I abhor that old 1 per 100 rule! This came from a time when communities had rental managers, not community managers. Back then all that was required of a manager was to collect rent and lease apartments; the focus was not customer driven. Now in the age of stiff competition it's just not practical.
One of my first communities was 187 units. At first I ran it alone. It wasn't that bad as we had a separate office to handle maintenance, the leases automatically renewed, and renewal offers came from the accounting office. Rent was collected offsite and posted by accounting, & notice of default was also handled by accounting. (Boy those were the good old days
The change happened when a new community popped up next door and started getting some of our residents. The need for more staff to focus on customer service was realized and I got an assistant.
Now I have a 163 unit 62+ 80% TC 20% MKT community, and there are only two of us. We are NEVER caught up on paperwork because in my book residents take priority. Anyone who's worked with seniors knows they take up much more of your time. I have a dream of hiring a part-time concierge to handle the little things like faxing or copying documents for residents, looking up directions, helping them understand how to read credit card statements, planning activities and all the little things we do to make our residents happy. For now we'll just keep plugging along
It’s just not realistic to think you can stick to some arbitrary number when each and every community is different.