A Day In The Life of a Property Manager
May 8, 2014
This blog was comically written to demonstrate how busy we can be as Property Managers. Obviously this is just an example of how a day can go… they can be better or worse… but it’s why we very much appreciate the understanding and patience from residents about leaving voice mails and emails and scheduling a time to meet with us if you ever need to. We work hard to keep the property looking nice for you, and do whatever we can to help make your home wonderful, and we hope that shows. Our schedules change minute by minute and we never know what the day will bring. Regardless, please don’t hesitate to leave us a message and we will always return your calls and emails as soon as we can.
A Day In The Life of a Property Manager…
6:00: Alarm clock goes off. Hit snooze.
6:08: Alarm clock goes off. Hit snooze. Open eyes. Close eyes.
6:16: Alarm clock goes off. Hit snooze. Open eyes. Decide to get up
6:17: Think ahead to how busy your day will be and decide to go back to bed.
6:24: Alarm clock goes off. Hit snooze. Open eyes. Really get up this time.
6:30: Shower. Ok now you’re finally awake.
7:00: Grab something for breakfast as this may be the only chance to eat until Noon.
7:10: Hair and make-up, let the dog out, feed the dog.
7:30: Do you go in early, or enjoy a few more minutes at home?
7:40: Caught some of the “Today Show” and decided to go in a smidge early.
7:45: Arrive at the office to a basket full of rent checks, check-in forms, keys, and miscellaneous notes.
8:00: Appointments begin with appliance repair, carpet installer, and “Tom the dryer vent guy”
8:05: Sort through rent checks, check-in forms, keys, and miscellaneous notes. Oh look, you have 5 voice mails and 13 emails to respond to.
8:30: Maintenance team arrives to collect work orders as you are still scrambling to check voice mails and emails for any maintenance requests.
8:45: Maintenance team leaves with 10 work orders
9:00: Three residents have called since maintenance left requesting work be done in their apartment. You call maintenance and ask them to come back.
9:05: Still sorting through the basket, you realize you forgot to order a dishwasher for a resident. Gotta email Tammy at Grand Appliance.
9:06: Continue sorting, all while thinking of ideas for social media, trying to decide if you want to replace bathroom vinyl in a unit or not, debating getting the yellow lines in the garages repainted, and wondering if you should squeeze in a couple more vacation days before summer.
10:00: First scheduled appointment for an apartment showing.
10:15: Showing did not show up. Thanks!
10:20: The scheduled showing for 11:00 arrives 40 minutes early. You apologize, tell them they are very early, and explain that we have to honor the scheduled showing time out of respect for the resident.
10:25: Someone stops by and asks to see a vacant unit. Sure, why not? Let’s go.
10:35: Showing complete. She has more apartments to look at but she’ll keep this one in mind.
10:36: A resident is waiting for you at your office when you arrive back from the showing. She just came to say HI because she hasn’t talked to you in awhile.
10:50: A call comes in that someone has a flooded bathroom. Time to scramble.
10:51: Calls go out to maintenance and the plumber, and the 11:00 showing arrives… again.
10:54: Try and remain calm doing the showing while your mind is focused heavily on the bathroom that is turning into a waterpark.
11:15: Showing complete. They love it and want to submit an application before they leave. Still focused on the waterpark, you ask them to complete the application in the other room so you can make more calls looking for updates on the flood.
11:35: Application turned in. You just rented an apartment! Yay!!
11:38: Notice you have 19 emails that have piled up since this morning. They’ll have to wait a little bit.
11:40: Ok, back to the flood. Maintenance has already arrived and stopped the leak, and plumber is still en route. Turns out the “flood” was merely a bad leak. Whew. Crisis averted.
11:45: Another resident stops down to pay her rent, and while they’re here they want to tell you about the dog barking next door, how the trash room smells like trash, there is a weird smell in the hallway, and how the lawn mowing at 8am woke her up. During this conversation, you have missed 3 phone calls and heard your email tone go off 7 times. You quickly call the landscaping company, write up work orders to have the smells investigated, and write a letter to the offending dog’s owner about the barking.
12:15: You check voice mails. You missed a call from the boss. Oops. The other calls were people looking for apartments; one needs a place in October. It’s May. You must call them back and add them to your waiting list. The other needs a place that is non-smoking, one level (no loft), has 2 underground parking spots, has southern exposure, is top floor corner unit, and will allow 3 cats and a Great Dane. You need to call him back and explain what you have available and that compromise is key with apartment living!
1:30: Lunch? What’s that? Between the showings, floods, phone calls, emails, voice mails, and talking to residents you realize you haven’t touched a morsel of food since 7am.
1:35: You find a bottle of water and a bag of old chips you saved from Milio’s a few months ago. It’ll have to do.
1:36: You enjoy your “lunch” as you return some emails and write up more maintenance requests.
2:00: The cleaning team comes in to clean the clubhouse. The time it takes them to vacuum your office is a much welcomed break time from the butt-print in your chair.
2:04: You realize it’s a beautiful day… sunny and 75*. You decide you need a few minutes to soak it in, so you head outside. Aaaaaah…. Wonderful.
2:07: A car pulls up as you’re sitting outside basking in the sunshine. A guy needs a new apartment because he’s breaking up with his girlfriend and it has to be ready for move-in this weekend because he just can’t take living with her anymore. Goodbye sunshine, let’s go check out the vacant unit and hope he likes it!
2:20: He takes it. Another rental down!
2:30: More voice mails. More emails. You decide to start punching out the responses to the unread emails. As you’re responding, more are coming in. The phone is ringing again. Its maintenance calling to tell you that you need to come over right away to check out a garage door that needs a professional to come fix it.
2:31: The phone rings as you’re walking out the door. Shocker!
2:45: Call the garage door company and very sweetly ask if there’s any possible way they can come out today so our residents can have a secure garage door… they agree.
2:46: You realize you stepped in dog poop at some point during your walk over to the broken garage door. You consider the time it takes you to clean your shoes another nice break.
2:55: Write a note to everyone about the importance of picking up after your dogs.
3:15: Hand out note all dog-friendly buildings.
3:20: Did you forget to write up the lease for Katie and Johnny who were approved yesterday? Yep, you did. Quick send an email to yourself so you remember to do it when you get back.
3:55: A resident stops down with his dog. He is locked out of his apartment. Grab keys and go let him in.
4:05: It’s already past 4:00? Where did the day go? You gotta get this lease done!
4:15: Your favorite song comes on the iPod. You sing at the top of your lungs and hope no one walks in.
4:16: Someone walks in mid-song. You turn down Kellie Pickler and ignore the awkwardness of the situation. It’s the garage door repair guy. He needs a key. Music goes back up and you continue writing the lease.
4:55: Voice mails and emails down to zero. Rent checks organized. Appliances fixed. Leak fixed. Carpet installed. Dryer vents cleaned out. Lease written up. Two apartments rented. Dog poop note handed out. Garage door fixed.
4:56: Your phone rings. Caller ID says it’s the boss, who you forgot to call back earlier. Oops again. He asks how the day went, how rentals are going, etc. Your response is a simple “Great day! Kept busy and gettin’ the units rented!” He just called to check in and tells you how happy he is that you’re doing such a great job.
5:00: Headed home with a smile ready to do it all over again tomorrow.