Picture Source: Vispronet, www.vispronet.com/heroes-work-here-yard-letters

The National Apartment Association has declared July 20, 2022 Apartment Onsite Teams Day (#APTeamsDay). This is the third annual holiday and is designed to show appreciation for all the residential property management professionals who work hard to make apartment communities thrive. It’s a part of a new, week-long initiative called RPM Careers Week; check out all the fun stuff the NAA has going on and enter for a chance to win great prizes, and share your own stories about life in the apartment business using the hashtag #RPMmoments.

In honor of APTeams Day, I want to acknowledge every hard-working apartment industry professional for their commitment to their customers, support of their coworkers, and professionalism in the face of extraordinary circumstances.

"What extraordinary circumstances?" you might ask. Well....I think most of us would agree that we had NO idea what we were getting into when we started in this business. I mean, we had some idea—we read the job description, we toured the community, we met with the Regional Manager and heard what they had to say about our responsibilities. But there’s so much that goes on in property management that no one tells you about until you’re IN IT.

Today, I tip my hat to all the residential property management professionals for doing the work you had no idea you were going to have to do - and handling all those extraordinary circumstances I mentioned earlier. Here are some examples, both from my own experience and from stories shared with me. Seriously, you can NOT make this stuff up.  

• Finding homes for the litter of kittens that turned up in the Maintenance Supervisor’s car 🐱
• Rescuing the starving dog who was left behind, emaciated and terrified, when a resident skipped (that jerk) 🐾
• Helping residents shovel out and jump-start their cars—in a blizzard ⛄
• Getting to the root of the cause of the mushrooms growing in a resident’s floorboards (what the heck?) 🍄
• Calling a tow truck for the resident who reversed their car into the community lake (don’t worry, no one got hurt) 🚧
• Assisting a recently widowed resident by clasping her jewelry for her: “My husband always did this for me because I can’t reach.” 😥
• Wellness checks – and so many that don’t end well 😢
• Offering on-the-fly marriage counseling to the resident who declared “this stained carpet is ruining our marriage!” 😕
• Discreetly re-routing the leasing tour to avoid building 6 when you see that the couple who lives there is fighting (again), and this time the wife is tossing all of the husband’s belongings out the second-floor window 👕👖👞
• Knocking on a resident’s door and being surprised by the state in which they answer it 🚪
• Calling the authorities to assist resident children who are left home alone, unsupervised 😭
• Helping residents and their pets find safety and a new place to live when a 90 mph wind sheer took a roof off a building, displacing 36 families 🌬️
• Addressing a hoarding situation and all that entails 🗑️
• Wondering why a Wisconsin student would leave their window open over winter break leading to burst pipes, 4 stories of floods, and $95K in property damage ❄️❄️❄️
• Tracking down the ambulance that was stolen on the property – while the EMTs were responding to an emergency 🚑
• Too much criminal activity to even describe 👮
• Jumping into the pool in the middle of a leasing tour to rescue a struggling child 💦
• Speaking of pools, how about cleaning up all that’s left behind on the pool deck after a VERY active night at the hot tub (ahem) 💑
• Dumpster diving for a missing wedding ring (found it!) 💍
• Dumpster diving for $1000 cash in bank envelope (found that too!) 💰
• Making a home for a resident’s pet swan in the community lake 🦢
• Informing the naked-as-a-jaybird guest at the pool that clothing is, in fact, required 🩲
• Yeah, even more nudity. So. Much. Nudity. 😬 
• Fires, floods, sinkholes, lightning strikes, tornadoes, structural failure, lock-outs, lock-downs 🔥🌪️🌩️
• Forging lifelong friendships with the best people you’ve ever met 😎

Cheers to you, apartment professionals. You deserve so much more than one day on the calendar. Celebrate the heck out of it, and don’t forget to lift up your amazing coworkers while you’re at it. We’re all in this together. 💪