Hire an Estate Manager
for Private Estates & Multiple Homes
Last updated:
Morgan & Mallet, a luxury household staffing agency, recruits estate managers for high-net-worth households across the US.
This is the most senior hire in a private household. Good candidates are rare and most aren’t actively looking for a new role.
We have a database of experienced, proven candidates. Our connections across the industry mean we can quickly match you with the right estate manager for your needs.
Every candidate is interviewed for 90 minutes and goes through a strong vetting process before being presented to you.
- 10+ years placing estate managers
- 3-month replacement guarantee on every placement
Since 2022, more than 800 people have applied to the estate manager jobs we’ve advertised for families in the US. From those candidates we narrow the field right down and build a shortlist for you.
Contact us today to hire an estate manager.
Source: Morgan & Mallet recruitment records, US estate manager job ads, June 2022 to December 2025. How we count
What does an estate manager do?
A private estate manager looks after everything across multiple properties for a principal or family office.
Staff, maintenance, vendors, budgets, making sure each home runs properly whether you’re there or not.
A house manager runs one home. An estate manager runs all of them.
Morgan Richez, co-founder of Morgan & Mallet: “The estate manager manages construction, renovations, property sales, rentals, finance, reporting to the family office, and travel between properties for the principal.
“The house manager is focused on one property. The estate manager is global.”
Day to day, they deal with vendor contracts, keeping on top of maintenance, insurance renewals, property taxes, and getting each home ready for the next season.
They’re the ones talking to the landscapers, pool services, HVAC contractors, electricians, plumbers, and security companies.
They know what’s in every cupboard and they’re the one signing off the roof repair, the generator install, or the smart home upgrade.
When we build the job description with you, put the projects in there from the start.
In 83% of the estate manager searches we’ve carried out in the US since 2022, the job included renovations or building work, and 83% included running events.
33% of the briefs asked for someone who could look after fine art and antiques, so tell us at the beginning if your home has a collection.
| In the job | Share of our jobs |
|---|---|
| One large estate (not several homes) | 67% |
| Renovations or building work | 83% |
| Running events | 83% |
| A family office or the principal's own office team | 50% |
| Overall responsibility to hire and fire the household staff | 50% |
| Home technology | 50% |
| The family away from the home for long periods | 50% |
| Fine art and antiques | 33% |
| Security in the home | 33% |
Every home needs to be ready before the family arrives.
Our recruiters at Morgan & Mallet see estate managers who also need to prepare properties for hurricane season: shuttering windows, testing generators, coordinating with insurance.
In Boston and the northeast, it can be snow removal, making sure pipes don’t freeze, and looking after the property all through winter. Location really does change the job for each estate manager.
If you spend nine months in Manhattan and three months in the Hamptons, your estate manager is the one sorting out which staff go with you and which stay behind, opening the summer house, and making sure nothing falls through the cracks when you move.
Jonathan de Vanderbilt, recruiter at Morgan & Mallet, points out that most losses happen during transitions. Handoffs expose weak structure.
For more detail on the exact requirements for the role, read our estate manager job description page.
Source: Morgan & Mallet US estate manager job briefs, 2022 to 2025. How we count
How is an estate manager different from a house manager?
A house manager runs one property and the staff inside it. An estate manager is in charge of all the house managers and runs the whole operation across every property you own.
Laurine Mallet, co-founder of Morgan & Mallet: “Imagine you have a property in France, another in the US, another in the UK, another in the UAE. You have one house manager per property.
“The estate manager manages all the house managers.”
The money is the biggest difference. Budgets, taxes, income from rental properties, reporting to the family office. A house manager doesn’t touch that.
They report to the estate manager, who reports to the family office director or directly to the principal.
If a family office manages your finances, look for someone who has reported to one before.
50% of the estate manager jobs in the US we’ve worked on since 2022 worked with a family office or the principal’s own office team.
Your homes are also likely to be an investment, and the estate manager looks after that part of it too. Laurine Mallet explains:
“That’s first of all, that’s investment. So they are going, for example, to buy a property and to rebuild everything, to reshape everything, decoration, whatever, and after they’re going to sell their property later on.
“… Also they can rent their property, definitely.”
Some households use the title “chief of staff” instead. The roles can overlap at senior level. From what we see, house managers tend to come from household staffing backgrounds. Chiefs of staff often come from hospitality.
Source: Morgan & Mallet US estate manager job briefs, 2022 to 2025. How we count
How much does an estate manager cost in the US?
Estate manager salaries in the United States range from $150,000 to $250,000 a year, according to Morgan & Mallet’s 2025/26 Household Staff Salaries Annual Report.
It’s one of the biggest hires a family will make, up there with private chef and chief of staff.
What they actually earn depends on the number of properties, the size of the staff team, and whether they’re also overseeing construction or renovations. NDAs add 15 to 20% on top.
Estate managers looking after $30 million or more in property usually earn at the top end.
You’ll also need to cover payroll taxes (FICA), workers’ comp, and health insurance. If you’re employing household staff directly, you’ll need an EIN and proper W-2 classification.
Putting a full-time estate manager on a 1099 is a mistake that costs people a lot of money. Live-in roles include accommodation and meals on top of pay.
Our own job briefs with clients make it clear what offers look like.
The estate manager jobs in the US we advertised with a salary in 2025 offered $140,000 to $170,000 with benefits for one large home, and $150,000 to $175,000 for a Connecticut country estate.
A job that managed three homes for a family in Palm Beach offered $200,000 or more.
| Job | Pay a year |
|---|---|
| All US estate managers (2025/26 Annual Report range) | $150,000 to $250,000 |
| One large home (our job ad, 2025) | $140,000 to $170,000 with benefits |
| A Connecticut country estate (our job ad, 2025) | $150,000 to $175,000 |
| Three homes for a family in Palm Beach (our job ad, 2025) | $200,000 or more |
Tell us your budget on the first call we have with you so we can see how it compares with our past offers and we can make recommendations based on our experience.
Morgan Richez has seen family offices get pay wrong when they hire on their own:
“We’ve got some family office[s]. They contact us to recruit some people, and they explain the current domestic workers they hire already and the people they’ve got, but they realize they pay too much sometimes.
“… They did the recruitment alone without any agency, and they didn’t realize, they didn’t do a checking for the salary.”
Source: 2025/26 Household Staff Salaries Annual Report (range); Morgan & Mallet US estate manager job briefs and ads, 2025 (pay as advertised). How we count
How hard is it to hire an estate manager?
Estate managers are harder to hire than almost any other position.
It’s the top job in a private household. There’s no one above them except the family office director or the principal.
Laurine Mallet: “You can find a lot of house managers or estate managers. But finding people with discretion and the right mindset, that’s not easy. Some people, when they get a very senior position, they feel very important.
“They think certain tasks are beneath them. A house manager needs to clean the bathroom if the housekeeper is sick. If they say ‘that’s not my job,’ they’re wrong.”
An estate manager needs to have managed staff, vendors, budgets, and construction across multiple properties at the same time. That combination is rare.
Plenty of candidates have some of the skills, but few have the whole package.
We still get plenty of applicants from job ads.
Our estate manager job ads receive about 115 people each, roughly three times what our average job ad in the US gets, and more per ad than any other role we’ve advertised in the US.
The part that takes time and experience is sorting through the applications and candidates, because the job asks for many skills.
We read every application alongside your brief, so the shortlist you see is short.
Source: Morgan & Mallet recruitment records, US job ads, June 2022 to June 2026 (16,447 applicants across all US client ads). How we count
When do you need an estate manager?
You need an estate manager when you own two or more properties and the job of looking after them all has got too big for one house manager or PA to handle.
Having multiple homes is usually part of the reason, but not the only one.
One large estate with its own staff, contractors and projects can need an estate manager too, and that actually is true for 67% of the estate manager jobs we’ve recruited for in the US.
Many families who hire through us have more than one home and staff at each one. The people who contact us are the family office director, a personal assistant, or sometimes the principal directly.
Morgan Richez: “When we work with a family office, it’s usually for many roles, not just one. They manage different properties.
“When they contact us, they say ‘we need two or three people’ or ‘we manage five or six properties, so we need staff.’ Every case is different.”
A typical setup in the US we see could be something like a principal with a penthouse or townhouse in Manhattan, a waterfront home in Palm Beach or Coral Gables, and maybe a country estate in the Hamptons or Connecticut.
If there’s a ski place in Aspen or a summer house on Nantucket, the estate manager covers those too.
Each property has a house manager. The estate manager runs all of it and reports to the family office.
Morgan Richez: “At the beginning, they don’t give you everything at once. They want to work with you on one case. Step by step, they give you more. They don’t want to hand over everything in one shot.”
This is normal. Family offices test agencies on a single hire before giving you everything else. One good hire leads to the next, and eventually we’re staffing across all their properties.
Source: Morgan & Mallet US estate manager job briefs, 2022 to 2025. How we count
Should You Hire Your Estate Manager Before the Rest of Your Staff?
Usually, yes, if you’re staffing a new home or replacing a team. Your estate manager will manage those people, so you can let them help choose the team.
In 50% of the estate manager jobs we’ve worked on since 2022 in the US, the family gave the manager overall responsibility to hire and fire the household staff.
One family in Florida asked us to hire a butler who would work alongside their estate manager, family assistant, yacht captains and pilots.
We’ve also recruited housekeepers, a nanny, a private chef and a personal assistant for homes that already had an estate manager there, and each job had to work with them.
33% of our estate manager briefs in the US also made the manager responsible for the security in the home, working with the family’s residential security staff where there was a team.
A brand-new team hasn’t had time to understand and learn your routines yet. Laurine Mallet has seen what that means:
“If, for example, they’re going to buy a new property, let’s say in London, … the staff doesn’t know yet their lifestyle.
“They need to adapt them[selves] to the client, so it’s like people new in your property, so it’s not really easy to communicate.”
An estate manager can also set up the staff for homes you buy later. Morgan Richez remembers one client:
“We got a case in Geneva for a rich client, and he employ[ed] an estate manager for five property, and he did the setup for only two property, because the three other was already staffed.
“… He just bought two new property, and he did this thing, this organization, this strategy.”
When you hire your estate manager through us, we can do the next searches for staff with them, so the people we shortlist for you fit the way they run your homes.
Source: Morgan & Mallet US job briefs for estate managers and for staff in homes with an estate manager, 2022 to 2026. How we count
What should you look for when hiring an estate manager?
Multi-property experience. Non-negotiable. They need to have managed at least two properties at the same time, with staff at each one.
Choose a minimum level of years of experience too.
For example, in the estate manager briefs in the US we’ve worked on, those with a minimum asked for five to ten years, and a Palm Beach job wanted seven to ten years managing several homes for very wealthy families.
Looking after one small home is house management. Looking after three or four homes at once is estate management, and it’s a different job.
Financial skills. Budgeting, paying vendors, keeping track of taxes, reporting expenses, and sometimes doing the bookkeeping through QuickBooks or similar.
Your estate manager reports to the family office. If they can’t produce a clear monthly report, they’re not right for the role.
Staff leadership. They’ll be managing house managers, housekeepers, chefs, gardeners, maybe a chauffeur. That means hiring, scheduling, performance reviews, and sometimes difficult conversations.
Laurine Mallet says this is the biggest problem she sees in candidates: “They manage, but they also need to respect the jobs of their colleagues and their staff. Not think ‘I’m a manager, so I don’t clean.’ That attitude fails.”
Location-specific skills. In Florida, your estate manager needs to know what to do if there’s going to be a hurricane. Shutters, generators, flood insurance, tree trimming schedules.
In Boston they need to know about snow storm maintenance and making sure pipes don’t freeze.
In California, knowing your wildfire evacuation routes and keeping the brush cleared.
Rural properties in Connecticut or the Berkshires may have septic systems, well water, and private roads that all need looking after.
Land is more work for the estate manager.
A family in Florida we recruited for in 2026 also has a ranch, and in all our estate manager searches globally since 2022, 29% had land to look after.
If your estate has land, animals or a farm, make sure to let us know at the beginning and we can find someone experienced in dealing with it.
Those jobs included a Tuscan estate that grows its own produce, a vineyard near Bordeaux and a private island in the Caribbean.
Morgan Richez: “Now, you know, the wealthy family invest a lot in the real estate. So this is very important to find people who knows how to manage properties like this.”
Discretion. At this level, your estate manager knows everything. Property values, renovation budgets, family schedules, staff salaries. One candidate Laurine interviewed started name-dropping former employers within 30 minutes. That ended the conversation.
Technology. 50% of the estate manager briefs in the US we’ve worked on asked for someone who understands and can use home technology, things like smart-home systems, sound, lighting and pool controls, and in one brief in Connecticut, property management software.
We ask candidates which tools they have used. Morgan Richez says homes in the US rely on them more than most:
“Now there is many tools, software you can buy online to manage the property and to manage the budget, to manage the payroll, to manage the planning.
“… When you face an issue with an invoice, with someone in the property or any problem with the budget, you can be very reactive and fix the issue straight away.
“… It’s very popular in [the] US and a little bit more, a little bit in the UK, but not in France, not in [the] Middle East, not yet.”
Source: Morgan & Mallet estate manager job briefs, US 2022 to 2026 and worldwide (land), 2022 to 2026. How we count
Gardeners, groundskeepers and head gardeners: who looks after the grounds?
A private gardener is employed by one household and works just on the grounds. They get to know everything about your garden, plan it for each season and become part of the household team.
A landscaping service will come every week to cut the grass, trim hedges and clear up leaves.
A head gardener leads all the gardening staff over different residences and plans for them all.
They work on planting plans for the long-term, whilst also managing the budget for the grounds and working with contractors from outside of the estate team.
On a staffed estate these roles report to the estate manager, who hires them, is clear about what is expected from them and makes sure the kitchen garden, the events calendar and the house team work well together.
We place gardeners, groundskeepers and head gardeners to work along with the estate managers we recruit. Tell us about the grounds when you give us your brief.
Gardeners care mainly for plants and flowers. Groundskeepers do most other parts of the outdoors including driveways, walls, structures and maintenance. Large estates that are over five acres, or that have complicated outdoor areas, might need to hire both.
Can an estate manager handle seasonal and multi-property homes?
Yes, and this is one of the main reasons families hire them. Families who split time between New York and the Hamptons, or the northeast and Florida, often rotate staff with the seasons.
Your estate manager is the one making that work.
Laurine Mallet, co-founder of Morgan & Mallet, on a main home with a team of five: “If, for example, you have a main property, that’s your main residency… you live there every day, you need those five people.
“But if it’s just your summer property, so you come only in July, you don’t need these five people. You just need one or two people to manage, to maintain…”
In Florida, hiring season starts in August and September. Families need properties ready before they arrive in the fall. In Boston, spring is the busy time. Families return from Florida or from abroad, and they want the house ready.
The estate manager also keeps properties running when you’re not there.
Morgan Richez describes a common setup: “Sometimes a very high-profile client hires staff for the second or third home. But when they visit, they bring their own team. The existing staff maintain the property year-round.
“It’s quite common for housekeepers in these houses to never know who the final principal is.”
One estate manager job in the US we worked on in 2025 was for three homes, in Palm Beach, New York and Massachusetts, together with the family’s cars, boats and aircraft, a private golf club and a squash court.
Make sure to agree on the hours around your own calendar and lifestyle.
A family in Los Angeles with a main home and a beach house asked for six days a week while they were home, and less while they traveled, because they were away for months.
Two other briefs we worked on had the hours at Monday to Friday, 9 to 5, with evenings, weekends or holidays when the family needed them.
Tell us about your year and how it works if you know in advance, and we’ll put the hours into the job before we start the search.
Source: Morgan & Mallet US estate manager job briefs, 2022 to 2025. How we count
Does a Second Home Need an Estate Manager?
It does if the home is large, has its own staff and is empty for a lot of the year.
In 50% of the estate manager searches we’ve done in the US since 2022, the family was away from the home for long periods at a time.
A search we did for a family in 2022 in Naples, Florida was for a 25,000-square-foot waterfront home the family used twice a year, for three to four weeks.
They lived abroad and managed it with written reports from their estate manager.
A head housekeeper and two housekeepers worked there full time, with pool and garden contractors, and the family brought their own butler, nannies and chef every time they visited.
The job was only on weekdays, about 9 to 5, on call for emergencies, with a housing allowance available for someone who wasn’t from the area.
Every estate manager job of ours in the US that said where the manager would live was live-out.
Families who live abroad often hire like this. Morgan Richez sees it with clients from the Middle East:
“When it comes to [the] Middle East, they can hire an estate manager, but for their properties overseas, not for their properties in [the] Middle East.
“… They own properties in [the] US or even in [the] UK, and they hire [an] estate manager who will manage those properties.”
A staffed house with nobody home still needs someone to run it, especially a large one. Laurine Mallet explains why:
“When you’ve got a property like that and the owner[s] are not there, obviously the housekeepers or the staff can talk, can be [a] bit talkative… because the property is empty, they’ve got time to argue.
“… It’s a very big [property], and the client can come any time without telling anyone, just the security… ‘I’m coming tomorrow.’
“And this kind of client, they would like the property being clean every single full time, and it’s an investment also, having this kind of property.”
| Your home | Who to hire |
|---|---|
| A large, staffed home you use part of the year | an estate manager, like in the search we did in Naples. |
| An estate with land where you want people living on site | live-in domestic couples, like on the 140-acre and 15-acre estates we've recruited for in Pennsylvania and Virginia. |
| A smaller home with no staff | a property caretaker who keeps it ready between your visits, like the part-time caretaker we searched for in 2025 for a French second home used about six weeks a year. |
Let us know how much you’re there and who works there now, and we’ll tell you what you need.
Source: Morgan & Mallet estate manager and couple job briefs, US 2022 to 2026; one French caretaker brief, 2025. How we count
How do you hire an estate manager through an agency?
We start with the family office or principal. How many properties? How many staff at each one? Who does this person report to? Is this a new position or a replacement?
This first call matters more for estate managers than for almost any other role, because the family office often doesn’t have the full picture.
Morgan Richez: “The family office doesn’t live with the principal. They manage the wealth and finance, but they don’t always know how the principal lives. Sometimes they contact us without knowing the full expectations.
“That’s a problem we need to solve before we start searching.”
At this level, headhunting works better than job ads. The best estate managers are already running someone else’s properties. They’ll only move for something better.
We approach candidates directly through our network and through LinkedIn. For most estate manager searches, that’s where the best people come from.
Our network has 536 people in it who have held an estate or property manager role, and we don’t just take people from private homes either.
Our briefs in the US in 2025 were open to applications from directors of residences, chief stewards and people from five-star hospitality, and one Connecticut family saw an executive assistant background as a real positive.
Every candidate does the usual 90-minute interview, plus we test them with real scenarios.
- How would you handle a renovation delay that affects a principal’s arrival at the second property?
- A vendor cancellation the night before a major event?
- A housekeeper going off sick when the family’s flying in tomorrow morning?
For very wealthy families, hiring involves multiple rounds. Morgan Richez: “First you talk to the PA, then maybe the family office director, then the estate manager if there is one already, and lastly the principal.
“The more important the client, the more steps.”
We guarantee every estate manager placement for three months and stay in close contact during that period.
Source: Morgan & Mallet candidate database, June 2026; US estate manager job briefs, 2025. How we count
Estate manager job description
We commonly write estate manager job descriptions and here is an example of one we might typically write.
Example of an estate manager job description
A typical estate manager brief comes from a family with two or three properties and a clear chain of command.
The estate manager runs the staff teams across each home and reports to a family office or directly to the principal.
Not every brief looks like this. Where there is a lot of construction work the role can be different.
When a property is being renovated, the estate manager runs the project with the architect, project manager and contractors, and that takes a different kind of candidate.
Households spread across more than three time zones are different again.
Morgan Richez, co-founder of Morgan & Mallet, has seen families with homes in the Middle East move on a similar pattern each season, “Dubai to London in July, then the South of France for August.
“The estate manager has to make sure every property is ready before the family lands.”
It is worth being specific about which version of the role you are hiring for. The candidate market for a construction-orientated estate manager is much smaller.
Job description
A private family with three homes is looking for an experienced estate manager to run each property and the staff teams inside them, reporting into the family office.
Job duties and responsibilities
- Recruit, train, and supervise domestic staff across each property
- Oversee all maintenance and repairs across the property’s grounds and buildings
- Manage the property budget
- Make sure all utilities are in good working order
- Travel between properties to check in with staff and keep things on track
- Be the main point of contact for staff and outside service providers
- Be the first call in an emergency
- Inspect the property before the owner arrives
- Provide ongoing support to the principal and the family office
Profile requirements
- At least 7 years of experience in a similar position
- Discreet, with a strong sense of confidentiality
- Comfortable working independently and as part of a team
- Strong negotiation and conflict resolution skills
- Able to work well under pressure with strong time management
- Advanced computer skills and quick to respond to emails and messages
- Full, clean driver’s license
- Authorized to work in the US
Job conditions
- Full-time, with flexibility on evenings and weekends
- Live-out
- Salary based on experience
This job description was reviewed by Morgan Richez, co-founder of Morgan & Mallet.
Frequently Asked Questions About Hiring an Estate Manager
Call us on +1 (646) 965-2308 or tell us about your homes and a recruiter will get back to you.
How long does it take to hire an estate manager?
Four to eight weeks. This is a senior role with a limited candidate pool. If you need someone who can also manage a build or has experience with properties in other countries, it takes longer.
Can an estate manager also handle property development?
Some can. If you’re renovating or building, you need a residential estate manager who has actually managed construction before, not just the household side. We can search for this, but it narrows the pool.
What background do the best estate managers come from?
It varies. Luxury hotel management is the most common background, and those candidates are used to running big properties with large teams. We also see strong candidates from corporate facilities management, real estate development, and the military.
A hospitality management degree or a project management certification helps, but what clients care about most is hands-on experience running private properties and managing household staff.
Is an estate manager the same as a property manager?
No. A property manager deals with tenants and rental income. An estate manager in a private household runs the entire operation: staff, maintenance, vendors, budgets, security, and logistics across multiple homes. It’s a bigger job.
Do you place estate managers outside major cities?
Yes. The Hamptons, Greenwich, Aspen, Palm Beach, the Berkshires, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, Jackson Hole, Scottsdale, anywhere our clients have properties. Rural estate searches take longer and may need a live-in arrangement.
What about employment law for estate managers?
If your estate manager works across multiple states, things get more complicated. New York’s Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights, California’s strict labor protections, and Florida’s at-will employment rules all have different requirements for overtime, days off, and contract terms.
If your estate manager is classified as a household employee, you’re responsible for W-2 reporting, FICA withholding, and state unemployment taxes in the state where their work is based (your accountant or employment lawyer will confirm which).
We connect you with employment lawyers in each state and can help set up contracts that work across states.
Do you place gardeners and groundskeepers as well as estate managers?
Yes. We recruit private gardeners, groundskeepers and head gardeners for staffed homes and estates across the US, usually alongside the estate or house manager who leads them. Brief us on the grounds and the team.
Call us on +1 (646) 965-2308 or tell us about your homes and a recruiter will get back to you.
Hire an Estate Manager
Ready to find the right estate manager for your properties? Call Morgan & Mallet on (646)965-2308 or contact us online.
New York
office address
260 Madison Avenue, 8th floor, 10016, New York, NY - United States
phone
+1 (646)965-2308
opening hours
Monday - Thursday : 9AM - 6PM
Friday : 9AM - 5PM
Saturday & Sunday : Closed
Miami
office address
1555 NE 121st Street, Suite 104, North Miami, FL 33161, United States
phone
+1 305 710 3380
opening hours
Monday - Thursday : 9AM - 6PM
Friday : 9AM - 5PM
Saturday & Sunday : Closed
Los Angeles
office address
895 Dove St, Newport Beach, CA 92660, United States
phone
+1 305 710 3380
opening hours
Monday - Thursday : 9AM - 6PM
Friday : 9AM - 5PM
Saturday & Sunday : Closed