Valerie Sargent we had a machine that we set the receiver to the phone on. The phone keys is where you entered SS# and DOB. It would print out a tape that showed bankruptcy, write offs etc. Sure glad we don't do that anymore lol....
636 actual ledger cards, kept in a ledger card holder made medal 8X5 size you could flip through like a rolodex. Hand written rent roll for those 636 units that would often keep me working late nights to just find the .3cents I was off.... Awe those were the days.
Debbie Cockrell Andreozzi we used a pencil on our manual rent roll. When someone moved out we could erase their info and then enter the new resident info when they moved in. Back in the old days of PM
how about the "apartment shopper" retail store locations - you could walk into a store and they would help you find an apartment. you'd leave with print outs of 3-5 possibilities with scheduled appointments for showings.
All of the above comments! My favorite was removing the front doors for nonpayment and roasting a pig and having margarita machines at summer pool parties!
in 2015 i took over a portfolio of buildings that were far out in rural areas, far from the corporate office. some of the corporate representatives like president, owners, regionals had not been to some of these locations in years. there was one building that the accounts in yardi were just so so so so so messed up. we worked with the manager and more training and tried and tried - and there were other issues. eventually lead to a termination. In cleaning out her office i found she was still keeping a hand written accounting ledger of charges, payments because she could never quite grasp the hang of the computer 2.0.1.5. !!
All-adult communities, no washer-dryer connections; No copier, no fax-machines, no computer. Just ped pen, black pen, green pen pencil with eraser & sharpener, whiteout and carbon paper. These were our rent posting tools.
One write system, computer with DOS operating system, moving resident names on bulletin boards when they paid, balancing cash box everyday, making deposits at the bank, typing up a lease and rules on a typewriter, thermal paper fax, phone with an actual answering machine, no car phone, no cell phone, can I say I'm old? And STILL in property management
Paper clip at the top of ledger cards for those who haven't paid yet. As they paid, we removed the paper clip. Whoever had a paper clip went for eviction when the 3 day expired (1985)
Typewriter and carbon paper between lease pages. Coming into the office Monday morning with dozens of rolled up pages from the fax machine credit reports. It was interesting a few years later when the images on the fax paper disappeared.
Balancing the rent roll on paper spreadsheet, office extension phone in your apartment for after hours calls, one person office for 200 units, planting the flowers for seasonal color at the office.
Potential renters left messages on the answering machine, service etc. I remember one day checking them at the end of the day (non-stop touring all day) and there were 100 messages.
The monthly monster report, hand written, hand calculated, and a lot of work if you were off by $5 at the end. Hand posted rent on ledger cards that provided the information for the monster report. All adult for my first 14 years in the business. Kegs of beer at the pool every weekend. Master keys. The first TAA lease I used was only 1/2 page and the redbook was about 25 pages, spiral bound.