These have been “interesting times” to say the least for the team at Crabtrees Real Estate.
When the Corona Virus first appeared it was well over the horizon and not the lead news item during January, everybody knew about it, sometimes it was discussed and sometimes not and slowly but surely it came edging closer and closer, became a warmer topic of conversation, then hot news and it feels like one day it went BANG!
And we all felt like we’d been punched in the face by Mike Tyson!
Whilst it wasn’t quite panic stations Crabtrees Real Estate there were crisis meetings, the boardroom became the war room and plans put in place to enable us to provide continuity of service for our clients.
As the stage 2 & 3 shutdown took effect, the phones rang off the hook and the emails pinged and pinged; our Property Management team and their support staff were inundated with requests for rent relief and help; the level of agitation, angst and shock from both Tenants and Landlords was immense; stuck in the middle the life of a Property Manager during the COVID-19 pandemic has been incredibly stressful; the work volume gigantic and finding solutions to issues not caused by either Landlord or Tenant challenging to say the least; after all, none of us has ever dealt with a global health crisis that has forced the Federal and State Governments to intentionally nose dive our economy into a recession.
Funnily enough it’s been a time that’s enabled us to strengthen relationships, learn new skills and be heartened by the generosity and empathy shown to us and others by our clients and customers.
On behalf of Chris McKenzie, Grant Tishler and myself we wanted to publicly thank our staff at Team Crabtrees; the Property Managers have done an absolutely outstanding job, thank you Daryl Collins, Justin Mucha, Sergio Sjahlim, Amanda Hart, Maggie Taranto, Julie Rabin and Jade Whiting. Thank you also to our General Manager Kerri Beinke, your foresight, planning and implementation of all the things necessary to keep us going has been simply first class.
To the rest of our staff behind the scenes, you have been in the trenches with us, the battle is not over and there’s likely more months ahead of difficult times, together we will get through and look forward to our business thriving into the future.
Gavin Dumas
Director