Mindy Sharp

Freestone Management

By Leah Etling on Aug 13, 2012 in People

Mindy Sharp is the type of property manager who does it all.

From lease-ups to balance sheets to carrying the maintenance pager, the Ohio-based property professional tackles all aspects of multifamily life at Ashton Glen, a picturesque townhome and apartment community in southern Dayton.  When she’s not marketing units or touring with prospects, she finds time to handle social media and even have tea parties with young residents.

Her grasp of the local rental market and knowledge of her own property is so strong that Mindy manages to rent up to 25 percent of her vacancies sight unseen.

“That’s the Mom skill in me,” says the former teacher and mother of two grown kids. “It’s just listening and finding out what they want. I know this property; I know this entire Dayton market like the back of my hand. Once I know what it is that (the prospect) wants, I can assure them that they’ll be taken care of.”

Despite challenging times for the Dayton area apartment market due to the economic downturn, Mindy has kept Ashton Glen close to full occupancy at all times. The community has military families among their resident base, so deployments often contribute to leasing turnover.

She’s especially proud that two of the deploying families made plans to return home to Ashton Glen once they return stateside. “Home to them means not just the United States, but also this apartment community. Wow. And one of these families is actually paying rent on their apartment while absent. This says it all,” she wrote on her blog, where she is brutally honest about the ins and outs of daily property management.

Some days, there are more outs than ins. When we talked with Mindy last week, she was on duty as the de facto maintenance first responder, since her maintenance supervisor and his wife had just had a baby. Plumbing and appliance calls were keeping her busy.

“I do not enjoy maintenance. It kind of stresses me out,” she admitted. But she’ll try to fix anything first, to keep her residents happy.

Then there are days where she gets to have tea, cookies and coloring time with one of her residents’ grandnieces, and the little girl comments to prospects: “If you live here, then I can be your friend.”

“We all thought that was very charming and honest,” she said. “That’s what surprises me the most about property management. You have a lot of heartwarming stories and that’s what gets you through the horror stories.”

She has taken lessons from her former career in the classroom and applied them to multifamily life.

“I really respect the fact that everybody learns different. Some kids need to get up and walk around – and some prospects, when touring, need to go off in a room by themselves. You need to allow for the way people interpret information.”

You also have to learn on the go. Mindy aced social media engagement after asking her kids how to set up her first Facebook page. Now she’s on Twitter, Pinterest, and updates her blog a few times a month. She engages in Twitter chats with other multifamily professionals to share tips and best practices, and learns from social media gurus about marketing ideas. Ashton Glen has a small but committed Facebook fan base that’s helped spread positive word-of-mouth referrals about the community.

She’s learned a lot about how to best handle residents just by listening.  “I think that’s my claim to fame,” she said of her best property management skill. But like any hands-on manager, she also keeps a close eye on income and expenditures. “I like reading the finances throughout the month. Seeing where we’re at any given moment is rewarding.”

Sounds like a recipe for success from an experienced property manager.

Learn more about Mindy:

What is your favorite type of music?

Top 40 Pop & Country

If you have an hour of free time to spare, what do you do with it?

Go to the Farmers Market in South Bend, IN – it’s a wonderful place, plus they serve breakfast!

What do you like best about your job?

Being able to make help Residents make their apartments into home, thus creating a true community.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Taller – I am still hoping to reach 5 feet 7 inches!

What was your last Do It Yourself project?

Taking a tiny room and transforming it into a Guest Room, complete with sleeping space, storage, and a place to relax. I used a beautiful shower curtain and made it into window coverings.