Company Name
Stahl Enterprises
Door Count
700
Portfolio Type
Multifamily
Buildium Customer Since
2013
Company Name
Stahl Enterprises
Door Count
700
Portfolio Type
Multifamily
Buildium Customer Since
2013
It was called a once-in-a-generation storm, something most residents in the Buffalo and Rochester, NY, metro areas simply weren’t prepared for. As snow piled up and maintenance requests came flying in, it was a worst-case scenario for any property manager.
But, with the help of Buildium’s resident portal and maintenance tools, Greg Stahl, president of Stahl Enterprises, based in Rochester, NY, was prepared to help his commercial and multifamily tenants and repair his rentals after the devastating effects of the storm.
In 2022, a crippling winter storm known as Winter Storm Elliott hit the Buffalo and Rochester areas over the week of Christmas. In five long days, the storm dumped over 56 inches of snow in the Buffalo area. It created large swathes of whiteout conditions as 60 mph wind gusts blew massive drifts against homes and businesses.
“The snow was actually going up into our attics and we had a huge problem there,” recalls Stahl. We had snow in a lot of attics.”
The snow started to weigh down ceilings in his units, some of which collapsed. Stahl and his team had to act quickly to log and triage the requests coming in from tenants, then deploy and monitor his maintenance team as they worked through each damaged unit.
When all was said and done, they found themselves working through 25 tickets—over 8% of their units.
Stahl used Buildium’s maintenance tracking tools to isolate only the requests having to do with snow in the attics. Then, he worked through the tickets to ensure the most immediate issues were resolved first.
Stahl used Buildium to alert his maintenance supervisor to issues as they came in, even as they dug out snow and repaired ceilings.
Buildium’s maintenance workflow allows tenants and owners to enter maintenance requests through the Resident and Owner Portals, where they can include descriptions and attach photos or videos.
When a property manager checks their dashboard, they can see the requests, prioritize them, and assign them out to maintenance staff or vendors.
“He wasn’t answering his phone, but he could hear the beep with the Buildium task that came through, explains Stahl: “Buildium helped me in the Blizzard of ‘22 by being able to communicate with our folks when they weren’t answering the phone because their hands were full of snow or drywall, rehanging it or supporting themselves. They could get a ping on their phone and let them know what the next problem was.”
Meanwhile, Stahl used the Resident Center to keep tenants informed on the progress of their maintenance request. Nearly all of his tenants, he explains, have the Buildium app on their phone, so sending and receiving messages happens in real time.
“We communicated with the tenants to make sure that they realized that we were on top of it and we’re going to get to them as soon as possible,” he says.
With Buildium, Stahl and his maintenance team worked through all of the storm-related tickets in about two weeks—and not a single job fell through the cracks.
“I’ve been a Buildium customer for a little over 10 years. It’s been a great asset to us,” says Stahl. “We were working with Excel spreadsheets before and a lot of things got dropped.”
For Stahl, technology is the key to success in property management and Buildium is a big part of that.
“That starts my morning, every morning. At 5AM in bed, I’m looking at Buildium, my bank accounts, everything that we have. So, I think technology is huge.”
To learn more about Buildium’s maintenance tools and Resident Center click the links below:
