Jeff and Paula Leonard are the powerhouse couple behind Pinnacle Condominium Management. Over decades of property management, their business has expanded to over 3,500 units across 40 properties. Jeff focuses on strategic growth and client relations, while Paula handles complex financial operations. Their commitment to efficiency and innovation enables Pinnacle to deliver exceptional service, setting them apart in a competitive industry. Having used Yardi products for decades, they now leverage Yardi Breeze Premier to scale faster and further than would have otherwise been possible.
They spoke to us about technology, why they’ve stuck with Yardi for their entire careers and how they will continue to benefit from property management software as they look ahead to partial retirement.
Please introduce yourselves & tell us about Pinnacle Condominium.
Jeff Leonard: I’m Jeff Leonard, president and founder of Pinnacle Condominium Management. We’ve been in operation since 2004, evolving from a previous company where the business owner wasn’t interested in condo and HOA management, which is what I wanted to focus on. Paula joined about a year later. She’s essential to our operation, handling all our financials, vendor payments, and ensuring receipts are in order. She’s instrumental in our annual audits with CPAs.
Paula Leonard: I oversee the records of over 3,500 units across 40 different properties with Breeze Premier, each with their own bank accounts and 1099s. I also reconcile all our bank statements and generate multiple 1099s annually for our vendors based on the number of communities they work for.
Is Breeze Premier able to keep up with the size of your portfolio?
Jeff: Well, given that Yardi Enterprise largely took care of us, and Breeze Premier has so much more to offer than Enterprise, the answer to that question is “absolutely!” We could double or triple our business without any hesitation about Breeze Premier being able to keep up.
What is the biggest challenge you face as an independent small business in condo management?
Jeff: Efficiency is one of our biggest challenges. We’re constantly multitasking, and no two days are the same. Currently, we have a team of four. Our industry is reasonably price competitive, which raises the question: how do we stand out? For us, efficiency is key to differentiating ourselves from other management companies in the area. While we have competitors, I prefer to think that there’s enough work for everyone, and I don’t really feel like we’re in direct competition with anyone. We’ve built a strong business, and Breeze Premier has played a significant role in improving our efficiency. We had a staff member retire about a year and a half ago, and thanks to the efficiencies gained from Breeze Premier, we didn’t have to replace her. Without this tech, we would have had to hire someone new to fill her role.
What about Breeze Premier lets you work without rehiring for that position?
Paula: A couple things come to mind. One is the ability for condo owners and homeowners to pay their dues online through the platform and see their accounts. We no longer get calls from people in need of information they can access in their CondoCafe account. We like to reach out to all of our customers within a community with an email flyer. It’s an easy way to send out notices and other information. Before we had this capability, it wasn’t easy to send out these mass emails and reminders.
What has your experience been with customer support?
Paula: My experience with customer support has been very positive with Yardi. They are always open to customer suggestions and recommendations, always asking how they can help us improve. For example, we had an issue early on when Breeze Premier first came out. I was preparing 1099 NEC forms for our contractors across our 40 different communities.
Being a bit of a procrastinator, I didn’t get around to it until around January 24, which is pretty late given that these forms need to be sent out in January each year. That’s when I realized that Breeze Premier didn’t let us create separate 1099 forms for contractors in each community.
Jeff: It was a last-minute issue, and I’ll be darned if Yardi’s support team and programmers didn’t fix that shortcoming within a matter of two or three days. It was incredible that Yardi figured it out and added the functionality in Breeze Premier.
Paula: We’ve never had any interest in leaving Yardi. Anytime we needed something, the company has been there for us. That’s earned our loyalty.
Jeff: I’ve been in property management since the early 1980s. I go back to when everything was recorded on ledger card by pen. I find it fascinating how we are able to process so much information in Breeze Premier. It would have taken five or six of me to do the equivalent back in the day.
What was the biggest change you felt when switching to Breeze Premier?
Jeff: On Yardi Enterprise, we didn’t have CondoCafe to let people make payments online. That was a huge change. And most of our communities have annual financial audits. These auditors much prefer what we give them straight from Breeze Premier. It’s always nice to keep your CPA happy, right?
What condo-specific functionality does Breeze Premier offer?
Paula: Three things come to mind. First is the ability to create templated letters for our vendors. I have one template that I send to vendors when we don’t have their insurance or tax ID information. The second thing is liability insurance, which is really important. And the third thing is workman’s comp insurance. When I get a popup saying that it’s expired, I can just send them an email directly telling them.
Jeff: I talk with so many people, and they’re shocked that just four of us service so many communities. Number one, we’re all hard workers, and there’s a lot to be done. But number two, we’ve got a software platform that is essentially perfect for what we need. Without Breeze Premier, we would have to accept fewer customers, or I’d have to add more staff.
Have you had to train anyone on Breeze Premier?
Paula: Our newest staff member had not used Yardi before, but it’s so user friendly, she picked it up incredibly fast.
Will Breeze Premier shape the future of your business?
Jeff: I don’t know if we’ll ever fully retire, but we’ll slow down at some point. But will we likely stay involved forever? Yeah, we probably will. Because we’re able to with Breeze Premier. I started from very humble beginnings. From that, we put two kids through college and are fortunate to have built a nice life for our family. And we would not be what we are, where we are, without Yardi. I can’t give higher praise than that. I really can’t. Thank you, Mr. Yardi, the support staff, the programmers — it’s been a good ride.
