For 3 and a half years I worked at a property management company as a leasing agent. I started working there while I was still in college and moved into a full-time position after I graduated.
At that time I was really enjoying the job. Every day was different. I was getting to see a lot of unique and cool houses, and I was getting to know Denver very well. However, it wasn’t all fun and games forever. After a while, it took a downturn which eventually led me to leave my property management job.
All The Properties
When people used to ask me what my favorite thing was about my property management job, I would always say the same thing. Getting to see all the cool houses!
Real Estate is my passion, and I just love houses! Part of the territory I covered in my job was Downtown Denver. There were so many extravagant apartments that I got to walk through and a lot of unique bungalows I loved to explore.
Out in the suburbs, I helped rent out a few different mansions worth millions of dollars as well as some homes with beautiful mountain views.
Related: Top 3 Reasons Your Property Isn’t Renting
All the Driving
At our company, we had a couple of leasing agents who managed the properties dispersed around the Denver Metro area. The territory that I covered was spread mainly over the Western suburbs of Denver, but for a few months, I was covering the South Eastern suburbs. I got to know Denver Metro really well and I can now navigate to most places without using a GPS. I’m pretty proud of that!
I rarely had to be in the office because I was usually out doing showings at properties, taking photos of houses for advertising, or meeting with property owners. It was pretty fun putting together my own schedule. I spent a lot of time at coffee shops too.
If I had a showing somewhere at 1 pm and another showing at 3 pm just around the corner I wouldn’t want to leave that area just to drive right back. I got to know a lot of great local coffee shops around Denver. My favorite properties typically had a good coffee house or two nearby.
Even though it was fun to get to drive around to all sorts of places, it also made my job harder. My car was my office. This meant that I did most of my work from my cell phone, and also ate lunch while driving around. It’s a lot harder to stay organized when you’re office is mobile… I was driving about 100 miles a day on average. On the bright side, it did give me the opportunity to listen to hundreds of podcasts and audiobooks – when I wasn’t answering my millions of phone calls.
All the People
I would consider myself a people person. Most days, I really enjoy meeting new people. In property management, you definitely have the opportunity to meet plenty of new people every day. There are so many people moving to Denver, which kept me very busy! Through the millions of phone calls and the several house showings I was doing – I was meeting at least 10 new people every day. If I had a very popular house on the market, there might be a minimum of 10 people at a showing.
I had the opportunity to meet so many great people! Some people really left an imprint – like the ones who were really funny with me or super kind to me. I can still remember them very well from over the years.
Though, as many know, in property management not everyone you encounter is sweet and wonderful… It seemed like for every 1 especially nice person I met, 3 more people would follow who were absolutely the worst…
It honestly baffles me how some people are able to treat complete strangers with such hatred and anger… When dealing with property management, you encounter a lot of emotional people. Renters who are frantically trying to find a home for their family to live in, property owners who are trying to make some money renting out the house their own family grew up in, etc. When dealing with such sensitive topics, people are bound to get emotional and frustrated.
What God Revealed
Eventually, all the negatives started piling up on each other. All of the angry people around me began to make me bitter and I was having a hard time fighting it. My attitude towards work and life become sour, and my relationship with God started to fade. I thought to myself – I am a people person; God has called me to love others, but why do I feel like I hate people so much?? And that’s when I knew it was time to get out. When anything starts to get in the way of your relationship with God, you must cut it out of your life.
And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
Matthew 5:30
It took a lot of strength, but ultimately I am so thankful that God opened my eyes. I’m glad that I took the risk of leaving a great job to trust God’s plan for me. It has led me to a greater relationship with Him and has led me to new opportunities so far!
Even though I have left my property management job, my passion has stayed in real estate! God taught me that I don’t need to be in a real estate job that makes me miserable. Instead, I can invest in real estate and experience the parts that I enjoy, and let someone else handle the parts that I don’t enjoy. My passion for real estate prompted us to purchase our first rental property. I’m excited to see where God leads us next in our investing journey.
