Who is calling, and what do they need?
Residents report maintenance issues, owners ask about their property, and prospective renters enquire about availability. Maintenance urgency should be defined by the manager’s own process and coverage.
Keep the top-level menu in the caller’s language. In Auto Attendant each option does one thing: it rings up to three phones one after another (each for 10 to 60 seconds, never together), takes a voicemail, or plays a message and hangs up. Point each option at the person, or the shared phone, that actually handles this call, and add a backup only where a missed call costs you.
How property management company calls actually go
A property manager’s phone is split between tenants, owners and prospects, and between emergencies and everything else. Most calls are ordinary: a rent question, a repair request, a lockout, a leasing enquiry. A few are real emergencies where delay damages property or endangers people. The menu’s job is to make that second group easy to reach and impossible to confuse with the first.
Because maintenance is usually dispatched to outside vendors, the on-call design resembles a trades business: a named duty person, one backup and a clearly worded emergency definition. Without a definition, every call becomes an emergency or none does.
Recommended menu
| Caller’s choice | Role to ring | What it does | Why this route |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Resident maintenance request | maintenance coordinator, then on-call technician | Rings up to 3 phones in turn, then voicemail | The coordinator logs the issue and rings first; the on-call technician rings next when it is urgent or the coordinator is busy. |
| 2. Current owner or property question | property manager | Rings one phone | One manager can direct the caller to the right portfolio contact. |
| 3. Rental availability | leasing agent | Rings one phone | Leasing enquiries stay separate from resident service requests. |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
Shaded text is a fill-in field: replace it with your own.
This example uses 3 menu options. Auto Attendant allows up to seven; add an option only when it sends a distinct kind of caller to a meaningfully different destination. A call that rings every phone you listed without an answer goes to voicemail. The menu can be in English, French or Spanish, and a line can also skip the menu and go straight to one action.
Greeting script
Business name. For a resident maintenance request, press 1. If you are a property owner, press 2. For rental availability, press 3.
Shaded text is a fill-in field: replace it with your own.
22 words, about 9 seconds spoken at 150 words per minute. The estimate is calculated from the script above; allow extra time for pauses and clear delivery.
Read each reason before its key, as in “For a new enquiry, press 1”. Replace the shaded fields and any role or service wording before you type the greeting into the menu; a text-to-speech voice reads it to callers.
A worked example
Illustration: a manager of 120 units offers 1 for a maintenance emergency, worded with what counts (water that cannot be stopped, no heat in winter, a gas smell, fire), 2 for routine maintenance, 3 for leasing and 4 for owners and accounting. Option 1 rings the duty coordinator during office hours; option 2 takes a voicemail for the next business day. Outside office hours the closed message gives the emergency instructions from the lease, then takes a voicemail.
The failure pattern is the one-key emergency line that rings a manager’s personal phone for non-emergency repairs, every night, for months. The manager stops answering, and the one real emergency goes to voicemail.
After hours, weekends, and holidays
After hours the closed message plays and then takes a voicemail; calls are not forwarded. State the company’s emergency instructions in that message, such as the after-hours contact given in the lease, and which calls they cover.
Confirm the duty contact before each weekend or holiday. State when routine leasing and owner enquiries will be reviewed.
Outside the hours you set, Auto Attendant plays your closed message and then takes a voicemail or ends the call; it does not forward calls after hours, and holidays are closed all day. Where the advice above mentions an on-call route, either keep that person’s option within your set hours or give the arrangement in the closed message.
Check the greeting after every schedule change. A voicemail arrives by email with the recording attached and a transcript when one is produced, but it does not make the call live or guarantee a response time.
Rules and standards worth knowing
Housing providers are covered by the Fair Housing Act, including its ban on discriminatory statements and advertisements about rental housing 1. HUD’s overview and the Department of Justice’s summary describe what that means for landlords 23. Leasing scripts and greetings should describe the property and process, not the type of tenant who will be welcome.
EPA’s Renovation, Repair and Painting rule says property management companies that perform or offer work disturbing paint in pre-1978 residential buildings must be lead-safe certified firms 4. Maintenance staff answering tenant calls should know to ask the building’s age when a repair request involves painted surfaces.
Moisture and mould complaints are common. EPA’s guidance is that controlling moisture is the key to controlling mould 5, which means a prompt leak response is also a mould prevention step. Place leak and water intrusion in the emergency definition.
This is general information, not legal advice. Rules differ by state and change; confirm anything that affects your business with the source or an adviser.
Common menu mistakes
- Calling every maintenance report an emergency.
- Putting residents, owners, and leasing leads on one route.
- Leaving a former property manager on a route after responsibilities change.
Keep the greeting short, use the same names callers see elsewhere, and make sure every route has a sensible end when nobody picks up.
Check the menu before you publish it
- Write the emergency definition and read it at the top of the maintenance branch.
- Name a duty person and a backup for every night and weekend.
- Keep leasing and maintenance on different keys so prospects do not wait behind a repair queue.
- Ask maintenance callers for unit number and building, not just a name.
- Review the Fair Housing implications of any script with counsel.
Related guides and templates
- Real estate brokerage: phone menu guide
- Plumbing business: phone menu guide
- HVAC business: phone menu guide
- Cleaning service: phone menu guide
- Urgent after-hours line for trades: call-flow template
- Sequential on-call escalation: call-flow template
- Role mailbox greeting: call-flow template
- Weekend greeting: call-flow template
- Call routing and menu design
- Emergency calling
Further reading
Longer research pieces on this topic, each with its own source list and a downloadable PDF.
Articles on this topic
Topics Small business phone Auto attendant Call forwarding Voicemail All topics
Sources
Every regulatory and pricing claim on this page links to the primary source it came from. Figures were checked on the date shown at the top of the page; rules and prices change, so verify before relying on one.
- 42 U.S.C. § 3604, Discrimination in the sale or rental of housing and other prohibited practices (Fair Housing Act). Retrieved 14 Oct 2026
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/3604 - HUD, Housing Discrimination Under the Fair Housing Act. Retrieved 14 Oct 2026
https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/fair_housing_equal_opp/fair_housing_act_overview - US Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, The Fair Housing Act. Retrieved 14 Oct 2026
https://www.justice.gov/crt/fair-housing-act-1 - EPA, Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Program. Retrieved 14 Oct 2026
https://www.epa.gov/lead/renovation-repair-and-painting-program - EPA, Mold. Retrieved 14 Oct 2026
https://www.epa.gov/mold