Fix It Forward - Episode 10

 If you're really young, still in school or about to finish school and college is maybe not a career for you. Have you ever thought about a set of skills that you could learn in one place and take with you all over? Everywhere you go? Have you ever thought about like maybe doubling your salary within a year or two year period?

While all of that is really possible and. Also, there's many possibilities beyond that, you could create a career for yourself, for life, and that is multifamily maintenance. If you're that type of individual, that's really not now, sure, which career, which path to follow after school, this particular docuseries is for you.

Hello everyone. Uh, glad to be back with another amazing episode and another amazing story you will be learning about why maintenance matters. But also in this episode, we gonna learn why customer service matters with Marcus. Thank you for having us, Marcus. 

Thank you. 

And we are at. 

The LA apartments. 

Where are the apartments located?

1950 Piedmont Circle in Buckhead 

Marcos. How long you been here at this community? 

One year. 

One year? 

Mm-hmm. 

Uh, in the business. How long you been in a business? 

19 years. 

19 years? 

Mm-hmm. 

How did you start in a business 19 years ago? 

Oh, I had a friend that was into maintenance and I started off that way.

Okay. What was your first job? In I 

was grounds 

groundskeeper. Okay. I 

started groundskeeper. 

So before getting into multifamily, what kinda work did you do? 

Same thing. I always did this. 

So this was your very first job? Mm-hmm. So your very first job ever was like multifamily? 

Mm-hmm. 

What made you stick around for 19 years?

Um, just customer service. I, I mean, I enjoy customer service. 

So from groundskeeper to technician, you know? When did you get your first promotion? How long did it take? 

Uh, maybe five years, 

about four years. 

Mm-hmm. 

And then from technician to service manager, 

I actually did all positions, started for grounds, moved up to punch tech, service, tech, and then supervisor 

in five years.

Yeah. 

All over it in five years. 

Mm-hmm. 

That's, that's a pretty cool progression. 

Yeah. 

And you've been a, you've been a supervisor for 14 years now, right? If I do the me role, right? 

Yeah, 

yeah. For about 14 years. How about, uh, Fairfield? Uh, how long you been with 'em? 

I've been with them the whole time. 

The whole time.

Yep. 

Okay. What made you stay with the same company for the small time? 

Great company. 

What are the things that you like most about 'em? 

Um, the resources that we have when we actually need something. We all have the resources in place, good managers, good supervisors. 

Okay. 

And I'm not really the person to jump around a lot.

Okay. Well, uh, I could tell that that's pretty obvious, right? Uh, with the 19 years witch record here with,

you just got a. Two level fitness centers that, um, we have the treadmills upstairs. 

Second, yeah. Second 

story, second level. Mm-hmm.

Alright. Very nice. Very nice. Feels very. City like. 

Right? 

Yeah. Incredible.

So when, when you're thinking about that moment, you know, what was the moment like, what were you doing when you just realized, man, I, I know stuff like I can fix things, like difficult things. What was that? 

Um, I think when. My supervisor used to go with me when I was a technician a lot. Mm-hmm. And just kind of show me, and then when he actually let me go on my own and I could fix stuff on my own without no supervision, that was kind of like a breakthrough for me.

Mm-hmm. But do you remember like a particular task that you did? You know, was it like electrical related, hvac, plumbing? What was it? 

It probably was a plumbing leak. A plumbing leak. A plumbing leak that I repaired. 

Mm-hmm. 

Mm-hmm. 

Did you feel proud about yourself? 

I really did. 

As you, as you should have.

Right, 

right. What was the moment that you just kind of like made that decision to say, this is my career, like this is what I want to do? Obviously you are 19 years in. 

I think it came from like, um, getting reviews back from the resident when I go into the apartment and fix something and just the, the attention from that just make me wanna stay with it and do a better job.

You mentioned customer service. What is about customer service that you know you love so much? 

Um, I think it just, um, the resident being so happy when you come and fix something in a timely manner, they're very happy about that because a lot of time they don't want you in their apartment. So I just want to get it fixed and.

Make sure everything goes good for them.

So we got one large comfort room here. Okay. And then we have some individual office here that the resident, if they work from home, they want to get away, they can come here, they.

You are third staff for the day, and I'm seeing like not even necessary with Fairfield, but I see that in Atlanta, like in town, these coworking spaces are very common now. They're kind of like standard humanity. 

Yeah, 

I do. Do you get a lot of use? 

Yeah, I think I asked the resident, you know, why do they even come in this room?

It's like when they work from home, they feel like they at home all the time. So if they come in here, they can get away for a second. 

Yeah. Yeah, I think you could get a, you know, you could get in your head, not in the best way when you're just like stuck at home all day. 

Right. Distraction from the tv. So you can get in here and just kind of feel, 

yeah.

Comfortable. 

Tell me about your day. What is like your routine schedule? What's your day like? 

So, in the morning, we first get here we most important part, we clock in first, right? And from there we have six trash shoot rooms. So we have a trash server that comes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. So we have to make sure the trash is out so it won't overflow.

So that's what the first part of the day. We walk grounds after that. And then from there we just go in and check our work orders and see how many service tickets that we have. And we try to do our service tickets in 24 hours. If we can't get to it, we have to at least call the resident to give them a, you know, a time when we gonna come just to respond to them, to let them know that we did reach out to them, if we gonna do it, or even just give them a response for 24 hours.

Okay. Well, and what's your favorite part of the day? 

Well, we can get most of the work completed in a timely manner. 

How many open service requests do you have now? 

Uh, one. 

Okay. One. Service request. Four. How many apartments? Again? 

We have 400 units, but we only have, we have 48%, so we maybe have like half of the residents right now.

So it's a lease up, right? 

It's a lease up. Mm-hmm. You're a 

lease up? 

Mm-hmm. So we write at about 200 residents now. 

About 200 residents. Mm-hmm. Typically, what's the part of the day that gets the most out of you? That is kind of the hardest, 

probably in the morning when you first get here, because you get pulled in so many different directions.

How do you manage, manage this? You know, getting pulled in, like maintenance, it's, every day is a different situation. It, it never, two days are the same. Every day is like different. And every single hour on a day is different. How do you manage? How do you keep things balanced, 

I guess, with me? How do you keep 

control?

I guess with me doing it so long, it's just not letting myself get stretched out knowing that I do have a workload. Just tackle the most important things first, down to the least important things. So that's normally how, 

okay. 

I tackle the day.

Elevator talk. Right. Do you remember when you got your first job? How, how did you, like, how did you apply? How did that happen? 

Like I said, I had a friend that was already in the business and he worked for a company. Oh. So he recommended me and um, I applied and that's how I started. 

Okay. Mm-hmm. So it was a recommendation you were recommended Yes.

Until you got the job. Yes. 

So this space, um, a resident can actually rent this space and they put down the deposit, rent this space. They have to, um, they're responsible for cleaning the back up or, but yeah, this, this is a rentable space for the resident. 

Marcus, when you were thinking about, you know, all this time that, you know, you've been in the industry 19 years.

What are, what are the worst situations, the most challenging, a couple of, you know, challenge challenging situations that you had over the years, like specific situations? 

Um, it would probably be when we have our cold temperatures, when we have a pipe burst and they flood multiple apartments out. So we have to stay there the entire time just to make sure the resident help move the resident things out of the way and then get a crew in and start trying to.

Turn the water off and get the resident back, back to normal. 

How did you manage, how long did you have to be at the time? You had one time At a property? Was it like hours? Days? 

Probably overnight, maybe. Probably 

overnight. 

Yeah, overnight. 

Okay. 

Because the leak starts on the top floor. You got five or six units below that completely flooded.

Yeah, maybe all that. 

Especially when it's a mid rise or higher rise. Yeah. 

Yeah. 

A lot of damage. 

Lot of damage. 

Lot of damage. Let's go check out the floor. 

Okay,

gorgeous. 

Thank you. 

Everything looks amazing. 

It is part of our daily routine, cleaning the pool every morning and actually checking the chemicals twice a day. 

Are you guys using a, a robot, like, uh, or it is just all manual 

cleaning? Uh, we do, we do have a robot that clean out the debris at the bottom of the pool.

Mm-hmm. Okay. 

Alright. Do you find it helpful? 

Um, sometimes it don't, it don't actually get up to large debris, so we have to do that manually. 

Got it. Got it.

And then you have to actually be CPO certified to work on the pool. So 

love 

it. Um, both of us are certified.

That's our actually pool log where we log. We check the chemicals twice a day.

It's looking great.

Is this like a dog park area? Mm-hmm. Does it get used? Uh, a lot. Yes.

For someone that's young. Right in school right now, like right out of school. And they just kind of like try to figure things out, decide what they want to do with their life from a career perspective. They know for sure college is not an option. Why would they choose multifamily minus? 

Um, I think in this field it's like it's high in demand and you can easily grow and move up to the next position easily.

Easily. We get the stories all the time. Okay. We literally get the stories all the time. Uh, just like yours. Every single person we interview so far said the same thing, and they show with our like, track record that is like this, but it's not like this like, 'cause it's easy. It's easy if you do your part.

If you do your 

part. Yeah. 

For people that don't do the right thing, it's not easy. 

Right. 

So it's not being handed to you, but then if you work hard and you're serious about the business, yeah, it could be fairly easy.

Alright. 

Yes sir. 

So Marcus, as we wrap up the conversation today, uh, what are some final thoughts that you have for, uh, for us and for the audience? 

Thanks for interviewing me. Um, I really enjoy maintenance. That's it. 

All right.

We came for Marcos. We also got Comiskey welcome. Comiskey. 

Thank you. And they usually try to do at least a couple events every month with the, uh, 

where do they hold their van? 

Uh, upstairs in, uh. Uh, coworker space or the 

uh mm-hmm. 

Conference area. 

How's the, how's the turnout typically? 

We have great turnouts, a lot of residents involved, a lot of 

engagement, 

people 

engaged.

We recently had a, uh, ugly Halloween, uh, sweater contest. That was a great turnout. And then, uh, we had, uh, I think we had a party for once we hit our a hundred mark residence. So. And then we have, uh, I think we have a fitness class on the 29th, and then we have the, uh, karaoke next Friday. So it's constantly, we always doing stuff.

And then in this room where we're going to maker space, we had a pumpkin painting. So it's always things to do. 

Which way? Now this 

way? Uh, right here.

Makerspace. So they paint here, huh? Yes. Painting. Do they bring, like, uh, an artist to like teach them the art of painting or how, how does it typically go? 

Uh, it's typically self-serve. Uh, you come in here. We've had part people host parties in here and stuff like that. Uh, but so far we haven't had a artist scheduled to come in here and teach a class, but I'm sure it's in the books.

Got it. Got it. How long you been in a, uh, industry? Business? 

Uh, I've been in maintenance about going on six years, and I've been with Fairfield here at this property since April. 

Since April. Yeah. So six years in maintenance? 

Yes. How did you start? Uh, kind of, sort of the same way. Uh, as far as Marcus, I had a friend in, uh, maintenance and they had an opening position and I was already in school for a hvac 

Okay.

The HVAC trade, trade school. And, uh, he kind of recommended me to the, uh, company. And this is our model, model unit. Okay. He recommend me to the company and kind of showed me the ropes along the way. 

You said six years ago, right? 

Yes. 

Which company? Was that your first company? 

Uh, I was with the company called Coastal Ridge.

Coastal Ridge. Okay. How long you been with, uh, Fairfield? 

Uh, I've been with this company since April. 

Since April. Okay. How long did it take you to move from groundskeeper to technician? 

I would say maybe a year and a half. 

A year and a half? 

Yeah. I started first as a groundsman, then I moved up to a punch check, then a maintenance technician.

Do you see this as becoming your career for life? 

Yes. 

Why do you think that is? Why you feel so strongly about making it a career? 

I think it is a career that's in high demand. And, uh, it'll be constant work. 

What are some things that, you know, you see for yourself in the future? How do you, you know, what are some goals that you have?

Well, one of my, uh, near goals is to become a supervisor, a maintenance supervisor and supervisor one day, my own property. 

From a time perspective, how long do you think, when do you think that's gonna happen? When do you hope for that to happen? 

Well, currently on the pace that I'm going. Maybe the next year or two.

Okay. For someone that hasn't started yet, right? They were at the point where you were like six years ago, what's your message to them? 

Give it a go. Hard work will pay off in the end. It's a great, great trade, great career, and uh, I think it'll be worth it. 

Any words about Fairfield as a company? 

I think it's so far so good.

I think it's a great company. I have the support that I, uh, need. Great team, great management. Overall, just a great experience. 

Well, it was great meeting you and thank you very much for taking the time. 

Same you. Thank you so much.