I’ve been in Property Management for more than 18 years. In fact it’s turned out to be the longest run I’ve had at anything, to be frank. Yet I often get told “I wouldn’t want your job” or “It must be difficult doing what you do”.
You’d think that, aye?
Let me be clear – I love my job. In fact, it’s not a job at all from where I’m sitting. You see, I’m unemployable, so I had to build my own job and create a company around that job. That’s where managemyproperty came from.
You have to know that there are aspects of the job that I don’t like at all. Evictions are always tricky to deal with, and anyone should feel pretty crappy having to make someone move out of the place they call home.
It’s just as difficult to call or visit a tenant that’s fallen behind on their rent payments. No-one is ever comfortable with being nagged to pay their rent.
The best part of my job is…
… viewings! When one of our tenants is moving on, we start advertising the property as available, and we schedule selected viewing times which people can book in for. Admittedly the initial thought of trekking around town on a Saturday afternoon showing people through various houses sounds pretty dull. Especially if it’s a howling southerly and driving rain.
That hasn’t been my experience though. Once I get to the first viewing on my list, things start to become a whole lot of fun. I get to meet all sorts of cool people from all walks of life, from all kinds of places and countries and cultures. Doing the viewings almost always turns out to be an immensely enjoyable experience.
It takes all sorts
I get to find out all sorts of stuff – people starting new jobs, or who’ve just immigrated to NZ and they’re starting a whole new life. Young folk moving out of the family home to their first flat. Seasoned flatters who don’t want to sit up all night anymore smoking cones and talking Marxist Existentialism and its role in the Cosmos and just want their own quite space. Apartment dwellers who can’t take the noise of constant traffic and drunks heaving up into dumpsters at 3am.
Some people are surprising, some are strange, some are truly amazing, some drive interesting cars. A few of them have weird pets, like the girl that turned up with a white rat on her shoulder. There was the couple that asked if the owner would accept a blue tongued lizard as part of their tenancy.
The other benefit from my perspective is that I have a whole new audience for all the rubbish jokes and one-liners that my wife doesn’t even laugh at anymore. to top it all off, they’re a captive audience, at least for as long as it takes for them to view a place!
