Mike Brewer
Apartment Maintenance On-Call Policy
I have taken a number of questions lately on the subject of calculating compensation for on-call maintenance men and women. As such I thought I would post the important points of our policy as a way to hopefully starting some discussion.
In brief of our policy is as follows:
1. Employees are paid for one-hour minimum – if they physically leave their home to complete a call
2. They are paid at time and a half
3. They are paid mileage from their legal residence
I am curious about other nuances our there; please drop us a comment as the community is interested.
And, I do hope that you have an amazing and over the top weekend.
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stock.xchng is by far and away my favorite site to clip pics from for use in both my multifamily and Mills Apartments blogging efforts. I have used it in large part over the last seven years to bring a bit of visual appeal to my penned offerings and to enhance my SEO. I do wonder, however, if there are other options out there that are easier or better.
In that same vein of thought; I am curious about the various methods of optimizing the pics for your blog. Do you upload into your respective blogging platforms gallery? Do you upload to Flickr or other photo sharing sites and then link back via URLs? Is there a best way?
2012 is shaping up to be a big year of refreshment with a relentless focus on ease of use and rapid flow of actionable rehtoric and I am looking forward to running full blast into it.
Would love to hear your thoughts on the subject of blog images.
Your looking forward to 2012 multifamily blogger,
M
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Property Management: Money Orders are a Necessary Evil
I am turning to our readers today for some feedback on process.
A lot of renter’s in our communities are one life circumstance away from total financial ruin up to and including losing their apartment. It has given cause for desperate behaviors such as sacrificing their electricity, gas, phone, cable etc. in order to make the rent. In other cases they use creative means such as robbing electricity via extension cords run to your common area outlets in hallways and laundry rooms. It’s amazing what you see out there anymore.
Now one could argue that life choices predicated on fulfilling wants over needs or necessities has contributed to a lot of this and in the same respect I think there an equal amount of people out there that make all the right decisions and still get hit with the downside of adversity.
Our residents are not the only ones faced with making the rent. Many of our employees are waging the same battle month after month. And, sometimes it leads to desperate actions.
That leads me to the premise for my question – money orders left blank by the prospective resident and or current residents paying rent are so very tempting in a desperate time of need. Can you share some of your processes with me as it relates to keeping good people honest. What do you do to keep integrity in the system on your bigger sites where you have six, eight or even ten people working an office and handling money. Specifically, what do you do to make sure these blank money order gems are not used as float to get by to the next pay period? How do you make sure that once an application is taken that it is processed in your property management software asap?
While they are a necessary evil – I have to believe there is a system of handling that keeps theft to a minimum.
Thank you in advance for your considerations and feedback.
Your ready for some economic prosperity friend,
M
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Apartment Leadership – Your Answer May Not be the Only Answer
I read a story today that held a lesson too important not to share. The overarching premise related to creative solutions for business problems. The key lesson being that just because you [leaders] don’t get the answer you are looking for does not mean the answer is not an acceptable solution for the problem.
Allow me to take you back to my childhood for a second to bring this point home. I grew up on a farm just South of a small town on the Eastern Plains of New Mexico. The summers, outside of crazy boring chores, were packed with a ton of down time. My only mode of transportation were two wheels straddled by a frame, two peddles and a seat. It was four miles along the highway to the edge of town and another four to my nearest friend. Needless to say, I was not jumping at the chance to make the trip very often.
Both of my parents worked so my sister and I were left to make the best of each day. Days that included a long list of chores to complete before they made it home. On one occasion that list included a request for me to pull an acre of weeds no less than four feet tall [exaggerated for emphasis]. A project that wold have taken the better part of two days to accomplish [no exaggeration on this point].
Now I don’t claim to be any more resourceful than the next guy or gal but I can say that if there is a more efficient way to do something, trust that I am going to find it. In this instance, I went next door and asked by neighbor if I could borrow a few of his healthiest farm animals to assist in my assignment. He agreed and it took them the better part of a half-day to complete the project. They mowed the weeds right down to the dirt and in many cases pulled them out by the root. Needless to say, I was very proud of my accomplishment and could not wait to share it with my step-father.
“What were you thinking? I asked you to PULL the weeds,” he thundered upon my sharing. I was shocked. Devastated. And, angry. Why was my solution any less effective than his alternative? The reason according to the story I read this morning was because it was not his desired solution.
Getting to the point, how many times in our property management careers have we been put off or put back by resourceful thinkers that get things done in a different or better fashion than you. Do you coach them as it relates to your desired solution? Did you coach out of an underlying premise of frustration or anger? Here are some things to think about if you are in this crowd of thinkers:
1. Are you stalling creativity?
2. Are you screening out innovation?
3. Are you killing a free thinking environment?
4. Are you killing moral?
5. Are you losing good people?
Photo Credit: conversations.nokia.com
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Influence: Consider this…
The next time you serve a fellow employee, vendor, prospect or resident by way of your thoughts and actions – consider this:
Please share the stories that come to mind from the video in the comment section below…
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