Staying motivated in the apartment industry can be a real chore. Aside from 2 or 3 great residents who show appreciation, it’s pretty much a thankless profession. Dealing with Mr. Johnson coming into the office with his list of why he hates the place that you work so hard…
Okay, there’s actually no such thing as YouTube University. That’s just what I like to call YouTube. A university because of the endless knowledge it provides for just about anything you can think of. All for free! I have mined tons of gold out of YouTube and I took those…
If you’ve hung around my blog or YouTube channel, you know that I’m passionate about apartment maintenance and finance. I know how hard we work and it breaks my heart seeing people who come to the end of their journey with nothing to show for all that hard work. The…
“Why can’t I find good help?” The complaint I see online and hear over and over. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but there are a lot of great technicians out there. I know this for a fact because I talk with them in person and online every week.…
A quick cheat sheet! Something I’ve always wanted while on a work order in the heat of battle. Instead of having to search all over the internet for helpful charts and information, I will consolidate everything here that will give technicians quick access to what they need. You can click…
Dealing with burnout can be a real beyotch. My last bout with it was during the summer of 2010. I suddenly found myself doing things I’d never done before during my 7 years as a maintenance technician. I was scowling at residents as they walked by and rolling my eyes…
I’ve been on both sides of this issue. I’ve dealt with shops that had the bare minimum to work with and shops that had more than enough to work with. Needless to say, working in a skeleton shop annoys the piss out of me. Early in my maintenance career I…
Wowsers! I am absolutely blown away by the incredible response I got on my last blog post about the music biz titled, Why Your Cover Band Is Killing Your Music Career. It was a subject I had to get off my chest in hopes that it will save someone 5 to 10…
Showing appreciation towards your maintenance staff is an important practice that often gets ignored by a lot of companies. I’ve been a maintenance technician for 15 years and have seen the differences between a company that shows appreciation toward their maintenance team and a company that treats their maintenance technicians…
The hider. It may surprise some people how rampant and common this problem is. If you’ve worked in the apartment industry long enough then you know who I’m talking about. It’s the person that you only see when they’re clocking in and clocking out. Or, they’re standing over you blabbing…