Feature

Member Profile: Joel Panzer

Name: Joel Panzer, MPM

Occupation: Property Manager

Education: Bachelor of Arts, SumaCumLaude,San Francisco State College, 1971. Master of Arts in Educational Technology,SanFrancisco State University, 1972. Master PropertyManager,NARPM.

Residence/Neighborhood: Noe Valley of San Francisco

Year Joined SFAA: I don’t remember

Rental Philosophy

Reason for Getting into Rental Property:
A friend noticed I had a flair for property management after I purchased two properties and turned them into moneymakers. The year was 1979, interest rates would soon sky rocket and rent control was only a year old. I figured this is only temporary, so I’ll be a property manager for a year or two
until something better comes along.

Rental Business Philosophy:
In our profession, our use of the term property management is a misnomer. Properties or buildings don’t really change much from day to day, but people do. Perhaps, we should be called people managers. After all, we spend 80 to 90 percent of our time dealing with people-related issues.

Property management is a symbiotic relationship. Landlords and their managers need good reliable tenants to populate their buildings, pay the rent and thereby help the landlords pay their mortgages or loans. Tenants need decent and caring landlords/managers to maintain the properties, so that tenants will have clean and safe places to live. If everyone acts in good faith and plays their role, the system works.

Biggest Plus of Ownership:
Appreciation and depreciation are the positive attributes for owning property. Owning income property is a lot more fun than owning stocks and is rather similar to planting and tending a garden. Sure it takes a lot of work, for you have to keep after the bugs, the worms and the creepy crawlies.

But every once in a while you get some really great flowers or fruits and vegetables, and then you know the work is worthwhile. Taking what you grow to market isn’t bad either.

Advice for a Neophyte Landlord?
As a new landlord, when you buy a piece of property you are effectively taking on a new career or profession. You must treat this career with respect and learn the rules. I like to describe property ownership in San Francisco as a game. You must learn when to move, when to stay still, when to roll the dice and when to take your turn. Most important, you need to learn all the dimensions of this new profession. You also need to remember to join the San Francisco Apartment Association and support the people who are supporting you.

MostCreative MarketingTechnique:
My firm’s Real Property ManagementWeb site, sfmanager.com, has been invaluable. We now give virtual tours of rental units. Prospective tenants can access the Web from their desks, while we describe the apartments from our desks and explain what they see as we go along.

Histories

Best Tenant Experience:
I rented a Capp Street studio to an incredible painter and human being who built a backyard greenhouse for all the orchids and bromeliads that he liked to paint. I eventually sold this building, yet he remained there, moving to a larger flat with a friend. One day, some years later, I received a moving-sale flyer from him with an added personal note letting me know that he had AIDS; and also that his building had been sold again, and the new owner wanted to occupy his unit. Because I had always admired his artwork, he thought I might like to buy a piece. My wife and I went to the sale, and we’re saddened to see his art stacked like cord wood against the walls with people sifting through it all. Unfortunately, the purchase price of his art was still beyond our reach.

As I listened to his plans, I had an idea that he could move into a one-bedroom flat I was renovating in the Mission. He fell in love with the flat even though it reeked of paint, and he also saw the possibilities for a garden in the backyard. Since the rent was too high, we made an agreement that the rent would be $600, $250 below the going rate. In order to augment the rent, each year or so when there was enough “equity” built up, we would pick out a painting. To paraphrase Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, a beautiful friendship began and, over the years, we shared family events and holidays while this “renaissance man” continued to pursue other artistic forms. Now, 15 years later and in his late 50s, he has defied all the odds and predictions. About six years ago, fulfilling one of his life’s dreams, he moved to the Caribbean to paint the flowers of the rain forest and that is where he is today, alive and well and still pursuing his dreams.

Worst Tenant Experience:
When I was just getting started in this business in 1980-81, a broker friend told me he wanted me to manage a 14-unit building on the edge of the Haight that he had just sold. He gave me a chance to “preview” it just an hour before the bank appraiser arrived. The place was a wreck, with a stench that permeated everything and everyone, and with doors that either lacked locks or had become completely unhinged. You get the picture. Also, there were only four rent-paying tenants in the building. Henry occupied a one-bedroom unit on the top floor. He answered my knock, eyeing me up and down, as he said, “Are you the new manager?” I replied I was, and he asked, “Are you going to come around to collect the rent?” As I turned to leave, he half laughed and shouted, “We ran the last guy out of here who came around for the rent!”

For eight months the war with Henry raged, beginning with a 3-day notice and subsequent Tenants Union interrogatories. PG & E then stepped in as a result of Henry’s failure to pay his bills. First they turned off his electricity and then locked his meter; then they placed a plug on his gas meter and finally removed the manifold entirely even though this left Henry without any heat or electricity. Then his two poor dogs were tied to the back stairs, covered with sores and with nothing to eat. I called the SPCA who came and got the dogs, but Henry seemed not to take much notice. Henry apparently didn’t get along with his neighbors, some of whom were definitely a match for him. The night fire alarms began to regularly and deliberately go off.

One night, two desperate tenants made me an offer that sounded right out of the Godfather—for $250, they could and would make Henry disappear. I had this nightmare image that these two miscreants’ dying words were, “We are doing this for Mr. Panzer!” Needless to say, I declined their kind offer. Finally, we got the eviction with help from the newly elected Sheriff Mike Hennessey and his troops. On that final morning, they found wet and decomposing garbage piled high, and a 20-inch stove transformed for “campfires.” The bathroom had failed plumbing that left the bathtub and toilet brimming over with sewage. The poor sheriff asked me “What took you so long?” I didn’t have the audacity or experience to answer him then as I should have, but somehow I knew he would soon learn the answer to that question.

Smartest Move:
Coming to San Francisco in 1966, and marrying Janet, my wonderful wife and partner of 36 years proved my smartest move.

Funniest Rental Story:
Quite a few years ago, we lived and worked in the small community of Noe Valley. One day, my wife, Janet, and our son, Adam, were in the checkout line at the local supermarket, and the woman in front of them was buying cat food. Adam, an inquisitive eight-year-old, asked her, “Do you have a cat?” and she responded that she had two.

After she described them, she asked Adam if he had any pets, and he told her that, “We have a big Akita.” As he described our dog, she interrupted him and asked if his Dad had a sign in the rear window of his car about his Akita. Adam explained that the sign read, “My keys are on the front seat next to my Akita!” The woman suddenly became very nervous and squealed, “Is your dad Joel Panzer, the property manager from Real Management Company?” Adam surprised, asked, “Yes, how did you know?”

She became terrified and begged him, “Please don’t tell your Dad who I am.” At this point, my wife stepped in and tried to calm the woman down, reminding her that in point of fact neither she nor Adam knew who she was nor frankly did they want to know. The poor soul, quickly paid the bill and rushed out of the market in a panic, thinking she was going to lose her cats or her apartment.

True Confessions

Like Best About Being a Landlord:
I love the people. I like making homes for them and providing for the security and future of my clients. I cherish our long-term relationships, and in some small way I like playing an important role in the lives of many people.

I also like to remodel rental units and watch people, especially young people, get excited about what I have helped to create. I enjoy watching people grow and I like to mentor them also.

Like Least About Being a Landlord:
I hate the hostilities, including all the combat and the legal process. I dislike how the system leaves no room for the humanity of the landlord/tenant relationship and sometimes forces us to be unwilling adversaries.

Pet Peeve:
I don’t appreciate when tenants use the Housing Inspection Department as a weapon, sometimes before they even call us.

Most Important Lesson Learned:
The bottom line is that you can’t get into too much trouble if you always remember for whom you are working. My clients come first.

Personal

Favorite Restaurant: Clementine’s at Second and Clement.

Favorite Cause: Boy Scouts.

FavoriteLandlord/Tenant-Oriented Movie: My choice is not exactly a movie, but I love the piece in Les Miserables, “Everybody loves a landlord.”

Favorite San Francisco Spot: Noe Valley.

Favorite Vacation Spot: Hawaii, London or New Orleans. Oh, and I love cruising in Alaska.

Where Would You Live If Not San Francisco: British Columbia.

Favorite Way to Spend Free Time: With my family and working with the Boy Scouts (I am Troop Committee Chairman of Troop 88).

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