The Team- part 2

All of the members on our team are utilized on a part time basis. While the community manager and sales manager are the foundation, there are others who make equally vital contributions. We were fortunate to be able to find both managers among our residents. The rest of the positions are filled from members in the community at large or neighboring towns.

We have two house hunters that go out and look at potential home acquisitions. They take pictures with their digital camera and fill out our inspection form. They have a keen eye for spotting any defects and repairs that would be needed. They have great facility at talking with current homeowners and getting information needed to do a deal. Their awareness of what we are looking for enables us to buy homes sight unseen by us.

There are a myriad of activities associated with bringing in and setting up a home. Our county requires that concrete footers be dug and poured by a licensed contractor. Since placement is specific to each individual home, it has to be measured prior to the move. A professional toter is hired to breakdown the home at the donor site, move and set it up again at our site. Once in place, the water and sewer lines need to be hooked up. An electrician runs wiring from the pedestal outside to the fuse box in the home. An HVAC contractor is required to setup and get the AC and furnace running. A brick mason is hired for the concrete underpinning that our county requires. Entry decks need to be built. Sometimes interior rehab is required. Lastly, the home needs to be cleaned and made ready for sale. The entire process utilizes at least half a dozen contractors. The scheduling, coordination, and follow through of this process requires consummate organization skills and knowledge of the trades is helpful. In our search for the right candidate to do this supervision, we have gone through a couple of people in this position. While I don’t know if we have yet found the ultimate solution, we’re working on it!

The position we have had the most difficulty in filling is the handyman. Typical responsibilities range from lawn maintenance to a small but constant stream of ad hoc tasks (changing locks, fixing a water leak, eviction setouts, etc.) that arise. We have gone through many people in various capacities to get these jobs done. We ended up contracting out the lawn maintenance. We’ve cultivated a friendship with a local guy whose talent is only matched by his busyness, but finds a way to fit us in his schedule to handle the occasional park repair or utility hookup. A rehabber from a neighboring town is currently working on his second home for us. It looks promising, so we’ll see how it goes.

In the beginning, my dad and I did all of these functions. Now we have assembled a team that allows us to manage Madison Woods from afar. No doubt some of the players will change as we evolve. We are still improving and modifying our system to make it more efficient, but this is the scaffolding upon which we’re building our system.

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