Adventures of a Leasing Agent Part 1: Glimpse into the Rules of Leasing

Good Morning Steem peeps!

This is Echo Cadence here and I have a short rant/article for you to read regarding Residential Property Management. This is very important to those who are seeking a new apartment, have been wronged by a Property Manager, or is beginning their career as a Leasing Agent.

If only our homes were this kawaii

Many of us, myself included, reside in a apartment unit and during our search for our small home believed that apartment living isn't that bad nor complicated. We do make the best of it, I'm sure, and the leasing office and Property Manager are completely fine with you doing as you will... so long as you pay your rent on time and don't do anything incredibly stupid.

In any case, working in Property Management seems pretty fun and simple, right? All or the people in the Leasing Office have to worry about is the rent being paid on time and that nothing is wrong with the apartments.... well, that's true, like, 25% of the time.

In the world of Residential Property Management, there are so many rules that must be memorized before you can start leasing, and matters become even more complexed when evil, conniving, idiotic residents try to do something ridiculous and try to get a concession on rent for it.... Like becoming ill due to mold growing in the bathroom when they have months of trash piled up to the walls in every room of their apartment.

Actual picture of a resident from my former work place

Your's truly has worked as a leasing agent in both residential and commercial property in my short young life, and goodness do I have stories for you. I will not claim that leasing agents or Property Managers are perfect; God knows that they are not, but they honestly do their best... well, at least I did and so did the Property Manager I had the pleasure of working with.

Let me begin the first part to my tale by explaining the inner workings of a leasing agent for those that don't understand the entailing of one~

• It's essentially a sales position. I was paid a decent wage (not enough after the Portal to Hell opened, but I'll touch on that later) with commission being put on top of it.
  
• You MUST like people or at least be a good enough actress to pretend to really like people. If struggle with social interactions or prone to punching people in the throat, this job is not for you.
  
• You are a super hero. People come to you with all of their problems (Apartment related, family related, medically related, relationship related, ect) and it's up to you to fix it. Or explain to them why you, specifically yourself, cannot fix this issue despite obviously not wearing a plumber's uniform.
  
• The Assistant Manager is not obligated to help you, so if you do ever work in a leasing position it is super important to be super duper nice to the Assistant Manager so that they'll feel like crap if they don't help you.
• Be kind to the Maintenance Team ALWAYS. If a pipe in a building bursts and you have a screaming resident in your office scaring away potential leases, you want the hardworking guys and gals to go in and immediately fix the issue. If they don't like you, they'll still fix it.... just not right away and you look like the bad guy.
  

I have so much more to share regarding this as well as advice for those who have just began their journey into Property Management. Don't miss next week's episode of Adventures of a Leasing Agent: More Rules and the Legend of Anastasia, the Wicked!

Image Source: Jane DOE http://weheartit.com/entry/71616715
Image Source: Cori http://weheartit.com/entry/3434243
Image Source: Red Bubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/razsolo/works/5731814-kawaii-satan?p=t-shirt
Image Source: Lilo & Stitch