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Detail work makes the dream work

by Suzanne Licata

Attention to detail. It’s such an underrated skill. Without it the wrong hip gets replaced, bridges collapse, space craft skid past Mars and checks bounce. Not only would things happen wrong, many wouldn’t happen at all. Attention to detail is a glorious, thrilling, sexy skill – even a passion for some – and it is put to inspiring use at Curry Real Estate Services by two of its best, Effie Tymony and Enza Brancato. (August 29, 2022)

“Effie and Enza are clear and consistent leaders and producers on our team keeping both areas of the business coordinated and streamlined,” said Ellen Todd, president of Curry Real Estate Services. “They are forward thinking and willing to dig into the detail to make progress reality. They are true Curry team treasures who contribute above and beyond to our mission of work every single day.”

Tymony joined Curry nearly 25 years ago in 1998. She is the property management coordinator for the company’s multi-family properties. Brancato clocks in at a solid 15 years with Curry and serves as the property management and leasing coordinator for commercial real estate properties. Over the years, each of these professionals has sunk their respective teeth into any number of projects that have materially advanced Curry’s obsession with exceptional customer service – none more so than recent technology solutions that are next-level.

“It is hard to get people to change how they do things,” said Brancato. “This was especially true in transitioning from everything done on paper, phone calls or in person to online – for lease agreements, signatures, payments – both for our own staff and our tenants.”

Brancato noted that was the one good thing to come out of the pandemic. “Once Covid hit, it was – online is how we are doing business going forward! Everyone got on board pretty quickly after that. We still like to see our tenants in person but the documentation process for commercial property leasing is streamlined now.”

She led the online transition to a program called Deal Manager which allows Curry brokers to build a new tenant profile online from the start. The program houses lease proposals and the lease itself after negotiation is completed and more. Deal Manager ties to Legal Manager (the equivalent of DocuSign) – all neat and tidy online.

Sounds super slick and easy, which it is after the people like Brancato do all the groundwork that customizes the technology platform to Curry’s needs – load all the properties, develop leases per property type, get agreement on terminology consistency and the like. It takes months. Then there is training for the internal team, including orienting tenants to the online discipline.

“It is a lot of work but so worth it when you can start and track every deal electronically,” said Brancato. “We still have to tweak our leases as they are so customizable, but the process is super streamlined now which our commercial real estate brokers and tenants appreciate. And, it eliminates a lot of duplicative work, which the staff really appreciates!”

In multi-family property management, a challenge is identifying, scheduling, budgeting and tracking the dozens and dozens of maintenance and upgrade projects with consistency so that all the residential properties are maintained at the high standard Curry requires.

Enter Happy Co., an appealingly named inspection software program that, like Deal Manager for commercial property management, is pretty slick after the mountains of minutiae are climbed, combed through and customized so that the platform is customized to Curry’s standards.

Just imagine, for each multi-family property you log the exterior elements, common areas, unit assets, maintenance and upgrade history and more. Multiply that across dozens of properties and dozens of individual apartment units within each property and you have some quality detail work happening!

“I worked with Brynn (McCan, senior VP) to build out the software,” said Tymony. “We worked hard to make it super user friendly for anyone to do an inspection and the end result is fantastic. You have a dashboard you click on and can see what is happening with each property – when the last inspection was done, its photos and notes. There are templates to create work orders and track budgets. It serves our tenants, too.”

Tymony said tenants can download the app to their phone and see their move-in or move-out inspection. Another feature, Rent Café, allows residents to make maintenance requests; pay online with checking, debit or credit. “For our residents, the software offers the Pay Near Me and the Walk-In Payment Service (WIPS), both of which eliminate the need for the resident to go somewhere, get a Money Order and bring it back to Curry,” Tymony added.

While Brancato says she has likely adapted to the detail requirements of her work, Tymony says she is naturally detail and task oriented. Both get immense satisfaction in puzzling through a project. “I enjoy solving a puzzle, finding the answer – the missing piece of what needs to be done,” added Tymony.

As for getting such big project over the finish line, “I can’t wait!” Brancato exclaimed as she spoke to the anticipated increase in accuracy, processing time and the ease of use for both commercial tenants and Curry brokers. “It will make such a difference for everyone.”

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