An established, privately held real estate investment and property management company with a significant portfolio of multifamily properties is seeking an experienced Real Estate Controller to lead the company's accounting and financial reporting and operational finance functions.
This is the company's senior accounting and financial management position and is designed for an experienced real estate financial professional with substantial multifamily or commercial real estate accounting and financial management experience and possess a strong understanding of property operations, internal controls, lender reporting, and financial analysis.
The Controller will report directly to ownership/senior management and will work closely with the company's accounting and property management teams, outside CPAs, tax advisors, and other professionals.
The position combines strong real estate accounting and controllership responsibilities with financial oversight, cash management, lender coordination, budgeting, forecasting, and decision support.
Responsibilities:Accounting & FP&A Leadership- The Controller will work closely with and supervise the Senior Manager responsible for significant portions of the day-to-day accounting and FP&A process.
- Oversee accounting and financial reporting for the company's multifamily portfolio, property-level ownership entities and management company.
- The Controller maintains overall financial accountability and senior-level oversight while the Senior Manager leads much of the detailed accounting, budgeting, forecasting, and analytical work.
- Establish and maintain accounting policies, procedures, reporting standards, and internal controls.
- Work directly with ownership and senior management on significant accounting, financial, cash-flow, and property-performance matters.
- Ensure ownership receives accurate, timely, and decision-oriented financial information.
- Develop accounting personnel and establish appropriate levels of review and accountability.
- Delegate detailed accounting and analytical responsibilities while maintaining overall accountability for the financial function.
- Serve as the primary internal financial contact for outside CPAs and tax professionals.
- Coordinate year-end financial reporting and supporting schedules for property, partnership, and corporate tax returns.
- Coordinate annual audits, reviews, tax return preparation, and lender examinations.
- Improve efficiency through standardization, automation, and better use of the company's accounting and property management systems.
Real Estate Accounting- Maintain overall responsibility for accounting across the multifamily portfolio and related ownership entities.
- Review property-level income statements, balance sheets, general ledgers, cash flows, and budget-to-actual results.
- Ensure proper accounting for rental income, concessions, delinquencies, bad debt, security deposits, operating expenses, capital expenditures, and other property activity.
- Review material property-level variances and ensure significant issues are investigated and resolved.
- Maintain responsibility for timely and accurate monthly, quarterly, and annual financial statements.
- Review monthly reporting packages prepared by the accounting and FP&A team to ensure that the reporting translates accounting information into useful management information.
- Provide ownership with consolidated and property-level reporting addressing:
Revenue and collections
Operating expenses
NOI and NOI trends
Budget-to-actual performance
Significant financial variances
Occupancy
Capital expenditures
- Identify financial issues requiring management attention rather than simply reporting historical results.
- Improve reporting processes and management dashboards as appropriate.
- Working closely with the Senior Manager, Accounting & FP&A, the Controller will oversee the company's budgeting, forecasting, and financial planning processes.
- Review assumptions regarding rents, occupancy, collections, payroll, utilities, repairs and maintenance, insurance, real estate taxes, and other operating expenses.
- Review monthly and quarterly forecasts and significant changes in projected results.
- Analyze actual performance against budget, forecast, and prior periods.
- Review property-level and portfolio-level NOI trends.
- Oversee cash-flow forecasting and liquidity planning.
- Develop forward-looking analyses for ownership regarding property operations, capital expenditures, debt obligations, and other significant financial matters.
Internal Controls & Risk Management- Establish and maintain strong financial and accounting controls throughout the organization.
- Maintain appropriate controls over cash receipts, disbursements, vendor setup, invoice approvals, bank accounts, journal entries, security deposits, intercompany transactions, and owner distributions.
- Ensure appropriate segregation of duties within the accounting department.
- Identify weaknesses in accounting procedures and implement corrective measures.
- Maintain documentation and audit trails for significant financial transactions.
- Continuously improve accounting processes, systems, and controls.
- Maintain overall responsibility for property-level and corporate cash management.
- Review cash positions, funding requirements, reserves, and upcoming obligations.
- Oversee bank accounts, reconciliations, transfers, and treasury controls.
- Maintain appropriate controls over operating accounts, security deposit accounts, escrows, and reserves.
Capital Expenditures & Fixed Assets- Maintain financial oversight of major property capital expenditures and renovation programs.
- Review accounting treatment of repairs versus capital expenditures.
- Maintain appropriate fixed-asset records and supporting schedules.
- Monitor major capital projects against approved budgets.
- Coordinate depreciation, fixed assets, and cost-segregation information with outside tax professionals.
Financing- Maintain comprehensive schedules of outstanding debt, interest rates, amortization, maturity dates, escrows, reserves, and material loan requirements.
- Review mortgage statements and ensure proper accounting for principal, interest, escrows, reserves, and lender-controlled accounts.
- Oversee lender financial reporting and covenant compliance.
- Support ownership in the financial and accounting aspects of acquisitions, dispositions, and refinancings.
- Participate in acquisition financial due diligence.
- Review historical acquisition property financial statements, rent rolls, operating expenses, capital expenditures, taxes, and other financial information.
- Assist in evaluating the reasonableness of acquisition assumptions and projected NOI.
- Review closing statements and ensure proper accounting for acquisitions, dispositions, and refinancings.
- Establish accounting systems, bank accounts, controls, and reporting procedures for newly acquired properties.
- Coordinate financial information requested by lenders, CPAs, and other transaction professionals.
Qualifications- Bachelor's degree in Accounting or Finance;
- Accounting degree with CPA strongly preferred.
- Approximately 10+ years of progressive accounting and financial experience, with significant experience in multifamily or commercial real estate.
- Strong leadership, organizational, analytical, and communication skills.
- Controller experience with substantial real estate owner/operator, developer or property management firm strongly preferred.
- Strong experience managing multifamily accounting professionals.
- Advanced Excel and financial analysis capabilities. Real estate accounting / property management software experience required.
We are seeking an individual who combines real estate accounting expertise, financial management capabilities, leadership, strong internal controls, and an ownership-oriented perspective.
Salary: $180,000 - $210,000 base
Benefits:
- 401(k) matching
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Life insurance
- Paid time off
- Referral program
- Vision insurance
