Going Greek 

Sororities and fraternities continue to be a thriving tradition on college campuses, with more than 750,000 U.S. college students currently participating in these extracurricular groups.

At the heart of this experience is a unique type of college housing: the sorority or fraternity house. Serving as the touchpoint for many chapters, these distinctive multifamily facilities come with endless considerations and challenges, from the number of active stakeholders to the quest to offer competitive amenities. 

Layers of stakeholders

Sorority and fraternity houses have diverse stakeholders that influence the operations of the building.

One of these layers is the owner, who enforces specific rules or regulations and ensures the safety of residents. Sorority and fraternity houses may be owned by various parties, such as: 

• An alumni volunteer corporation. This group of nonprofessional volunteers is directly involved with the property management of a house, setting chapter housing rules, maintaining the property, and ensuring the chapter and house adhere to local safety, legal, and financial standards.
• The sponsoring national organization. This body establishes uniform rules for operations, behavior, and upkeep of all chapters. 
• The hosting college or university 
• An independent landlord

Brant Smith, CPM^®

Brant Smith, CPM^®, the principal broker at Neo Realty Group, LLC, has experience serving in various alumni volunteer corporation roles, including director of housing, for Sigma Phi Epsilon at Miami University in Ohio. 

“One distinctive characteristic of managing a fraternity house is the many layers of operations. First, you have the national housing corporation and the alumni volunteer corporations,” Smith says. “Next, there is the site or asset manager, and then the student organization, which elects a student housing manager, meaning undergraduates participate in operating an asset.” 

The university or college rules also affect the management of the house. “They are involved in all of it—the certificate of occupancy, behavioral conduct, and learning environment requirements. It’s a complex system,” Smith says.

Zoning and special variances

Sorority and fraternity houses usually have special zoning requirements dictated by the local municipality. In general, most of these residences are zoned as multifamily residential properties and require a special variance or special use permit to operate as businesses.

Mike Fouts, CPM^®

“The special variance is the anchor. It allows them to hold meetings and social events and put their letters on the building,” says Mike Fouts, CPM^®, executive director of Triangle Building & Housing Corp. Founded in 1907, Triangle is a fraternity for male students focused on careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). 

“When chapters tell me that they want to buy a house, I tell them they are really looking for a house with the zoning and variance. Because if you buy a house with the right zoning and special variance, it transfers to the new owner,” he says.

Fouts says that because of fraternity organizations’ reputations, obtaining necessary zoning and variance designations in a location that does not already have them can be difficult. 

Maintaining properties 

Keeping facilities up to code and functioning is a significant challenge for property managers. One reason is the age of these buildings. According to Today’s Homeowner, the average fraternity or sorority house is between 67 and 70 years old. Additionally, these houses undergo more wear and tear due to their communal nature than other multifamily housing. 

“It’s not exactly an apartment building, but it is a residential facility for many unrelated individuals. And they can be a bit harder on a facility than your average resident. We deal with many more holes in the walls, ceiling tiles broken out, or toilets clogged after the weekend,” says Fouts. 

Along with maintaining the property, many property managers look for ways to maintain the general cleanliness of the building and indoor air quality. 

“For deep cleans, we would hire a disaster restoration vendor who would run HEPA filters and clean the carpets as if there were a flood or fire,” Smith says. “It wasn’t necessarily because there was a lot of partying; it was just what needed to be done.”

He adds that they sometimes transitioned to hard surface flooring instead of carpets for easier cleaning. “Health and safety, as well as risk mitigation, are major concerns for property managers,” Smith says.

Renovations and amenity upgrades

Modern residence halls, some of which feature extravagant upgrades like ball pits or lazy rivers, are the main competitors for fraternity and sorority houses, Fouts says.

In response, some fraternity and sorority houses have spared no expense to stay competitive. One example is the $17 million, 40,000-square-foot Delta Zeta sorority house at the University of Alabama. Opened in 2018, the house boasts crystal chandeliers, luxurious living spaces, and wide porches with rocking chairs. 

Triangle recently completed a $4.87 million complete renovation on their house at the University of Illinois. “We have to play catch up when it comes to renovations on some of our properties,” Fouts says. “The house in Illinois was built in the early 1960s, and it needed attention. Now, it’s state of the art and a great place to live.” 

Beyond massive renovations, undergrad expectations are evolving. Smith notes that undergraduates now demand better-quality accommodations, including premium finishes, enhanced food service, and high-speed internet. “These are the features that resonate with today’s students,” Smith says.

Boosting occupancy

Even with upgraded facilities and excellent amenities, many houses still struggle with occupancy. One factor is extended on-campus living requirements. Some universities that required first-year students to live on campus have extended that to sophomores—a year when many pledged students traditionally moved to the fraternity or sorority house.  

“This takes away one of three years for our fraternity members to live in the house—and seniors often don’t want to live in the house any longer,” says Smith. “This leaves us with only the juniors.” 

In some cases, fraternal organizations work with the university to make the house an approved place for sophomores to live—with rules or GPA requirements in place.

Fouts adds, “We have to express that without us, there wouldn’t be enough beds for students. If you’re extending the live on-campus requirement to two years, that is a major pinch on our business model. We make sure universities know we want to work with them to house students.” 

Aside from working with the hosting university, there is little fraternity or sorority property managers can do to recruit new residents. 

“I have no ability to bring a new resident into the property,” Fouts says. “Every single bed is filled by somebody the organization sends to me.”

Financing sources

Financing can also be challenging for a fraternity or sorority. 

“One of the hardest parts of my job is trying to get a bank representative to understand our organization,” Fouts says. “They immediately think, ‘A fraternity at a campus where they have beer, parties, and hazing?’ Most people don’t understand that we have a national headquarters and this is a real job. It’s a nonprofit, just like Future Farmers of America, Kiwanis International, or the United States Tennis Association.”

Impacting the future

Despite the challenges, property managers say the mission and results of these organizations make managing these properties a rewarding profession. “These extracurricular organizations have a positive effect on these students for the rest of their lives,” says Fouts. “When we do fraternity and sorority housing right, there’s no better incubator for young people.”