What's the strangest thing you've ever had to do?

I've had to do some pretty strange things in my time as an community manager, but today was the absolutely strangest day I've ever had at work.

The day started out normal, just busy with rent week and turnover. Then a resident locked himself out of his apartment (after changing his locks himself and not giving me a copy of the key.)

But this afternoon has been beyond crazy! I removed a tick from a resident (disgusting!), picked up someones underwear from the middle of the hallway (thank goodness I was with a vendor and not a tour,) and discovered the remnants of an intimate 'party' that evidently took place in the sauna while I was at lunch. How nice of them to leave it for me to clean up. ICK!

So what's the weirdest or funniest thing you have encountered in your property management career?

It wasn't me personally, but I was the RPM of a property that had an incident and my Asst. Mgr did the strangest AND bravest thing. 2 Residents walking dogs at the same time...one dog got agressive with the other dog and they began to fight. Resident was trying to break up the fight and got her index finger bitten off. Resident was rushed to the hospital. Hospital later called property to ask if they could go find the finger. The Asst. Mgr. found the finger in the grass, put on ice and placed in a plastic bag...drove it to the hospital! They were able to re-attach finger!

Now that's strange...

Probably one of the strangest (or at least one of the least expected) things I've ever encountered was when I went to check an apartment to verify what we suspected was a skip. Well I was mostly correct the leaseholder had packed up (almost all of) his things and left...but he forgot to take his 8-legged unauthorized occupant with him. I found a tarantula wandering around the living room. No, not in a cage, just freely roaming around the living room. When I returned to the office, one of my leasing consultants wasn't overly thrilled after she discovered what I had in that little Gladware bowl full of holes.

Early in my career, I inspected an apartment that had a wading pool tragically placed in the living room. The pool was filled with water and one very large white goose.
Later, I found a goat in the bathroom. After writ of possession, I found a fully feathered and very dead chicken upside down in the disposal.

WOW! GREAT TOPIC!
Property management people are great to have at parties, because we've usually been exposed to so many various and sundry experiences, even the most bizarre can be handled with a, "Well...isn't THAT special?"

Where to begin?
With the prostitution ring that had covered EVERY SURFACE in an apartment with mirrors...think about that EVERY SURFACE...to the satanic cult who had jackhammered through the foundation on a terrace level walk-in closet so they could host animal sacrifices (HEEBIE JEEBIES)...to the gentleman who had to be, ahem, unattached by Paramedics from orifices in the jacuzzi tub...to the lady who used to come down to the leasing office for us to zip her up... to delivering babies...to giving CPR...to jumping into the pool in full suit-hose&heels to grab an errant toddler...to rattlesnake roundups wrapped around the toilet...to baby gators swimming up THROUGH the toilet...to the crazy cat lady who must have lived at every property I've ever worked with...you know...the lady who has 6 indoor cats, but never replaces the kitty litter (ewwww)...to the little old man who thought his apartment was haunted by his mother so we hosted an exorcism...to the twin sisters with Tourettes who unnerved the maintenance team with their shouting of "MURDER" and "SCALPEL" every time they saw any member of the team...to the Europeans who saw nothing wrong with sunbathing in the nude at the pool and on his patio...which opened up to the tennis courts...my, my, my.

We are a well-rounded lot, are we not?

OHHHHH....THAT's so GROSSSSSSSS!!! Was the goose wearing floaties?

Resident wasn't prone to dining on finger foods with fava beans and a little chianti was he/she? GREAT STORY!

Ahh, you’re killin me! We should write a book, see what 20+ years in the industry will do to you!

You reminded me of another story…. When I was a site manager, a resident told my regional that I was telepathically communicating with him and keeping him awake at night.

If I could do that, I would never need to serve another 3-Day

I too have way too many wacko stories in my pocket. A favorite was the runaway and his Irish Setter that kept bathing in the pool. I was on call and went over to find both fully lathered in shampoo. "What the heck are you doing?" I asked. "What's the big deal? My shampoo is PH balanced. It won't hurt the pool!"

...I received a call from one of my property managers notifying me that a long-time resident had died. Later, spoke to the resident's siblings about their concerns to get into the apartment very quickly as their brother had things of "substantial value" in his apartment that they wanted to make sure were removed. Seemed very genuine and concerned. When the court paperwork was found and give to us, the things of "substantial value"? About 10 cases of Pabst Blue Ribbon.

It's too hard to pick just one situation. I've done everything from picking up turkey poop off the sidewalk to searching the parking lot for a residents knocked out front teeth.

Never a dull day in property management!

OK I officially no longer think my day was weird! Great stuff guys! Thanks for sharing! Now let's switch gears to a harder one!

What's the BEST resident-related thing that ever happened to you in property management? This is a really tough one for me. I have great residents so I have too many great things to list!

There was one time during a tour with a prospect that three different residents interrupted the tour to tell the visitor that they should really live here. I told the prospect "I swear I don't pay them to say that!" But I don't think they believed me, they didn't move in.

I guess the best recent thing was during an inspection by my boss, she saw that I have a new digital picture frame on my wall, and asked where I got it and I told here a resident gave it to me, then she noticed a new plant on my desk and asked where I got it and I told her, a resident gave it to me...LOL. She knows my residents like me, but it was fun to have an excuse to brag a bit!

This one is very sad, but with a twist. There was a suicide at my property. I knew the resident and was as shocked as everyone. I felt so guilty and wished I had done more for her. But I did learn from the experience. Now I make sure my residents know that I care and that I will notice if they are gone. I remind all new move ins to let me know when they go out of town for a week or more.

Nearly a year later, another resident attempted suicide and was in the hospital. I didn't know at the time that he was in the hospital or why, but I knew he had no friends and family nearby. So I tracked him down (after calling 11 hospitals) and then made sure he knew that people do care about him. He did come home, and he still lives here. The best part is that I ran into the first residents' sister afterwards and told her how something good had come from her sisters death.

Another time I did this was an epic fail when a resident was skiing in switzerland, and all I did by looking for her was stress myself out! At least now she tells me when she goes. Still, I choose to believe that my actions make a difference. For me, that's what it's all about.

I have one... this is a long one; so bear with me....

I was at a property that was 35-40 years old, and we did a routine inspection for leaks and mold. The service manager and the regional service manager were onsite performing the inspections. Because of scheduling, we were able to notify the residents 7 days in advance that this was going to happen. Seems routine; right?

Ok, the guys enter this one unit; and this particular resident had been there 30 years; generally a good resident, never complained about anything and always paid rent on time. Seems like a perfect resident, right?

What the guys found was that this resident was living like a pack rat (think of the A&E show 'Hoarders'). Stuff was literally stacked floor to ceiling in a lot of places. We discuss the issue with the regional manager and we were told to notify the resident that the lease was actually coming due in 60 days anyway and we were told not to renew her. We posted a notice to have her come to the office because we needed to speak with her. We wanted to do our best to preserve her privacy. In the interim, we determined that she has not had new paint or flooring in the last 10 years! We also learned that there were a number of pest control complaints in that area within the last year PLUS. Naturally, we wanted to resolve these issues; but we could not send vendors in to do the work until her issues were resolved.

She came into the office that afternoon; and we told her what we found and what we were told to do about it. She started crying that she had no friends, no nearby family, and no church connections that could help her and that she had a bad knee, which limited her ability to take care of these things on her own.

When she mentioned her issues, I had an idea; and asked for her permission to send a teenager, who was a new resident and needed a community service project to her door to help her. She agreed and I contacted him. He took over and got some of his classmates to help. He reported to me that he had found a great deal of recycling that needed to be taken in, so I contacted another resident that I knew took his recycling regularly and asked him to help her. He also told me that she had a number of those collectible 'Troll' dolls, some in original packaging. We thought that these were actually potentially valuable; so I contacted a friend of mine who was actually an Ebay seller (I-Sold-it franchise); and asked him to come and speak with her. He allowed her to sell her items under his agreement for the cost of the postings!

Turns out that, between her recycling and her collection; she was sitting on something like $10k!



Once she got her issues resolved, we scheduled her unit for new paint, flooring, and took care of the pest control issues.

Within about 2 weeks, we were able to tell the regional manager that the problem had been resolved successfully and are able to keep the resident.

Did I actually lift a finger to DO anything? No. Given the same situation; would I do it again? Absolutely. It was the right thing to do.

How can you ask a question like that in this industry? They should be catagorized: Due Dilligence Findings - we couldn't get in to a unit and while walking by the windows in the breezeway, I noticed a home-made cage on the window sill with a rat in it. WE WERE going in and RIGHT THEN. The apartment was horrifying - ROADKILL on the floor and those little cages all over with various varments. Turns out, the resident had a 13 foot boa constrictor. It made the local news and we uh, passed on the acquisition.
Other in this catcagory - a carpet burn of a bigger than life satanic symbol, humidifier running 24 hours a day till walls were molded, and on, and on! Keep em coming - I need funny stuff to get an audience on 9:00 saturday am laughing after Friday night partying at the Texas Apartment Association Education Conference in April.

After six long months of vacancy, I finally rented a pesky "murder" unit to a very open minded family. I was so very fortunate that the home-all-day neighbor would stick her head out of her door every time I showed the apartment and would say "ya'll should know somebody was murdered in that unit".

The prospective residents agreed to take occupancy under the condition that they be able to conduct a seance in the apartment prior to moving in. Desperate, I agreed. Then they made me attend the seance. (It was actually intesting.)

Oh, the things we do to get the lease.

One of them would be (and you noticed I said one out of many)the residents that said their apartment was posessed. You can check it out by talking to the manager at Latitudes Apartments in Virginia Beach, VA as this is real. Resident came into the office and said they woke up one morning to find all the pictures on the wall in the hall had been taken down and were on the toilet seat in the bathroom. When he walked toward the living room one of his daughters dolls was standing at the front door looking at him and he returned to the bedroom. He came to the office (didn't ask how he got out of the apartment if the doll was guarding the front door), and said he wanted out of his lease because the apartment was posessed. We recommended a priest, however, could not find grounds to let him out of his lease. Kathryn, what ever happened to them?

Wow, possesed, murder, seance! That's some scary stuff!

I have a ghost story from my very first property. My first night there, after moving in and unpacking, I was getting ready for bed and I looked out in the hallway and thought I saw someone standing at the top of the stairwell. I searched the entire apartment and never found any evidence, but the next morning my neighbor came over to introduce herself and asked if I had seen the ghost yet. I asked her 'what ghost', and she said 'the one at the top of the stairs.' That was even scarier than seeing it! I saw whatever it was many times over the next year. So did everyone in the building. Maybe it was just a shadow caused by the way the building was designed? Who knows!

What a great question!

Some of the things I remember is the resident that had a little trail through the apartment that was stuffed top to bottom and side to side with anything and everything you can or can't imagine.

Or the woman who suffered from schizoprenia telling me about the government agents and the things they had done to her and showing me her drawings...

Or the man who not long after 9/11 insisted that his Hispanic neighbors were Arabs and he was watching them and that he was a CIA agent and could "take them out" anytime.

Or the actual FBI agents who came to ask some questions about a resident and then we saw on the news the next day that the U.S. government was tracking terrorists down due to a plot that ended in a bombing that day in the U.K.

You can tell most of my oniste experience was during and right after 9/11, huh?

Or one of the maintenance guys bringing something into my office wrapped in a towel from a recent move out unit. It was a sawed off shotgun with a pistol grip. The resident had forgotten it behind the door. We called the police who came to get it along with the name of the resident.

Another resident left behind his sex toys that the maintenance guys had to throw out. What a pig.

And no I never worked at any inner city properties. All of these things happened at A/B properties in nice neighborhoods. Crazies in the suburbs!!!

Wow, thanks for sharing everyone!

Since a lot of these posts really get into things we do for retention (whether intentional or not , we should move this discussion over to the "Resident Retention" board.

www.multifamilyinsiders.com/home/apartme...vice-experience#2975

Let's get the new board started by sharing our own best experiences as renters!

See you there!

Rose

Another member of this board will know the property I speak of in this case...... You know who you are..... :S :S

Anyway, I was at this property that had recently been puchased for redevelopment; and due to the scope of the work involved, the primary responsibility was to aid in the relocation of all the residents. This property was operated as an SRO, low cost housing. As rooms were being vacated, I had the occasion to need to enter the rooms to get an idea of the inventory of furnishings, so the new owner could arrange to have them removed before boarding the building up.

There were some rooms where no key worked; not the key identified for the room, nor the master key; so I needed to come up with my own 'master key' of a couple of swift kicks to the door level with the deadbolt....

Once in, I found some rooms that were overridden with pests; some smelled like rotting flesh. One room had a 20 square foot wall that had been taken over with mold... Another room had an active beehive (facing the outside rear of the property) that took a beekeeper the better part of a day to remove. One room had a thick layer of I do not know what on the bathroom counter..... Just standing inside the door to observe and count almost literally made me lose my lunch, and I was only in the room for 2-3 minutes. It was all I could do to bring myself to do 5 rooms a day.... Even then, I felt the need to take a 30 minute steam shower with industrial strength soap.... Some of the rooms clearly needed HAZMAT teams to enter, and I was not prepared.... :S :S :S :S

What really concerned me with the pest issues; was the fact that there was a restaurant next door (although I never ate there). Once the pests had no food to eat left after the building was boarded up; where would they go????

Another concern was on the other side of the property was an empty lot overrun with dry brush.... a simple spark and a breeze in the right direction.......

Wow, that sounds like a tough property! Usually, the worst thing I have to face at unit inspections is messy housekeeping or unauthorized occupants.

Thanks for sharing!!

I was giving a family of propective residents a tour of an apartment home and the Mother disappeared with her small child into the bathroom. After hearing the water running for 5 minutes straight, I went to check on them and found the mother giving the child a bath.

Wow, that is incredibly sad...

I could not say "strange" but out of the ordinary; walking into an apartment with a dead body is not an everyday occurance, and walking into one with a 12 ft snake in a huge aquarium wasn't one of my better days.