From Leasing to Leadership in Maintenance

[Mark Sharp] (0:00 - 0:26) You think you're going out to look at a light bulb, well it turns out it's not the light bulb, it's the entire light fixture. You go, you have to disconnect the power and you take the fixture off, but when you do you realize there's not enough electrical wire behind the wall to connect the new light fixture to, or there's no stud, or the box is deteriorated, and so what should have been a five-minute job turns into a multi-hour job, or in some cases a multi-day job.

[Adrian Danila] (0:26 - 1:04) Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of Multifamily X Podcast, Masters of Maintenance. Our guest today is Mark Sharp, the Vice President of Facilities at NOAA Property Management. Before I go to introduce Mark, I do want to thank our sponsors from Kairos and AppWork for making this broadcast possible.

Welcome to the show, Mark. Thank you, Adrian, appreciate it. Mark, I want to start with asking you to share a few things about your professional background, just tell us a little bit about how you got into the multifamily industry and how you progressed to become a Vice President of Facilities.

[Mark Sharp] (1:04 - 4:11) The journey for me started like a lot of other people in our industry, it was on accident. I did not plan to get into the multifamily industry. I was in the military briefly and got out and started doing odds and end temp work, and I had an opportunity to become a part-time leasing consultant for a new construction property that was right down the street from where I lived.

So that's how I got into it, was just part-time leasing. And then I kind of worked my way through the office, became an office manager, ran a property in Concord, North Carolina, and then just really wanted to learn a little bit more about the maintenance side. So I started to spend a lot more time with our maintenance supervisor.

What made me want to go from being a community manager to a maintenance tech? I don't know, I can't tell you. Other than just working in the office and some of the stresses that come along with that, rent collection and evictions and the phone calls, I honestly felt like it was too much for me.

It was just not, it wasn't fun. Maintenance seemed like something that I could get into that would be fun and allow me to have face-to-face interactions with residents and talk to people, because I'm a very personal person. I love to talk.

I love to get to know people. Taking someone with an issue, a maintenance request, and fixing it for them and having them feel some gratitude, that was good. I enjoyed that.

That's kind of what started my role into the maintenance side of things. And then over 24 years of being in the industry, we wear a lot of things. We make a lot of moves.

Properties get bought and sold every day. One day you're at a property working for XYZ, and a week later you're at another property with a different company. And that's just the nature of the beast.

I got really involved with my local apartment association several years ago. And I think that kind of helped me, I don't want to say become known, but a maintenance tech working at properties that never appears, never goes to events, never does anything. Going to association events and meeting other people from other companies, becoming friends, and it really kind of opens the pool for work.

People start looking at you in four different positions. You get your certifications. You become involved.

You teach. You volunteer. You do all the things that no one else wants to do.

And people start to notice. And next thing you know, you're getting asked to apply for this regional position, or you're getting asked to apply for a project management position. And then from project management, what I was doing before I became vice president, and then I was picked up by Affordable Upstate and NOAA Property Management.

I wear two hats for our company. Affordable Upstate, the real estate investment side. I am their project manager, construction manager.

But then for NOAA Property Management, I run the facility side. That was 24 years of just working day in and day out and constantly learning to finally feel like I'm at a place where I am utilized the right way.

[Adrian Danila] (4:11 - 4:36) In your role as VP, Mark, tell me a little bit about the job functions. Are you on the operations side mainly, or are you managing or overseeing capital projects? And what's your involvement at the site level besides oversight?

Do you have any say-so, or do you have any involvement in recruiting the new personnel? Let's get a little more granular so I can better understand your current position. I do have a couple of hats.

[Mark Sharp] (4:36 - 5:32) NOAA Property Management is the management company for our owned assets through Affordable Upstate. So I do manage capital expenses. I do manage property exterior CapEx projects.

We have a lot of those projects going on throughout our portfolio. But with NOAA Property Management, I run our facilities department. Any hiring, any scheduling unit terms, work orders, I have a team of 15 people, including myself, that strictly work on the NOAA Property Management side.

We do all of our typical, all of our work orders, in-house terms, renovations. I'm honestly thinking about bringing in somebody to do in-house pest control because that's become an expense for us, a very large expense. I could pay someone a really good salary to become an in-house pest control.

We try to do as much as we can in-house. So that's why I have such a large team because I don't have to call a vendor I don't want to.

[Adrian Danila] (5:32 - 5:35) How many apartment homes totally you're overseeing?

[Mark Sharp] (5:35 - 5:57) NOAA Property Management, Affordable Upstate owns roughly 1,500 total homes. NOAA Property Management, we manage all of those. Split amongst how many properties, how many different sites?

Our unit count is split over 19 properties, although we are set to close on two more properties next week. So we'll be picking up another 50 or so units next week.

[Adrian Danila] (5:57 - 6:13) So I'm assuming now, right? And correct me if I'm wrong, that the 15 employees that report directly to you, they're servicing all of the sites. So you basically run the entire maintenance team for all the assets and you basically just decide where they need to be assigned.

[Mark Sharp] (6:13 - 7:00) Correct. We are a centralized maintenance team. We do not, like I have one property that is 359 homes.

The maintenance guys are not staffed there. They do not go to that property every day. We have a centralized office.

We have team meetings every morning. We have our 1,500 or so homes split into three regions. We have a team of people assigned to Region 1, Region 2, Region 3.

Those maintenance professionals get assigned work orders for Region 1. And then the other guys get assigned Region 2. The other guys get assigned Region 3.

Their work orders come through their mobile apps and we have company vehicles. They're driving our trucks around town, doing wherever we need them, wherever their work is assigned. I oversee that entire process and it's quite a lot.

[Adrian Danila] (7:01 - 7:28) Centralization is a big topic. Some will say it's a buzzword. Some will say it's just something that's here to stay.

On a company at the scale that you're at, I think it makes the most sense that you do things centralized. Larger companies, probably, I guess, based on the geographical areas that the properties are located in, there's some level of centralization that's possible. Was this a business model when you actually took over, when you became the person in charge here, or is this something that you have built?

[Mark Sharp] (7:28 - 9:09) A little bit of both. Before NOAA Property Management was created, we had a third party management company managing a good portion of our portfolio. They were more of the traditional sides where they staffed employees on site every day.

It was very difficult for us when you have one property that is thriving, constantly up to date, no terms, no work orders because they're just there all day, every day, and they've got it down to a science. But then you have a sister property a couple miles down the street that's struggling, that can never seem to catch up. When NOAA Property Management was created and we took over 100% of our portfolio, this was the model that we set forth instantly because we wanted those properties that struggle to have help.

Staffing, it's an issue. Everyone knows it. We felt like we had a lot of people with great expertise and a lot of knowledge.

And why keep them over here when I could use them so much more over here? We went with a centralized model, what we call a centralized model, pretty much from day one. It's been a struggle.

It's something that is new to me. I've never managed a program like this. We saw the need and we make changes daily.

It's nothing that we have ironed out that is just perfect. We change things pretty much every month until we feel like we're making the small changes, the small things necessary, and it's working. It is working.

But like you said, our portfolio is pristine for that. We're in the perfect situation for that. And if we continue to grow in the upstate of South Carolina and surrounding areas, we can continue to have this model.

[Adrian Danila] (9:09 - 9:27) What are some lessons that you learned in the process? What are some wins that you want to share? What are some things that are actually going super great with this model?

I'd like for you to share because there's just a massive interest out there for a program like you running. I'd like for others to have the opportunity to hear some feedback from someone that's actually doing it.

[Mark Sharp] (9:27 - 12:12) Some of our wins are the fact that we're able to spread our talent out. We're not confined to one specific space. We have teams that are really good with HVAC.

They tend to handle most of those AC calls. And so it frees the other teams up to go and handle the plumbing calls or the electrical calls or leaks or turns. One of the good wins is that we're able to just kind of balance our team out.

We are a team. Having that talent throughout our entire portfolio instead of just one property or two properties is key. Another win for us is because we are not staffing the properties in the traditional sense, in the traditional way.

And because we have such a diverse group, a diverse knowledge group of individuals, we can pay a little bit more than maybe what some other individuals are accustomed to or other properties are paying. We can attract good talent because of our model. Residence satisfaction is high because we're sending qualified people out the first time.

My big saying around our company and around our team here is, if you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it again? We try to do everything right the first time. So we're in and out once.

We're not having to come back. We're not having to... That's one of the pain points though of doing this.

Having the material necessary to fix the specific issue on your truck. We partner with a third party company that handles all of our maintenance calls for us. So when we get work orders, they're very detailed.

We know exactly what the problem is. So we know pretty much what to bring from the shop to the situation. But if parts are necessary, we can always find a Lowe's or a Home Depot close to go grab what we need.

So we don't have to waste time coming all the way back to the shop because our territory is 2 hours top to bottom. And that's a lot of drive time if you have to leave the north part of Spartanburg to come all the way back to Greenville to grab a towel bar. A lot of wins in that our team is here every day.

We have meetings every day. You're talking with the entire team. So if one person is struggling, you have 14 other people you can call.

We have a community Slack channel where we all talk. I have 2 employees who are in Mexico who handle calls and surveys and follow-ups for us. They're starting to learn a little bit on the maintenance side of things because they see us communicating all the time.

So they're starting to diagnose calls before we even get them. Somebody will call in and say, hey, my disposal's stopped up. And they will say, well, have you tried the button on the bottom?

A lot of times they're able to curb those calls before we ever see them. It's a really cool, neat environment that we've created.

[Voice Over] (12:13 - 12:16) And now a word from Dean Fungawing, founder and CEO, Kairos.

[Dean Fungawing] (12:17 - 13:17) We take that personal touch of showing up to the property, meeting with the building engineers, meeting with the site maintenance team and saying, you tell us where you see the most problems. We're not going to assume that we know where your particular problems are. And when they start telling us like, dishwashers aren't a problem, but water heaters are a big problem.

Well, last year we had a fire suppression system that froze and it leaked down into eight apartments, caused $300,000 worth of damage, right? Those conversations are invaluable because now I've got a historical marker where I have a quantitative problem. I have now not just said, oh, water is a problem, or fire is a problem, or freeze is a problem.

I've now told you how much that problem cost me last year. And I say, okay, if this year I can prevent a pipe freeze, if this year I can prevent another water heater from destroying and getting out of control, I can't stop the water heater from leaking, but I can tell you about it early enough because the name of the game with water is get to it as fast as possible.

[Adrian Danila] (13:18 - 13:34) You mentioned driving time being a challenge, also availability of parts and the fact that you can't always carry everything that's needed on a truck. What other challenges you're facing currently with your current centralized model that you could share with us?

[Mark Sharp] (13:34 - 15:00) One of our biggest challenges is our footprint. Because the way we have our region set up, like I said, we have the three regions, you have a group of guys assigned to each region. And sometimes the people in that region don't have the skillset to diagnose the issue properly.

We have to call somebody from another region to come over. One of our biggest challenges is sometimes closing work orders in a timely manner because sometimes it does take one or two other people to come out. Or it could be a situation where we think it's something small, you think you're going out to look at a light bulb.

Well, it turns out it's not the light bulb, it's the entire light fixture. You have to disconnect the power and you take the fixture off. But when you do, you realize there's not enough electrical wire behind the wall to connect the new light fixture to or there's no stud or the box is deteriorated.

And so what should have been a five-minute job turns into a multi-hour job, or in some cases, a multi-day job, depending on what we walk into when we find some of our situations. So one of our biggest challenges is time. Getting things closed out in a timely manner.

While we're able to spread and a lot of those things because customer satisfaction is up, but there's always that one or two that you struggle with. Having a centralized model, that is one of the things that we do struggle with is getting all of them done in a timely manner, not just the easy ones.

[Adrian Danila] (15:00 - 15:09) You mentioned technology, but you didn't name the technology. Would you share with us what type of technology you're using to manage the workloads? We use Entrata.

[Mark Sharp] (15:09 - 16:12) We all have the Entrata app on our phones and we schedule work orders through Entrata and all of those things. But we also use a product called HappyForce. It's part of the HappyCode product.

And HappyForce is the company who handles the majority of our phone calls. Residents call in to report a maintenance request. They get a HappyForce technician on the phone, and they're the ones who ask the questions that really hone in on the details of the work order.

We're not getting work orders that say, sink broken. What does that even mean? What does sink broken mean?

You're sending someone out there to diagnose something, and we don't know what to take. HappyForce has been really good for us because they now will send us a work order that instead of saying sink broken, it will say heat trap leaking, and there will be a photo attached to it. So we know exactly what it is that we're going to fix when we get out there.

So as far as our technology between Entrata and HappyForce, that's pretty much what we use exclusively, minus Slack, which is just our communication piece that we use throughout our entire team.

[Adrian Danila] (16:12 - 16:31) Mark, you're also a podcast host. Yes. So I want you to share with the audience the name of your podcast, where can the audience find you as a podcast host, and also I want you to share with us how this whole idea started for you.

Why did you want to start a podcast, and where you are today in the process with that?

[Mark Sharp] (16:31 - 19:29) Yeah, thank you. Thank you for that. I appreciate it.

The podcast for me started several months ago. I was at our South Carolina Apartment Association Education Conference, and we had Dr. Debbie Phillips got up and she was one of our keynotes. She asked the question, how many of you chose multifamily as your career path?

I remember from where I was sitting towards the back of the room, kind of looking out over the entire group of people, I really do not remember one person raising their hand. I thought, what in the world? I already admitted to you, I founded this industry by accident.

I thought, wow, no one in this room out of 400 people, nobody chose the multifamily industry as a career path. Why? This is such an amazing career.

I've been in it for 24 years. I do not regret it. I've never tried to leave.

A lot of people try to leave, but then they come back. This is a great industry. In some ways, this industry is recession-proof.

People are always going to need somewhere to live. There will always be work. I was struggling with why no one chose this.

What is it that we're doing wrong? Why can't we entice people to come to the multifamily industry? What is it?

Are we getting bad press in the news because of the evil landlord or evictions, the CARES Act? All of these things that do reflect negatively on us, is that the case? I started just down this rabbit hole of trying to find why no one is choosing the multifamily industry as a career path.

That's really what started my podcast, which is called the Multifamily Mixtape. I have two episodes out on Spotify, Apple, Amazon, all the places where you can find. I've also recently been picked up by the Multifamily Media Network.

So my episodes are available there. Now that I am a member of Multifamily Media Network, I will be releasing new podcasts every other Tuesday, starting July 23rd. There are two episodes out there now.

There will not be a third until the 23rd of July. The point of my podcast is I'm a maintenance guy. I want to have some instructional how-tos because I want it to be beneficial.

I want it to be a resource that maybe someone could go to, to learn something new, or to just spitball ideas back and forth with several other people in our industry. I want us to all learn. I think education is key in this industry.

And as it changes all the time, you have to stay up with your education. I want it to be an outlet. I want it to be a resource, a tool.

But I also want to interview several friends and colleagues that I've met over the years that also have a lot to say. Maybe one day in a couple years, the next time somebody asks, how many of you chose the multifamily industry as a career path? Hopefully in a couple of years, we start seeing hands get thrown up in the air.

I'd like to think that I could influence some people, not just me, but the whole collaboration of our industry. You've done great things for our industry, Adrian. The more people we have out there advocating for what we do, the more chances people will have to hear it and might not think of us as the bad guy and want to choose this industry instead of fall into it by accident.

[Voice Over] (19:30 - 19:33) And now a word from Sean Landsberg, co-founder and CEO, Appwork.

[Adrian Danila] (19:34 - 19:40) What are some things that differentiate Appwork from all the other maintenance workflow apps that are out there available?

[Sean Landsberg] (19:40 - 20:35) For us, it was about creating a solution that solved their own problems. And in order to get to that end goal, we had to first create a maintenance management software, which is the foundation of our product and the basic of our product. But our product is so much more than that.

Our product was built, again, like I said before, about solving our problems. That includes the data behind the technicians, all the data behind the entire maintenance process and how we display that data, how we capture that data, the data integrity component behind that, how we make sure that that data cannot be influenced by anybody within the organization. We also have the gamification component, how we take maintenance and turn that into a game, make it more motivating, more exciting, more engaging, which helps improve your maintenance efficiency.

We're seeing technicians being able to complete more work orders in a day than they were able to before. They're more motivated than they were before. Their customer service is better, which obviously impacts resident retention and so much more.

[Adrian Danila] (20:36 - 21:22) I think it starts with us. You want to see a real change. We can't really wait around expecting a change or demanding a change.

Demanding just about anything because of labor of I think you should be the one that is the change. You should be driving the change if you really want the change. And then people will eventually follow.

That's a good change. That's a positive change. You mentioned that you painted a scene where the question was asked by Dr. Phillips, how many of you choose this career in multifamily?

So my question to you besides just being a podcast host and you're spreading the multifamily gospel out there this way, what other ways can you think for us as an industry to turn the tables on being a career by accident to being a career by choice?

[Mark Sharp] (21:22 - 23:49) I'm glad you've asked that because several years ago, the Upper State Apartment Association, which is our local affiliate here in Greenville, we had an opportunity to go to a city council meeting to discuss affordable housing and some of the challenges that are affecting our local area. We got there and the mayor of Greenville was talking and they introduced us as the Upper State Apartment Association. And the mayor, he's done wonderful things for our town.

He had no clue who we were. He had no clue who Upper State Apartment Association was. He had no idea what we did, what we advocated for.

He knew nothing about what we were there to do or what the association provides to its members, to its stakeholders. To us, that was huge. If your own city council and your own city government have no idea who you are or what you do, you have nobody out there advocating for you in that seat.

It becomes a grassroots, door-to-door going to high schools and community colleges and trade schools and saying, hey, offering job fairs and things like that. But now when we went to that as an association with questions to ask, to advocate for our industry, to advocate for the renter, we became known on a city council level, on a city government level. Now we not only had the platform of the high schools and the trade schools and the community colleges and job fairs, the government now knows we're a viable business.

We have representatives, William Timmons, Ralph Norman, several U.S. government, federal government people coming to town now and having lunch with us, having breakfast with us and talking to us. By getting the word out about our industry and what we do, having some of those heavy hitters that now understand what you do and they can go to bat for you and advocate for you. What was an unknown business, an unknown industry is now a good thing or has now become a good thing because we are in the light being brought out as not the bad guy.

It's really helped us a lot by getting out and introducing ourselves to anyone and everyone who listens. Personally, I am very involved in our partner association. I teach classes, any and all classes I can get my hands on.

I love to teach. Getting out there and advocating for our industry has been huge.

[Adrian Danila] (23:49 - 24:05) Mark, for those watching or listening to this episode and they're looking up to someone like you, they want to become a leader in the industry, a leader in the facilities, they want to become Mark one day. What are some pieces of advice that you would like to share with them? Consistency.

[Mark Sharp] (24:05 - 25:09) That would probably be one of the biggest pieces of advice. Be consistent, be purposeful. One of my owners, Mario Brown, one of his favorite sayings is always be learning.

You don't want to get complacent. You always want to be pushing and challenging, challenging the next thing. Not all conflict is bad.

There is good, healthy conflict and it takes good, healthy conflict in order for things to grow and for things to change. Be consistent. Always be learning.

Always push. Don't be afraid to try new things. Just be consistent in your convictions and in your work ethic.

If you're a hard worker, stay a hard worker. Don't get to a point and then become complacent. You can't do that.

You have to continue to push and push and push in order to change. Ask questions, get involved. Oh man, for the love of God, get involved, please.

You want to become VP of facilities or a regional maintenance supervisor or a maintenance supervisor. You have to get involved. You have to be known.

A lot of times, maintenance guys, we get, I don't say we get lazy, but we get comfortable with our day in and day out and we're afraid to step out and try something new.

[Adrian Danila] (25:09 - 25:26) Don't be afraid to get out and try something new. Ask questions. Mark, you had a very diverse career moving family, starting on a leasing side, moving into the maintenance facilities and then top management.

What's one pivotal moment or decision that significantly shaped your professional journey?

[Mark Sharp] (25:26 - 27:23) I was an assistant supervisor at a property. That property was 702 homes. It was big.

It was a big property. And I was an assistant supervisor there. And we had a new manager come in.

Her name was Cinnamon McCauley. She saw something in me. She saw a work ethic, a leader, so to speak, in me.

And she pushed me to become involved and to get out of the typical maintenance eight to five. I'm going to do my work and I'm going to go home because apartment association events are after hours. She pushed for me to become involved in the association because she just said, you've got a voice that I think people would want to hear.

At that particular moment in time, maintenance involvement in the association was zero. There was no maintenance involvement. You go to an association event and you see property managers, leasing and the occasional regional manager.

And that was it. The first several events that I went to, it was weird being one of the only maintenance guys, but you start to get noticed. You have people come up to you and ask you, Hey, I have a question.

I've got my supervisor over at property, whatever. He doesn't come to these things. Why do you come to these things?

You start talking. But that pivotal point for me was my supervisor, Cinnamon McCauley pushing me to become more involved in my apartment association and to become a voice and an advocate for the maintenance industry because we are overlooked. We get overlooked a lot.

The glitz and the glamour is the leasing. They're the ones dressed to the nines and on all the social media posts and their suits and their professional photography. And the maintenance guys get overlooked.

I became a voice and an advocate for the industry. That to me is the pivotal point, but that is also just the thing that I'm the most proud of is what our association has been able to accomplish over the last 10 years for our maintenance industry and what they continue to do for our maintenance industry.

[Adrian Danila] (27:23 - 27:35) Having served multiple leadership roles in an industry, Mark, what's one leadership lesson you learned that you wish you knew earlier in your career? I wish I'd been pushed earlier.

[Mark Sharp] (27:36 - 28:35) I wish that I believed enough in myself to want to step out earlier and start this process earlier in my career because we could have been that much farther ahead now. One of the lessons I've learned too, though, getting into this, and this may come across as harsh, when I got into this, not necessarily this vice president role, but into leadership roles, you have some individuals that might want to take advantage of friendships or take advantage of co-worker type things. And I think one of the lessons I would have paid closer attention to is that when you get into that role, if you say something's done, it needs to be done.

The trust, but verify. Don't just take the word for it, go verify. Because if you're going to sign off on it, you need to sign off on it and you need to stand behind it.

That was another lesson that Cinnamon McAuley taught me. Trust, but verify. If you say it's done, it needs to be done.

When you get to a certain role, people take advantage of it. You got to not let that happen.

[Adrian Danila] (28:35 - 28:44) Over your two decades in the industry, what's the most significant change you've seen in property management and how have you adapted to it?

[Mark Sharp] (28:44 - 30:35) From the maintenance side, I would say government regulations, EPA regulations, the phase out of R22 to the introduction of Fortinet, and now the phase out of Fortinet and the introduction to the A2Ls. Those are one of the things that you struggle with. I mentioned earlier about being consistent.

Well, it's hard to be consistent when things change, when government regulations change all the time. Things as far as energy efficiency on appliances, the interiors are getting smaller. The size restraints from the refrigerators to fit within the cabinets that they're supposed to fit into.

Government makes one change and your cubic foot goes from 16.5 to 15.6, but the cabinet expands an inch and a half. You're having to make some changes that you wouldn't really want to make because of some of the things that they're forcing you to do. On a property management side, technology.

I'm old school. I'm from the day when we had paper work orders in triplicate. You wrote down everything you did and you ripped the middle copy off and you left it in their apartment.

Really coming from dot matrix printers and handwritten work orders, handwritten leases to now everything being online, the work orders being assigned through mobile apps and being able to have the ability to be mobile is something that has been a great change for our industry. But it really makes me curious to see what's going to happen the next 20 years. I mean, if we've come that far in 20 years, where are we going to be in the next 20?

As things change, always asking questions, always willing to learn, not to get stuck in the old ways. It's very easy for someone my age and with years of experience to get stuck in what I know. We have to challenge ourselves and we have to always be learning in order to learn this new technology, new things that are out there to help make our jobs easier.

It's supposed to make our lives easier and our jobs easier. It's not supposed to make it harder.

[Adrian Danila] (30:36 - 30:44) Mark, inspiration. Who are the people that inspired you the most or made the most positive impact in your life and your career?

[Mark Sharp] (30:45 - 32:18) In my career, I've mentioned her name several times already, but Cinnamon McAuley, she's the first person to really push me to be better. She has been, still is, a role model for me just in the lessons that she taught me 10 years ago. She doesn't even know she taught me.

It was just a conversation we had, but I learned something from it. And I continue to live by a lot of the things that she has said. Obviously, my parents, my dad, one of the hardest working men I know, and he instilled that work ethic in me.

Coming to work and just being the employee and the person that I am to do the right thing, not take the shortcuts, work hard. People who work hard sometimes get overlooked, but you got to continue to work hard. You take those things to heart.

You got to keep going. You got to keep pushing. You got to work.

I was employed at 14 years old, bagging groceries. I didn't get to wait until I was out of college before I got a job. Joy Davis is the AE for the Upper State Apartment Association.

And she's been a very good friend for a lot of years and a very good voice and person to express good or bad things to, and to have somebody that you can just talk to. You don't need them to come up with some grand advice. You just need somebody to listen.

Between sentiment and joy, Cary Plum is another individual that has had a good influence on me in this industry. I love them all dearly. I stay in touch with them all.

Those three have really pushed me to be who I am today.

[Adrian Danila] (32:18 - 32:28) Mark, we're only around for a limited period of time. Some will argue a short period of time. How would you like to be remembered?

What would you like your legacy to be?

[Mark Sharp] (32:28 - 33:02) I want to be known as the guy who fought to give maintenance a voice. As much as things have progressed for the maintenance industry, I still feel like there are a lot of things that are lacking for the maintenance industry. I want to be known as an advocate for maintenance and the voice that we have.

And I would like for us to be considered, to have a seat at the table, and to really take what we say to heart instead of just listening to listen and pushing it off to the side.

[Adrian Danila] (33:02 - 33:08) Mark, for those in the audience that are watching or listening to the episode, how can they get in contact with you?

[Mark Sharp] (33:08 - 33:38) My email address is mark at noahpm.com. I teach a lot of classes at our apartment association, and I give out my cell phone number at the end of every class. And I tell anyone, if you ever get stuck on something, please reach out.

I'm happy to help. If I can, I'll help you. If I can't, I'll tell you.

But between the two of us, we know somebody who can help. To anyone who is listening, if I can be a resource for something that you may be struggling with, or you want to get involved and you don't know how, I'm happy to help. Shoot me an email.

[Adrian Danila] (33:38 - 33:44) Mark Sharp, it's been a pleasure to have you on today. I'd like to give you the opportunity to share some final thoughts with the audience.

[Mark Sharp] (33:45 - 34:22) These are conversations and things that you think about having. I'm lucky for the opportunity for Adrian to have had me on, and I appreciate all of you for wanting to listen to anything that I have to say. And I hope that one of the things I said will help push you or propel you into what's next, because there is always something next.

You're never stuck. If I can be a resource to you, for you, please do not hesitate to reach out. I love this industry.

I love all things about this industry. If I can be a resource, I'm happy to do it. Thank you, Adrian, for having me on today.

[Adrian Danila] (34:22 - 34:40) I really appreciate it. Thank you for being with us. I want to thank all of you in the audience for hanging out with us.

I want to thank our sponsors, Kairos and Apple, for making this broadcast possible. I hope to see you back here soon. I'm your host, Adrian Danila.

This is Multifamily X Podcasts, Masters of Maynards. Have an amazing day.