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Which Language Do You Speak?
Tommy Lawing Jr • Sep 10, 2020
Property management when English is the secondary language
I took Spanish in high school. I even passed but life would be tough if I had to use my foreign language skills to feed and shelter my family. So how would it feel if ‘the shoe was on the other foot’ and I was new to Charlotte and English was barely my secondary language?
Charlotte is a sought-after and ever increasingly diverse region with large foreign-owned companies from more than 45 countries. More than 41,000 CMS students come from homes where English isn’t the main language.
So how can we provide world-class property management services when everyone speaks a different language? Through technology!
For more than ten years, we’ve offered free and instantaneous translation service in more than two hundred languages to anyone who needs it. Last week, it was a family from Brazil (Portuguese) who was house-hunting. A day later, it was a roommate from Taiwan (Mandarin Chinese) with questions about her lease and, today, it was a resident from South Korea (Korean) with a plumbing problem. And, yes a leaky faucet and a leaky roof are quite different but only if you understand the words.
Our leasing agents, property managers and maintenance facilitators use our 24/7, over-the-phone translation service more than ten times every month. It’s the quick and easy way to serve folks from all over the world who make Charlotte the best place to live, work and play.
Rental Real Talk
T. R. Lawing Realty, Inc. was founded in 1957 by Thomas R. Lawing, Sr and his wife, Catherine H. Lawing. The first apartment building the company managed was the 10 year old Laureldale Apts. on Laurel Avenue. Mr. & Mrs. Lawing retired in 1995 and control the company was passed to their sons. The company is still privately owned and today it is managed by 2nd and 3rd generation property managers, Thomas R. Lawing, Jr. and T. Joseph Rempson. For more than 60 years, we've managed the details for hundreds of individual investors and homeowner associations around the globe.
T. R. Lawing Realty is a proud sponsor for the Foothills Farmers' Market located in Shelby, NC. We are grateful to be a part of the Cleveland County community as a property management business but we also support the market's mission statement as they "value family farms, endorse sustainable food production practices and innovation, contribute to the health and wellbeing of the local community, and support the growth of a robust local food economy." Foothills Farmers’ Market provides community access to the freshest local foods available anywhere. The Farmers' Market is ending its 2020 season with great support despite the COVID-19 pandemic and will continue to serve the community over the next few months with 2nd Saturdays and a special Wednesday market the day before Thanksgiving, as well as a holiday market in December. For more information, please visit https://www.foothillsfarmersmarket.com/ for specific dates and times.
We purchase the same 5-page Tenant Screening Report and we use the same credit scoring model on every rental applicant but there is still skepticism. An applicant recently complained that her credit score was 100 points higher than what we said and, surprise!, both of us were correct! That’s right! The same credit bureau had reported different scores for the same person and only 10 days apart. Here is what we learned …. Everyone knows there are 3 national credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian and TranUnion – but did you know there are 11 FICO methods plus 2 VantageScore methods which they use to produce your score? It all depends on the risks being assessed? In short, there are large differences in the risk-assessment for a credit card application, a car, a mortgage or a lease and, thus, there are different credit scores for each. Each bureau strives to be the best but that, too, causes different scores. For instance, Experian uses FICO Auto Score 2, Equifax uses FICO Auto Score 5 and TransUnion uses Auto Score 4 for auto lending and equally varied methods for mortgage lending and apartment leasing. Each version treats late payments, high balances near the limit and recently opened credit accounts slightly different. Also, FICO weighs utilization of credit as 30% of its score while VantageScore places a heavier 45% on how much credit is being used. FICO gives a total of 25% to the age and type of credit history while VantageScore only gives these factors 13% of its score. In short, my credit score and your credit score can vary greatly simply depending on which credit bureau and what type of risk being assessed. .
