Caveat Emptor and the Hailstorm

One of the first terms I learned in real estate is the concept of "Caveat Emptor," which means "Let the Buyer Beware."  Nothing in property management better represents this term than the circumstances surrounding hail damage.  As we head into winter, I'm thankful (hopeful?) we won't have to worry about thunderstorms raining hail down on our expensive rooftops and HVAC units exposed like sitting ducks, because if/when it happens, we then have to evaluate sales pitches by roofers/general contractors, some legit, some maybe not so much...as they promise MANNA from our insurance companies.  They will say: We'll get you a new roof!!!  We'll get you new HVAC units!!! Hallelujah brother!!  There's just this little voice in my head asking:  Is it true?  If it is true, is it right? 

Even if it is true and even if we believe it is right for us to pursue a claim for our client, what does it mean for our future premiums and those of other property owners?  It's definitely a "buyer beware" situation. A newsletter published by "Texas for Lawsuit Reform" recently outlined exactly this conundrum. 

The column cited concern for the potential of abuse by what they called the "Hail Cartel" which they defined as unscrupulous roofers, public adjusters, and attorneys intent on getting as much as they can from the insurance industry.  In this scenario the property owner may believe they benefit by getting a new roof/HVAC system, but if the contractor you're working with is, um..shall we say...ethically challenged, can you trust their workmanship?  I don't think so.  Caveat Emptor indeed.

Santa Cop is coming...to Arlington

There are lots of toy drives that will start to collect this time of year.  One us Property Managers, the favorite is the "Santa Cop" program in Arlington.  The Arlington police department and the Arlington Police Foundation, and the Arlington School District join together to distribute boxes to businesses, for us building lobbies, and we do our best to fill them up.  All our managed buildings will get a box any day now, and we'll encourage our tenants and their employees to bring a new unwrapped toy.  

Once the toys are collected, the groups have a great party for as many families as possible, last year it was over 1,200.

We will do part to make 2016 the best ever.  We're glad to contribute what we can, and we especially enjoy working with Arlington's finest to get it done to help every kid in Arlington have a great Christmas.  If you don't already have a way to help bring Christmas smiles to kids faces, I can heartily recommend that you grab your santa cap and call the Santa Cops.

Burning topic of the week...ICE MELT

It's 90 degrees in the shade in north Texas right now, it is mid-October, football is on a constant loop on all the channels, and did I mention it's 90 degrees in the shade?

Still, we property managers must plan for rain, sleet, snow and all the same things that keep the post-person slogging through to bring you your mail.  So in this week's PM huddle, the subject of ice melt came up, and whether we are prepared for the rare but inevitable sleet event.  The only question is when.  We stocked up last year, and didn't use a single bag.  Complacency could bite us this year, so we thought it through.  Do we have enough to go around to all the properties?  Do we have a landscaping company on board to get out (just) ahead of the storm to put it out?  Do we have them scheduled to come clean up the residue after the sun comes back out?

The toughest part of a sleet event for us?  It's whether and when to get in our cars and come to work. We north Texas drivers don't have much experience with the subtleties of steering into skids, and our municipal authorities do well just to sand the overpasses.  People die on slick roads.  I prefer no one does that for the sake of getting to an office building thank you very much.  But the tenants expect us to be providing service whatever the condition of the roads.

We communicate early and often with our tenants, keeping expectations reasonable while admitting our own frailty to stand up to scary icy roads.  If it's dangerous, we stay home until it's not dangerous, that's where we come down on the subject.

Check that electrical connection Sparky

As promised, in this week's blog post I thought I would summarize the content of the session my property managers and I attended on the need for electrical preventive maintenance.  We have already been practicing PM for our electrical systems, mainly thermography of our electrical panels.  We thought we had it nailed.  Get a thermographer onsite every couple of years, and make the fixes they recommend.

Well, according to the presenter of this session at the expo, that plan was not good enough. Resistance testing, visual inspection of connections are also an important part of electrical preventive maintenance.  And to be the most effective, it should be done every year.

And then every 3 years, there should be "de-energized" maintenance.  Yes, that means turning the power off to the whole building, and checking it all out.

I guess we will be re-considering our electrical maintenance program.  
 

Reporting in on the North Texas Facilities Expo

Wednesday October 5 our Property Managers attended the North Texas Facilities Expo.  It is a difficult proposition to work "on" the business, not just "in" the business.  But we took a day, and went to see what was new and different for property managers.  And the day was a success.  It helps that it was FREE.  We attended a session on electrical preventive maintenance and another one on maintaining fire/life systems.  We also spent time on the exhibit floor meeting vendors.  As we made our way around the exhibit hall, we were surprised how many vendors we already knew, but we also made a number of new contacts for vendors we might want to use.  We definitely got a few ideas.

One idea - door mats - I know, who cares about a door mat.  The vendor mentioned that one application for their mat is to put  "This suite available" on the mat, with the leasing agent's number. Used for retail suites.

Another - roof drain covers - equally exciting, I know.  The thing is, roof drains get clogged and damage is done.  Enough said?  These covers are virtually indestructible and keep out the smallest of particulates to keep the drain clear.

Roofs - Two of the roof vendors we talked to use drones...yes drones...to inspect roofs.  We're definitely bringing these guys in to our PM Huddle to make a presentation.

I'll talk about the sessions we attended next week...

Property Management...It's not like Baseball

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.

Is The Ball In Your Court?

I had lunch a few weeks ago with an important mentor from my early days in the property management business.  William A. (Bill) Lawley, CPM, had so many influences on my life that I decided to blog about him.  Bill was President of Swearingen Management Company in those days (80's, yes it was a long time ago), I was his fairthful servant in all things property management. 

When we had lunch, I mentioned to him that I use some of my "Lawley-isms" ALL the time.  There were a few in my memory ready to be tossed off at a moment's notice, which I did right then and there. We both got a good laugh, but actually, I was very serious.  Maybe it was the repetition, I’m just now recognizing!  It does seem now that Lawley had to say things to me over and over.  Like when I would ask him how I should respond to a particular tenant request, he would say to me:  "What does the lease say?"  He said that to me, umm, multiple times before I finally started checking the lease BEFORE I asked him, and often once I checked the lease, guess what?  I found I didn’t have to ask him, which I realized much later was his whole point.  Now I find myself turning the question around with others just like he did with me.

Often I would tell Lawley something that I was 100% confident about.  His response to me was usually "OK, now what is the other side of this story? "Uh, what other side of the story? I would say.  I just told you...don't you believe me?  "Sure I believe you, he would say"  but I also know that there are at least two sides to every story, and I want to hear it.  Over time I slowly began to see the world less in black & white, and more in the grays that are inherent in our lives.   I now realize he had to say this to me a number of times also.  Geez.

There are so more, but a blog post has to end at some point.  I'll close with his admonition to me to "Get the ball out of your court as quickly as possible."  Talk about words to live by.  It's a Lawley-ism for the ages.