Greg Owens 24:25
or something? I don’t know what the answer is. It’s so complicated here, especially here in California. I did when I was just in San Antonio, Texas for my nephew who’s graduated from the Air Force. And I was getting coffee at Starbucks. And I watched the police pull up and there was some homeless people sleeping on the sidewalk, right. And this is at night. So it wasn’t in the morning. I was at night. Um, I drink coffee all the time. And yeah, and the and the police officer Shinola laid on the homeless guy until he got up and started walking down the sidewalk again, like, you’re like, You can’t sleep here. But he, you know, the homeless guy walked down and went around the block to another spot. But they kept doing that. So it’s just not. It’s not like here where they’re letting them like I know, right downtown San Francisco, there’s, there’s a whole bunch of tents set up, and they’ve got fishing gear, and they’ve done. They’ve got barbecues. And I mean, there’s a lot of more, there’s more stuff.
Natasha Vinitsky 25:30
Okay. Yeah, no, I mean, you know, I’ve seen, you know, vans and trucks and RVs. And then there’s a tent right next to it, and you can’t move them and move them. Yeah. I mean, it doesn’t matter if you know, how to set on fire. And there’s a tent, this guy living there for the last 10 years and can’t move him either. I’m like, you know, there’s there was a fire, right. You know, the alley, you know, some some stuff in the alleyway got burned or Yeah, your responsibility. You clean it up.
Greg Owens 26:01
That is amazing. I don’t it’s it’s so frustrating. Right?
Natasha Vinitsky 26:06
It is. And it’s just it’s getting, you know, the cost of it is getting really frustrating. Mm hmm. Because you’re really wasting money over and over again. And like you said, it’s a vicious circle. It just never stops. And I know, I’m sure some of my vendors, you know, bandit, blocklists. Soon, because they know exactly what I’m calling. Right. 911. Same thing, same property. When can you get out
Greg Owens 26:34
of there? Right. Yeah.
Natasha Vinitsky 26:36
So. But luckily, I have awesome vendors that I work with, you know, on those issues, and that’s good. Yeah, they’re very understanding.
Greg Owens 26:45
Yeah, what? So what other challenges are you seeing now, sort of, you know, we’re coming out of this pandemic, in a lot of ways. The whole bay area doesn’t have masks anymore, which is great, right? Like, what, what do you see going forward or like this summer, as some of the challenges you guys are gonna face?
Natasha Vinitsky 27:06
I think right now, or, you know, the challenges, actually, I know, the companies interested in purchasing more, you know, and acquiring more. And that’s the challenge finding those right opportunities and those investments at this point, especially in San Jose Campbell, Sunnyvale, you know, where everything’s just turning into condos and homes, and
Greg Owens 27:35
because you guys want to stay in the commercial arena. You don’t want to.
Natasha Vinitsky 27:39
I mean, we’re definitely I think the owner is definitely interested in exploring the residential air, you know, yeah. Um, but I think right now, it’s just finding those right opportunities of getting those buildings that have been kind of abandoned and taking, you know, buying them and flipping them. Right. And, but this summer, I mean, you know, people are coming back to work, you know, it’s a lot more interaction in person, but my tenants now, that’s great. And now that everybody’s just kind of back to normal. You, I don’t know which projects to start on first. You know, so I have roofing painting signage, you know, type replacements and asphalt and striping. And just everything that has been kind of put on hold. Right, right. And obviously, summer comes and like you said roofing is, is booked? And oh, you know, a lot of the properties have been kind of not maintained. Well, you know, the buildings were vacant. So, yeah, just, it’s everyday property.
Greg Owens 28:48
It’s tough with roofing too, because we haven’t had much rain. And then all of a sudden, it rains and it really reminds you’ve got some roofing problems. Yes. And it’s even worse than that. Because what happens a lot of times is like, if it rains, like when it’s intermittent like this, where it just rains a little bit, and then it’s dry for a bunch of months, the roof, the roof really sort of shrinks and more things open up, right? Because things crack, right. And then it rains again. And even it’s even worse than the last times.
Natasha Vinitsky 29:21
So yeah, I know, when we had that last storm, I don’t think we realized how many roofing issues we had and how many buildings and I had my you know, my roofing guys on, like, on speed dial. Because I’d be getting calls from tenants at six in the morning emails is like, oh my god, it’s leaking on my desk, and here and it’s like, everything. Of course them is an emergency and they need to priority. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That was a challenge for sure.
Greg Owens 29:51
It wasn’t it was crazy amounts of rain that we had back in sort of November, December timeframe, right? Yes, it was. It was I’ve lived here for 30 Three years and they it’s rare to see it rained like that much come down where you’re just like, oh my god, I can’t believe it’s still just pouring nonstop.
Natasha Vinitsky 30:10
Oh yeah, no, yeah, no, it was a is a huge issue now. We’re sliding and especially, you know those roofing issues that we didn’t know we had mold buildup water damage. That was a challenge during that time for
Greg Owens 30:25
sure. Yeah, yeah. So now now the challenge is getting sort of prioritizing which projects need attention fast. And first, I always tell people roofs by my beds, like when they were like, actually like pain or say work on the roof, like roof roof is gonna really mess you up. You don’t have that. Like?
Natasha Vinitsky 30:46
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, it’s and right now everybody’s so booked and the prices are just, again, that’s the challenge to
Greg Owens 30:55
Right. Right. And then how you with your tenants come in, like you said, things are opening up? Is it feeling like it’s getting back towards more sort of people are back in office buildings and back using the spaces and that kind of thing? Yeah.
Natasha Vinitsky 31:10
Yeah. So they’re coming back? You know, we’re actually almost fully occupied at all my buildings. Oh, man. We have a couple of great to
Greg Owens 31:19
hear. Because we see I, you know, you see a lot of buildings still sort of empty, like office buildings and things like that. In in San Francisco downtown area there. It doesn’t it still feel somewhat odd, like a ghost town. It’s not like you go down there right now. And it’s super busy, like it once was?
Natasha Vinitsky 31:36
And no, I mean, my office is almost, you know, my whole team is in the office for a while now. So and then, you know, my tenants are pretty much all of them are back. And because a lot of them are single tenants, you know, they, they haven’t really left. So which, which is nice.
Greg Owens 31:57
Because it sounds like you have a lot of people like smaller unit sizes, portfolio, which is perfect in this sort of environment and a lot of ways, right? Because these, I’m talking about some of the big office complexes where they’ve done the big open desk areas, like that’s, oh, that’s got to go now. It has to do one person, one person sneezes, and everybody’s like, gotta go.
Natasha Vinitsky 32:22
Pretty much and then you’re vacant again for a month. No, right, right. Um, but ya know, my portfolio, you know, like, I have a portfolio which has nothing but auto bodies for cars. And shops and
Greg Owens 32:38
guys are wearing gear all day long anyway.
Natasha Vinitsky 32:41
Exactly. So they never went out of business. They never left because people still need their cars fixed. Right. Yeah. So yeah, I have a pretty solid portfolio where everybody’s been in there, you know, never left.
Greg Owens 32:55
Right. That’s nice. Right. I didn’t think of that, that you could have, you can build a portfolio that sort of would weather this storm much better than other portfolios? Right.
Natasha Vinitsky 33:04
Yeah, no, I mean, you know, we do have, you know, have a commercial building that’s under construction. The name you know, we just finished another commercial building, which has been leased in Sunnyvale. And, but, you know, there’s definitely action people are looking to get back in as in, especially based on their industry, and some are safer than others.
Greg Owens 33:29
Yeah, for sure. So, one of the things I love to touch on in this podcast is how you got to this position in this and found this career. Right? You’re obviously really good at it. And you’ve learned a lot. And it seems like you really love it, too, from this conversation. Yeah. And so and I want to and one of the reasons I want to talk about that is because like, I think there’s a lot of people, especially young people that don’t even know this kind of career path exists, right. And it’s,
Natasha Vinitsky 33:58
that was one of them. Oh, yes.
Greg Owens 33:59
Tell me tell me more about that.
Natasha Vinitsky 34:03
Um, so I actually started in 2015. I got picked up by I didn’t, you know, my kids got older. I decided that it’s time for a grown up job. And tough preschool for 12 years, while my kids were young. Uh huh.
Greg Owens 34:20
Well, that’s, that’s kind of a grown up job. No, I guess you’re playing with kids every day. So it doesn’t feel with kids.
Natasha Vinitsky 34:25
Actually, the end really helps me dealing with my tenants because I treat them like you just have to explain everything very slow. And very easily English. Right, right. Simple vocabulary. Um, and then I got, you know, just applied for I was looking maybe like, looking getting into office work. Uh huh. I got picked up by a recruiter and I was placed at Hudson Pacific. Oh, yeah. As a coordinator had no idea what what it was. I just thought I’m, I’m in the front office. Do You know, answering stuff, and stuff, and I didn’t realize what I was getting into. And, you know, and my team just kind of really welcomed me and took me under their wing and had a great mentor at Hudson. And they really like, it’s just through leases that mean, they’re like, here, figuring this out, read it, memorize it, like this is your Bible.
Greg Owens 35:26
And then they’re also like, there I can imagine to you, they that you’re then like, handed a lease and they’re like, go walk the property. And, and and check on it to see what you know, take some pictures and make sure to put the center and see what it
Natasha Vinitsky 35:40
means. Exactly. But luckily, there I had an amazing team of engineers. And you know, and those are kind of your best teachers, especially if you want to know, learn a building,
Greg Owens 35:53
and especially the old those old time engineers. Oh, sir. Those are the best. Yeah, they’re not they’re still out there. But there’s it’s definitely an industry that’s changing rapidly,
Natasha Vinitsky 36:03
right? Yeah, it’s becoming, you know, obviously, everything more Yeah. oriented. And then, you know, my, my boss moved to JLo, to DreamWorks Animation, and she kind of put her little team together, which was I was part of it. Uh huh.
Greg Owens 36:23
I took all of you with
Natasha Vinitsky 36:25
a few of us. A few of us. But um, so I’m, you know, I moved to JLL as a property for that point. Yeah. And I, we were over at DreamWorks Animation. That’s how it was, it was fun. It was. When we got there. It was only single tenant. He worked subleasing, because at that point, he moved to Southern California. And then, by the time I left, it was fully leased. But it was a great experience. Just getting all the tenants in going through the TI experiences. You know, it was a full service building. It wasn’t triple nets. Yeah. That’s when you really dig in. And you’re just in the midst of everything. really hands on.
Greg Owens 37:12
Yeah, you learn everything you learn. In that position, I can imagine that you’re just learning everything there is about the construction industry. But I knew I knew, by heart I know from design all the way through to the end, right? Yeah.
Natasha Vinitsky 37:27
Yeah, because it was a third party, you know, obviously, we had to deal with financials and reporting. And at some point, we’re reporting to five different sub sub sub sub sub I was like, and then almost, you know, a couple of years, I decided that I realized that there’s more to commercial real estate than just office and I decided to try out biomed as at a pharmaceutical company, its life sciences and labs, research. Yeah.
Greg Owens 37:59
whole nother animal winning property management.
Natasha Vinitsky 38:01
Oh, yes. So I was known as Thermo Fisher was one of my properties as well. And I moved up as an assistant manager there. And they realized that it kind of wasn’t my cup of tea shortly. And then I got my recruiter reached out and said, you know, he had a great opportunity for Irvine company. And it was closer to home because I was still commuting to Millbrae. And I joined Irvine company, and now that was a great experience. I learned a lot, you know, their expectations and their standards, and just, you know, what, they really drive it to be to do your best, and they challenge you. And I was there for almost three years. And again, I was like, okay, you know, I’m not seeing I don’t see a promotion coming up anytime soon. And I felt like, you know, I could use one. So I had my recruiter again, reached out and said, hey, you know, this new company is coming to the Bay Area. I know you’re not crazy about life science, but you know, you have experience, you’d be a great fit for property manager. And I saw I joined Longfellow for a little bit, I went back to life science. And that was a challenge of its own just because the company was kind of new. It was they were doing a lot of redevelopment. Redwood Shores was definitely challenging.
Greg Owens 39:29
Why and wildlife life science being more challenging, just I have my
Natasha Vinitsky 39:35
doubts. It’s a different dynamic. The labs, you know, all the all the different requirements crazy
Greg Owens 39:42
complex, right? And there’s a lot of agencies that come in and have to inspect and make sure that things are built to spec specifications. So
Natasha Vinitsky 39:52
Exactly. Yeah. Before is they’re dealing with research and you have to make sure everything is You know, yeah, perfect.
Greg Owens 40:02
We’ve done painting for those kinds of like everything is like SPECT, like, scientifically spec. So the paints got to be a certain thickness and a certain type and a certain temperature and all those things have to be noted.
Natasha Vinitsky 40:15
Yes, yes. Yeah. I mean, it’s just, it’s crazy intense to build this lab. You know, our engineers, the vendors, I mean, you’re constantly under pressure that you have to get it right now, and then, you know, just like, I guess I’m, you can call me Cinderella. You know, I just kept trying the wrong shoe on and yeah, and then, you know, RNC came, and it was the easiest interview ever. I just felt at home. The second I met the team. Uh huh. And, you know, they offered me this great opportunity to see your property manager overseeing, you know, the entire buried portfolio. I love challenge. And, and it was really, you know, hands on. Yeah, which
Greg Owens 41:05
was, and I could see, like, especially you have like, artists spaces, or auto body spaces. That is so different than the life sciences specialists, right. Like, it’s
Natasha Vinitsky 41:15
me, you can’t go life science, you keep your hands off.
Greg Owens 41:17
Right? Yeah. And these guys are a lot. Yeah. And you get to, like, actually intermix with them and help them, like, have their sort of dream opportunity in in your space, right. And so you’re really sort of get the change, seen the change in lives right away, is just changing lives, but maybe 10 years from now, when they come up with a drug, like, cures cancer, right? Exactly. And this is like immediate effect, this is immediate, they move in, and they’re like, I’ve got my business going. Thank you so much. This is great. We’ve got stuff happening.
Natasha Vinitsky 41:52
Under, you know, there’s definitely more easygoing tenants to deal with, you know, they like to laugh, you know, they have a sense of humor. And I think just enjoying your job overall, every day is important. Right? And you got to enjoy your tenants, you don’t want to be dreading their phone calls in their emails. Yeah. So yeah, no, I, you know, I joined RNC and timber and I, it’s definitely, you know, a lot less pressure. You know, every other company had been with this corporate.
Greg Owens 42:26
Oh, I can imagine, I can imagine you have a lot of autonomy with the amount of tenants and types of different types of businesses you have, right. So you have a lot of like, every, like you said, you get to make up, figure out what’s the priorities, which fires that you’re going to put out first, that kind of thing. And then right. And also, what’s it sounds like, it’s exciting is that every day is different. There’s never
Natasha Vinitsky 42:46
bootcamp day. I don’t know what to expect which phone call I’m gonna get it, Sam from which tenant? Right? Because the portfolio is so
Greg Owens 42:58
diverse and vast and so many.
Natasha Vinitsky 43:02
Yeah, exactly. And, yeah, that’s pretty much how I got here. Just I think, and obviously, I joined BOMA, I was I was part of iron for a little bit, um, which I run. I run Yeah, i i r em. Alright. Okay. And I’m not as involved as I’d like to be just because of the time. Yeah.
Greg Owens 43:29
We’re not either because of the time it’s so hard, you know. And at the end of the day, then there’s like a mixer or something in the city. And it’s like,
Natasha Vinitsky 43:37
yeah, but yeah, I do. You know, I do try to attend as many events as I can and luncheons, because this is where this would be my advice for anybody who’s starting this is how I build those relationships. I learned as much as I can. And you know,
Greg Owens 43:52
your beginning days, you you definitely wanted to build your network and your portfolio. So this is great, because I love asking this question. Tell Tell me more about that how people could follow in your footsteps or what you what lessons you learned to get to this position and what you would do. It’s just,
Natasha Vinitsky 44:08
you know, get out there, get get, get out to those events, you know, join organizations. You know, and if you’re just starting out, connect with that property manager, who’s you know, who’s your mentor? Have them give you that advice? You know, don’t hate them right away.
Greg Owens 44:29
Right, some of the best mentors in my life when I look back, I didn’t
Natasha Vinitsky 44:33
you want to throw something at them, honestly. And I mean, I’ve had to rewrite my memos when I started five times. And you know, I was mad and frustrated, but now I see why. Mm hmm. As you can now, you know, sometimes you write too much. Sometimes you write too little and you just have to find, learn that balance. Yeah. And just, I mean, just going out to those events. That’s how I built my network. You meet the property managers you need your vendors, you build relationships. And some of those vendors are now my closest friends and we celebrate New Year’s togethers and birthdays. And it’s great when I’m I was a bridesmaids and you know, my wedding. And honestly, this is my network is my glue to my hammer, you know, everything that I need to get done.
Greg Owens 45:24
Yeah, cuz I can imagine if so if you come across something that you haven’t come across, which can happen pretty easy with the amount of vast, you know, issues that come up day to day that you have a network that you can rely on and call and get somebody that’s been there, done that.
Natasha Vinitsky 45:39
Exactly, yeah. And then, you know, if I don’t have a vendor, I can always reach out to my network and say, Hey, I need this. I need this. Can you recommend all the way? Yeah. So you know, for anybody who’s starting, I think just, you know, it’s always good to start from the bottom, obviously. Because that’s, you know, that’s where you really hands on, that’s where you get your knowledge. And
Greg Owens 46:02
that’s one, that’s a tough one today, because I would love it if, if somebody came to me, you know, at a college and said, Hey, I really want to learn, you know, be a project manager. And I’ll start I don’t know anything about painting. I don’t know any, but I want to start, can you pay me enough just to get by? And I’ll totally start working, but they want to go right to the full salary levels? I’m kind of like,
Natasha Vinitsky 46:26
No, you can’t do that. Yeah. This field, just you can’t. And another, you know, another, I think, for me, my engineers, not only my mentors and other property managers, but the engineers, that’s those those guys are everything you need to learn about a building. So go on those walks with them go on those inspections.
Greg Owens 46:48
Yeah, see the world through their eyes. Right. That’s a great, that’s, that’s really
Natasha Vinitsky 46:53
so when you just you know, when a tenant calls you with a question, you just, you know it, right? You know, you don’t just know about oh, hiring a vendor to do this, you actually know about the potential of the building, and you can talk about it and say, hey, yeah, no, that’s not how it works. Right? Um, yeah, no, I mean, I think just being hands on is also important. Don’t just sit behind your computer, get out there, do those property inspections, in person, meet your tenant, walk the building, walk the roofs, I tried to walk as many as I can. But I have an issue getting out of my high heels. So
Greg Owens 47:30
I can imagine that, you know, because people don’t realize this sometimes getting onto the roof inside a building or a retail store or something like that can be a bit of like a maze, like of climbing ladders and through access holes and things like that, right? Yeah. Yeah, I have doors that you can just open and walk after spraying. There’s definitely I mean, I’ve been on endless roofs and, you know, sometimes I’m having to climb up this tiny little ladder through a hatch that hasn’t been opened in years. You know, I’ve done
Natasha Vinitsky 48:03
that. Yeah. Yeah. That and you know, especially for somebody who has fear of heights, that’s not fun. Not too much fun.
Greg Owens 48:11
While you’re up there, right, right, right. Yeah. Good. Take it all in.
Natasha Vinitsky 48:16
Three. Just breathe, right.
Greg Owens 48:20
I don’t have a fear of heights. I especially when I started painting, I specialized in painting flagpoles on top of buildings. So and that was when I was painting. So I really would just climb you know, like be a 20 story building with a 50 foot flagpole on top. And we would paint that my uncle and I wow, yeah. And it’s it’s sort of it’s an industry that doesn’t really exist as much anymore because I can’t ask any of my employees to do that.
Natasha Vinitsky 48:47
Yeah, now, now I’m getting is a liability issue. Right?
Greg Owens 48:50
Yeah. And I’m and I’m getting to not tell them too old that it’s just it’s, it’s a lot of hard work. And it’s hard on your body. Right. Let’s see. It’s definitely a young man. I could still do it. But you can still do it, I think but, but I would charge a lot, so much more to do it that then you have to weigh like what we can get scaffolding for the same cost of you climbing it. True, but I can
Natasha Vinitsky 49:14
totally see you doing it now. Yeah,
Greg Owens 49:16
thanks. So we’re coming into an end here. It’s been wonderful talking to you about your experiences here. And people want to find out more about you is LinkedIn. LinkedIn is probably a great, LinkedIn is great. Yeah, just message you there. We’ll put it in the show notes and everything. And yeah, thank you so much for being on the Watching Paint Dry podcast.
Natasha Vinitsky 49:41
It’s been fun. It was a pleasure. Thank you for reaching out.
Greg Owens 49:44
Yeah, absolutely.
Outro 49:55
Thanks for listening to the Watching Paint Dry podcast. We’ll see you again next time. And be sure to click Subscribe to get future episodes