IIn the second instalment to the day in the life series, Jamie Reid travelled to north London to spend a busy day with John Ward of Crabtree Property – a day that would take him all over London…
10:00 Arrive at Crabtree’s office in Finchley, north London.
10:02 Greeted by David Goldberg, who is a director at Crabtree Property Management. I am then given a whistle-stop tour of the busy looking office before being introduced to the property manager with whom I would be spending the day.
10:05 No sooner have I been introduced to John Ward than we are in his car on our way to the first site visit of the day.
10:10 Speak to John about his job history and find out why he made a career switch into property management just over a year ago, after working for a leading estate agent in London. “Property management is very much about logical thinking and problem solving and I’ve always been good at that,” recalls John, “although my experience in dealing with people has certainly helped me in this role.”
10:45 Arrive at the first of three blocks on John’s list of buildings to inspect, a 16-unit block in Greenford Avenue, west London.
10:47 John pulls out a vastly superior dictaphone to my own and begins his inspection, recording any work or maintenance that needs to be carried out. He also seemingly turns into a part-time traffic warden as he inspects each car parked within the gated courtyard to ensure they are taxed correctly. Property manager and a traffic warden hey?
11:15 After carrying out a thorough inspection of the building, both inside and out we head on to the second building.
11:16 John encounters problems with his vastly superior dictaphone and suddenly mine doesn’t look too bad... but a swift battery change restores it to its superior status!
11:50 Arrive at the second location – a 12-unit development in Hayes. Again John makes notes about the block’s common parts and any remedial work that might be required.
12:20 Head to the final of the three blocks scheduled for inspection – The Heights back in John’s old haunt of Hampstead.
12:50 Arrive at the impressive block in the wealthy north London suburb and immediately come across a pile of rubbish that does not escape John’s attention. He asks a workman on site whether it has anything to do with him, finds out that it is and arranges for it to be removed as soon as possible.
13:25 After completing the inspection we head back to Finchley to take a short lunch break and prepare for the property management department monthly meeting at Crabtree’s other office, a few doors along from the primary building.
14:00 The meeting begins, with 13 members of the department present and is chaired by David Goldberg. Just to cap off his busy day, it is John’s turn to take the minutes. More paperwork for John!
15:30 Over the course of the next 90 minutes the team discuss a number of management issues at their blocks as well as internal matters and ensure that the department is fully up to speed and aware of the work their colleagues are doing. Also discussed is Softology – not some kind of fashionable new religion I assure you – but a new paperless filing initiative recently introduced at Crabtree that John had told me about earlier in the day. 16:00 The meeting concludes and John heads off to his portfolio review with senior property manager Andy Soteriou. During the meeting the pair discussed a number of issues including a thorough review of each individual property, a check to see which site visits had been completed and which still needed to be done, as well as a review of the feedback from the directors of John’s performance 17:00 The day ends in Finchley, but there is no rest for John unfortunately – he is on his way to the company AGM in sunny Watford!?
