Forgive me but I can't help but blog about baseball this week. We're in the middle of the playoffs and the world series is just around the corner. Comparing what I do to what others do is a "brain pastime" for me, whereas baseball is "America's pastime."
To me the most striking difference is in the stats. There's an expression in baseball "batting a thousand." No baseball player has ever done it. If a player's batting average is anywhere near a third of that, or .333, they are celebrated as hugely successful. I imagine a scenario where only a third of the time we property managers get the toilet fixed, a tenant's temperature adjusted, or the trash picked up. It's not a pleasant thought to imagine failing 2/3's of the time, but one I find interesting nevertheless.
It's all about the skills. Put me in a major league baseball game with a bat in my hand and it's more likely I'd be running away from a pitch coming at me at almost 100 miles per hour, not trying to knock it out of the ball park. Put a baseball player in my shoes, and maybe he could get the basics of the trash pickup done about as well as I could. But could even an MLB player find a creative solution to a tough problem at a property, and do it for every single problem, not a third of them? There's a good reason why properties with professional property management command considerably higher prices than those without.
It's fun to watch baseball, and I get that the two professions can't really be compared. I do think, however, that because the property management professional solves problems all day every day, they could be considered the "sluggers" of the real estate business.
I understand your comparison between baseball and property management, and I think you are sort of right. If a baseball player is successful at the plate one-third of the time, he is a legend. If a property management time is successful the same amount of time, they are fired. Maybe more of a reverse comparison but worthwhile all the same.
ReplyDeleteI like the comparison to baseball players. You are so right, property managers solve problems all day long, no holds barred! It is a truth that can't be denied. From my experience as a property manager for a small real estate company, it seemed as if there were issues arising from sun-up to sun-down. If we were baseball players, look out sports world!
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