Isis Sanchez Career Background
What is your biggest career achievement?
- Success can be defined as “the accomplishment of an aim or purpose” but in Property Management the definition exceeds this. My accomplishments would be nothing without the support and relationships I have created with my mentors, my residents, and my consistent dedication and determination. Thus far my biggest accomplishment was the year of 2020 in totality.
Through 2020 I have been pushed to my limits both in my personal and professional life. I worked and pushed myself each day and ended up acquiring new skills, levels of communication that I did not knew I held, and overcame all obstacles that were thrown at me. I did everything in my power to learn as much as I could, so in turn it would reflect on my performance. I spent time watching my company webinars, shadowing my peers and superiors, and learning my own unique style and although COVID forced new ways of leasing, I knew I wasn’t going to let that hold me back. I worked and worked each day to find new ways of creating meaningful connections with my prospects while distancing. From utilizing technology including iPads and iPhones to tour, setting up units with personalized touches for self-guided tours and learning my website inside and out to be able to navigate someone through it without it being in front of me, my new ideas were endless. At the end of the day my hard work paid off, I ended the year with 147 leases and assisted with more at my sister properties.
Through the year I also did my absolute best to keep my community feeling like a family, even from a distance. I arranged multiple social distanced events including an ice cream truck, grab and go tables, breakfast tables and even a scavenger hunt through our community. With the help of my residents our property has never felt like more of a family, we are simply stronger than ever and it reflects with the positive feedback we received through the months, kind gestures and distanced smiles. As a person that entered property management with a background in retail it warms my heart to be able to create a connection that can last a lifetime and not just a couple minutes at a register, and those connections have always been what keeps me going.
My passion to serve has reflected in my personal life as well, as I am enrolled as a fulltime student at Central Washington University pursing a double major in Psychology and Sociology. I have managed to juggle both my schooling and career in the midst of a global pandemic and was able to make strides into incorporating my learnings into my career. My education has taught me ways to connect with different types of personalities and what each personality prefers in terms of communication. This helped maintain a high occupancy through the year despite the challenges and uncertainty, so much so that I assisted in awarding my property an occupancy challenge award through our company.
And so, my biggest accomplishment is not simply leasing 147 apartments, maintaining an amazing occupancy through the year, juggling both school and work and managing to get through a worldwide pandemic, but simply being able to put each one of residents and prospects at ease. This year has taught one thing; when the world is crumbling around you, coming home to a place that puts you at ease is all that you could ask for. And so being able to help a person find their ease in a year full of tragedies is beyond rewarding and gratifying and my ultimate achievement.
What is your ultimate career goal within the rental housing industry?
- In property management the sky really is the limit, no matter what position you start in, it seems as though there is an infinite amount of promotions and goals you can set for yourself. And although most associates strive to work themselves up the ladder whether that may be a community director, senior accountant or a part of a specific team in corporate, they all share one thing in common, the eye for the customer.
I was born and raised in a small city in Washington State and have become very accustomed to the very few things around me, but I was lucky enough to grow up in a home with parents that love to travel. Because of my parents love for traveling I have been fortunate enough to see the world outside of my own little city growing up. My parents love for traveling has slowly rubbed off on me and traveling has become a very large personal passion in my life. I do the best I can to travel as much as possible and become educated on all the cultures and customs our world has to offer. I have also been fortunate enough to fall into the hands of an industry that is well ALL OVER THE WORLD! I am currently with the one of the largest property management companies in the United States, Weidner Apartment Homes. My fellow Weidner team has given me all the support and resources I need to succeed, and they prioritize internal applicants and promotions. Weider is spread all through the United States which allows for a wholesome amount of growth, both near and far from me.
Through my many years in customer service I have learned that my true career passion lies within customer service, I love seeing the smile and the exhale of relief of finding someone a home, the light bulb clicking on a fellow coworker’s mind when a concept finally becomes clear and of course the overall gratification of knowing I am making a difference in someone’s life. This has led to my ultimate goal of being able to combine both my personal and career passions, traveling and customer service. And because of the flexibility of both my management company and industry I have high hopes that in the future I will be able to land a position in the Learning and Development Team. Although in most companies you may get a couple days of training, each property is different and most properties never receive a one-on-one training specializing on their specific property and portfolio. With being on the Learning and Development Team I would love to be able to establish a Property Training Week. This would entail traveling to each region for a week and having a dedicated time with each property to go over any specific property concerns or questions as well as having a one-on-one leasing training with office associates. This would ensure each property is getting enough support to succeed as well as allow for unique leasing techniques to be shared.
What's one rental housing trend you have your eye on?
- The rental housing industry continues to grow, develop and take on many aspects from the technology world. In the past year virtual has taken over in our careers, and although the rental housing industry came across it by accident due to COVID, I believe we will continue to use virtual and take it to the next level.
Most properties tend to be limited when it comes to being able to connect with their home offices, especially if they are outside the state, with virtual taking over we will be able to connect via zoom or video call platform to hold meetings, trainings or just check in with our properties all over the country. This will allow for a better flow of communication from the top to the bottom of the ladder. Because of distance, communication or new implementations tend to get warped or be interpreted a different way by the time they reach everyone, with virtual we will be able to hear any exciting news first hand and be apart of any clarification or questions our teams may have. Along with property management teams taking advantage of this, companies like NAA will also be able to implement and benefit. For example, being able to take apart of a course virtually will not only allow for more clarification than regular online courses but be more convenient financially as well, which will allow for more business leaders to be a part of such courses.
Although virtual will be extremely beneficial for onsite and off-site associates, virtual will also be able to take properties to another level. During the year the realization that some people have to blindly lease and take possession of an apartment with only trusting our word about it has set it in for many properties, and although this may be completely okay with us on the leasing side, our customers are nervous wrecks until their arrival. Virtual leasing and touring will allow us to take our rapport and communication with our prospects to another level, we will be able to do advanced 3D tours of not just our units but our properties as a whole and it will also allow for video touring and even virtual instructions for application and processes.
Although virtual has already started to take over, I am certain that virtual has the potential and continue to grow into our industry.