Page 10 - New York Cooperator January 2020

10 THE COOPERATOR — JANUARY 2020 COOPERATOR.COM www.automaticindustries.com 1-800-THE-WASH WOMAN OWNED COMPANY BACKED BY A LOT OF MAN POWER FAMILY-OWNED SINCE 1971 We offer a boutique style of service We are compassionate and caring to our customers While still being competitive with the “Big Box” Boyz! Offering state-of-the-art laundry rooms CONT... www.weathertightroof.com New York’s Serving The Whole State of New York. Call your local representative today! ment. Many pros feel that text messag- ing, while perhaps more immediate and in-real-time than even email, is simply too much of a distraction from the other functions a manager has to perform, and can be too intrusive. Rare is the property manager (or any professional, for that matter) who’d want literally hundreds of clients or customers to have their private smartphone number—even if they have a separate one just for work. Younger owners—particularly millen- nials—show a strong preference for text over pretty much any other type of com- munication. (For more on what younger apartment-seekers are looking for in a home, see this article from 2019: https:// cooperator.com/article/younger-buyers- new-approaches -Ed.) Wolf mentions Up until a few years ago, there were very that in light of this trend, his company has few college- or university-level academic purchased technology that masks private programs that would prepare a person to phone numbers and enables managers to enter a career in real estate. That is be- respond by text from desktop computers and land lines. Ac c ord i ng to Wolf, “Other apps for direct ma na g e m e nt are great, and have really im- proved our abil- ity to complete our tasks more efficiently and quickly.” He includes such things as apps that notify Most importantly, they need to be good owners of rules or building violations, fa- cilitate online bill approval and payment, Truthfully, though, 20 years ago people and give remote access to desktop com- puters via smartphone, which provides limited skill set. I learned by doing, and managers with much more flexibility. we still do. I believe ours may be the last Wolf says that the one trade-off he sees is industry like this.” that these new apps do sometimes—and in his view, incorrectly—take the place sachusetts is a non-license state—in that of direct conversation and visual inspec- tions, which in some cases are absolutely quired to hold any particular licensure in necessary. A Matter of Age Discrimination on the basis of age is one of the last frontiers of socially ac- ceptable exclusion—and it’s very hard to prove. But as millions of American pro- fessionals over 50 will tell you, finding a new job at their age is nearly impossible. Interestingly, that bleak fact does not seem to hold true in real estate manage- ment. Both Wolf and Wollman indicate that as owner populations become young- er, with millennials entering the ranks of homeowners, experience is valued over that multifamily property management just about anything else when it comes isn’t the easiest job in the world. So...do to managing multifamily buildings. And many long-serving managers are embrac- ing changes in technology and incorpo- rating them into how they help run their client properties. While they do consider the popula- tion profile when assigning a manager to a specific property, most management firms are not specifically considering age. According to the pros, they’re look- ing for more of a ‘fit’ that incorporates many variables—and though the age of the manager relative to the population of a given client community may sometimes come into play, the manager’s maturity and ability to work with any population is more a deciding factor than anything else. Educational Requirements Wollman notes that most people come to the real estate business—particularly management—by a less-than-direct route. ginning to change, but hasn’t shifted dramati- cally...yet. “No one expects post-graduate educa- tion in our business,” he says. “People who come into management often have past work experience or educa- tion in architecture, finance, and so forth, and they can modify their experience to be- come good managers. people-persons—and that hasn’t changed. did get in with less experience and a more Wolf points out that although Mas- property managers are not legally re- order to work in the field—his company requires managers to pursue continuing education throughout their tenure with the firm. “We send our people for courses through the Community Associations Institute (CAI),” he says. “We expect them to get involved with a committee at CAI—any committee they like that inter- ests them.” Wolf believes the policy his company holds is typical throughout the industry in New England. Career Longevity Pretty much anyone would agree THE EVOLUTION... continued from page 9 “People who come into management ... need to be good people-persons—and that hasn’t changed.” — Daniel Wollman