Fix It Forward - Episode 4

 Everyone. The time is finally here. We're shooting the first docuseries that the multifamily industry has experienced ever. We're gonna highlight the best of the best and the brightest of the maintenance profession, and then we're shooting in Atlanta, so you're going to see 12 episodes back to back of this docuseries right here in my hometown in Atlanta.

This is gonna be an amazing project. I'm super excited. To kick it off. And also I want to thank our friends from the Maintenance Academy for supporting and believing in us, believing in a project, believing in an industry, believing in the maintenance trade that it hasn't been told about enough. See you guys.

Looking forward to the, to the last one. I'm, uh, I'm not sure what to expect from Will, uh, will is gonna be our next, uh, our next guest, but, uh, I'm excited. I'm looking forward to the next step for today. 

I am.

My name is, uh, will Miller from Brooklyn, New York, Flatbush, Brooklyn, uh, born 1975. Brother, sister, two parents, uh, moved down here in 1993. Went to Georgia State University. Ironically, I was studying nursing. Got tired of that. Moved back to New York. Didn't really want to be up there, but then I came back maybe six months later, got a job at Delta Airlines, worked there for about nine years.

Left there. Then I was dibbling, dabbing, went back to school, it, things of that nature. Then took my first HVAC class in 2005. That's when I started getting into now into this type of industry right here. So from 2005 on, I worked. Uh, HVAC for about a year for a little small mom and pops company, and I learned a little bit of change tools of the trade.

So then that got me into construction. So now I'm learning about, you know, different types, you know, electrical learning about, you know, just really various, very various things in construction. So. That was kind of like what set me off to get into this industry, which happened many moves later. But, uh, yeah.

What actually determined what made you enter multifamily? I 

was thinking about, uh, applying what I learned from hvac, but I was doing mostly residential, so I met someone. And they asked me, you know, feel like that you can, uh, be a supervisor, you know, at a loft. I said, doesn't hurt to try. So put my foot forward, got in, and then I started learning how the different variations of like, you know, make readys and.

How many people it takes that to have like a, such as like, we got 124 units here. So based on 124 units, you just need one person. Then you got like 200 some units. Then, you know, add another person. So I was just, I kind of liked it. I liked working with the residents. This, that type of attitude, you know, come to work.

The people I work with phenomenal. So it was just, it's not, it's just like not going to work. How long ago did you get into multifamily? This was 2000, 2021. I came here in 2021, but then I left and went to Tennessee and then I was working down there. Came back about a year or so later, and I've been here ever since.

I'm curious, what did you dream about becoming when you grow up, when you were a little kid? Actually, I was 

more, again, like I was thinking about being a nurse. I went to n tried to go to nursing school. I was thinking about definitely getting into real estate after, but as a kid, that was on my mind. I wanted to be a nurse.

My mother was a nurse for 37 years, and I just got intrigued with helping people. I saw it all throughout my life. She was always helping someone, you know, whether it be family members, strangers, friends, whoever have you. So that kind of. Resonated in me, even to this day. That's why it applies when I work here.

I help the residents out. Sometimes not even be just about a situation in their unit. It may be they may be going through something in school or ask me a question and get my, you know, opinion on something. So I like to be that type of it. It feels good to be, to have that type of, you know, think about myself to help someone.

So you actually enter multifamily as a main supervisor, correct? Right. That was your first job. 

Right. 

Because it's kind of a, uh, unusual path, right? Right. For most people, they start more like entry level. 

Mm-hmm. 

So, although it's great that you came in and, you know, you started managing assets, but I'm also thinking that there were things you didn't know working in.

Tell me about the biggest challenges that you had coming from outside from like hvac. Okay. And the background that you just described to multifamily learning about the specifics of multifamily, what were like some top challenges? Okay. How you overcame 'em. 

Okay. I, I'll give you an example. I had a situation where just troubleshooting things that at first I wasn't familiar with on my own.

You know, it's easy to do something when you have someone above you that you can just kind of tag along with. But then when I was on the, on my own, okay. I had a little electrical situation just trying to bang my head, figure it out. Find out it was something real small, but if you don't go step by step, you can miss something.

So yeah, the desire to get better at troubleshooting, desire to be able to do preventative type things, that was something that just pulled me into really enjoying what I was doing.

This is the first floor right here, and you have the workout center over there.

How you doing? 

Hello, cast this out. How many apartments here? 

Totally total, like I said, 124 units, 1 24. So you're by yourself, by myself 

on call all the time. 

Not too many on calls. You know it. The majority of the on calls would be, uh, avac, summertime, ac wintertime, heating. That's the main, that's gonna be the major, you know, you gotta come out or also leaks.

What would you say about the biggest challenges of working by yourself? Like not having a teammate to time? Yeah, 

just how to manage the time. 'cause you know, you got different vendors coming out. You may have, um, you may not even know. A vendor may come out and just needs your needs. A couple words with you.

So it is just the timeframe, how to measure time. So if you have a certain amount of work orders, try to navigate which ones. You can go to first hit up first also. Residents have a timeframe that they want you to enter the unit. So you have to navigate around that. 

There's a lot of flooding, a lot of like, uh, managing.

It's 

like juggling. It's juggling your time. Yeah. What are we fixing? We are gonna fix a little lock on a dishwasher. 

Oh, right. 

It's one of the most common things that go wrong. GE dishwashers. It's the lid light. So 

it's kind of like a repeat thing. Yeah. Got it. Go 

right here. Alright.

Okay, so this 

is a one bedroom unit right here. I replacing this lid lock so you make sure you turn off the power. So the powers over the off dealing with these. Fuck. So yeah, like I said, this is one of the most common issues with these dishwashers. 

How many of these you do a month? How many repairs? Like this repair, like, 

like this one?

Uh, it depends, you know, one, one month, it could be, could be four, one month, it could be none, but, but it's pretty common. The fir, the first thing that really gives an issue is this right here. 

It's, uh, it is good to know. It's good to recognize patterns. Yeah. Well, thank you for letting us in on a job. Oh, yeah.

It's, it's a first for us today. Not for me. Uh, my background's been like, you know, I've been in maintenance for, uh, for 20 years, 20 plus years. Since 2003. I, uh, I actually started as a groundskeeper. 

Is that right? 

Yeah. Just kind of a And a couple of years ago, I decided to just kind of go work for myself still in multifamily, you know, doing some consulting, doing some other things, and, uh.

Uh, one of my dream projects was to be in a position to highlight great stories of, uh, amazing maintenance professionals like yourself. So here we are today. 

And you said you started doing this when? 

2003. 

2003? 

Yeah. Okay. Ground ski for part-time. That was my first job. Okay. And, uh, all my way out to a few DI director positions.

Uh, I became a VP eventually. Right. 32,000 units. It was the largest portfolio that I ever saw. And, uh, two years ago I decided to, to step on and just kind of, you know, do my own thing and see where this takes as a, like something different, as a different experience. 

So what's the, uh, most difficult part of your job?

That's a great question. I don't think, uh, in terms of being difficult, I just. And Jewish showing up. Uh, and I also do a variety of things like some of 'em that don't have anything to do with my maintenance background. Like what we're doing now has, you know, nothing to do. Well, it has something to do 'cause we're trying to like, tell great stories about professionals like you.

But other than that, we, you know, we do media. I do quite a few, uh, podcasts. We produce four different podcasts, multifamily related. One of 'em is, uh, actually. Maintenance related specifically, we do, we create content, video, written content, and then the consulting part kind of, it's kind of like, uh, riding a bicycle.

Once you learn, you never forget. It's stuff that I've done over the years, so I just come in, I assess and I write a report, and, uh, I help management companies. You know, changing things around. Honestly, it's easy. Like, I'm just saying, it's kinda like a second nature. Okay. You know, you, you're just doing it.

You've done it so many times that it's not an effortless situation, but you don't, you don't really like, it's, it's coming like it a nature way. Like you're looking at it like, okay, this is what we're gonna do, A, B, C. 

Okay. It's never a dull moment though, right? For sure. Give some power. Here we go. So a anything typical about your day?

You know, you do a lot of the same things, but the day's never the same. So, you know, even just walking around with working the grounds, you know, the grounds can look at different way one day. Uh, vendors, you dealing with a lot of different vendors. You know, you got, I said you got HVAC vendors, you got plumbers, you have, um, painters.

You know, especially when we get like these units ready, we have to get the, uh, carpet cleaners in here. So that's another thing, just getting a timeframe because we may have a, um, someone that's gonna request the unit at a certain time. We gotta get the painters in, we gotta get the carpet cleaners in the cleaners.

I gotta make sure everything is working properly. So, yeah, it keeps you busy. But the people, again, it's the people I work with. Management, they take care of you. Uh, if you need anything, we gonna go check the retail spots downstairs. Alright. That.

How you doing? 

Hello? Through your entire career, what would be like, you know, one very challenging moment? One very, very difficult. Probably the most difficult moment for you. 

I don't know how it's gonna sound. I don't have, I didn't, I have never had a challenging situation as far as the job working, doing the job.

Again, I work with good people, teamwork, you know, if I can't figure something out after three, four tries. I'm not afraid to ask a question or ask someone, you know, defer to someone that may has, have a little more expertise and then they can just walk me through something. So it's never the challenge of the job per se, if that makes sense.

I understand. Understand. Well that's, that's a, we gonna go that's a great story. Uh, that's a great story to share that you haven't really, you know, encountered any. 

I'll give you some. Alright. I can give you some. It was a one time, um, someone was stuck in the elevator. 

Mm-hmm. 

Now this is, this is an on-call situation, so I'm nowhere near the job, but I'm getting a call.

I'm hearing the panic in the voice. So I get here and you can hear them stuck in the elevator. Young lady, she was, uh, by herself and she was stuck between the third and second, third and fourth floor. So I'm waiting for the fire department to get here, talking her through it. So it was more difficult for her.

But I was worried about her. So that was kind of like the only thing I can really pinpoint to say that was difficult. I was worried about the resident.

Now this used to be a, uh, burrito spot, but it closed down, but we still have to make sure everything is. So, you know, copacetic, so to speak. 

Crazy King Burrito. We came a little late. I wish it was still open. 

Yeah, closed down maybe about a month ago. 

Come on. Love to, we love to see some routine stuff too.

It's part, part of, uh, 

so I just have to make sure I come in here and make sure there's no leaks, anything of that nature. Take the bathroom, plug in, make sure everything is, you know, pretty much. On the up and up.

All right. I never been in a restaurant kitchen, so this is a first for me. 

Yeah. So I make sure, you know, I come in and I'll, um, do a little.

I just pull a little water down here for a smell to keep the P traps full. Keep traps full. Exactly. Yeah. This things of that nature. So we have, uh, this one that have a retail spot over there, but they're occupied now, so I just make sure this one. It is, you know, just making sure there's no problems, no leaks that said anything of that nature.

I have a resident that was, um, a. I kind of down and out depressed. Mm-hmm. Schoolwork didn't know how they worried about exams, some something's going wrong in that apartment. So it's all combined, just stressing her out. And, uh, so I talked with her as I'm fixing with needs to be fixed. I'm talking with her, talking with her, listening to her.

And, uh, as she's listening to me talk to her, he was giving her a little bit of advice. So it was hot in the house. It burning up. Acs not working. All of a sudden you hear the, the motor come on. She starts to smile. She thanks me. The next day. Her parents called me to thank me for, you know, helping their daughter fixing this situation.

They gave me a, she gave me a nice review and, um, the company recognized it. So it on the, on the website. So yeah, there's things like that that, that makes me feel good. So this is like another, um, retail spot to have to just check out, make sure, you know, I said there's no leaks or anything of that nature.

Now it comes the part where we speak to the ones that are coming behind us. They will at some point, the younger generation, Uhhuh, I, uh, I think we as a industry have to try harder to do a better job at like communicating 

mm-hmm. 

Outside to the outside world. Especially to the young generation about how great this industry is.

You know, why have you been around for so long? What I have been around for so long? What are the best things about the industry? If you were to be in front of a thousand, you know, young man, a new man, what would you say? You know, what would be like your speech in front of 'em to maybe make a, maybe convince some of 'em?

That multifamily maintenance. Mm-hmm. It's a career worth taking. 

Well, it's a lot of movement. You can definitely move up in different levels of multifamily, whether, like I said, whether it be maintenance, whether it be leasing, whether it be property management, whether it be marketing. Even things that I don't even know about.

But you know, I, I watch what people do on a day-to-day basis. I see what people, um, when they come down from Macon and, uh, we have different type of forums and different type of, uh, events and they speak on like a lot of different things. You want to do things with your brain, your hands. There's ways of, of, of doing it, but you have to be, definitely have to be something that you like to do.

Now, if you don't like to, to do those things, you can travel. I mean, there's multitude of things. So discipline, have a good attitude. Attitude is number one with me, bar none. If your attitude, if you can't come to work. I tend to come to work the same way. I leave, same way. I left the same way. I came same way.

I came same way. I'm gonna leave positive attitude. I'm not saying everything's Ky Dory every day, but if I'm working beside you and I have a a negative attitude, it can tend to rub up on you. But if I come with a positive attitude, I'd rather that rub up on me. 

Looking at your younger self, what would be one or two best pieces of advice that you'll have for your young self?

Younger, 

ah. Oh, you ask great questions. Number one, discipline. Definitely. Discipline and discipline goes a long way. Discipline in your work, discipline, in your, your family life, discipline, just discipline with yourself. You have to have discipline within yourself, so you may want to do a lot of different things, uh, but you, you're scattered all over the place.

Structure. You gotta have some type of structure. And I, and definitely have to have a, a sense of, um, integrity.

I'm gonna show you these new, uh, studio apartments that we just got built. They're built. What, what was there before? Retail. Retail. Oh, retail. Like the same place we just came from? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Interesting. They turned it into studios now. 

Hmm. 

Yeah. We just finished these up this year.

Little, couple small, little things. We got to get out the way, but show how they look up in here.

It is are brand new.

This is a very large, you call this a studio? 

Yeah. 

This is a incredibly large studio. To me. It's like a real one bedroom. 

Mm-hmm. 

Yeah. Lot of space. Have a look. It's a look. It's kinda like a three bedroom in New York. Right? 

In where? New York. New York. I don't know about that. No, it's not. You know, New York.

New York, you not, you might not get nothing this big. I mean, if you do you gonna pay some money? 

Yeah, it's probably gonna be like five to $7,000 a month. Oh man. Easy, easy. Something like this, this quality of finishes and everything easy. How much do they go for? Do you know? 

Roughly? Ah, I don't want to tell you a lie.

I've been hearing so many figures. Um, they just, they bounced off my head, but, um, we could find out. 

Have you ever considered like a career in sales? And sales. I like selling compartments. Compartments. No, I never, 

no, I never have. 

I think you'll be great at it. 

You think 

so? Of course you showed us around.

You're, you're natural. 

Yeah, but it takes more than that. 

Well, 

well, well, I'm not, I take a compliment now. Thank you. 

It could take more than that. But what I'm saying is you make people feel like you connect people through the way you present and the way you introduce the product. Right? So, you know the product, you speak about the product.

And then you make people connect with a product. You know, you, you get 'em interested. I concur. I concur. Yeah. What do you think? It's one misconception that people from outside looking in to the maintenance trade are getting wrong. 

It can happen where if say, um, I guess I like to use the ac, say if it's a major situation with the AC and.

A vendor is required the timeframe that the vendor, because it may not be, you know, you have to sometimes, okay, you can't use that vendor, you gotta use another vendor. But sometimes it just may be they want something done, they want it done now. So they may think that you're not, you don't really have you a sense of urgency.

The skill. The skill or the, yeah, the urgency. The urgency, yeah. But you do it is just that sometimes your hands may be tied, so you try to, you know, compensate in certain ways. You know, just to, to make the, the resident comfortable as best as you can. But most, like more than, more than nine times outta 10 things go wrong, things get fixed here.

But that could be a misconception. 

If you were to have the year of some corporate executives, what are some messages that, you know, you want to relate to them to make sure that like they get maybe something that they currently aren't aware of. Mm-hmm. Or maybe it's something that they're looking at it maybe not in a way that you wish they were.

You 

just gotta talk to the, talk to your people. You know, it's, it is talk and listen to your people. Be able to critique and be also be able to be critiqued. So, you know, just come down and see what's going on at the ground level. Like, we may not know what's going on in the boardroom or certain offices, certain meetings, but, um, and also you may not know what's going on down here, but when you come down, you talk, you speak.

And again, like I said. That's what happens here, that they, you're allowed to, they're not even allowed. It's, it's put out there, it's comfortable. You can voice your opinion, voice your feedback, and it goes all the way around full circle. So that's something I would tell, I would say. 'cause you may not be able to relate.

It doesn't mean that you don't want, don't wanna understand. You may just not be able to relate. So maybe you have to send someone else that can, you know, you may be able to speak differently or speak with a more. Ease in some people can. 

When you think about someone that inspired you or helped you along the way in a maintenance, in multifamily maintenance, are there any names or is there any name coming to mind?

Yes, definitely my brother. But here specifically, I'm gonna go back with a man named Jay, uh, ed Keith. 

Why is it great to be. In apartment maintenance. What's great about it? 

It's the people. It's the 

people. 

It's the people. It's the people I work with. It's the people. Most people 

look at a maintenance and say, you know, they're the people that turn the ranch.

How, how do you look at yourself as maintenance, professional, 

customer service? I'm providing the service. Just that simple with a smile too. 

Yes. I, I see that you're smiling a lot with a smile. And that's, and that's amazing. Like really, because that. Creates, that creates connection. People relate, people could open up to that type of, uh, attitude and behavior.

Right. Uh, what are some final words that you have for us today? 

Uh, y'all, VIN you all have been great. I appreciate y'all allowing me to do this. Everybody's been asking me how am I nervous, but I read something that you had in the link you sent. It was a lot. At the end it said. Just be yourself. 

Thank you, brother.

Thank you. It's been amazing. Thank.