approach to residents
• Computer proficiency, including comfort learning a property management system. Yardi experience is a plus
• Willingness to complete Fair Housing training and apply standards consistently
• Ability to travel reliably between community sites

Preferred

• Exposure to LIHTC, Section 42, Section 8, HOME, or layered affordable housing programs
• MN Housing Finance Agency or HUD compliance experience
• COS or TCS certification, or the willingness to earn one within the first year with SAIL's support
• Experience with recertifications, income verifications, or resident file management

If you have the accuracy and the temperament but not the affordable housing background, apply anyway. Compliance knowledge is teachable. Precision and patience are harder to find.

What You'll Get

• Base salary $55,000 to $65,000 DOQ, plus quarterly bonus potential
• Medical, dental, vision, 401(k), paid time off, company holidays, MN Earned Sick and Safe Time
• Mileage reimbursement for travel between communities and SAIL corporate
• Paid certification support, including COS and TCS
• The backing of SAIL's centralized compliance, marketing, maintenance, and accounting teams
• A clear development path toward a Business Manager role as performance and capacity grow

Schedule and Working Conditions

• Location: East Metro
• Schedule: Full-time, typically Monday through Friday, on-site
• Reports to: Affordable Business Manager
• Availability: Occasional evening or weekend availability for resident events, inspections, or emergencies
• Contingency: Offer contingent on successful background check and reference verification

SAIL is an equal opportunity employer.

Compensation details: 55000-65000 Yearly Salary