“Must be able to handle stressful, urgent, diverse situations in a calm and reasonable manner” is a line in a Job Description for Leasing Professionals at Greystone Properties, LLC. Well, I am here to tell you how it really is in the world of leasing apartments. Sometimes it ain’t easy to remain calm, cool and collected in a stressful situation. It can be especially more difficult if you are a Community or Property Manager who is filling in for a short staffed team.
May I share a few little things that have happened to me – some a while ago a couple that occurred only a day or so ago. Being somewhat out of practice or being very new to the business, we all learn on the fly. No one can really prepare you for the things that can come up during a property tour or apartment showing. The thing is, you just have to embrace your own unique style and enjoy the rollercoaster that each day in property management is.
Take for example, the time that I was actually a Manager who also leased the apartments. You know how they say we are all creatures of habit? Roll eyes, now. I had this particular resident who only EVER came to the office at 6:00 PM. For three years, this was her habit. So, the evening she came and brought me her rent check, and NOT being a Clock-Watcher (in fact, had no clock in the Office at all), I assumed <GASP> it was closing time of 6:00 PM. So I dutifully locked the door after she left and went to the back office to grab my change of clothes for my off time work out wear. Fully garbed in black workout pants and loose T-shirt, gym shoes and hair all pulled back, I heard someone knocking on the door. I ran to open it, thinking it was a Resident. To my surprise it was a Prospect who took one look at me and looked puzzled. I immediately jumped back into Leasing Whiz kid and told her, although it was technically after hours, I would stay over and show her around (and do my best to find her the perfect apartment home.) The whole time, she kept asking if I needed to be somewhere else and I kept insisting it was no trouble for me to stay over. When she left, she looked at me with an expression that said, “Clearly you are a nutty person” and said, “Don’t you usually close at 6:00?”
Again, I stated we did and it was my pleasure to assist her and I thanked her and closed the door. I then grabbed my stuff and ran out to the car thinking I was 45 minutes late. I started the car and looked at the digital clock on the dashboard. “What?????”
It was 5:45 PM. No wonder that Prospect didn’t lease. Would you lease from someone who clearly cannot tell time?
Or, how about the tour where I was taking a young couple who was accompanied by both sets of parents, grandmothers, aunts and uncles – everyone except the family pets – on a tour. I notice there are stray pieces of junk mail littering the tour path so I stoop the pick it up not realizing until it was too late that the paper was encasing three large pieces of dog pooh that rolled right out on top of my peep toe shoe - in front of every person in the entourage.
I especially was thrown off once when it was summer. I wanted to highlight the sparkling blue pool we had just refinished with a glittery finish and it was especially stunning glistening in the sunlight. So, off I go with my Prospects, a nice elderly couple who had just mentioned how much they enjoy swimming and how their doctor had recommended they continue since it was easy on their joints. Imagine my motification to find some young men passing a joint round at the pool surrounded by empty beer cans. One person’s joint – tomayto, tomahta …
Or, the time I took my Prospects to the dry sauna. When I opened the door, I discover a couple of horny, oversexed fourteen year olds with barely any clothes on making out hot and heavy on the wooden bench. I quickly back up trying to prevent my Prospects from seeing what was happening and try to close the door. I think to myself – won’t this be a fun phone call to their parents?
But one of my favorite stories is the one where I am touring some Prospects through my own unit. At the time, there were no vacant apartments, so by default, I would show the furnished unit I would stay in when in town. At one point, however, I had canceled the contract on the rented furniture and started buying a few pieces myself. So, this one family I was touring had a young son about eleven years old. All throughout the tour, he kept opening up closets, cabinet drawers but when he got to the dresser in one of the bedrooms, he opened it up, pulling out some unmentionables and said, “Hey, look, Mom! They even put underwear in here!” I quickly grabbed the panties out of his hand and stuffed them back into the drawer. Talk about being embarrassed – because after they moved in they realized that the apartment they toured was where I stayed.
Yeah. They don’t tell you things like this happen when you interview for a position as a Leasing Consultant. And they sure don’t tell you to prepare for things like that when you are a Manager. J
