Tract Temps expands real estate services

Everyone wants a day off.

From that truth, Carol Allen built an eight-year-old business that provides temporary help for subdivision sales.

Now her Carson City-based company, Tract Temps, is beginning to provide temporary property managers to residential projects that have on-site management.

It's gearing up as well to provide temporary management of homeowners associations at new subdivisions.

There's nothing complicated about Tract Temps.

A homebuilder running a sales office at a new subdivision needs some extra help for a big event a grand opening, perhaps or needs a salesperson to cover for a vacationing regular.

Allen, a licensed real estate broker, answers the call with a trained temporary salesperson from her staff, which usually includes 14 to 18 licensed salespeople.

They work at new subdivisions throughout northern Nevada.

The crew includes some real estate specialists who no longer want to work a fulltime schedule but want to keep their hand in the business.

More often, Allen says, the salespeople work for Tract Temps as a way to get their foot into the door of subdivision sales.

"It's extremely hard to break into the new-home business," she says.

Salespeople who start as temporaries also get an inside look at potential employers before they make a commitment.

That's attractive, too, to homebuilders who want to see a potential employee in action before they make a job offer.

Tract Temps employees, who are paid a daily rate and don't work for a commission, show homes to customers and work with them up to the point where a contract is written.

At that point, a regular from the homebuilder's staff takes over.

While the departure of salespersons from the staff of Tract Temps into permanent jobs with homebuilders creates heavy turnover for Allen, she doesn't mind.

She's paid a placement commission when she fills a vacancy for a homebuilder.

The knowledge that Tract Temps provides a pathway into the subdivision sales business keeps a steady flow of potential temps headed Allen's way.

But she doesn't expand too quickly.

"I try to keep a reasonable staff so everyone can get work," she says.

More work is headed the company's way as it expands into temporary coverage of property management offices.

Allen and three of her temporary employees earned state licenses as property managers and now are filling in for apartment managers and the like who need time off.

Next up: The homeowners association business.

Homebuilders, Allen figures, don't want to manage homeowners associations themselves during the months between the start of construction and the creation of a permanent association run by permanent homeowners.

Tract Temps hopes to fill that gap with temporary management services.

Allen, a veteran of the real estate industry in northern Nevada and Southern California, launched Tract Temps in 1996 after seeing similar firms in action in Southern California.

She's built the company through the relationships she's developed, including extensive volunteer work with the Builders Association of Northern Nevada and the Builders Association of Western Nevada.

It's a business, she says, that demands close attention to detail and impeccable service to customers who are likely to call at any time of the day.

When she grows weary of the business and wants a day off, who covers for her? A specially trained employee of Tract Temps, naturally.