Sooner Or Later, Something Shocks You

If you stay in the property management field long, you are bound to run across something that shocks you. This happened to the on-call maintenance tech during the recent Fourth of July holiday weekend. Apparently, he received a page from the Resident in apartment X reporting the air conditioning was not working. He received two different calls, as a matter of fact, and because he couldn’t make out the phone number of the second call he called me to decipher it. I have an excellent track record of doing this.

We confer and I figure out whose number it is and think nothing more about it. I call the Resident and tell him the on-call Tech will be there in about an hour. It was a Saturday night. At 11:02 P.M. I receive the first distress call, followed by another a couple minutes later. Suffice it to say it was not a good time for me… we’ll let it go at that. Two words: Food Poisoning. Use your imagination. Anyway, I call him to find out what the matter is.

Apparently, the first call went fine and he went to attend to the second page. When he reached this unit, he was greeted by an aggressive female, baring breasts and asking him for a little sexual escapade. Really, I’ll tell you, most Maintenance Techs at one time or another encounters this very thing. However, what my Maintenance Tech soon discovered was the female, who was not on the Lease, was staging the encounter to be “filmed” and broadcast over the internet by the actual Resident on the Lease. He was horrified. No kidding. I was horrified but not shocked. My Maintenance Tech was shocked. I worked a Section 8 property once where a couple was making pornographic “shorts” (no pun intended) to be viewed by paying customers on the internet. I caught a little discrepancy in their reported income when it came time for their annual recertification. <grin> They no longer live there.

The Tech kept asking me what I was going to do about this. I told him to report it to the police department and I’d take care of it on Monday.

On Monday I served the “Guest” a Trespass Notice with a police officer. In fact, we escorted her into a cab and sent her to the bus station. Once I had police reports in hand dating back to incidents from the previous month (Month!) I gave the Resident a Notice of Non-Renewal. It took him more than a week to call me to discuss the letter and ask if he could stay. “No,” I told him. “This is now an issue where I have an employee who feels as though he cannot do his job properly. He feels threatened. So, no, I can’t allow you to stay when your lease ends. You will need to find a new residence.”

“Okay,” he replied. He is now looking for a new home. I don’t feel bad about it either.

This Is Why I Wouldn't Hire You, Ms. D

Recently there was a discussion thread on the Multifamily Insiders site regarding this Post:

“I have been a leasing consultant for 4 months now. After one month I felt like this wasn't the place for me. My assistant manager and property manager are both very fond of me but I have to consider my future. Is it too early to start looking else where?” ~Danielle

“It depends on if you see a future in this industry. When I was a leasing agent, I was overqualified (in my opinion) and felt that I could be the property manager because at the time, I already had a college degree and a real estate license--both of which my property manager didn't have.” ~Nathan Borne

“Thank you Nathan!! I feel so much better after reading your response; mostly because I can relate. I felt the same way when I got hired. I felt overqualified and the pay is too low. I have a 4 year degree and my manager does not. The only thing they have over me is the experience in this field. But I have very many transferable skills from working in the education, staffing, and non profit markets. Not to mention I was a Resident Assistant in college for two years!” ~Danielle

Here’s the thing, Danielle. You have been in the industry for about a minute and already you think you can do the job of managing a multimillion dollar company better than the person in place. And maybe you can. However, DON’T come to me and ask me to hire you. This is why.

1. Attitude. I think your attitude is questionable, to say the least.
2. Ego. Please check your ego at the door. Property Management is a team sport. Yes, of course there are stand-out players, but even the Star Players need to control their egos.
3. Attitude. Sorry, I can’t get past this one.
4. Closing Ratio. What is yours? If it is less than 65%, you cannot qualify to lease for me because right now you think you know it all.
5. Trainability. Your attitude will prevent you from being open-minded about learning new things.

I suppose this sounds harsh. However, I invest a lot of time and money in whomever I hire for any property management position. I don’t want someone to come on-site who has no experience at MY PROPERTY or with MY COMPANY and feels she/he knows more than I do about MY PROPERTY or MY COMPANY.

This is not to say that after two weeks on the job, you won’t be able to be promoted. This is not to say that after a month on the job you couldn’t run the whole show. More power to you! But there’s a way to show me you can do it. Come in every morning embracing a new leasing strategy, a new technique for turning the units, a method that will save the company money, or do something simple like set a goal for leasing a certain number of apartments that week and then achieve it.

What I don’t want to see is you sitting at your desk texting your friends but not the Prospects. I don’t want to hear you answer the phone in a dull, listless monotone. I don’t want to know that you are rolling your eyes every time I say something, the Assistant Manager says something, or the Maintenance Techs do. I don’t want to hear you muttering in your cell phone to your mother about how bored you are and how you should be running the company because you are so much smarter than everyone here and at the Corporate Office. You may well be very qualified to do that. However, while you are working at XYZ Property you owe it to yourself and to every person there to do the best work you are capable of producing without complaining and posting how much you hate your job.