Stephanie Ollmann Career Background
What is your biggest career achievement?
- I have been given so many amazing opportunities in my tenure of property management. Each and every opportunity has allowed me to grow both personally and professionally. The most notable opportunity that allowed for my biggest career achievement yet was obtaining my CPM designation. This designation given by IREM was a long, grueling process that started in March of 2018 when I applied to be a CPM candidate. The designation requires you to be a candidate for a year so I started this as soon as I was promoted to the District Manager title with my company. From here, I joined the local chapter of IREM in the greater Denver area where I attended luncheons that provided beneficial networking opportunities and motivating speakers.
During the course of my candidacy period, I completed 8 core competency courses that covered everything from cap rates to the inner workings of a furnace. The knowledge I gained from these courses gave me a deeper understanding of my role as an adviser for my clients and allowed for more effective management of my team. In addition to the courses, the State of Colorado requires you to hold a Real Estate Broker's license in order to earn the CPM designation so I was also enrolled in courses for this education requirement during this time.
While completing the education requirements for both the CPM and Broker's license, I was promoted to Regional Manager with the transition of 5 new sites into our portfolio with an international client. My time was very limited during the course of my candidacy but I found the knowledge gain hard to stay away from. By June 2019, I had received my Broker's license and was attending the 5 day capstone course to finalize the requirements of my CPM. This included the completion of a Management Plan Skills Assessment and CPM Certification Exam.
By October 2019, I was awarded my CPM designation at a local IREM luncheon and realized all of the hard work and dedication from the past 20 months paid off.
What is your ultimate career goal within the rental housing industry?
- I am the type of person who never settles and will always be pushing for the next opportunity. My goals and past experience live up to this statement by rising from Business Manager to Regional Manager in just three years. I started out in property management in 2014 managing a portfolio of HOA communities. After 2 years, I made the jump to Multi-family management as an on-site Business Manager for a 250 unit community. After 18 months in that role, I was promoted to District Manager overseeing three lease-ups and one stabilized community.
During my initial interview for the company I went into the Multi-family industry with, I was asked what my short term and long term goals were. At this time, I was 24 years old and my answer was clear that I wanted to become a Regional Manager within 3 years and a VP within 10 years. I also included personal goals of running a marathon and buying a house. In 2017 I ran the Walt Disney World Marathon, bought a duplex in an opportunity zone of Denver in 2018 and became a Regional Manager in 2018.
I continue to have the goal of becoming a VP at that 10 year mark and have expanded my goals as they stand today to include adding to my personal portfolio of rental property and running 4 half marathons a year. My ultimate career goal within the rental housing industry would be to becoming an influential leader of my company by continuing to not settle and always push for the next opportunity. I want to be able to empower people in my position to create a culture of smart and dedicated employees who provide the top results. The position I strive for after VP does not have a specific title, but is more grounded on the influential piece and the continuance of strong mentor-ship in the industry.
What's one rental housing trend you have your eye on?
- The technology that has me intrigued at the current moment is the business intelligence software that is continuing to expand. I have experience working with the software that Real Page has created as well as my prior company's internal work but Radix is really changing the game when it comes to market data and analytics.
Their platform saves hours of manual entry from on-site teams and allows for highly sophisticated reporting features that is practically error free. In the past two years, they have expanded their technology to not only include market surveys but pro forma tools and renovation reporting features
From an operational stand point, this technology allows for leasing team members to utilize their time with more resident engagement and prospect satisfaction. From an owner's stand point, it allows for a streamlined template for reporting that makes it easier to compare assets across a portfolio. For my organization, I see it as a way to present the best and most accurate data to our clients and have additional time to analyze it for recommendations on pricing, strategy and acquisitions.
I see this technology expanding into much more as the company grows and more clients implement this in their day to day operations. I truly think it has the power to limit the painful spreadsheet tracking for every project and simplify the process to allow for more thought provoking ideas and strategy sessions. I cannot wait to see what the future hold for the rental housing industry.