Christopher Sung
Assistant Manager · Sares-Regis Group
FountainGlen Laguna Niguel · Orange County, CA
"I've spent five years learning every part of this industry — and what I've found is that the best operators aren't just good at the work, they're good at making the work better."
I'm Christopher Sung, the Assistant Manager at FountainGlen Laguna Niguel — a 190-unit Sares-Regis Group community in South Orange County. Property management is genuinely what I want to be doing. Not as a stepping stone to something else, but because I find the operational puzzle of running a residential community interesting in a way that keeps me engaged every day.
My background covers the full real estate spectrum — I started my career in title and escrow, got licensed as a Realtor, spent time educating first-time homebuyers, moved into leasing, and worked my way through assistant management at two different companies before landing where I am now. Each of those experiences built something that I use in my current role, even when the connection isn't obvious on the surface.
What I actually do at FountainGlen
On any given day at FountainGlen I'm working through a mix of audits, marketing reporting, renewals, notices, vendor coordination, and resident situations. I work closely with our Community Manager and I'm involved in most of the operational decisions that keep a 190-unit community running the right way.
The stretch I'm most proud of happened in early 2026. Our leasing agent left in January and rather than let things slide, I absorbed the full leasing role on top of everything I was already doing as assistant manager. I ran tours, worked the leads, followed up with prospects, processed applications, and closed leases — while keeping all the operational work going at the same time. Over three months we took the community from 88% occupancy to 97%. It was a lot, but it's the kind of experience that shows you what you're actually capable of.
The builder side of things
One of the things that distinguishes how I work is that I don't just accept a process because that's how it's always been done. If something is manual and repetitive, I'll build something to fix it. I use Power Automate to handle recurring daily workflows so they happen automatically instead of by hand. I use Excel Power Query to automate the data cleaning and formatting that used to take up a chunk of the morning. I write VBA scripts — using AI to help bridge the gap between knowing what I want and getting the code right — to eliminate admin tasks that don't need a human every time they run.
This isn't something I was trained to do. It came from caring about the quality of the work and having a low tolerance for doing the same thing manually over and over when a better solution exists.
The path here
I graduated from CSU Channel Islands in 2020 with a degree in Business Administration, got my real estate license, and started in title and escrow — the unglamorous backend of real estate transactions where you learn quickly how things actually work. From there I moved into homebuyer education and residential sales, and somewhere along the way I made a decision for myself: being a real estate agent wasn't the right path for me.
So I moved into property management — and knew almost immediately that this was where I was supposed to be. My first step was at a behemoth of a property, Greystar's 675-unit community in Aliso Viejo. I came in ready to learn, leaned on my colleagues, soaked up everything I could about how a high-volume operation actually runs — and within three months I was hitting 50%+ closing ratios and genuinely understanding what high-volume leasing looks like at scale.
From there I took my next step into the Assistant Manager role at FountainGlen Laguna Niguel, where I am now. I keep my real estate license active because it's a prerequisite for the Community Manager role — so that's less of a choice and more of a given. I'm also working toward my ARM through IREM, which I see as the right credential to be building toward at this stage. I'm not in a rush — I'd rather do the current role well than chase the next title before I've earned it.
Where I'm headed
If I'm being honest about where I see myself going — it's Regional Manager. That's the goal. Not tomorrow, and I'm not naive about the distance between here and there. It's more like a five-to-ten year picture that I keep coming back to and that keeps shaping the decisions I make now.
The next real step for me is Community Manager. I want to earn that role at a smaller community first, prove what I can do with full ownership, and then grow into progressively larger properties from there. I genuinely believe the path to Regional runs straight through that kind of experience — smaller community, medium, large — and I want to build it the right way rather than skip steps.
What I'm looking for right now, more than anything, is a mentor. Someone who's been in this industry long enough to have the perspective I don't have yet — who can help me understand what it actually takes to make that climb, what mistakes to avoid, what to prioritize at this stage of the career. I have the drive and I'm putting in the work. I just think the right guidance from the right person could make a significant difference in how I get there.