How to hire a community association manager: where to find, how to screen and what to pay

A community association manager runs the business of a homeowners, condominium or cooperative association on the board's behalf: board meetings and minutes, budgets and reserve planning, assessment billing and collections, rule enforcement, vendor contracts and the upkeep of common areas.

Who the employer is shapes the seat. A management company hires managers to cover a portfolio of client associations. A self-managed association's board hires a manager directly as its staff executive.

The accountability line differs from the rental-side manager titles. A community association manager answers to the association's board rather than to an owner, and works with the association's money — assessments, reserves and contracts — rather than leasing units for someone else's building.

The scale behind the title is large. CAI's Foundation for Community Association Research estimates 373,000 U.S. community associations in 2025 — 29.6 million housing units and 78.1 million residents — rising to a forecast 374,000 to 377,000 in 2026.

The same foundation counts 35.2% of U.S. housing inside a community association: homeowners associations make up about 58–63% of associations, condominiums 35–40% and cooperatives 2–4%.

For a management company, the "when" is portfolio math you already own: a client association you just signed, a manager who left, or a portfolio director who is running board meetings personally because nobody else can.

For a self-managed board, the question shows up as workload: meeting packets, delinquency follow-up, vendor bids and owner calls that arrive on evenings and weekends, with no one accountable between meetings.

Keep the title straight while you hire. A community association manager is a different job from the community manager who leads an apartment community's on-site team — a different employer, a different pot of money and a different compliance picture. Our what a community association manager does career guide covers the work from the candidate's side; this page stays on yours.

One boundary for this page: hiring an employee is a different decision from contracting a management firm. If your board is weighing the contract route, our how to hire an HOA management company guide covers it.

Start inside your own bench. An assistant community association manager who has run meetings and closed months under one of your managers already knows your associations, and promoting keeps that knowledge in-house.

Apartment-side managers are a real crossover pool. An assistant property manager or community manager brings budgets, vendors and delinquency experience; what they need from you is the board-facing side of the work.

In states that license the work, the qualified pool is defined for you. A candidate who holds the Florida CAM license has already cleared that state's education, exam and background requirements, and an Illinois licensee has cleared the licensing requirements its Act sets — ask for the license number early, and check it as the section below describes.

Post where association-management people already look: industry channels such as CAI chapters and the credential bodies, and a board that lists only property management work. Our hiring hub collects the employer guides on this site, and your posting sits alongside property management openings rather than against every job on the internet.

Referrals are quieter but useful. Your portfolio directors know which assistant managers are ready for their own associations, your vendors know which communities are professionally run, and departing managers sometimes know their own successor.

Remember that sitting managers screen you while you screen them. A posting that names the associations covered, the meeting-night schedule, after-hours expectations, the board relationships and a real pay range gives a candidate far more to act on than a vague one.

Screen for evidence, not adjectives. Ask finalists to bring the work: a board packet agenda they built, a budget-to-actual narrative they wrote, a vendor bid summary they recommended and why.

On meetings and governance, listen for process: how they run an annual meeting, what goes into minutes, and how they keep a board focused on decisions instead of relitigating complaints.

On money, ask how they built the budget, how they handled assessments that fell behind, and how they presented reserve funding options to a board that did not want to hear them. Score the answers against your own portfolio's numbers rather than any external figure — association budgets differ too much for a benchmark to transfer.

On vendors and projects, a capable manager can describe how they bid work, checked insurance certificates, walked a capital project with the board and got invoices matched to contracts.

On enforcement and conflict, look for consistency: the same rule applied to neighbors on the same street, files documented as they went, and escalations to the board — and to counsel where the board directed — made in writing.

Screen fair housing judgment with scenarios, not slogans. The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in renting because of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin and disability. Where your managers touch rentals in the associations you serve — leasing restrictions, rental approvals, accommodation requests — the exposure follows the staff. Under HUD's rule at 24 CFR 100.7, an owner or management company is vicariously liable for a discriminatory housing practice by its agent or employee, whether or not it knew or should have known of the conduct.

Score the scenario answers for the behaviors that hold up: identical criteria applied to every owner, an accommodation request routed through company policy, documentation kept without being asked.

Systems fluency is checkable. O*NET lists Yardi software, Propertyware and Intuit QuickBooks among the tools property, real estate and community association managers use, alongside Microsoft Excel, Outlook, Word and PowerPoint. Ask the candidate to open a report they built themselves in the platform they ran daily — an association-management suite or an accounting stack. Fluency shows in seconds; a recited feature list does not.

Finally, check references upward. The board president or portfolio director they answered to knows how the manager behaved when a meeting went sideways; a peer manager may not.

A manager hire carries a wide compliance surface — pay-disclosure laws, selection-procedure rules, the FCRA and state fair-chance timing — so run it as a defined process. The sequence below is a practical default, not a legal opinion: confirm the legal steps with your state agencies and counsel.

1. Write the posting. Name the associations covered, the property types, the meeting schedule, after-hours terms and the pay range. Pay disclosure in postings is state law: California and Washington require the pay scale in the posting at 15 or more employees, and Washington's posting must also give a general description of benefits and other compensation. New York requires the compensation or a range in an advertisement for a job performed at least partly in New York when you employ four or more. Colorado requires good-faith pay disclosure, a general benefits description and the date the application window is expected to close. Confirm the current requirement with your state labor department.
2. Screen against the actual job. Sort resumes by the work — association types, budget sizes, licensed state, board-facing experience — not by title polish.
3. Interview to a structure. Ask every candidate the same core set and score answers against your criteria. If you add tests or scored exercises, the federal Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures govern selection procedures, so keep every exercise job-related and scored the same way for everyone.
4. Make finalists show work. A meeting agenda, a budget variance narrative or a vendor recommendation tells you more than a fourth interview.
5. Check references upward. Talk to the board president or portfolio director they reported to, and ask what your screening criteria care about: budgets, collections, meetings and vendor control.
6. Run the background check lawfully. A report you buy from a screening company is a consumer report, and the FCRA's steps attach before you order it. First give a clear, conspicuous written disclosure that consists solely of that disclosure — no waivers or extra terms on the same page — and get the applicant's written authorization, which may sit on the same document. If anything in the report might cost the candidate the offer, send the pre-adverse action notice first: a copy of the report and a written description of their FCRA rights. The FTC's employer guidance says to include the report and "A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act" with that notice. Only then take the adverse action, and follow it with a notice that names the screening company, its address and phone number, and the fact that it did not make the decision. Federal law sets no fixed waiting period between the two notices, so build a reasonable review window into your timeline instead.
7. Handle criminal history carefully. EEOC's enforcement guidance on arrest and conviction records, still in effect at our October 2026 review, treats an arrest alone as insufficient. Its targeted screen weighs the nature of the offense, the time elapsed and the nature of the job, followed by an individualized assessment. Timing is local: California bars employers with five or more employees from asking about conviction history until after a conditional offer. New York City requires the same conditional-offer timing and adds its own Fair Chance Process before a withdrawal. Washington instead bars criminal-history questions and checks until the applicant is initially determined otherwise qualified. Check the rules where you operate.
8. Separate the state's licensure checks from yours. Florida, for one, takes fingerprints for state (FDLE) and FBI background checks from CAM license applicants as part of licensing — that is the state's process, distinct from any check your company runs.
9. Keep the records. Employers covered by Title VII, the ADA and GINA must keep application forms and other hiring records for at least one year from the later of when the record was made or the personnel action taken.
10. Close the offer in writing. Put the pay, the meeting-night schedule, after-hours terms, the board relationships and how the first year will be reviewed into the offer letter.

Anchor on the federal wage data first, and read the label that comes with it. BLS tracks one occupation — property, real estate and community association managers (SOC 11-9141) — and community association managers share that series with property managers, apartment community managers and every other manager title.

In the May 2025 OEWS survey the occupation earned a median of $69,990 a year ($33.65 an hour) across all industries.

The middle half earns between $50,720 (25th percentile) and $97,910 (75th percentile). The full national distribution runs from $41,010 at the 10th percentile to $139,680 at the 90th, with a mean of $83,710 across 311,180 payroll jobs.

Two labels matter before you budget. OEWS counts payroll employees only, so a self-employed manager working directly for associations is not in these figures. And the one series covers every manager title, so treat it as context for your thinking rather than a CAM-specific quote.

For the state and metro tables, our community association manager salary data page carries the full BLS breakdown. Use your own market's row rather than the national one, then adjust for portfolio complexity and the staff under the manager.

Then decide how the salary sits against overtime law. The federal FLSA white-collar tests require a salary basis, a salary level and duties that fit an exemption. The salary level in force in 2026 is $684 a week ($35,568 a year). A federal court vacated the 2024 rule that would have raised that level, and the DOL republished the prior thresholds in the CFR by a final rule published May 15, 2026.

The duties must carry it too. The executive exemption expects managing the enterprise or a recognized department, customarily and regularly directing the work of two or more employees, and authority to hire or fire — or recommendations given particular weight. The administrative exemption is the alternative: office or non-manual work tied to running the business, with discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance.

Two traps catch employers here. Free or discounted housing never counts toward the salary test — the level is measured exclusive of board, lodging or other facilities — which matters if an on-site arrangement comes with a unit. And the highly compensated employee route ($107,432 in total annual compensation, including at least $684 a week on a salary or fee basis) never covers non-management maintenance and trades staff, however highly paid — worth remembering for the technicians and porters your managers coordinate.

A state can add a floor of its own. California, the example in our research, sets its exempt salary at no less than two times the state minimum wage for full-time employment — $16.90 an hour from January 1, 2026, which works out to $70,304 a year. Confirm your state's current threshold with its labor agency before you classify anyone.

Structure incentives around the results you screened for — clean budgets, collections, completed projects, boards that renew. If your manager is non-exempt, nondiscretionary bonuses must be folded into the regular rate for overtime weeks, and a bonus does not become discretionary just because the plan calls it that. Have employment counsel or the DOL's Wage and Hour Division confirm classification before you commit to a structure.

Start from the fact that there is no national answer: who needs a license to manage an association, and what kind, is set state by state. BLS puts the broad picture plainly — in most states property managers need a property management license or a real estate broker's license, and in some states community association managers also need a real estate license. Beyond that, a state may run a license dedicated to community association management — Florida, Illinois and Georgia each do — and each sets its own terms.

Florida is the fullest example. The Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) licenses community association managers, and no one may perform community association management for pay without a license when the associations served contain more than 10 units or an annual budget over $100,000. A community association management firm responsible for the management of more than 10 units or a budget of $100,000 or greater may not engage in that business without its own DBPR firm license. Such a firm must designate a licensed CAM, and may use only licensed persons for management services. People doing only clerical or ministerial work under a licensed CAM's direct supervision, and maintenance-only staff who do not assist with management services, sit outside the license requirement.

Florida applicants must be at least 18, submit fingerprints for state (FDLE) and FBI checks, finish pre-licensure education, certify good moral character and pass the state's exam. The education minimum is 16 classroom hours completed within 12 months before the exam. Individual licenses expire September 30 of every even-numbered year, and licensees owe 15 hours of continuing education each two-year renewal cycle — so when you verify a Florida hire, check that the license is active and the renewal clock is current.

Illinois licenses community association managers under the Community Association Manager Licensing and Disciplinary Act. Its exemptions include associations of 10 units or less, unpaid directors and officers, attorneys acting incidentally to their practice, court appointees, and an unlicensed owner's support staff such as bookkeepers and administrative assistants. A management firm needs its own firm license with a designated licensed community association manager. Note the scope line too: an Illinois CAM license does not authorize leasing or brokerage work that requires a real estate license unless the person also holds one under the Real Estate License Act of 2000.

Georgia runs a different model. Its community association manager license covers someone acting on behalf of a real estate broker in providing community association management services only — so a Georgia CAM licensee works under a broker. The Georgia Real Estate Commission issues the licenses, and PSI runs the exams.

For the full state-by-state picture of which states require a community association manager license, our licensing guide owns that question, and the state pages carry the detail: Florida, Illinois and Georgia.

Credentials are a different thing from a license. The CMCA is an entry-level credential awarded by CAMICB, the Community Association Managers International Certification Board. CAI's AMS, PCAM and LSM are among its seven voluntary professional credentials. None of them is a state license; treat them as evidence of training and verify the license separately with the state. The same seam exists on the rental side of the industry — IREM's CPM is a designation, not a license, and IREM requires graduates to hold an active real estate license only where one is required for the position in their state.

The firm level has its own accreditation. CAI's AAMC requires at least three years of community association management experience, client-verified, and a PCAM designee as the company's senior manager. Half of managers — and those who supervise managers — with at least two years at the firm must hold a CMCA, AMS, LSM or PCAM, and AAMC firms carry fidelity, general liability and workers' compensation insurance under CAI's Professional Manager Code of Ethics. AAMC is a company-level accreditation rather than an individual license, but if you are hiring into an accredited firm, those are the standards the hire works inside.

Verify rather than assume. Ask for the license number, look the person up in your state's licensee records, check the renewal date, and confirm the firm's own license is current where the hire will act under it.

Rules change, and the license lines are state law. Confirm who needs a license — and what the license covers — with the state agency named above before you extend an offer or assign an association.

Set the first 90 days as a written plan. Hand over the governing documents, the current budget and reserve schedules, the vendor contracts and insurance certificates, the bank and ledger access, and the calendar of board and annual meetings.

Introduce the boards deliberately. Sit in on the first meeting cycle with each board the manager inherits, and agree on the reporting line: what goes to your portfolio director, what goes to the board, and who drafts the packet.

Tie the plan to what you screened for: the first budget-to-actual they present, the delinquency report they inherit, the vendor contracts coming up for bid, and the violations file they will standardize.

Train for fair housing from day one, and document it. Under HUD's rule at 24 CFR 100.7, an owner or management company is vicariously liable for a discriminatory housing practice by its agent or employee, whether or not it knew or should have known of the conduct. It is also directly liable for failing to take prompt action to correct and end discrimination by its employee or agent when it knew or should have known of it. That liability — not any federal training quota — is the business case for the training record.

Do the federal paperwork on time. Every person hired after November 6, 1986 to work for pay in the U.S. needs a Form I-9. The employee completes Section 1 by the first day of work, you complete Section 2 within three business days, and you keep each form for three years after hire or one year after employment ends, whichever is later. E-Verify, a free internet-based system, can check the Form I-9 information against DHS and SSA records to confirm employment eligibility where your company uses it.

In licensed states, license maintenance is part of onboarding: put the renewal date on the company calendar. Florida's individual CAM licenses expire September 30 of every even-numbered year, with 15 hours of continuing education each two-year cycle.

Keeping a good manager is worth structure, because the broader sector moves. In BLS's JOLTS data for 2025, the real estate and rental and leasing industry averaged 1.6% of employees quitting a month and 2.6% total separations a month. That is a sector-wide series — it takes in far more than property management — so read it as weather, not a forecast for your portfolio.

The levers you control are unglamorous: pay reviewed against your market, staffing that matches the portfolio, realistic meeting-night and after-hours loads, a growth path toward portfolio or director scope, and credit when a budget, an audit or an annual meeting goes cleanly.

Employer information, not legal, tax or licensing advice — confirm licensing questions with the state agency named above, and pay and classification questions with the DOL's Wage and Hour Division or employment counsel.