LINK internship
Anticipation
I am off to Houston to do my internship with a company called SUEBA. SUEBA is a real estate development firm that focuses on mainly multi-family homes. (Apartments, Condos, Town homes ext.) They have done many projects in and around Houston. I anticipate that it is going to be a great experience and I am going to learn a ton. I have always been interested in real estate and hopefully this will give me the tools I need to help me go into that field if I choose to do so. My mentor seems really nice and I am super excited to be working with someone that is so high up in a big company like this. It has always been a dream to do something along the lines of real estate in Durango and this internship may give me all the things I need to be able to do something like that. I think that Durango is in need of a change in how people live. In Houston, there are many huge apartment complexes that are very nice and I don't see why we dont have any of them in Durango. They are super efficient, as well as a semi-cheap and luxurious way to live. It is unrealistic for me to build something like this in Durango because everyone is so cheap and doesn't want to spend money on anything. But regardless, there are many other projects that I could potentially do in Durango that would be really successful.
Week 1
My first week at SEUBA was a blast. I spent Monday and Tuesday in the corporate office working with all the top executives including CEO, CFO, President and head developer. It was very interesting to see how the top people run their business. While I was there, I was also tasked with learning all about the projects in the past present and future. I had to learn all about what they have done as a company and how they do it. After those 2 days, I was moved to one of the properties that SUEBA owns called the Telfair Lofts. The Telfair Lofts are luxury apartments built out in Sugarland about 20 miles from downtown Houston. This development was finished in 2014 and is now one of the nicest apartment complexes in Sugarland. I went there to learn property management. I was paired with a leasing officer who deals with all of the leasing that is done at the property. (It is a lot more fun then it sounds) I worked there through the end of the week and even decided to go in and work on the weekends because I was having so much fun. Tasks at property management included showing model apartments, entering and closing work orders, getting residents packages and so much more. I could talk for a very long time about how much I enjoyed this week, but I am just going to go back to enjoying it instead.
Week 2
The second week of my internship was not quite as fun as my first. I worked with the construction division of SUEBA. I did find out that I do not really have a passion for construction so that week did kind of feel like a waste. I spent the first couple of days with a man that was very nice but he smoked A LOT. I got stuck in the car with him when touring the properties and it was the first time I had even been in a car with someone when they were smoking and I can tell you, you never want to have that experience. I spent the last 3 days of the week with a guy working at 1300 North Post Oak. He was walking units (they go through all the units and check if everything is done) and making notes on everything that wasn't done. I met a lot of great people on my internship and my mentor at 1300 NPO was one of them.
Week 3
My third week was probably my favorite week of all. Over the weekend I went back to Telfair Lofts and worked with the leasing office because I had so much fun doing it in the first place. I spent all day Saturday and some of the day Sunday there and I loved it. During the week, I went to work with the leasing office at 1300 NPO. I met a lot of great people there and had a lot of fun. The first thing they had me do is stock the refrigerators with food in the model untis. They do this to show people what the unit would look like with food in it. They also have all of the model units furnished so they can also show what the unit looks like with furniture. They also had me file papers, which actually turned out to be pretty enjoyable because they could not seem to figure it out and I did. I also did a lot of sitting around but that was just because they were just opening up and they didn't have anything for me to do. I entertained myself enough so that I wasn't bored though. All in all, I thought it was a very successful week.