A NEXUS MAINTENANCE TECHNICIAN WAS STABBED: A Story About Added Value You Can’t Always See
It was 1:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning and Nexus’ 24 hour a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year maintenance team was at the ready should any emergencies arise. A call came in from a three family apartment about a substantial leak in a bathroom and our technician deemed it too risky not to address it immediately. It doesn’t take a full decade’s experience to understand and appreciate how costly water damage can be in the old multi-units that surround Southern New England’s once mighty industrial hubs. So our guy got dressed, left his home, and went out to do the job…and he was attacked…with a knife.
PROTECTING YOUR CASTLE
One of the things that separates the best property managers from the rest is their ability to add value to their clients’ assets. At Nexus Property Management®, we hang our hats on highly efficient, solution-focused best practices with focused attention on long term goals. As much as that sentence reads as a mission statement for our teams, it does fail to highlight the unfortunate reality that real estate investment and property ownership is not all roses and arrows pointing upward. This business is difficult and in a world where more and more people are struggling to cope with recent changes in society, economy, and the housing market, it’s downright dangerous at times.
If property management existed on the medieval manor it would’ve taken the form of moat digging. For just 8% of all the corn you grew this past summer, Nexus would begin by yoking up our oxen and digging a nice wide ditch around your property and then we’d fill it with water…and maybe a crocodile or two. Before a property manager can even think about adding value to your castle (new tapestries, oil to ensure a reliable drawbridge, danker dungeons, etc.), we’ve gotta ensure the safety of your property. We need to build that layer of comfort that allows you to focus on whatever it is you’re doing inside your castle, so you can ignore the realities of the marauders on the outside.
In the same way, a modern day property manager needs to build a moat for clients by dealing with all the discomfort that comes with being a landlord. It’s not easy to collect rent when people are struggling to pay their bills. It’s extremely uncomfortable to meet tenants at the courthouse to talk about late payments and evictions. It can be very off-putting for tenants to have maintenance technicians in their homes (regardless of the time of day). So much of the everyday grind of property management is not pretty and our guys are working their tails off…speaking of which, we didn’t even get into rodents and bed bugs yet…but the picture should be pretty clear: the focus of the business is on building financial value for property owners, but the ins and outs of the operation look nothing like that handsome check that lands in your account monthly. Dealing with hardship is what you pay us to do. We shelter our clients from that world as best we can. We build a moat to limit your exposure to the uncomfortable side of property management. And we enjoy it…usually…when the threat and discomfort is beyond the castle walls.
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REVISITING HIDDEN VALUE:
We recently wrote about how clients really don’t want to hear from their property manager very often. The less you hear from us, the smoother things are going, and the better the machine is operating.
That being said, we wanted to share this rather gruesome side of the business to remind all readers, whether you’re a Nexus client or not, of the value maintenance technicians add and the risks that they face for the benefit of our clients. Because our technician took that idea of creating a moat so seriously, he didn’t want the client to have to deal with added damage that could accrue after seven more hours of leaking water. Fixing a leak at 1:00 in the morning is above and beyond, but it’s what you do when you embrace a vision. And to ensure that that dedication and value aren’t missed or underappreciated, we wanted to share this story.
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Mick Lefort is the Vice President of Operations for Nexus Property Management®. A National Property Management Franchise that manages all types of rental property from single family homes or condos to large apartment buildings and complexes.
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