Untracked Backlogs and 24/7 Team Burnout
When Chas Foote acquired East Bay Property Management, he inherited a portfolio of quality homes in Fremont, California and an operational nightmare. Over 1,000 open work orders sat untracked in AppFolio, and maintenance calls hit the coordinator's personal cell phone at all hours. No visibility into vendor progress, no boundary between work and home, and severe key-person risk.
"When I walked in, I asked how we could tell if any work was being done on a given issue. The answer was: we couldn't. They showed me the maintenance wheel in AppFolio — a thousand work orders that were all open."
Traditional property management software offered filters, not help executing the work. Chas needed a system that did the work itself rather than one that organized tickets on a screen.
Intelligent Automation That Wins Over the Team
East Bay deployed Mason within 120 days of the acquisition. Chas introduced him as an employee-first hire meant to end off-hours disruptions, and within two weeks the team went from skeptical to bought in: Mason had taken over 24/7 intake, triaged tenant requests, and routed calls off personal cell phones.
"When the phone's not ringing on Sunday night at 5, things are good... Mason gets the work done."
Today he handles ~50 calls and ~300 texts a week, troubleshooting live with residents. From circuit breaker resets to garbage disposal valves, he closes 8% of work orders on first contact with no vendor dispatched and no trip fee.
85% Faster Response and 75% Capacity Growth
With Mason on intake and follow-ups, median time-to-dispatch fell from 3 days to 10 hours, most of that now spent waiting on an owner's approval. Average work order completion went from a 100-day backlog to 4 days, and seven five-star Google reviews landed in 6 weeks, turning maintenance into a sales engine for winning new owners.
"I feel confident staking my claim that you can manage 800 doors with one maintenance coordinator and Mason. The key-man risk is gone, which is a huge weight off our chest."
The bigger win is leverage. East Bay can now run 800 doors per maintenance coordinator instead of 450, with no new headcount and no key-person risk.