In the world of commercial real estate, property managers are some of the busiest individuals around. They balance the needs of their client property owners with the day to day upkeep needed to keep tenants happy, often while working to expand their portfolio.
For Veronica “Vern” Turek, property manager at Latitude Commercial, that means days where she traverses the Region – moving from property to property to meet with tenants and solve problems. Her days start early, regardless of if she’s planning on visiting the Latitude office. It gets her off on the right foot, and puts her in the mindset to tackle the day.
“I consider myself an organized person and probably think a little bit too much,” Turek said. “I get in at 7 a.m., and carry everything with me at all times. I have a ‘Vern To-Do’ folder and just started working through it. It’s all about planning and scheduling, and prioritizing what you need to take care of first, which is usually maintenance.”
A recent workday saw Turek run through her morning routine and then head straight out to Hobart to follow up on a landlord’s request. They were worried that a building subunit’s water meter might not be working properly because the tenant’s usage was lower than expected. She contacted the meter’s vendor, who confirmed it was registering usage and gave her a meter reading. Then, things got a little more hands-on as Turek went to personally verify everything was in order.
“I felt confident the meter was fine and that we didn’t need to hire a plumber just yet,” Turek said. “Then I go out to the shop and haul a ladder to the closet where the meter is so I can do a meter reading myself and take a photo of it. It wasn’t easy to get up there, but once I got the photo and it matched the reading provided by the vendor I was able to confirm the meter was working properly by having an employee at the shop turn on the water.”
It turned out that the usage was lower because a sink was out of order, which falls under the tenant’s responsibility to repair. She tidied up and handled a few other tasks at the building and then moved on to her next task – cleaning up a property’s sewer drainage and storm water pond.
The property, also located in Hobart, included a large stretch of greenery that had grown too much. The town, looking to ensure rainwater drained properly, tasked the landlord with cleaning it up. Turek knew it would be an endeavor, and took bids from different vendors to find her client the best deal.
“My job is to keep the cost down, and the initial price quoted was about $50,000,” she said. “We’re almost to the finish line now, and we’ve gone through a few phases – cutting weeds, trimming trees, and so on. It’s been an adventure, but it looks transformed and we did it for about $10,000.”
The landscaping and general cleanup was just one part of the job. Her visit this time was part of the last step she needs to complete to wrap up the job for good, finding an engineer to verify the system is draining properly. She meets with every potential vendor out at the site, walking through the project with them as she searches for the right hire.
“With all this happening, there’s no lunch for me,” Turek said. “I have a cooler in my car packed with whatever food I need. I’m on the phone, on my tablet, and then I’m on the go to my third property out in Highland.”
The property in Highland is a retail complex, and its sidewalks were beginning to show their age. They had originally been sealed with a skim coating of stamped concrete.
“Back in the day, that kind of coating was considered fancy and beautiful,” Turek said. “It was supposed to last forever, but that wasn’t the case with our Midwest weather. It started peeling and didn’t look good anymore.”
Turek’s task was to find an attractive and cost effective way to replace the old skim coating, something that would satisfy both the property owner and the tenants.
“I had to think outside the box, and turned to epoxy flooring that I’d used at a Hobart property,” Turek said. “I called up Encore Garage NW Indiana and they came through for me. We’ve done two sections of the property so far and it looks amazing, everybody is complimenting it. It’s one of the little wins that’s super satisfying, you have to give yourself and the vendor a pat on the back.”
