Real Estate and Property Awards 2021 BUILD 7 person for 19 and a half years till she retired, a position she performed with charm and skill. She never shirked at a midnight call or trip to assist. Bessie Vaught cleaned condominiums for us with great skill for nearly 40 years, till she retired. I once said, when I handled just 4 properties, I did not want anybody but Bessie to clean my condominiums. Doreen G. was a great receptionist/general office worker, till she judged it was time for her to quit, due to her advancing muscular dystrophy. I sat with Jeanne S. at her funeral reception. And I am very lucky in the people who are making me look good till this day – Jacquie O., who anchors our office, doing a large amount highly competent work, who has a gift for helping our homeowners redecorate (and increase their income), and who livens our office with her sparkling presence every day she is here, Clarke and Pam B. (the aforementioned checkers), Jasmine M., new to our office, always sweet and ready to assist, a former worker at the Avista, Arnette V., who deploys and trains most of the cleaners, and from whose grandparents my parents purchased the Sea Vista, the highly organized Tammy E., who keeps the office going the days Jacquie O. is not here, and who occasionally brings me a serving of home cooked food, and Shirley and Geoff S., who have been cleaning for me for over 30 years, and who clean, check and maintain the condominiums with great skill. Their presence is somewhere high in the list of the better things that could happen to a condominium. The care, grace, competency, and diligence of this team are what free me up to do the things which I do. If I am the singer, they are the orchestra, and a Count Basie caliber orchestra, at that. BUILD: Finally, how has COVID-19 impacted McMillan Real Estate, Inc.? Have you managed to adapt to any of these challenges? JJMJ: Covid placed a terrible burden on our industry. With very short notice, almost no notice, we were not allowed to check in any short-term renters during the entire month of April, 2020. This made for a lot of very unhappy repeat renters, and a lot of very unhappy us. I spent many hours per week participating in local, state, national, and international webinars as I sought the best way to navigate the pandemic. We instituted ambitious Covid cleaning protocols. We spent well over ten thousand dollars on difficult to obtain, hospital grade cleaning chemicals approved by the EPA for fighting the Covid 19 virus. After seeking the permission of our homeowners, we made exceptions to our cancellation polices, and we refunded tons of deposit money out of kindness and sympathy which we were by no means contractually committed to do. Our workload more than doubled. It was like we were running two businesses suddenly, one for the processing and refunding of cancelled reservations, and the other for taking care of the renters who honored their contracts. The sales commissions which I earned during the last quarter of 2020 made up in large part for the shortfall in rental commissions that year and brought me an award for being in the top 15% of Homesnap real estate sales agents nationwide. This is a big deal, because there are over a million Homesap agents, including not just all the members of our local multiple listing service, but also agents in places like New York City and Los Angeles, against whom I was also competing. Tough competition for a small-town boy. We locked the office door March 27, 2020 and have kept it locked since. We initiated contactless check in. I personally began working 12-to-16-hour days seven days a week. I have not had a day off this year or last. Most of our cleaners quit due to Covid fears (and/or the government paying them not to work), and most of the cleaners we hired to replace them simply disappeared, never to be heard from again – that is, they did not return phone calls. Some of our most experienced office workers quit with short or no notice due to the added burdens which Covid placed on our workplace, leaving compounded burdens upon those of us remaining. I saw on the news that we were all staying at home and learning how to bake banana bread. Certainly not us. In 2021, after our work force had been trimmed, in a Covid induced boomerang effect, the number of rentals per condominium were the most they had been any year since Sea Cloisters was the newest, brightest flavor, so again I had to work longer hours to maintain standards. I heard that many local rental programs were out of control. Ours was not. I have not been to the dentist or the eye doctor, visited with my unvaccinated friends, had a haircut, eaten in a restaurant, or worked out in the gym, I who used to belong to three gyms, since March of 2020. It is not that I am afraid of getting sick and dying. If I were to get sick and die, I might decide I should have been afraid of getting sick and dying. What I am afraid of is having to take two or more weeks off work, and I am afraid of taking Covid into the office. We would make more money if we unlocked and even propped open on pretty days our office door, but it would not be worth the potential price. I take my responsibilities very seriously. None of our workers has gotten sick with Covid during the time of their employ here. None of our customers or clients has ever associated a case of Covid with a stay in one of our properties, or with any other facet of doing business with us. There are many people who rely on me. They often tell me, “You’re the best”, and I plan to continue to be that for them. I exchange loyalty for loyalty. We are like the little engine that could. We won awards for Best in North Myrtle Beach in the Category of Real Estate for both Covid years, 2020 and 2021. Company: McMillan Real Estate, Inc. Name: Joseph J. McMillan, Jr. Email:
[email protected] Web Address: mcmillanvacations.com Address: P. O. Box 169, North Myrtle Beach, SC 29597 Telephone: 843-267-1481