At Work With . . .Robey Taylor
By Riddhi Trivedi-St. Clair, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Feb. 24–Robey Taylor’s academic background didn’t prepare him for a career in property management.
But when Taylor got a job with Cleveland-based Richard E. Jacobs Group Inc. while working in newspaper advertising, he quickly realized what he had learned in communications classes had a lot to do with being a successful property manager. Jacobs Group is one of the nation’s largest owners and operators of malls and other commercial real estate. Seven years ago, Taylor got a job as property manager for Sachs Properties’ Chesterfield Village.
How does a degree in communication help you in property management?
A lot of property management is about communication: keeping tenants informed, working with staff. You are trying to enforce the lease while also gaining the tenant’s cooperation, and how you word things was critical.
I use the sandwich method. Start and finish with a compliment with the criticism or stern comment, the negative part, in the middle.
What does a property manager do?
There are two aspects to property management: The things that pop up every morning, and the long-range planning. On any given day, the heat may not be working or the toilet may be overflowing.
You also have to plan for long-term maintenance: Which building needs a new HVAC (heating, ventilating and cooling) system and how much that is going to cost; when was a building roof replaced or the asphalt pavement repaired. I do a lot of tenant relations and help new tenants get settled in.
At Chesterfield Village, we have almost 200 tenants in 15 buildings. I also have a maintenance director and five HVAC technicians, as well as the landscaping crew who report to me.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
The variety. There is always a different issue to deal with. I also enjoy meeting the tenants. It’s interesting to find out what people do, and I learn about niche businesses that I would never have thought of. I get to build relationships with the tenants.
There was one tenant who would ask me, “Where’s my candy?” every time I went by to drop something off. So one day I showed up with a bag of candy, and she was very surprised.
What do you least like about your job?
When you have to tell the tenant you can’t do something. Sometimes you have to respond with a negative response, but you have to be professional.
You have to balance what you would like to do for the tenant with company policies. Some things are specifically spelled out in the lease. Fortunately, we have a lot of flexibility.
Do tenants ever get mad at you?
Sometimes. It’s a lot about how you handle a situation. If we do mess up, I keep emergency chocolate in the closet. I apologize and give them some chocolate.
It is important to acknowledge you made a mistake. Sometimes the root of the problem is they are having a really bad day and something happens and we get yelled at. But I don’t take it personally. There’s a solution to every problem; sometimes it is just hard to find.
Have you had any unusual situations to deal with?
I’ve been property manager for so long, I don’t think of most things as unusual.
The one strange incident I had was with a solicitor. I usually have a short fuse with such people. Tenants call and complain they are being bothered, and we have to go over and ask them to leave.
Once I had to make someone leave, and he tried to back over me with his car. We had to call the police, and he was arrested.
rtstclair@post-dispatch.com — 314-340-8206
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