Page 14
— Property Management Quarterly — February 2015
five years to more than 35 years,
one admirable commonality is that
everyone got to where they are today
by starting at the bottom and work-
ing their way up. Many reported their
first jobs involved administrative
work, reception, bookkeeping or leas-
ing. From there, others gave them
opportunities to advance.
“I liked that the potential to grow
from a starting position was relatively
limitless,” said Lea Slawson, JLL vice
president, property management.
Helping others within the industry
is a trait many property managers
seem to share. Several people said
their favorite part of the job is men-
toring and working closely with their
team. This seems to be a special, if
not unique, quality about the world
of property management.
“I definitely like working with peo-
ple – you have to love people in this
line of work,” said Bev Renfro, NGKF
senior property manager. “It helps to
have an understanding heart, a desire
to work with challenges and help
people, and a focus on the big picture
of the ownership’s direction.”
Surprisingly, while working with
people was a popular answer to why
people love their job, it was not the
most common answer.
The No. 1 reason managers said
they love their job is because no two
days are the same. Even though the
question was open-ended – simply
what do you like most about your job
– a vast majority of the 48 managers
said they like the variety of job duties
and the constantly changing daily
agenda.
“I liked that things were always
changing,” said Charles Pae, Unico
Properties senior manager. “Property
management is a field where things
move quickly, which makes it a really
exciting field to work in.”
“I like that the job is so varied –
every day presents a new mystery
to be solved,” said NGKF’s Schuck.
“A property manager needs to be a
detective as well, utilizing investiga-
tive skills and exploring ideas outside
of the box to find appropriate resolu-
tions to challenges.”
Being a problem solver is the third-
most common answer people gave
for loving their job.
“I like the mix between financial
and people-facing responsibilities,
and I like that no two days are alike,”
said Connie O’Murray, JLL group man-
ager. “But I especially like the strategy
and problem-solving aspects of add-
ing value to a client’s investment.”
Even though managers love the
spectrum of work they do, it does
play into one of the biggest challeng-
es managers face: time management.
“It is clearly not a job for someone
who must check every item off their
list before they go home at night
because there’s always something to
do,” said Jeani McDowell, Cushman &
Wakefield general manager.
With the juggling of responsi-
bilities, managers said they must be
keenly aware of managing everyone’s
expectations. “My biggest challenge
is not enough time in the day,” said a
Griffis/Blessing property manager. “I
believe we all suffer from this. Some
days I would pay big money to have a
clone of myself.”
Other challenges include issues
dealing with low occupancy and
minimal cash flow at properties,
spending quality time on site and
interacting with tenants, staying up
to date with industry changes (codes,
committees and technologies), the
24/7 work mentality, managing the
work-life balance and having to be
the bearer of bad news.
“Another big challenge for me is
when you have to take emotion out
of the equation,” said Courtney M.
Ziminski, JLL general manager. “For
example, when you have a small
tenant who is struggling financially.
The last thing you want to do is evict
someone who may be depending
on their office/business to support a
family – but it’s technically part of the
job.”
“One of the biggest challenges is
providing ‘full service’ at an economic
price,” said Michelle Roberts, Col-
liers International senior retail prop-
erty manager. “This requires heavy
involvement in day-to-day operations
to be able to identify where you can
‘trim’ services or having to add new
or additional services before they
become a common complaint with
tenants.”
Crazy Experiences
The final question was an open-
ended request to share a crazy prop-
erty management experience. The
responses ran the gamut.
“There are just so many that our
team deals with, from rescuing baby
geese every spring to assisting with a
young lady with a drug problem that
claimed she had died the day before,”
said Jodi L. Janda, JLL general man-
ager.
A lot of the stories dealt with legal
issues, from a tenant subleasing
part of his property to a marijuana-
affiliated store before it was legal,
to FBI raids for Ponzi schemes, to a
tenant moving into his office after
losing his house.
Some were serious and heart-
breaking, often dealing with death,
mental illness or abuse. One man-
ager found a tenant bleeding and
barely breathing, but she wore a
bracelet that said, “Do not resusci-
tate.” After calling an ambulance,
the manager sat with her until she
died. Another involved a 14-year-old
who committed suicide by jumping
off a parking garage.
A good majority of the stories
were inappropriate. From discov-
ering naked people in the hot tub
after hours to figuring out who was
breaking into an office late at night
to use a computer for nonbusiness
purposes. “Evidence of the activity
included computers found turned
on in the morning that had been off
when the employee left the night
before, website history revealing
that inappropriate sites had been
visited, and tissues and hand lotion
moved from other desks and left
near the computer in question,”
said Deborah Loewenstein, property
manager, JLL. After increased secu-
rity rounds and hidden cameras,
a female security guard “literally
caught the culprit with his pants
down,” she said.
Another property manager said
she'd received a late-night call
about having to deal with poop in
the parking lot.
The poll showed that property
managers have heard all kinds
of strange requests, including a
request to set up a petting zoo with
zebras and elephants for a tenant
event, to a Belgian film producer
wanting to make a movie by film-
ing his suicide as he jumped off the
building.
And last were stories about dis-
covering the completely unexpect-
ed. “We needed to repair a rubber
liner on a small retention pond at
an office building in south Denver
and had to drain it in order to do
so,” said Scott Hogy, NGKF senior
property manager. “As the water
was drained out, we discovered gold-
fish in the pond. Some of the employ-
ees of the tenant had placed the
goldfish there and were distraught
that the fish would all die. They even
called the Division of Wildlife! We
were told by the authorities that the
fish were considered an invasive spe-
cies and under no circumstances
were they to be released into any pub-
lic water.
“In the end, I found myself, along
with four of my engineers, standing
in the pond with waders, netting well
over 100 goldfish into trash cans so
we could transport them to a deten-
tion pond at another nearby building
where, thankfully, the property man-
ager had graciously agreed to take
them.”
After reading all the answers, a
property manager from Griffis/Bless-
ing summed up the duties of a prop-
erty manager well, “This is definitely
a career path where you can be a
counselor, attorney, family media-
tor, constructor expert, baby sitter,
special events coordinator or finan-
cial adviser without ever having the
degrees.”
s
Amanda Schuck, Newmark Grubb Knight Frank senior property manager, received a
complaint about a skateboard ramp built in the parking garage. “We expected to find a
simple wood ramp, but when the team arrived we discovered the boys were very serious
about their ramp building, installing a ‘permanent’ structure made from cement, wood
and bricks,” she said.
Property manaagers who answered the survey listed their favorite part(s) of the job.
